Sri Lanka’s Taavi Samaraweera, the world No.1-ranked under-11 table tennis player, returned to the country on Thursday morning after a European tour that delivered gold, silver and bronze medals across two international ranking events.
The 11-year-old, a Grade 6 student at St. Thomas’ College, Mount Lavinia, arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport at 8:45 am on Qatar Airways flight QR-664 from Doha, accompanied by his mother, Newswire reported.
At the world ranking event in Pristina, Kosovo (May 22–25), Samaraweera became the first Sri Lankan to qualify for the finals in both the under-11 and under-13 categories at a single tournament. He won gold in the under-11 and silver in the under-13.
At Sandefjord, Norway (May 30–June 2), he picked up bronze in the under-13 and was placed among the “best eight players” in the under-15 division, competing against opponents up to four years older.
Samaraweera currently leads the global under-11 rankings and also holds the top position in both the under-11 and under-13 categories in the South Asian region.
His campaign continues a strong year for Sri Lanka in individual international sport, alongside javelin thrower Rumesh Tharanga’s rise to world No.2 in the senior men’s rankings and recent Ostrava win.
Source: Young table tennis star Taavi Samaraweera returns after victorious European tour — Newswire, June 18.
