Junior squash players excel in Thailand

29th Asian Junior Individual Squash Championship 2022

Sri Lankan squash players went on to better their previous record at the 29th Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships held from June 15 to 19 in Pattaya, Thailand. Sri Lanka finished with five of their players, namely Linuka Silva, Bihandu Nanayakkara, Matheesha Wijesekara, Anargi Perera and Nevindu Lakman winning their matches and being placed among the top 16 players in the Asian circuit. At the last edition only two players reached that level.

At the just concluded edition four players went on to reach the Plate semi-finals, another two players plate finals and two players eventually moving forward to winning the plate event in their respective age groups.

In the boys U-13 category Linuka Silva beat Thailand’s Chayapob Nilobol before losing to top seed Shiven Agrawal of India. Bihandu Nanayakkara beat Kuwaiti Abdulla Alkandari before losing to tournament runners up, Farkhur Razi of Malaysia.

In the boys U-15 category, Matheesha Wijesekara who was adjudged the most promising junior player at last year’s Junior Nationals went on to beat Mingi Park from Korea before losing to Pakistani Mubeen Khan in a closely contested encounter where the first set went on finish with scores reading 14-12.

In the girls U-19 category Anargi Perera went on to beat Lin Yu Chun from Chinese Taipei before losing to tournament champion Aira Azman. Current Junior National Champion Nevindu Lakman went on to beat Korean Kangin Lee but lost to Lap Man Au from Hong Kong after a hard fought four setter winning the third set in the boys U-19 category.

Yeheni Kuruppu after losing to Tournament semi-finalist Heng Wai Hong went on to beat Sonya Bajaj from Singapore and Dami Kim from Korea to win the girls U-19 plate championship. Chanithma Sinaly who lost to Indian Shameena Riaz in a tightly contested four setter winning the second set and narrowly losing the last by just two points went on to beat Sana Bahadar from Pakistan, Arichaya Chujith from Thailand and Putri Yataqi from Indonesia to win the girls U-17 plate championship. Hiruna Coralage who lost to Thailand’s Patarapam Prampai in a close five setter went on to win again with Thailand’s Natthapat Theeraslip before losing to Korean Pan Yi An in the plate final. Adithi Gunesekara who was adjudged the most promising junior player at last year’s Junior Nationals lost to tournament semi-finalist Tsz Ching Cheung from Hong Kong but beat Warisara Chujit from Thailand before losing to Waka Tachibana from Japan in the U-15 plate final.

Kaveen Kohombange, Kavithma Silva, Nethmi Wickramasinghe and Thinura Randina qualified for the semi-finals in the plate event in their respective age groups. Asian Junior Squash Championship was held after a lapse of three years (since 2019) due to the outbreak of Covid 19.