Sri Lanka clinch netball gold

Yasaratne GAMAGE in Hanbantota

Unbeaten Sri Lanka netballers grabbed the gold medal in the final encounter of the last day, when India’s hopes to go back home with a tally of dozen gold medals were dashed by the host netballers ,under the hot sandy beach in Hambantota yesterday .

In an exciting and sweating game to the last drop, Sri Lankan goal shooter Kanchana Jayaweera and attacker Nirosha Suriyaarachchi scored 14 and 11 goals respectively to secure the final medal of the first SABG to be a golden gift for their motherland.

It seemed that Kanchana and Nirosha had no idea of gravity at the sandy court, as they both kept the ball , airborne at the opponent’s goal most of the 30 minute to be the headache for the Indian goal keeper ,Amanjit under the hot sun. The goal plucking duo were well supported by Thilini, Priyanka and Champa who passed the ball, bypassing the Indian barriers.

It was Kanchana who took the first leap for Sri Lanka followed by another quick two goals from Nirosha while India was yet to score when play began.

When the hosts took their first time out it was 13-7 which seemed like a descent lead against physically and mentally down India in an atmosphere the local fans enjoyed every bit of the game.

India fight back

Towards the latter part of the first half goal shooter Prachi Tehlan of India and attacker Rupinder Kaur took advantage of some ‘should not have done’ mistakes by Sri Lankans to bring the score to 13 while the latter slowed down, but were successful to reach 19 by the half time whistle.

Though Rupinder Kaur gave some hope for her team by collecting the first point in the second half, India managed to add another three points in the second half in which the hosts boomed to 24. It was Nirosha who hammered the last nail to seal a box of nine gold medals for Sri Lanka at the first SABG, when she penetrated the opponent goal area to collect the last point before the final whistle.

Salupaliya bless SABG

As we said on the first day , Sri Lanka beach foot ball skipper Ramos Seller opened scoring for the hosts at an auspicious time, with the blessings of ‘Salupaliya’ had its watchful eyes, while roaming up the hot sandy beach at Hambantota for seven lucky days until host netballer Nirosha Suriyaarachchi scored the last goal.

Colourful closing ceremony

The Closing Ceremony of the First South Asian Beach Games was held on a grand note in an electrifying atmosphere at Hambantota games site yesterday evening.

The final day celebration of the first ever inaugural closing ceremony was a colourful one with cultural events with displays from tri forces with the participation of sports personnel and officials amidst thousands of fans here at Hambantota.

The event which started on October 8 was held for seven days with the participation of eight South Asian Countries in 10 different aquatic sports.

Sports Ministry and National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka had jointly organized the event to be a successful with the patronage of Sri Lankan government.

India who bagged 11 gold medals made the maiden event an unforgettable experience while Sri Lanka just two behind them proved that land extent and density of population do not hinder one’s abilities, specially in the field of sports. Life Savers from Sri Lanka accounted for two third of its gold medal tally while host’s, men’s and women’s beach volley ballteams and beach netballers shared the golden pride of their country.

Pakistan secured the third place in the medal table with five medals, while Nepal and Bangladesh took away one each.