Former National champion Namal Gunasekera, has been appointed as the Chairperson of the Coaching and Development Committee of Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka (TTASL).
She has played the sport for 31 years out of which she represented the country for 26 years and also led the team for a long time during her illustrious career of three decades.
Teaming-up with Tamara Doring in the Women’s Doubles at the 1991 South Asian Federation Games held in Sri Lanka, the couple bagged Sri Lanka’s first ever medal (Bronze) in the game’s history.
At the 1993 SAF Games, under her captaincy, the Sri Lanka Women’s Team won the Silver Medal.
Namal won the National title in 1981 and has five runner-up titles along with many championships at open events under her belt.
She has won 17 National Doubles titles partnering Swarna Peiris, Tamara Doring, Samantha Jayadeva and Deepika Rodrigo.
She has won seven Mixed Doubles National Titles while partnering W. A. Buddasisri, Christopher Anolda, Chamara Dushmantha and K. S. T. Chalitha.
Currently, she is the Vice-President of the Table Tennis Association of Sri Lanka and has submitted several proposals to uplift the game in the country.
Having been a National player and engaged in the sport for a long time, she has understood the reason for the downfall of standards in the game and hopes to try and rectify them by guiding the association to take necessary action to rectify matters.
She is thankful to the new Sports Minister, Namal Rajapaksa for having a long term vision to develop sports in the country and is encouraged to give more.
She also stated that the current President of the Table Tennis Association, State Minister Kanaka Herath is doing his utmost to develop the standards of the game and steps taken by him to revive the tournaments during these uncertain times.
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