St. Henry's and St. Patrick's win school titles
Vinod Weerasinghe, Taniya Minel, S. Dhuwarshan, Niresh Tejwani and Reshan Algama topped the National Junior Golf Rankings 2017 in their respective age categories, organised by the Sri Lanka Golf Union (SLGU) Junior Sub Committee. The organisers have secured a platform to encourage juniors to improve and develop their game through the participation in four junior calendar events for the second successive year with the generous support and sponsorship of NDB Wealth Management.
The National Junior Golf Rankings introduced in 2016, was a tremendous boost to the juniors, with the top 5 in each Age Group category awarded a certificate and a SLGU Ranking Card with the facility to play on all the golf courses in Sri Lanka as a reward.
The 2017 Junior Calendar got off to a great start with the P&S Junior Match Play Championship conducted in April and the two regional events in the different Age Group Categories were concluded at the Victoria Golf and Country Resort in August and at the Nuwara Eliya Golf Club in September.
In the final feature event, the Sri Lanka Junior Championship brings the curtain down at the Royal Colombo Golf Club in December. Thereafter the final rankings for 2017 will be awarded at a gala event hosted by the sponsor NDB Wealth Management. An encouraging total of 70 to 90 juniors participated in the five categories of different age groups at the recent competitions. The interest and talent certainly augurs well for the future of Sri Lanka golf.
The following top 5 in each category of the respective groups are given below:
St. Henry’s College and St. Patrick’s College clinched the Under-16 and Under-14 championships while Je gameetpar Valaipadu clinched the Open Clubs title at the 5th Milo Cup Football Championship held at the Durayappah Stadium in Jaffna.
St. Patrick’s went on the rampage against Manatkadu Romal Catholic Tamil School winning by 5 goals to nil in the Under-14 final and missed out on a great opportunity to pocket a double after losing the Under-16 final to St. Henry’s on penalties. The third place playoff of the Under14 tournament was claimed by St. John’s College, who overcame St. Henry’s 2-0.
The Under-16 final was a thrillingly contested battle with both teams, St. Patrick’s and St. Henry's claiming a goal each at fulltime. The game was pushed into a penalty shootout to determine the winner and it was as thrilling as the game. Eventually St. Henry’s emerged victorious by netting 9 goals against the 8 goals struck by St. Patrick’s, who had to be contended as runners-up.
The third place of this age category was claimed by Kotrawathe AMTS, who beat Navanthurai RCTMS 2-0.
In the Open Club final, Jegameetpar Valaipadu beat Annaikoddai Union 2-1 to
Vinod, Taniya, Dhuwarshan, Nirekh and Reshan Top Junior Golf Rankings 2017
emerge victorious while St. Anthony’s Passaiyoor overcame Thuraiyoor Iyanar 3-1 on penalties to win the third place playoff after the match ended in a 1-all draw.
The 5th Milo Cup Fo o t b a l l Championship, organised and conducted by the Jaffna Football Association and the District Secretariat of Jaffna, kicked off on October 7 with the participation of 310 teams. The tournament, which ran until November 4, had the participation of 100 school teams and 210 club teams from the Northern region, where football is an overly popular sport.
The tournament included over 300 games and was held at 11 different venues in the Jaffna and Kilinochchi districts and included teams playing in the Leagues of Island, J a f f n a , Wa l i k a m a k , Wadamarachch i , Point Pe d ro, Maruthakeni and Kilinochchi.
Regarded as one of the keenly participated and well organised tournaments in the country, the competition originated in 2013 with the aim of developing the game of football in Jaffna. At the beginning the tournament had 40 teams but the number gradually increased as the years passed by. The tournament was sponsored by Nestle Lanka’s Milo for the fifth consecutive year.