Janul de Silva emerges 1st runner-up at World Youth Scrabble Championship 2019

The Sri Lankan team

From left: First runner-up Sri Lankan Janul de Silva with WESPA Champion Thailand’s Tarin Pairor and second runner-up India’s Yash Potnis

Janul de Silva of Royal College gained recognition for his school and Sri Lanka after emerging as the first runner-up at the 14th World English Scrabble Players’ Association (WESPA) Youth Cup (previously known as World Youth Scrabble Championship) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia recently. 

Tarin Pairor from Thailand emerged as the Champion while Yash Potnis from India emerged as the second runner-up in this tournament where 190 players from 18 countries, including the US, UK, Australia and Hong Kong, battled it out over 23 rounds.

With his 2019 performance, De Silva completes a hat-trick of first runner-up achievements at the WESPA Youth Cup following his previous performances in Kuala Lumpur (2017) and Dubai (2018).  Together with the fourth place he achieved in Perth (2015), De Silva is now the most consistent competitor in the entire 14-year history of the WESPA Youth Cup.

Other notable performances from Sri Lankan youth at this year’s tournament included Vignesh Pirapaharan of Lyceum International School, Panadura placing sixth at this year’s championship. Pirapaharan, who placed eighth in 2017 and has been a consistent performer for the Sri Lankan youth team, narrowly missed out on top 10 achievements on three occasions. This year’s tournament was also notable in that it was the sixth and final WESPA Youth Cup for both De Silva and Pirapaharan. 

The achievements of De Silva and Pirapaharan, together with their teammate Nimuthu Witharana of Richmond College who emerged 20th, saw Sri Lanka tying with Thailand and Singapore for the same number of wins in the battle for the Best National Team. Thailand emerged as the Best National Team for 2019 based on margins while Sri Lanka was second followed by Singapore. Sri Lanka has been dominant in the Best National Team category since 2015, winning it three years in a row from 2015 to 2017 before narrowly missing out in 2018 to Pakistan.

The Sri Lankan team this year also included Radinka Dissanayake (Bishop’s College), Qays Sangani (Royal College), Adheesha Dissanayake (Gateway College), Hasali Ratnayake (Girls’ High School, Kandy), Sarindu Willadarage (Richmond College), Kalpana Seneviratne (Sacred Heart Convent) and Raguparan Ilanpoornan (S. Thomas’ College).