The 37th National Squash Championship 2017 organised by Sri Lanka Squash Federation and powered by Sri Lanka Army for the first time will take place at Sugathadasa Stadium squash courts complex from December 16 to 19.
The championship will have eight titles on offer as men’s and women’s open, men’s and women’s novices, men’s open 35 (intermediate), masters over 45, veteran over 50 and veteran over 55. The Men’s and Women’s open titles will be the most looked forward to events and winners will receive ten million each.
Around 100 squash players including top ranked players are expected to participate in the championship and former champions who are living and working abroad have confirmed their participation.
The men’s and women’s open finals will take place on December 19 from 4.00 pm onwards and will be telecast live on Channel Eye. Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanayake will be the Chief Guest of the prize awarding ceremony.
The Defending men’s and women’s champions Ravindu Laksiri and top seed Mihiliya Methsarani will be looking forward to take home their national titles this year too.
Ravindu won the title four years consecutively since 2013 while Mihiliya have won the title four times. National champion Saman Tillekaratne has won the men’s open title 13 times and Navin Samarasinghe has won on eight occasions.
Brigadier Indrajith Vidyananda, Chairman, Sri Lanka Army Squash Committee said that this year’s ‘National Squash Competition - 2017’is sponsored by the Sri Lanka Army for the first time in the history as an encouragement for sports development in the country. Currently squash is restricted to the schools and clubs of Colombo and the national body believes that they can promote squash in the outstations also.
Squash was initially introduced by the British to the country in 1906 and it was only in 1981 that the sport was recognised as a professional sport in the country patronised under the Ministry of Sports and accredited under the Asian Squash Federation. Since then the Sri Lanka Squash Federation has been taking part in every Asian Senior and Junior Championships in both men’s and women’s categories annually conducted by the Asian Squash Federation. Sri Lanka also hosted the Asian Junior Championships in 1991 in Colombo.
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