Sri Lankan Badminton team comprising four players couldn’t take part at the Badminton Asian Championship scheduled to be held from April 26 to May 1 st in Manila, Philippines due to refusal of Visa. According to the senior official of Sri Lanka Badminton (SLB), the four players: Niluka Karunaratne, Buwaneka Gunathilleka, Sachin Dias, and Thilini Hendahewa were expected to take part in this event and they were due to leave for Manila today (23). However, due to visa refusal at the last minute, the four players will not be able to take part in this tournament.
In addition, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) has upgraded this tournament to a World Tour Super 500 event this year. Especially this very important for the Sri Lankan shuttlers to collect their world ranking points and due to this visa refusal, they will miss this important opportunity. If the Sri Lankan players couldn’t take part in this tournament they have to pay a penalty and it is very unfortunate. All leading shuttlers from the Asian region are taking part in this event and Sri Lankan shuttlers couldn’t get the vital exposure before the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, the Summer Season Open Badminton tournament organised by the Central Province Badminton Association in collaboration with Sri Lanka Badminton will be held from April 24-30 at the Nuwara Eliya Municipal Indoor Stadium. However, this time without key shuttlers, this tournament will be conducted for seven days.
The men’s number one doubles pair Buwaneka Gunatilleka, and Sachin Dias and mixed doubles number one pair Sachin and Thillini Hendahewa who were to take part in Badminton Asia Championship did not submit their entries for this tournament and now will miss both Badminton Asia Championship and Summer Season Open tournament. The Olympian shuttler Niluka Karunaratne already retired and decided not to take part in domestic tournaments after the National championship in 2021.
Aashinsa Herath and Savinka Weerasekara are the top seed and the bottom seed of the men’s singles open event at the Summer Season Open Badminton championship while National champion Ranithma Liyanage and Panchali Adhikari are the top and bottom seed at the women’s singles open event. Akira Edirisinghe and Siyath Senaratne are the top seed of the men’s doubles while Hasitha Chanaka and Maduka Dulanjana are the bottom seed of the men’s doubles.
The top seed pair Buthmi Galagamage and Nadeesha Gayanthi will compete at the women’s doubles event while the bottom seed pair Chamya Nirmani and Yasmitha Wedamulla have been named as the bottom seed. Thulith Palliyaguru and Buthmi Galagamage are the mixed doubles top seed while the bottom seed are Chamath Dias and Narthasa Gunasekara.
In addition, the Summer season open Badminton tournament will see events being conducted under a number of age groups and categories, ranging from Under-13 to 19 (junior categories) and Under-30 to 60 (senior categories). Shuttlers will compete in nearly 40 singles, doubles, and mixed doubles categories this year.