The Hockey Senior Nationals come to an end with Air Force walking away with the championship
Opening the tournament was the laid -off match from the previous day. Building up from the stopping point due to bad light, where Sri Lanka Air Force was 1 to Navy 0, Air force continued their healthy spell. Finishing off the last quarter final and entering into the semi-finals
The first semi-final match was played Mercantile vs. Army. Coming off very strong throughout the tournament, the Mercantile outfit continued to score goals in the usual manner. However at a strong defence the spell didn’t give in the expected the results. The 41st match of the tournament was a victory with Army qualifying for the finals. The other semi-final was Police vs Air force. Regardless of the fact that this was second match for Air Force in quick succession they were able to make it finals trashing away the Policemen, securing the second victory of the day.
The most awaited matches were lining up as the lights faded away. With the harsh weather conditions, the battle for the bronze medal was a struggle. Yet, furious by their immediate loss, Mercantile was on the move up the skills getting back to their usual record scoring 8 goals by the end of the full time. In response to the impressive performance Police was 4 goals behind with a final score of 4.
Moving on the finals of the Senior Nationals it was intense match between Air Force and Army. On the watch for the third victory for the day Air Force was struggling with exhaustion by the half time. Scoring the first goals almost simultaneously Army and Air force were off the score in the first half itself. Yet the second goals had huge time gap. Finally number 8 of Air Force, hooked the ball onto a long distance which was well utilized in order score the second goal of the game.
By now many players were missing the shots but the spirit kept them going. Struggling for the second goal, Army instead were issued many green a cards. However, with another long striking shot the next to score was Air Force. With ten minutes remaining in the clock Army was two goals behind the victory. As the time passed the championship was fading away from team Army, yet they managed to score one last goal. At the stroke of full time the Sri Lanka Army was not efficient enough to score any more goals. And despite receiving an extra match for the day due the match brought forward from the previous day, the Sri Lanka Air Force walked off with the senior national hockey championship title.
