Thanushi Rodrigo the table tennis star

On Jul 1, 2021

Twenty year old Thanushi Rodrigo, an old girl of Mahamaya Girls School, Kandy is a talented Table Tennis player and she started this sport in 2014 at the age of nine years and her first coach was her father, Chaminda Rodrigo, reputed Table Tennis Coach who was in Maldives for Coaching Table Tennis.

In School Thanushi was coached by Gayan Liyanage and Buddhika Dikkumbura and her first tournament was the All Island Schools Championship organized by the Sri Lanka Schools Table Tennis Association in the Under 13 category and she became ‘A’ Division Champion. Gradually she won tournament after tournament and at the Junior National TT Meet in 2010 she won the Singles title and was ranked number One.

But due to her studies she came down a little in her performances and she was placed third at the Junior National Meet at the All Island Ranking tournament. She became Under 18 Champion at the Colombo Mayor’s Cup open All Island Ranking TT Championship and was adjudged the most outstanding Woman Table Tennis player in the year 2015.

Thanushi won the Under 16 and Under 18 TT events in the year 2019 and she was adjudged the Best Woman TT Player and received a Gold Medal at this tournament. She continued participating at TT Tournaments and became singles champion as well as doubles champion at the WP Chief Ministers’ Junior ranking TT tournament.

At that time she started representing her country abroad and at first she won a Silver Medal at the Junior Cadet Open ITTF Gold Series Tournament held in Bangkok, Thailand and again won a Silver Medal for her team at a similar tournament held in New Delhi, India. In the year 2017 she participated at the South Asian Cadet and Junior Championship held in Colombo and won a Silver Medal.

In the same year she toured Busan,Korea to represent Sri Lanka at the 23 rd Asian Cadet and Junior TT tournament and gained more experience in the game. In the year 2018 she was selected to represent her country at the South Asian Junior Championship and also selected to the National TT team to participate in the TT tournament held in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2019.

She was selected for the 24 th National Championship and Commonwealth Championship in the same year and also the 25 th Asian Junior Cadet TT Championship. In 2020 she got the opportunity to participate at the World team Table Tennis championship held in Busan, Korea. She got through her A levels in Commerce stream and after leaving School, at present she is representing the Sri Lanka Army Table tennis team and her intention is to represent Sri Lanka at Olympics while improving her studies.