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Wednesday, 11 March 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Sri Lanka’s Badminton Champion Niluka Karunaratne
Sri Lanka’s Badminton Champion – 2012 London Olympics pre-quarter finalist and Brand Ambassador to the McLarens Group of Companies, Niluka Karunaratne has climbed up in the World Rankings after his success at recently-concluded international tournaments.
His talent coupled with the McLarens Group of Companies has given him a plenty of opportunities to compete at international events around the world and he has made the best out of them in the past few weeks.
Karunaratne reached the semi-finals of the Iran Fajr International Challenge last month, defeating Italian Matteo Bellucci, Iran’s Sepehr Eivani and Turkish National Champion Emre Vural on the way to the quarters.
In the quarter-finals, the Lankan champ outplayed 22-year old Malaysian national player Joo Ven Soong before he went down to Austrian number one David Obernosterer (22/24, 18/21) in the semi-finals.
“The semifinal match had been scheduled to be played only three hours after my quarterfinal match. I had no difficulty in beating all the others on the way to the semis. I was not tired but my speed had dropped because the rest between previous match and the semi was not enough,” he said.
In the Austrian Open International Challenge which was held from 18 to 21 February, Karunaratne beat Germany’s Philip Discher, Jonathan Person and Indonesian Adi Pratama in the qualification rounds before losing to Dutch number one Eric Pang (15/21, 11/21) in the first round for qualifying to the main draw.
The German Open Grand Prix Gold tournament did not turn up good for him as he lost to Denmark’s number six player Kim Bruun after a tough three setter (21/13, 15/21, 17/21) which went for more than 55 minutes.
With his performances at these international tournaments in the last two weeks, Karunaratne has climbed up 10 world ranking spots. Two weeks ago he was ranked 132 and now he occupies the 122th spot.
After the German Gran Prix, he trained in Vienna in Austria with the Austrian National Team.
The McLarens Brand Ambassador will be competing with some of the best badminton players in days to come. He will be seen in action at the Romania International Series from 12 to 15 March and the Polish Open International Challenge three days later.
During his stay in Poland, the Lankan champ will train with the world-class Polish National Team and then he will leave for the next two tournaments, the Orleans French International Challenge (26-29 March) and Finnish Open (2 to 5 April).
Karunaratne, who claimed his 13th National Singles crown a few months ago, won his first Senior National Championship Crown at the age of 16. “I really appreciate the hard work and the patience my coach and my father Louis Karunaratne put into coaching me,” he noted.
He started a whole new journey in his career when he was made the Brand Ambassador to the McLarens Group of Companies in 2012. He has brought tons of medals for the company, playing in the Mercantile sector tournament and has always received the full support of the Group’s sports-loving Chairman and Managing Director Rohan de Silva.
Thanking the authorities of the Badminton Association of Sri Lanka, he added that “McLarens Holdings has always backed me up ever since I became their Brand Ambassador. I should specially thank Rohan de Silva and they are always with me in my endeavours.”
Karunaratne who hopes to bring honour to the motherland by playing his best at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
