Sri Lanka’s performance at Asian Table Tennis Championships

The 25^th Asian Table Tennis Championship concluded with decent results for the Sri Lankans. Chameera Ginige and Ishara Madurangi led the Men’s and Women’s teams at the Team events in Doha, Qatar.

The Asian Table Tennis Championships served as the main Qualification Games for the 2022 World Team Championships. The World’s best ranked countries took part in the Games in Qatar and Sri Lanka had their sights on qualifying for the next big Games.

Doha proved to be a much-needed getaway for Sri Lanka as local and international meets have been at a standstill for well over a year. With limited training and prep, the 9 paddlers that took part did well to finish the Games finishing 18^th and 12^th in the men’s and women’s categories respectively.

Read more – Team Sri Lanka set for the Asian Championships

The Men’s Team was able to finish 18^th out of 28 Teams in 6 Groups. Sri Lanka was grouped up with Thailand and Bangladesh in which they finished 2^nd in the standings. Sri Lanka defeated Bangladesh 3 – 0 and fell short 1 – 3 to Thailand.

Sri Lanka moved on to play host nation Qatar to progress further in the Knockouts but lost the tie 3 – 1. Playing for the 17^th position, Sri Lanka suffered an unfortunate loss at the hands of Indonesia 3 – 2 and settled for 18^th place overall.

In the women’s draw, Sri Lanka started off in Group 4 with Kazakhstan and Bangladesh. Like the boys, they finished 2^nd in the Group standings, defeating Bangladesh 3 – 0.

The ladies had a stellar run against Jordan in the 11^th – 14^th play-off with a 3 – 0 win. Playing for 11^th, Indonesia got the better of the Lankan ladies 3 – 0 and Sri Lanka took home 12^th overall.

Chameera Ginige/Senura Silva, Milinda Lakshitha/Nimesh Ranchagoda qualified for the Men’s Doubles Round of 32 while Ishara Madurangi/Bimandee Bandara, Muthumali Priyadarshani/Thanushi Rodrigo qualified for the Women’s Doubles Round of 32.

Read More – Sri Lanka achieve historic finish at World Team Cup

The two team captains, Chameera Ginige and Ishara Madurangi teamed up in the Mixed doubles. Also, in the Mixed doubles was Senura Silva and Bimandee teaming up. Both teams were able to reach the Round of 32.

The best Singles stint belonged to Muthumali Priyadarshini who was able to reach the Round of 16 defeating some seasoned players along the way. Next best were Thanushi Rodrigo, Bimandee Bandara and Senura Silva who managed to scrape through to the top 32. Ishara Madurangi, Chameera Ginige and Nimesh Ranchagoda finished next in the Round of 64.

While the Qualifying teams for the 2022 World Championship have not yet been announced, the Lions are hopeful for qualification for both Men’s and Women’s teams.