Can exhausted junior players hold their fitness at open badminton nationals?

By A Special Sports Correspondent

The 71st badminton national championship will take place from December 4-10 in three venues in Colombo with the organizers of the event receiving a record number of entries for this year’s event.

As many as 1139 players have entered the tournament and according to officials of Sri Lanka Badminton (SLB) all ranking players in the country are expected to contest the event. The tournament will be worked off at three venues; SLB Headquarters, Mercantile Badminton Association Stadium and D.S Senanayake College sports complex.

The only little hitch would be that most of the junior players having showed interest in the tournament have already played in three other tournaments and the question arises whether they can hold their fitness; playing in back to back tournaments. SLB officials attending a press conference, held in Colombo on November 28 in connection with the badminton nationals, said that the tournament calendar of the governing body for badminton was released very early in the year and other associations conducting tournaments knew about the dates of the nationals and should have made the adjustments accordingly to avoid a clash of events. SLB President Rohan De Silva said that the Sri Lanka Schools Badminton Association is working closely with the SLB, but the former is struggling to finish off the remaining events in their tournament calendar.

SLB President Rohan De Silva (Centre) stresses a point to media representatives who attended a press conference regarding the upcoming 71st Badminton Nationals and held at the 80 Club in Colombo. Also in the picture from left are Jaliya Jayasekera (Secretary Tournament Committee), Dinesh Jayawardana (Chairman Tournament Committee), Roshan Fernando (Chairman Technical
Committee) and Ajith Wijesinghe (SLB Secretary) (Pic by Kamal Wanniarachchi)

Just prior to the badminton open nationals were at least two much looked forward to inter- school badminton events that drew entries from hordes of schoolboys and girls. According to the Secretary of the Tournament Committee Jaliya Jayasekera the junior players entering the open badminton nationals will feature in as many as 20 events.

According to a press release issued by SLB ‘the badminton nationals will encompass a diverse range of events spanning from under 11 to 19 in the junior category and over 30 to 70 in the senior category. Notably the spotlight will be on the open events category showcasing men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles as the focal point of this grand annual event’. The organizers of the nationals have also obtained the services of 70 technical officials for the badminton nationals.

The prize money on offer at the badminton nationals is Rs 2 million. SLB President De Silva elaborating on the need to play the nationals at venues scattered around Colombo said that Sri Lanka Badminton had requested past sports ministers to help the governing body to establish one large sports complex for badminton, but the requests were not met.