Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Wednesday, 10 April 2019 00:34 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
A competitive atmosphere filled the air with expectation, enthusiasm and energy when over 90 Juniors gathered at the Royal Colombo Golf Club, from Nuwara-Eliya Golf Club, Victoria Golf Club Digana, Anuradhapura, Kilinochchi, Welisara Golf Range, and Shangri-La Hambantota, to participate in the Perera & Sons Bakers-sponsored Sri Lanka Junior Match-Play Championship 2019, for the 6th consecutive year.
The Qualifying Round for the Match-Play stage teed-off in style with children of five different divisions highly motivated and excited, hustled, bustled and coaxed by loving parents, eagerly wanting their children to qualify for the Match-play stage.
The premier category, The Sri Lanka Junior Boys Gold Division Age Group 15-18+, competing to win the Rukmini Kodagoda Challenge Trophy, was led by Haroon Aslam, the highly improved youngster from Victoria Golf Club Digana, who secured the #1 seeding for the Match-play stage. S. Dhuwarshan, the top Junior from NEGC secured the #2 seeding with a 77, whilst P.A. Dimuthu, also from Victoria, was seeded #3 with a 78. T. Vikash from Colombo completed the top 4 seeding, with a gross 81. Dilshan Malinda, Niyas Abdulla, P.G. Dewimin Shavin and Jestin Robinson completed the top 8 qualifiers for the Gold Division. The significant performance was of Jestin Robinson, representing Kilinochchi Golf, to have made the Match-play stage and meets the top seed Haroon Aslam in the 1st Round.
Taniya Minel Balasuriya, expected to win the Gold & Silver combined division for Girls 2019, in the absence of Kayla Perera, secured top seeding with 75 gross, whilst Sherin Mithara Balasuriya secured #2 seeding with 1 gross 87. Arika Wickramasinghe, Anelka Desinghe, Dhevinka Kanag-Iswaran, T. Atshaya, Binaara Dias and H.M. Dhaliya completed the top eight going in to the Match-play stage to decide the Champion Girl for 2019. There were several girls from Anuradhapura, Hambantota, NEGC, and VGCR, too, participating with credit in the premier Girls division.
Nirekh Tejwani appears to be head and shoulders above the rest of the field in the Silver Division, Age Category 12-14+, with Yannik Kumara a notable absentee in the field, currently playing in overseas tournaments. Nirekh’s gross 72, the best score of the day, secured top seeding whilst K. Danushan and Levon Niyarepola were seeded # 2 & 3 with gross 78 each and the #4 seeding went to Chatana Perera with an 85. Niduksha Bandaranayake (Welisara), K.M.M.F. Imran Nazeer (NEGC), Pranav Muralidaran (RCGC) and H.P. Alokshana Weerasinghe (Anuradhapura) completed the Silver Division Qualifiers for the Match-play stage.
In the Bronze Division, Age Category 10 – 11+ Boys & Girls combined all playing off the same tee markers, competing over 14 holes, saw Kaya Daluwatte securing #1 seeding from Reshan Algama, Shanal Binuksha and Kvahn Tejwani seeded 2, 3, and 4 respectively, all tied on 64 gross but separated on the count-back for seeding purposes. These top 4 seeds are closely rated and the Match-play stage will be simply enthralling. T. Deshan. Kian Niyarepola, Niyash Abdul Rauhman, and Jacob Norton, completed the top eight qualifiers for the Bronze Division Match-play stage.
The Copper Division for Juniors in the age group 9+ and under also saw three players tied on 43 over 9 holes and on the count-back, C. Daraniyan, winner of the category in Hambantota, gained the top seeding while Ayaan Gunasekera was Seeded #2 and Kaiyan Johnpillai seeded # 3. Thejas Rathis Kanth with a gross 45 seeded # 4 and Varun Fernando, Keshav Algama, Ravodhi Sakaratne and Taj Perera completed the Top 8 qualifiers for the Copper Junior Championship. The top 6 seeds are closely matched and the champion can emerge from any one of them, promising some interesting golf over the next few days. The finals of each Division will be played at the RCGC on Thursday, followed by the Prize Giving at 1.00 p.m. The development of the standard of Junior Golf is certainly accelerated thanks to tournaments of this magnitude and a great salute is in order to P & S Bakers for sponsoring this Match-Play format Championship for the 6th year consecutively.
