Sri Lanka’s top badminton player Niluka Karunaratne will be looking to make his presence felt when he takes part in the BWF World Championships in Switzerland from August 19 to 25.
Karunaratne is the only Sri Lankan shuttler to compete at the championships and will be one of Asia’s top 28 men’s players in the six-day event. Karunaratne, currently ranked 124th in the BWF rankings, is targeting his third appearance in the Olympic Games and his success at the international events of this calibre will be highly beneficial in gaining valuable ranking points. The qualification period for the Tokyo Olympic ends on April 26 next year while the world ranking lists as of April 28, 2020 will be used to allocate 34 individuals for singles events, taking into consideration the maximum quota allocation per each of the National Olympic Committees.
Sri Lanka Badminton, under the leadership of its new president Rohan de Silva, has made arrangements to provide maximum exposure to Sri Lankan shuttlers within the qualification period ahead of the global sports extravaganza which will take place in Tokyo next year.
As part of SLB’s plan, Karunaratne who achieved a career-high ranking of 37 just after the London Olympics, will also compete in the Hellas International (August 8-11) and the Bulgarian Open Championship (August 12-15).