Tamara aims to develop netball in the Asian region

Chris DHAMBARAGE

NETBALL: The newly elected President of the Asian Netball Association Tamara Dharmakeerthi Herath promised that she would press with the authorities to introduce the sport to the next Asian Games.

The former President of the Sri Lanka Netball Federation said that her main intention is to develop the sport and to make it one of the most popular indoor games in the region.

Dharmakeerthi Herath was elected uncontested as President at the annual general meeting of the Asian Netball Federation held in Singapore last week. She stressed the importance of popularising and introducing the game into more countries by organising several international tournaments.

The Asian Netball Federation comprises of thirteen countries including World champions Australia. In fact Dharmakeerthi Herath was recently appointed by the World Governing Body as the Development Director for the Asian Region.

She excelled in hockey and athletics at the beginning and represented Ladies College with distinction. She received colours in the high jump and hurdles event at the John Tarbet Public School meet and also captained the Ladies College netball team.

She had the honour of representing the national team at the World netball championships in Scotland in 1987. Dharmakeerthi Herath also functioned as the President of the Mercantile Netball Federation for a long period.

She entered into administration side of the game in 1995 and was the President of the Sri Lanka Netball Federation and the Interim Committee until 2005. Under her supervision Sri Lanka successfully hosted the Asian senior championships in 2001 and the Asian junior championships in 2004.

In addition Sri Lanka also hosted the Central Asian netball tournament and a triangular tournament in 2002.

Dharmakeerthi Herath was appointed as a selection committee member of the National Olympic Committee and also worked as an international co ordinating officer during the South Asian Games worked off in Colombo last year.

She also pioneered a project to provide relief to several families in the tsunami affected areas in the South through the courtesy of the World Netball Federation.

She said that she intend getting help from the World Body for the development of the sport in the Asian region and is also hoping to form a South Asian Netball Federation.

In fact Sri Lanka will conduct a four nation invitation netball tournament next month at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium.

Pakistan, Maldives and India have already confirmed their participation and will compete along with the Sri Lanka Development pool. The tournament will be played on a league basis and the best two teams will clash in the final.

In addition the Barbados netball team will be in Sri Lanka to play a series of matches with the Sri Lanka national team in preparation for the World Championships to be held in October in Thailand.

Dharmakeerthi Herath said that she is planning to improve the standard throughout the Asian region by obtaining the services of some qualified coaches from reputed countries like Australia and New Zealand.

Colombo Combined TT Club reign supreme at Milady Team C’ships

Sanjaya ARIYARATNE

TABLE TENNIS: The Colombo Combined Table Tennis Club’s Men’s and women’s teams reigned supreme by winning the men’s and women’s ‘A’ division team championship titles respectively at the 10th Milady All Island Open Table Tennis team championship which was worked off at the S.Thomas’ College, Indoor Stadium, Mount Lavinia, recently.

The tournament was organised by the Old Sokians Table Tennis Club and sponsored by the Daintee private Limited.

The tournament saw twenty six teams taking part where mens teams were divided into four divisions while the womens teams were divided into two divisions.

Colombo Combined men’s team beat KPMG men in the final. In the first match Rohan Sirisena beat Chathura Chameer in three sets (11/9, 12/10, 11/7). In another match Buddhika Walgampola beat Chathura Chameer in four sets (6/11, 11/9, 11/2, 11/5) which helped Colombo Combined men to win the final.

The winning team comprised Rohan Sirisena, Buddhika Walgampola and Sajith Kavinda while Chathura Chameer, Sajith Priyadarshana and Lalindra de Silva were the players of the runners up team.

In the womens final Colombo Combined womens team beat Three Star Sports Club in four matches. The triumphant team included Mavulee Peiris, Nuwangi Aponso and Sadisi Nirosha.

Kasuni Dilshani, Upeksha Fernando and Kusali Ranmini were the players of the runners up team.

In the mens `B’ division Veteran Table Tennis Club emerged champions while Ceylinco finished as runners up.

In the mens `C’ division Ceylinco came up as winners with Sri Lankan Air Lines ended up as runners up.

In the men’s `D’ division Confifi group took the honours with SriLankan AirLines placing as runners up.

In the women’s `B’ division Panadura Recreation Club emerged champions while Confifi group ended up as runners up.

Meanwhile four individual events also conducted parallel to the above event which saw over ninety paddlers taking part. This individual event comprised open men’s singles, open women’s singles along with the under 15 girls singles and under 12 girls singles.

Buddhika Walgampola (Royal College) and Upeksha Fernando (Girls’ High school, Mount Lavinia) retained the men’s and women’s singles titles.

Walgampola beat Sajith Kavinda (St.Benedict’s College) in a three setter final to secure the open mens singles title (11/8, 12/10, 13/11).

In the open womens singles final Upeksha defeated Mavulee Peiris (Three Star Sports Club) in four sets to emerge womens champion (5/11, 11/5, 11/5, 11/9). Although Upeksha went down to Mavulee in the first set she made a stirring comeback to win the next three sets.

Kasuni Dilshani (Devi Balika Vidyalaya) emerged girls under 15 champion while Kaushalya Wimalaweera (Sri Sumangala Balika) secured the girls under 12 title.

In the under 15 girls final Kasuni beat Kaushalya Wimalaweera (Sri Sumangala Balika) straightly in two sets (11/5, 11/4)

In the under 12 girls final Kaushalya trounced Supipi Dharshika (CWW Kannangara Vidyalaya) in three sets as she was beaten in the second set at 8 to 11. But she won the other sets in an identical margin of 11/9 and 11/9.