First National Handball Championships from tomorrow

Bernard Perera

The first ever Handball National Championship organized by the Handball Federation of Sri Lanka is scheduled to be conducted from May 20 to 22 at the Sugathadasa Indoor stadium. This was disclosed to the Media by the President of the HFSL and Chairman of the National Olympic Committee Hemasiri Fernando at prss briefing held at the NOC auditorium on Monday.

Addressing the the media he further ad that this is the newest sport to be registered with the Ministry of Sports. The Sport which was introduced to the country three years ago has caught up well specially in the outstations. This was mainly due to the programs that was conducted in the outstations.

In Colombo though the highest population is here the game has not caught up with the people due to various reasons. But the Federation is really taking an interest to introduce the sport from the school level he said. He also said that already the federation has conducted many coaching programs to educate the teachers and referees in all parts of the country. Now it is their turn to take the sport to the children as they are the sporting stars who have take to the sport.

It is very difficult to introduce a sport to the country as the cost is very high. When a sport is introduced for the first time there are no sponsors and also the lack of publicity too becomes a difficulty for same. If we are to make it happen we have to sacrifice a lot he said.

This sport can be played in three different versions that is out door, indoors and on Beach. It has the possibility to play with the minimum of expenditure like football. As for the start we have received great support fromm the Asian Federation and the world governing Body for the sport. The Asian Federation has already granted 1000 balls for the use of the game. This we have used during the promotion programs that was conducted in the Eastern part of the country it is the reason why many teams have entered the national championship from outstations said Fernando.

He paid a tribute to the Armed Forces saying that it was they who keep all sports moving with necessary support given to all sportsmen and women. If not for their support none ofthese sports could have reached international standards he said.

Specially the new sport Handball too was picked up by them early and they have already taken great strides in this sport. In fact this first national championship will see all three Forces in battle which goes to prove the interest shown for sport, while the Department of Prisons too has taken a keen interest and have reach the national championship.

Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Galle are the other districts taken the sport very seriously and they have formed many Clubs for the sport. This is a goo trend and the Federation hopes to introduce the game to other parts of the country also with support of the sports Ministry, Education Ministry and other social organizations in the very near future.

The Federation does not intend to make tours for the sake of giving an opportunity for players to go on foreign tours but we are ready to do these tours once when the players reach the qualifying standards. In the past it was it was a case where the teams go out of the coutry even without reaching the qualifying levels.

For this I do not intend to have that practice. It is fact that if we are to improve we need to have international exposure. To gain international levels we have to work hard to reach that level. We have a long way to go to achieve this.

The Men’s championship will be played on a knock out basis with two Groups ‘A’ and ‘B’ having five teams and the top two teams from each group will move to the semi finals, while the women’s category is to be conducted on league basis as only four teams are engaged in the battle. The organizers hope to conduct ten matches on the first two days and the final day will see the semi finals and the finals been played from morning.

The mens final is scheduled for 4.0 pm and the awards ceremony to be followe soon after with the Sports Minister as the chief guest.

Teams participating:

Group ‘A’: Ampara District, Batticaloa District, Trincomalee District, Galle District and Colombo District

Group ‘B’: Nationalized Services (SLTB), Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Air Force and Department of Prisons.

Women: Ampara District, Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Air Force and Srio Lanka Amy