Christ Church and Visakha under 17 hockey champions

Aloka Bandara Dissanayaka - Dambulla Spl. Corr.

Chrict Church National Boys School Matale and Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo won the under 17 boys and girls championships respectively at the All Island Inter-School Under 17 Hockey Tournament 2008 organised by Sri Lanka Schools Hockey Association recently.

This tournament was held at the Nandimithra Ekanayake International Artificial Hockey Grounds Matale.

The tournament was declared open by Hilmy Careem Mayor of Matale and the chief guest at the closing ceremony was the Minister of Urban Development Rohana Dissanayake. The awards for the winners also were given away by him on this occasion The President of Matale Schools Hockey Association and the Principal of St. Thomas College Dampiya Wanasingha, Secretary of Sri Lanka Schools Hockey Association Mrs. Nimal Etipola and Vice President of the association Mrs. A.K.D. Siriwardana and the Secretary of Matale Schools Hockey Association Palitha Wasalage were also present.

This year in the tournament 20 boys teams and 18 girls teams participated and it was well organised by the Matale Schools Hockey Association on the instructions of the Sri Lanka Schools Hockey Association.

The final was between Colombo Royal College and Christ Church National School, Matale and Christ Church National School won the match by beating Royal by two goals to nil. Damith Bandara and D.R. Kulatunga scored a goal each for the winners. This team was captained by Damith Bandara and coach was Palitha Wasalage. The runner-up team Colombo Royal College played under the captancy of Marlon Senanayaka.

Ananda and Nalanda College, Colombo, fought for the 3rd place and Ananda College led by Gimal Dias defeated Nalanda by 2-0.

Seetha Devi College, Kandy and Visakha Vidyalaya, Colombo clashed in the final and the Visakha girls won the match by two goals to one. Manusha Welaratne and Lakmini Sandamali scored a goal each and this team was captained by Lakmini Sandamali. Visakha is being coached by Rohan Dissanayake.

The only goal of the runner-up Seetha Devi team was recorded by Geethika Nandasena. She was the captain of the team.

Pushpadana Girls school Kandy and St. Anthony's Girls School Katugastota came to the ground to fight for the 3rd place and the scores read nil-all at the final whistle.

In a penalty shoot out Pushpadana recorded three goals while St. Anthony's Girls College got only two goals. The winning team was led by Lakmini Wijesooriya.

These finals were umpired by I.K. Wickramaratna, L.C. Sumanaratna, S.N. Jayasingha Palitha Wasallage, Indika Jayawardana, H.M. Hemshi and A.B. Godagamuwa.