Sri Lanka finished in the 26th position among 43 teams at the 21st BWF World Junior Championships in Kazan, Russia after going down to Canada 3-1 in their final play-off round.
In the mixed team event against Canada, Lochana de Silva lost his men’s singles match to Brian Yang 13-21, 10-21 before Dilmi Dias lost her singles match to Wen Yu Zhang 11-21, 18-21. In the men’s doubles, Chamath Dias and Thewmika Palliyaguru defeated Alexander Bianchini and Yunzhu Chen 21-11, 25, 27 to clinch their only win against Canadians in the group stage before Panchali Adhikari and Anurangi Maskorala lost to their counterparts 8-21, 13-21 in the women’s doubles.
Sri Lanka advanced to the 25th-26th play-offs after beating Lithuania 3-0. That was after a fighting 3-2 win against team Australia in which Sri Lankans prevailed 3-2.
Chamath Dias and Dilmi Dias defeated their Lithuanian counterparts
(20-22, 21-18, 21-15) in the mixed doubles while Lochana de Silva won his boys’ singles match (21-10, 21-12). Sri Lanka also emerged victorious in the girls’ singles 21-04, 21-13.
In the group stage, Sri Lanka had defeated Peru 4-1 before going down to South Korea, Singapore and Slovakia with a margin of 4-1 in pool F.
However, it must be noted that the Sri Lankan team has beaten two of the strongest teams, South Korea and Singapore in at least one round.
Dilmi Dias was the winner on both occasions. The individual championships of the Junior Badminton Worlds started on Monday. The eight-member Sri Lankan team is coached by former national champion and double Olympian Thilini Jayasinghe and also includes Lochana De Silva, Viren Nettasinghe, Chamath Dias, Thulith Palliyaguru, Dilmi Dias, Panchali Adhikari, Chamudi Abeywickrema and Anurangi Maskorala.
Saman Wijesinghe, secretary of Sri Lanka Schools Badminton Association, is the manager on tour and Malika Waduge is the lady chaperon.
The tournament concludes on 13 October.
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