Sri Lanka’s Youth Scrabble team has won the ‘Best Team’ title for the second consecutive year at the WESPA Youth Cup 2023, also known as the World Youth Scrabble Championship 2023, which was held in Thailand, while bagging the prizes for first, second and third places among 142 players from 17 nations.

The 10-member Sri Lankan Scrabble team also recorded an outstanding performance by securing the top three spots of the event, etching Sri Lanka’s name in history as the first ever country to clinch all three top places in the tournament’s history.
 
Hivin Dilmith (16) from Mahinda College, Galle was crowned the World Youth Scrabble Champion 2023, while Adheesha Dissanayake (15) from Gateway College, Colombo and Kavindu Malawaraarachchi from Royal College, Colombo grabbed titles as first and second runners-up respectively.

Meanwhile, Adheesha Dissanayake also won the World Under 16 Championship, and Imad Irshad of Gateway College, Colombo was crowned the highest score achiever of the game scoring 708 points.

The tournament, which took place from 01 December to 03 December 2023 in Thailand, was participated by players representing Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Kingdom and the United States.

In 2022, the Sri Lankan team secured several awards including Best Team, Under 16 World Champion, Best Female Player, Group Stage Winner and Group Stage runner up.

In 2015, the Sri Lanka Youth Scrabble team won the best team award at the World Youth Scrabble Championships (WESPA Youth Cup) for the first time. Since then, the best team award has been secured by Sri Lanka’s scrabblers on four other occasions including 2023.

The World English Scrabble Players’ Association (WESPA) Youth Cup 2023 concluded on December 3rd, 2023 at Thumrin Thana Hotel in Mueang Trang district, Trang province, Thailand.