Day 1 of the National Water Polo Championship ended successfully with 11 matches being played today. There were no upsets in the men’s segment as all favorites proceeded with ease while the biggest upset of the day was from the women’s segment.
Women’s
Sri Lanka Navy and OTSC ‘A’ faced off each other in the 8th game of the day. OTSC comprises of the Visakha Team this year and Navy who were tagged as the tournament favorites with over 9 International players in their team were surprised by the young OTSC team. Navy who were going shoulder to shoulder with the OTSC team until the latter stages of the game were hit by a sudden blow when their Captain Hashini Warnapura was sent off from the match. This meant that the Navy had to play the next 4 minutes with a player short. OTSC capitalized on this and when the final whistle was blown the scores read as 8-5 in favor of OTSC.
In the other game of the women’s segment OTSC ‘B’ which comprises of Bishops College players beat SL Air Force 10-04. The top two women’s team out of the 5 will qualify for the finals and it will be interesting how the teams battle it out tomorrow as we might come to the goal difference between teams to choose the finalists.
Men’s
There were no surprises in the men’s segment. Tournament favorites SL Navy, OTSC’ A’ & SLAF ‘A’ won their respective matches with ease. SLAF ‘A’ won both their matches on day 1. 1st they beat SLN ‘C’ 8-2 and then later in the day went on to win again SLN ‘B’ with a score of 24-05 making it the highest score for this tournament.
New entry Sri Lanka Army won both their games and is now in the quarter finals along with SLAF ‘B’ from group ‘C’ and SL Army showed some good prospects for the future. SLAF ‘A’ too confirmed their ticket to the quarter finals by winning both games from group ‘B’ today.
SL Navy beat OTSC ‘B’ 19-4 & OTSC ‘A’ beat SSC ‘A’ 10-03. SLP ‘B’, SLAF ‘B’, OTSC ‘B’ also registered wins on day 01.
Stay tuned with papare.com for updates as day 02 will be getting very interesting as it will decide will teams will progress to quarter finals and Semi finals.
Results end of Day 01.
MensWomen’s
OTSC ‘A’ beats SSC ‘A’ 10-03OTSC ‘B’ beats SLAS 10-04
SLP ‘B’ beats RCUAC ‘B’ 10-03OTSC ‘A’ beats SLN 8-5
SLAF ‘A’ beats SLN ‘C’ 08-02
SLAF ‘B’ beats SLP ‘A’ 07-01
SL Army beats SSC ‘B’ 12-01
SLN beats OTSC ‘B’ 19-04
SLAF ‘A’ beats SLN ‘B’ 24-05
SLAF ‘B’ beats SSC ‘B’ 19-01
SL Army beats SLP ‘A’ 09-05
