Lankan spikers may get beached
Beach volleyball --Olympic qualifiers
The chances of Sri Lanka’s men making it into the Beach Volleyball competition of the London Olympics seemed slim by the end of the first day of the AVC Beach Volleyball Continental Cup, a Central Asia qualifying tournament, after they suffered a string of losses to Kazakhstan during action at Negombo Beach yesterday.
The two Lankan men’s teams of Mahesh Perera and Wasantha Ratnapala, who played as Sri Lanka team one, and Pubudu Ekanayake and Sampath Peiris, Sri Lanka team two, both lost all their early clashes in straight sets and will have to lift their game if they foster any hopes of making it to London.
However, the Sri Lankan women’s teams-geethika Gunawardana and Thakshila Gunasinghe, Sri Lanka Team One, and Sagarie Gunasinghe and Nirosha Lakmini, Sri Lanka Team Two- enjoyed early wins, albeit against an outmatched Maldives, and are solidly poised for a run at qualification today.
Perera and Ratnapala fared better in their match against the Kazakh pair of Sidorenko and Dyachenko than their compatriots, who were demolished 21-9, 21-9. Nevertheless, they did eventually lose 21-11, 21-16, unable to muster the resistance to counter the sustained level of exquisite play that Kazakhstan was exhibiting.
During the initial exchanges of the match’s first set it was Perera and Ratnapala who seemed the more aggressive team, diving to the ball and striking with power and accuracy. However, up 3-0, the Lankans slowly began to lose their early grip on the game when Sidor- enko and Dyachenko started to settle into their groove. Once comfortable, Kazakhstan gradually began to dictate play, racing to a 17-9 lead by pummeling their Lankan counterparts with deft flicks over the net as well as lighting thumps that sent the ball rocketing into the sand.
Before long the first set was gone, and the Lankans were trailing 15-7, deep in the second. It was at this juncture that the local boys discovered a bit of fire and fought back to claim the next three points on the trot, The fightback was quickly snuffed out though, courtesy of some delightfully skillful play from the Kazakhs, who went on to claim the next few points and the game with a flurry of emphatic blows.
All four Sri Lankan teams are still in with a chance of qualifica- tion when they take to the beach today. The Continental Cup, which will conclude today, is the first Central Asian Olympic qualifying tournament to be held in Sri Lanka, and sees the participation of India, Kazakhstan, the Maldives and Iran.