Sri Lanka’s Taavi Samaraweera won the silver medal in the Under-11 singles at the WTT Youth Contender 2026 in Varazdin, Croatia, extending a run of podium finishes that now stretches across five countries this year.
The tournament ran from 29 to 31 August under the International Table Tennis Federation and counts as an official World Youth Ranking event, NewsFirst reported.
The silver marks his fifth consecutive appearance in an Under-11 singles final at WTT Youth Contender tournaments in 2026.
Four golds and a silver in the age group
In the Under-11 singles this year Samaraweera has taken four gold medals and one silver: gold in Qatar, Bahrain, Kosovo and Slovenia, followed by the silver in Croatia.
He has also been competing two years above his age group. In the Under-13 singles he reached the quarter-finals in Varazdin, finishing among the top eight. Across the season he has three Under-13 podium finishes — silver in Kosovo, and bronze in Norway and Slovenia.
That gives him eight international medals across the two age categories in 2026.
About the circuit
The WTT Youth Contender series is the entry tier of World Table Tennis’ youth competition structure, staged across dozens of host countries each year and feeding the ITTF world youth rankings. Players accumulate ranking points across events rather than qualifying through a single national pathway, which is why a player from a smaller federation can build a record by travelling the circuit.
NewsFirst did not name the opponent Samaraweera lost to in the Croatia final, give the scoreline, or say which events he will contest next.
