By Dhammika Ratnaweera
“Equality is one of the main objectives in Sri Lanka Badminton and wanted to give equal opportunities to all provinces.” said Nishantha Jayasinghe, the president of Sri Lanka Badminton. Once again Mr.Nishantha Jayasinghe will be a strong contender for the forthcoming Badminton elections on 14th of June at the BSL Headquarters. He went on to say that he was elected to the top post of the Badminton administration for the last two years. But few of my fellow officials stepped down from their respective posts. However, for the benefit of the game, I had to cover all the work with the help of 2-3 officials.
we have tried to increase the prize money and added two more tournaments to the local calendar with the hope to encourage and provide more opportunities to the players. My election team this time are efficient, highly qualified and they have a great interest in improving the game.
We aim to provide equal opportunities and improve facilities to players. We focus on the 2024 Olympic Games and hope to produce Olympic medal winners. Our next plan is to establish a national pool of players at the provincial level, we must find talented players not only from Colombo but also from remote areas and bring them to the national level. we must do more to make Badminton a professional sport and assure the players of future potentials of the game.
Mr. Jayasinghe further said that more experience and international exposure is needed to improve player standards. Our players did well in the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games this time. For the first time, our men’s doubles pair secured fourth place in the Commonwealth Games and in Asian Games they reached quarterfinals. All world top ranking players are based in Asia and playing with them add to our players’ experience. It is a pleasure to see our juniors climb up their places from 37 to 17 in the World tournament. Our players made further improvements in the game by securing group championships in the Sudirman Cup.
Sri Lanka Badminton has taken steps to enhance the quality of the couches by undertaking the BWF level one course with the assistance of the Asian Regional Development Officer. Our coaches who followed the level two and three courses of BWF have already completed them successfully.
The whole team of administration must focus and do everything they can to develop the game of Badminton, Mr.Jayasinghe finally added.
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