Sri Lankan men trounce Thailand in Kabaddi
Chinthana Wasala - Reporting From China
For the first time in history of kabaddi in Sri Lanka, a mens beach
kabaddi team bagged a stunning victory of 52-38 over much fancied
Thailand when they made their first appearance in the Third Asian Beach
Games in Fengxiang Beach, Haiyang, China last evening.
The marvelous victory came Sri Lanka’s way quite easily in the last
few minutes, but they made a splendid effort to turn the game in favour
of them while a massive crowd yelled – supporting the them. It was a
head-to-head battle from the beginning. Both teams worked well to go
past other’s score on several times but the Lankan lads were too strong
for the Thais towards the end of the first half which ended 22-18 in Sri
Lanka’s favour. From then on, the Thai players could not come near the
Lankan score and despite their vast experience, Sri Lanka marched on for
a comfortable victory.
Lankan boys looked tough in every way. They looked strong in both
body and mind. Even though Thailand team is one of the best teams in the
beach Kabaddi scene, they looked tired fighting the Lankan lads during
all 15 minutes in the second half.
Thailand team is coached by the best coach India, the pioneer behind
India’s womens world cup win in Kabaddi. This is the first time that Sri
Lanka defeated a Kabaddi team from Thailand.
“This is a massive victory for us. Our boys only have trained for
about two and half months with limited resources while they had world’s
best coach and years of training and good financial back up. But we took
an approach of our own to find the way of success. We can definitely go
for a medal here and the team members are absolutely confident about
that,” said P. Jayaweera, the team coach. “We like to convey a special
thank to Sports Minister Mahindanada Aluthgamage for including us in
this competition. This is definitely a game that we can go for a medal
in any event, because we have the potential. So if we have the necessary
support in every way needed, to develop and polularize this game, we
could definitely do something bigger” added Jayaweera.
Sri Lanka men have two games left in the preliminary round. They meet
Asian heavyweights Pakistan today and will play against Afghanistan
tomorrow.
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