All Island Schools Table Tennis Royal College Polonnaruwa crowned TT champions

By K.G. Karunaratne, Polonnaruwa corr.   

Students of Royal College, Polonnaruwa playing with limited facilities emerged champions at the All Island Schools Table Tennis tournament in the Under-14 category Group ‘H’ defeating Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya.

The tournament was held at the St. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia Indoor stadium recently.

The Royal College, Polonnarawa team should be commended for defeating a well recognised school without any facilities and the picture bears evidence that the boys didn’t have a uniform to play this big event. It is evident that the TT Association along with the Sports Ministry needs to come forward in providing these remote schools all the necessary facilities so that many national level players will emerge to carry the game of table tennis to the highest level.

Jaffna Hindu College, Kokavil Hindu College, Aluthgama National School, St. Joseph’s College Colombo 14 and Lyceum International School Ratnapura competed in this tournament along with the champions and runners-up teams.

The Secretary of the Table Tennis Conference Deepal Piyatissa graced the occasion as Chief Guest and gave away the trophies.