Kandy Blues, Colombo Reds emerge hockey champs
Kandy Blues and Colombo Reds emerged champions in the Girls and Boys segments at the 50th Annual Sri Lanka Schools Under 19 Hockey Championships 2017 concluded at the Colombo Astro Turf last Monday.
In the Girls finals Colombo Reds led by Lakmini Udayanganie met Kandy Blues captained by Charuka Nishadi and both sides playing a run and pass game which saw the scores leveled at the final whistle 1-1. The match was decided on the penalty shootout where Kandy Blues taking full advantage of the five penalty shootouts to clinch the championship with a 4-3 win.
Colombo Reds led by Dilshan Lahir grabbed the Boys championship with a close 4-3 victory over Matale Gold captained by Shashika Abeykoon in the finals of the Boys category. Having the scores deadlocked 2-2 at the final whistle and in the penalty shootouts Colombo Reds were on target on four occasions where as the Matale Golds scored three goals.
On their way to the finals of the Girls segment, the first semi-final saw Kandy Blues defeating Kalutara 3-0 and Colombo Reds trounced Matale Golds 5-0 in the second semi-final match. Anjalika Dissanayake, Shashini Dias and Lakmini Udayangani were the goal scorers for the hill country team.
In a home and home affair in the first semi-finals of the Boys between Colombo Reds and Colombo Blues, Jeewantha Edirisinghe and Rasikha Vishwajith guided Colombo Reds to a 2-0 win. The second semi-final saw Matale Golds score a massive 9-0 win over Gampaha. Madusha Herath and Ashan Bandara gave a superb display of high quality stick work to score 5 and 4 goals respectively for the winners.
Charuka Nishadi of Kandy Blues was adjudged the Best Player and Tamasha Weerasinghe of Colombo Reds carried away the Best Goal Keeper’s award in the Girls category.
In the Boys section Jeewantha Edirisinghe of Colombo Reds and Anurudha Ranaweera were awarded with Best Player and Best Goal Keeper awards respectively.
Lakshman Ranasinghe; Pix by M.D. Nissanka and Priyantha Wickramarachchi