Starless shuttlers battle in the finals
N.J. John of Central Province and Imesh Hasaranga of the Western Province qualified for the finals in the 41st National Sports festival which was continued at the SLBA headquarters, yesterday. In the women’s final it will be Central Province player Upuli Weerasinghe taking on Nadeesha Gayanthi of Southern Province.
In the men’s first semi-final John beat Dharshana Gunasinghe of Sabaragamuwa at 21-12 and 22-20 while Hasaranga beat Ishanka Malinda of North Central province at 21-10 and 21-9. In the women’s semi-finals Gayanthi beat Nivarthi Wijewardena of Sabaragamuwa at 21-10 and 21-3. In the women’s second semi-final Weerasinghe beat Malithi Priyanka of North Central province 21-11 and 21-15.
A noteworthy feature in this year’s games was that some of the top seeds did not take part in this year’s games due to various reasons. Top seed Niluka Karunaratne was away in the USA in a bid to qualify for the Rio Olympics while Buwaneka Goonathilleke, Kavidi Ishadika, Sachin Dias and Dilini Hendahewa are away in Malaysia taking part in an Asian Development coaching camp. Another top seed Achini Ratnasiri of the Western Province was indisposed.
In the team event finals Western Province will take on Southern Province while in the women’s segment the same two lines up will be in the final.