The final day of the 50th annual Sri Lanka School’s u:19 boys and girls hockey tournament concluded successfully today (June 12) at the Colombo Astro turf.
As the day started the first girls’ semi-final match was played between Kandy Blues and Kaluthara teams. The final score was 3-0 as the time ended. The scorers of the Kandy Blue team were Shehani Fernando and Gimahani Tharaka. Unfortunately, Kaluthara did not get a chance to score any goals. In the second girl’s semi-final match Colombo Reds won the match by scoring 5 goals against Matale Gold team. The Colombo team defenders were very strong therefore, Matale team were unable to score till the end. The goals were scored by Anjalika Dissanayake, Shashini Dias and Lakmini Udayangani.
Afterwards, the boys’ semi-finals between Colombo Reds and Colombo Blues grabbed everyone’s attention as both teams represented the same district. However, after an exciting match where they displayed true sportsmanship Colombo Reds made to finals by winning the match 2-0. The two goals were scored by Jeewantha Edirsinghe and Rasika Vishwajith. In the last boys semi-finals Gampaha was beaten by Matale Gold team. As the time ended the final score on the board was 9-0. Madusha Herath and Ashan Bandara of Matale Gold team scored 5 and 4 goals respectively.
The 2nd runners up match in the girl’s category was between Matale Gold and Kaluthara team. Even though, many penalty corners were given to Kaluthara team they were not lucky enough to get a goal till the end of the match but good coordination by the Matale team made them win the match by 2-0. The goals were scored by Anjana Ekanayake and Chaathurya Jeewananda. At the same time, boys 2nd runners up trophy was won by Colombo blues by beating Gampaha team. The final score on the board showed as 1-0 and the winning goal was scored by Sachithra Malshan in the Colombo Blues team.
In the girl’s final match Kandy Blues and Colombo Reds ended as 1-1 but Kandy Blues took the maximum advantage when five penalty shoot outs were awarded after the full time. The final score of the match was 4-3. Therefore, Kandy Blue team became champions once again and as usual Colombo Red team became 1st runners-up. Charuka Nishadi and Lakmini Udayangani captained the Kandy Blue and Colombo Red team respectively.
The final boys match between Colombo Reds and Matale Gold ended as 2-2 after the full time but as five penalty shoot out was awarded to both teams and Colombo team was lucky enough to score 4 penalty shoots. Unfortunately, Matale team scored only 3 shoot outs therefore, the final score displayed as 4-3 by making Colombo Reds champions once again. The Colombo team was captained by Dilshan Lahir and Matale Gold team was captained by Shashika Abeykoon.
The girl’s category best player was awarded to Charuka Nishadi of Kandy Blues and best goal keeper was given to Tamasha Weerasinghe of Colombo Reds. In the boy’s category, Jeewantha Edirisinghe of Colombo Red team was awarded the best player and Anuradha Ranaweera was awarded the best goal keeper.
