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HNB retain title

Bernard Perera reporting from Kurunegala

Hatton National Bank retained the national title for the eighth year on Sunday at Wehera Grounds, Kurunegala under lights. HNB defeated Keep Fit Sports Club 59/40 in the final to take away the Tharunee Trophy for the year 2003.

The National Championship was sponsored by Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd. for the Tharunee Trophy.

Keep Fit SC with five national players faced the defending champions HNB which had the services of four national players. This was almost a battle between the teams which looked like a divided Lankan team. The match started off well with both sides scoring points one after the other giving the spectator the thrills that they were expecting from leading teams playing out of Colombo for the first time in the history of netball.

The tense battle saw the first quarter being finished with a equal scorecard of 11 points. In the second quarter Keep Fit SC managed to take a slender lead to one point scoring 12 against HNB's 11.

This lead was made mainly due to the efforts of Lanka's leading shooter Gishanthi Jayakody who had a brilliant tournament during the two days.

Bankers put up a strong fight back in third quarter which was highly fruitful for them in which session they not only contained their opponent but also scored a massive 22 points against 8 points. This brought the defending champs a overall lead of 13 points. Keep Fit CC with a deficit of 13 points entered the last quarter with the intention of reducing the lead but the conditions did not favour them and the banking girls kept the pressure scoring as many as 15 points while Colombo lasses could master only 9 points. These two final sessions sealed victory for HNB their eighth national title.

For HNB it was Gayathri Lankatilleke who did her best in this tournament. Gayathri was rewarded when she was selected as the Netball Queen for the Year 2003.

Former Sri Lanka skipper Somitha Alwis was ajudged the Best Defence. Others who received special awards were Gishanthi Jayakody (Best Shooter), Sanduni Bollegala (Best Centre) and Preethika Sandamalee from Maliyadeva Vidyalaya was selected as the Upcoming Player of the Championship. Minister Johnston Fernando was the chief guest at the closing ceremony gave away the Tharunee Trophy to winners and crowned the Netball Queen.

The guests-of-honour were the Kurunegala Mayor, Nihal Chandrasiri Silva, Indunil Weeraratne, Deputy Editor Tharunee and Sales Manager, ANCL, Sunil Sandanayake represented the sponsors Lake House.

Minister speaking on the occasion said his dream to take sports to outstation in a bid to develop talents of sportsmen and women from these areas became a reality with netball nationals being held out of Colombo for the first time.

He said the Interim Committee headed by Tamara Dharmakeerthi Herath has performed a miracle in making the event a success. "My ministry has spent a big amount for netball this year as they had to play in the World Cup. Though we secured the eighteenth place our small island has to be proud of Gishanthi Jayakody who was able to be among the top ten in the world. "I assure you all assistance in the future too to go further ahead in the world rankings," he said.

With this in mind I have instructed the ministry officials to pay an allowance of Rs. 5000/- to all national players with immediate effect. This will help them to stay in the game in the future too."

The Minister also said that I am ready to take challenges. I want to see peace through sports and that is why I requested officials to arrange the National Sports Festival to be held in Jaffna. I will go ahead with this plan. Problems may arise but I am sure that I can overcome them," he said.

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