The Sri Lanka women’s 7’s team left the island today ahead of the first leg of the Asian 7’s series to Hong Kong. The tournament ‘s first segment which is the Hong Kong leg will be played this weekend and the second leg will be played in Shanghai later next month.
Last year, the Lankan women took massive strides displaying good fight to escalate themselves to a whopping 5th place from being ranked 13th in the Asian Circuit. They won the plate championship by beating Singapore 17 – 05 in the final.
Sri Lanka in Group Stage 2013 (ARFU)
In the group stage Sri Lanka lost to Hong Kong beat Thailand and played in the cup quarter finals where they went down to Kazakhstan 25 – 00. On day two they manage to beat the Philippines 17 – 05 in the plate semifinals before winning the finals against Singapore.
Ayesha Perera of Army SC who has years of experience in national duty will lead the team this year. The ingenious Perera also performed heartily and intelligibly during the women’s club 7’s. Last year captain and the ace of the team Thanuja Weerakkody will also feature the team; her experience will play a vital part together with Sandeepa Sandamali and Randika Kumudumali.
“Lot of hard work involved, this is time to see how strong our side is it is a double challenge with the young side and experiences in it. It is about how you play under pressure in the middle. Girls are excited in playing in the big stage and looking forward to a hard tournament and I hope this is the start as it is an Olympic sport and my job is try to make these team for qualifications ”said Chandrishan Perera the coach.
However, Sri Lanka is drawn in a tough pool where they have to play Hong Kong, China and Thailand. China of course the cup champions last year, who beat Japan 14-10 in the finals and Hong Kong has already proved how strong they are in the recent past. The game against Thailand is in the comfortable zone no doubt therefore it will be a tough battle to get in to the cup quarterfinals but fingers crossed.
Full team Photos here
Sri Lanka Women’s Squad
Shedule
