Sri Lanka’s new and promising table tennis star Muthumali Priyadarshani created history when she entered the pre quarter finals of the women’s Singles event at the recently concluded 25th Asian Table Tennis Championship in Doha, Qatar.
Priyadarshani also became the only South Asian paddler to reach the pre quarter final stage when she beat her Iranian opponent Farei Mayam with a four setter game 5-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-9.
She is a product of Sri Devananda MV Ambalangoda and the first female paddler to enter the first 16 players’ list at the Asian Championship where most of the leading world ranked paddlers were taking part as usual.
Priyadharshani who is attached to the Navy achieved the feat at her very first International appearance with the Sri Lanka senior team.
”Entering the first 16 at the Asian Championship is not an easy task but my present coach Hasitha Samaraweera encouraged me before this tour. He always expected something special from me on this tour and I was also determined with more confidence,” said Priyadharshani
“At the pre quarter finals I had to play against a world ranked 27th Japanese player Hina Hiyata. It was a very tough game. Hayata was able to win the women’s Singles, mixed Doubles and was a member of the champion Japanese team.
“She is a very experience player having won the 2017 world championship bronze medal, 2018 team event silver medal and 2019 women’s Doubles silver medal. I was able to get some good experience at this tournament and that was our main target from a tournament of this level.”
The Sri Lankan women led by the experienced Ishara Madurangi finished 12th which was the highest position for a women’s team at the Asian Championship.
Priyadharshani was just six years old when she took to playing table tennis at her school Sri Devananda Vidyalaya.
“Even with less knowledge about this game I was very keen to play with the others. However my mother Malkanthi de Silva always encouraged me from the beginning. My first coaches Prabudik Kumara, Vasana Dinesh Kumari and Tharudu Rushantha all gave me fine support and I never thought that I can reach this level,” recalled Priyadharshani.
Ambalangoda from where she hails has produced several table tennis and badminton players of repute in the mould of YC Tillekaratne, Namal Gunasekera, KST Chalitha, Yohan Deshapriya, Ishara Madurangi and Priyadharshani has joined that illustrious list.
“We had very tough competition among Ambalangoda players to win the domestic tournaments and that always paved the way to develop our skills. I had a chance to get private training from coach Lakshan Harshana and never forget veteran coach AW Anura Lal who himself is also an old Devanandian who produced so many national players and his advice is always very important.
“We had very limited facilities at school but never gave up our regular training. Our dedication and commitment to the sport is always very high and that is the story behind our success,” said Priyadharshani.
She took part with the National junior team at the South Asian championships from 2011 to 2015 and won the bronze in the Singles and silver in the women’s Doubles and silver in then team event.
“I have a few targets in this sport and one of them is a medal at the Commonwealth Games and be among the first four at Asian level.
“These are not easy to accomplish against China, Japan and South Korea. But we have a good chance to reach our targets with the right approach and support especially with a foreign coach.
“The Sports Ministry has already formed an eight member High Performance team to continue training and that is a good move at this stage”, said Priyadharshani.