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Monday Sep 23, 2024
Wednesday, 29 October 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
From left: Ruwini Rathnasiri, Thisara Nimmika and Achini Rathnasiri
The McLarens team, which missed the services of Sri Lanka’s greatest badminton playera Niluka Karunaratne who is currently playing in Germany’s Bundesliga, managed to shine at the premier mercantile badminton meet.
Former national women’s champion Achini Rathnasiri completed a double when she emerged women’s singles and doubles champion. She partnered fellow McLarens shuttlers Ruwini Rathnasiri in the women’s open doubles.
In the mixed doubles, she teamed up with fellow Mclarens player Thisara Nimmika but unfortunately had to be satisfied with the runner-up trophy after going down in a hard fought final.
Nimmika also came fourth in the men’s singles. The father of champion shuttler Niluka Karunaratne, Louis Karunaratne became the masters singles champ. In addition to those achievements, McLarens shuttlers continued to make their presence felt at the Mercantile Individual Badminton Meet when Louis and Rohan de Silva, who heads the McLarens Group as Chairman/Managing Director, teamed up to finish the masters doubles in third place.
The overall performances of McLarens’ shuttlers earned them the overall runner-up status with HNB bagging the overall championship.
Apart from that, at the National Badminton Championships, which was staged at the Jayathilaka Sports Complex in Nawalapitiya a few weeks back, McLarens Brand Ambassador Niluka Karunaratne secured his 13th national singles title, winning a triple crown.
Karunaratne combined with Nadeesha Gayathri to get past Rajitha Dehanayake and Achini Rathnasiri to win the mixed doubles event. In the open men’s doubles final, Niluka Karunaratne and Dinuka Karunaratne beat Hasitha Shanaka and Rajitha Dahanayake. Ratnasiri partnered up with Upuli Weerasinghe to win the women’s doubles before becoming runner-up in the women’s singles. In the mixed doubles, McLarens’ Ruwini Rathnasiri along with Roshan Kumara reached the semis. The masters singles over 55 final saw Louis Karunaratne winning the crown to seal McLarens’ supremacy at the Nationals.
