Lankan junior paddlers targeted for London Olympics

Hasintha Sashiranga will miss great opportunity to receive further training in table tennis as he has decided to give up the game to concentrate in pursue in studies.

Mikael Andersson the Executive Director for Education and Training with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has announced that two players from Sri Lanka have been selected for further training with the intention to target them for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Sri Lanka’s Hasintha Sashiranga and Nuwani Navodya are the players picked from Sri Lanka to join 17 others in the world to go in for training under this programme.

 They will get coaching in and out of Sri Lanka and participate in International TT Competitions. The ITTF will bear all expenses such as board and lodging, air fare, coaching fees and equipments.

Nuwani Navodya has to qualify for the Olympics after participating at the qualification International TT Championships.

Both Nuwani Navodya Vithanage and Hasintha Sashiranga participated in the first ever Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore in 2010.

This is the first time in the history of the game in Sri Lanka that players have been targeted for the Olympics Games.

Now only Navodya will be eligible to follow this programme and enhance her standard of the game.

She has represented Sri Lanka in many other international competitions including the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi. (TBR)