Sri Lankan team win inaugural South Asian Under-16 Netball Championship
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Adding a new chapter to Sri Lanka’s netball history Sri Lankan Girls’ Under-16 team won the inaugural South Asian Under-16 Netball Championship defeating India 42-28 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Sri Lanka emerged champions on an unbeaten note to prove that the island nation is the power house of South Asian region netball. Participated by five South Asian nations, Sri Lanka met India in the finals. The young Indian lasses unexpectedly drew the first quarter 8-8. Sri Lanka, taking control of the game from the second set, went from strength to strength winning the last three sets comfortably.
The young Lankans won the last three sets 16-4, 11-8 and 8-7 to be the proud holders of the glittering championship trophy. Sri Lanka defeated Nepal 52-15 in the semi-finals to qualify for the finals. Indians trounced Maldives in the second semi finals to book their berth in the finals.
In the preliminary round matches Sri Lanka beat Nepal 52-16, Maldives 6-16, Pakistan 68-6 and India 39-24.
Sri Lanka met Nepal and India twice in the tournament but were defeated comfortably. Host Nepal finished the tournament in third place defeating Maldives 35-25. The notable feature of the tournament was that all the individual awards for Best Players were won by the Lankan lasses.
Best Players
Preliminary Round
- Hiruni Heshani (Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala)
– against India
- Rishini Sewwandi (Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala)
– against Pakistan
- Nethmi Wijenayake (Musaeus College)
– against Maldives
- Nethasha Dias (Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala)
– against Nepal
Final Round:
- Randuli Rupasinghe (Musaeus College)
– against Nepal semi-final
- Junali Balasuriya (Maliyadeva BV, Kurunegala)
– against India final
- Best Shooter of the Tournament: Hiruni Heshani (Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala)