There were no major upsets on day 2 of the National Water Polo Championship as top seed men’s teams qualified for quarter finals.
Men’s
Day 2 proceedings began with unarguably the match of the tournament so far as two tournament favorites Sri Lanka Navy ‘A’ & RCUAC ‘A’ faced off with each other. Sri Lanka Navy who has the strongest team in this year’s tournament did not have an easy run with young RCUAC ‘A’ team at the beginning of the game but SLN began to get away from RCUAC at the latter stage of the game and when the final whistle blew the scores read at 9-4 in favor of SLN ‘A’.
In other games of the day OTSC ‘A’ beat RCUAC ‘B’ 13-02 to confirm their slot in quarter finals. In another game between SL Army & SLAF ‘B’ decided the top 2 slots for Group ‘C’. SLAF ‘B’ beat new entry Army 10-01 and both teams qualified for quarter finals as they were placed 1st and 2nd in their groups respectively. The game between RCUAC ‘A’ & OTSC ‘B’ too was a decider for a quarter final slot as both teams lost to SLN ‘A’ which is the other team in their group ‘D’. RCUAC ‘A’ beat their opponents with ease and registered a score of 15-02. With this victory RCUAC ‘A’ confirmed their 2nd position in the group and with SLN ‘A’ already placed 1st in group ‘D’ both teams qualified for quarter finals.
Top two positions from group ‘A’ & ‘B’ are yet to be finalized when teams face off each other on the 2nd & 3rd November when the other half of the tournament takes place. Currently OTSC ‘A’ & SL Police ‘A’ with 4 points each lead the group ‘A’ and SLAF ‘A’ with 4 points lead group ‘B’ and these 3 teams have confirmed their quarter final slots from their respective groups.
Women’s
OTSC ‘A’ and OTSC ‘B’ faced off each other in women’s 1st game for the day. In a tensed game OTSC ‘A’ came out as winners beating OTSC ‘B’ 5-3. SLAF also registered a victory under their bag beating OTSC ‘C’ 9-1. OTSC ‘A’ had another easy win beating OTSC ‘C’ 15-02 later in the day.
The final match of the day turned out to be another cracking one and it was between strong SLN team and young OTSC ‘B’ team. The winner if this match might have a chance to play the finals against OTSC ‘A’ team but since all 5 teams play on a group stage nothing can be said until the final match is played. Eventually SLN who had a shocker yesterday when they lost to OTSC ‘A’ held their nerves this time to win a thriller against OTSC ‘B’ and when final whistle blew SLN won the game 6-5 and their chances of qualifying for the finals are now strong along with OTSC ‘A’ with 6 points who are currently leading the women’s points table.
It will be interesting to see which two teams will qualify for finals as women’s group is wide open at the end of the 2nd day.
Day 2 results
Men
SLN ‘A’ beat RCUAC ‘A’ 9-4
SLP ‘B’ beats SSC ‘A’ 6-0
OTSC ‘A’ beat RCUAC ‘B’ 13-2
SSC ‘B’ beat SLP ‘A’ 9-8
SLAF ‘B’ beat SLA 10-1
RCUAC ‘A’ beat OTSC ‘B’ 15-2
Women’s
OTSC ‘A’ beat OTSC ‘B’ 5-3
SLAF beat OTSC ‘C’ 9-1
OTSC ‘A’ beat OTSC ‘C’ 15-2
SLN beat OTSC ‘B’ 6-5
The 2nd half of the tournament will be held on 2nd & 3rd of November and the finals will be held on the 4th of November at the Sugathadasa Swimming Pool Complex.
