Royal College and Bishop’s College won the 1st National Age Group Water Polo Championships in the 16 to 20 years age group category concluded at the Sugathadasa Stadium Swimming Pool today.
Royal also won the junior 13 to 15 years boys category while Ladies College won the girls category by eight goals over Visakha Vidyalaya in the tournament conducted by Sri Lanka Water Polo, the development arm of the sport within the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU).
Three of the four final matches were won by walkover from Visakha Vidyalaya and St. Thomas’ College Mt. Lavinia. The Thomians cited safety concerns of their players in both of the finals against Royal, while Visakha maintained a disagreement over the assignment of referees.
“It was an unsporting approach from both teams. There may be disagreements but handing a walkover without even playing a single minute of the game is not keeping with the sporting spirit. It was also disappointing to note that both teams did not attend the awards ceremony�, said Akhry Ameer, General Secretary of SLASU.
Earlier during the preliminaries both the Royalists and Thomians had filed protests on various grounds, while Visakha alleged brutality and bias in one of their matches. The protests were being dealt with by the referee panel in accordance with FINA rules.
“These are protests on specific matches and it is not proper for teams to suspend judgment and hold back from the rest of the tournament. We have no doubt that progress has been made in this sport in the recent years having been fledglings, and there is still more room for improvement. However, we will not allow teams to dictate the bigger picture of the sport”, the secretary added.
SLASU has also begun deliberating on processes to avert this kind of situation with the inclusion of specific rules from the governing body starting form their next event, the National Championships. The event was supported by National Savings Bank as the main sponsor of the event along with Sri Lankan Airlines and Mobitel as corporate sponsors of Sri Lanka Water Polo.
A total of thirteen teams participated in the 13 to 15 years and 16 to 20 years age group categories in this championships which is the successor to the Under 20 Knockout Water Polo Tournament that has been conducted previously.
