Sri Lanka Navy and OTSC win maiden National Water Polo titles

Sri Lanka Navy won the Men’s National Water Polo Championship and OTSC won the Women’s national championship at the finals of the National Water Polo Championship which held at Sugathadasa Stadium on November and this was the maiden titles for both teams.

Men’s Final

Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) won their 1st ever National Water Polo title when they beat Royal College Union Aquatic Club (RCUAC) 13-05 at the finals held yesterday (November 4th). Navy was the superior team of the two teams going in to the finals and Navy was tipped to win the tournament from the very beginning. Navy was unbeaten in the tournament and also beat Royal at group stages. Royal was without two (2) of their players as they are currently in China with the Sri Lanka School’s Swimming Team and also without their head coach Jehan Mubarak who is at Bangladesh on cricket duties. But nothing could be taken off from Navy as they played wonderful Water Polo overall and played like a professional unit. Navy, packed with former and current National players took matters to their own hand and took an early when star player Shehan Dassanayake shot 2 goals and Poorna Kankanige chipping in with another goal to take Navy 3-0 up at half time. 

Navy then extended their lead up to 5-0 at the 2nd quarter by goals from Shehan Dassanayake and W. Bhanuka but Royal then stuck back by a Rifat Uwais goal to cut down the Navy lead. Royalists Yasodha Wasalage and Vice Captain Akila Weerasinghe stuck again for Royal to cut down the Navy lead to 5-3 and put pressure back on Navy. Then Shan Lakshitha of Navy scored right at the end of the half time to Navy up 6-3 which game them a breathing space at half time. 

Navy came back from half time and took matters to their own hand and scored 3 goals in the 3rd quarter. Musharraf Uwais scored 2 goals and Savith Warnapura scored one. Royal managed to score just one and it came from the hands of Rifat Uwais. End of 3rd quarter scores read as 9-4 in favor of Navy.

Navy had to intentions to give Royal any chance of a comeback as Navy scored 4 more goals in the last quarter, 2 goals from Bhanuka and 1 each from Shehan Dassanayake and Wasim Marikkabawa. In reply Royal managed to score just one through Akila Weerasinghe. It also has to be mentioned that both goal keepers, Avinda Ruchira from Navy and Waleed Uwais from Royal were brilliant at defense. When the final whistle blew Navy for the 1st time in the history was crowned as National Water Polo Champions beating RCUAC 13-5. It was also an interesting battle between Uwais brothers as Musharraf Uwais played for Navy and Rifat and Waleed Uwais played for Royal.  Sri Lanka Navy is led by National Vice Captain Yahan Samarajeewa.

Women’s Finals

Sri Lanka Navy and OTSC ‘A’ both entered this year’s finals looking for their maiden championship victory. Navy were better on paper as they had a star studded team and OTSC ‘A’ which consists of this year’s Visakha team entered the finals by remaining unbeaten at the league stage which meant they already had beaten Navy earlier in this tournament.

OTSC made sure they did not give Navy any chance to think of how the spoil OTSC’s unbeaten run as they stuck 6 goals in the 1st quarter. OTSC stuck 1st blood through National player Limashi Kosgodage and Navy then immediately came back with a Charya Dharmadasa goal. OTSC then managed to add 4 more goals, 2 from Thusari Ekanayake and 1 each from Akshana Perera & Vinuri Wijewikrama. Navy then managed to chip another goal from Sachnini Rajanayake to cut down OTSC lead by OTSC then stuck back by another goal from Limashi Kosgodage. End of 1st quarter OTSC led 6-2.

In the 2nd quarter OTSC once again extended their lead by 3 goals compared to Navy 2 goals in the same quarter. For OTSC Nadishka Senanayake, Aneka Abeywicrama & Limashi Kosgodage scored a goal each and for Navy both goals were scored by Charindee Weerasinghe. End of 2nd quarter OTSC led 9-4. 

3rd quarter was a low scoring quarter as both teams scored just one goal apiece. Limashi Kosgodage stuck once again for OTSC and Charindee Weerasinghe scored again for Navy. End of 3rd OTSC led 10-5

Navy managed to score 2 goals in the final quarter and OTSC managed to score just one. Charindee Weerasinghe who was the star play from Navy during this final managed to score both the goals again for Navy taking her personal goal scoring tally up to 5 goals in this game and for OTSC it was once again their star player for the day, Limashi Kosgodage who did the scoring for them. Limashi managed to score 4 goals in the final for OTSC.

When the final whistle blew OTSC stuck gold in their very 1st attempt at Women’s National Water Polo championship and the final scores read as 11-07. 

Bronze Medal matches

In the men’s bronze medal game Sri Lanka Air Force ‘B’ (SLAF) took on Sri Lanka Navy ‘C’ (SLN ‘C’). It was a one sided affair right from the beginning as Air men easily beat their opponents with a score of 16-03. For SLAF K. H. Karunarathna top scored with 8 goals. 

The women’s final was between Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) and Old Thomian Swimming Club ‘B’ (OTSC ‘B’).  The OTSC women’s team too had an easy game again their opponents as they ran across Air Force defense at regular intervals. When the final whistle blew OTSC ‘B’ managed to win the bronze medal with a score of 13-09 as this was the 1st occasion an OTSC team participated at National under the women’s segment and they found success in their very 1st attempt.  Later in the day their ‘A’ team was crowned as Champions in the women’s segment. For OTSC ‘B’ Aneesha Fowzie top scored with 8 goals and Asanthi Sumanapala scored 4 goals. 

Most Valuable Player (Men’s)- Shehan Dassanayake (Sri Lanka Navy)

Most Valuable Player (Women’s)- Aneka Abeywickarama (OTSC ‘A’)

The preliminaries were conducted on 26^th, 27^th October and 02^nd, 03^rd November with the men’s teams competing in a league format within four groups by draw, while the five women’s team contested in a single group league format. In the men’s category the top two teams in each of the groups thereafter competed on a knockout basis into quarter-final and semi-final matches. In the women’s category the top four teams contested for the final round medal matches on a knockout basis.

Lt. Yoshitha Rajapaksa graced the occasion as Chief Guest with Mr. Dian Gomes (Vice President – NOC/Managing Director – MAS Intimates) as Guest of Honour.

The tournament was conducted by Sri Lanka Water Polo which manages the sport of water polo as a unit of the Sri Lanka Aquatic Sports Union.