Sri Lanka Men’s and Women’s teams put up giant performances to upset big nations at the 16th Asia Pacific Water Polo Championship which concluded last week at the Kawloon Park Sports Center in Hong Kong.
Both teams finished the tournament in 4th positions and this is by far the best performance Sri Lanka has put on in major International Championship.
Sri Lanka Men’s team had their 1st game of the tournament on the against Hong Kong team. The match was closely contested one as Sri Lanka came back from a 4-1 deficit to lose the game 9-5. Sri Lanka Women’s too met Hong Kong women’s on the 15th and lost the game 10-5.
On the 2nd day Sri Lanka faced off against Chinese Taipei and won the match with a record score of 21:2. This was the highest number of goals recorded in this tournament and also the largest victory in terms of goals difference. With this victory Sri Lanka became 2nd in the group and qualified for the 2nd round. Sri Lanka Women’s met Chinese Taipei on the same day and the women’s team too recorded victory with a score line of 8 goals to 5. Sri Lankan Women’s qualified for the Semi Finals with this victory.
Sri Lanka met Guangdong, China on the same day in the Men’s 2nd round game and if the team was to win this game they will qualify for the medal round and loss would have resulted in playing for the 4th-6th position classification round. The Chinese Team was much stronger to Lankan boys as they were better skilled and was better physical and every other aspect and thus the Sri Lankan Team went down fighting with a score line of 15:4.
Sri Lankan Women’s team met Indonesia in the semifinal and lost the game in a high scoring game. Sri Lankan Women’s team played with a lot of hearts and kept on fighting till the last whistle and eventually went down 13:10. Sri Lankan Women gave away 3 penalties in this game and in the end those 3 converted penalties were in between Sri Lanka and a Women’s Final game place. Sri Lanka Men’s team then met much stronger Thailand in the 1st game of the 4th- 6th positions classification game and both team played such a hard and closely contested nail biting game and in the end there were no winners as the game ended at an 8-all draw.
The Men’s team then met Guam Water Polo team later that evening in their final game and Sri Lanka had to beat Guam to be placed at 4th position as they had already beat Thailand 8:6 earlier in the day. The Guam team comprised of much experience former players from USA and UK. Sri Lankans got to a very bad start were Guam were leading 5-1 at the end of the 1st quarter and chances of a 4th finish to Sri Lankan was getting slimmer. But the Lankan boys came back in the game and scored 10 goals in the last 3 quarter and the Lankan defense were solid as a rock as they gave away just 1 goal and when the final whistle blew scores read as 11:6 in favor of Sri Lankan and Sri Lankan were 4th. Also this meant Sri Lanka only lost to tournaments eventual Champions and Runners up in the earlier rounds. This also meant this was the best result for Sri Lanka in Asia Pacific Championship Tournaments and also this was the best ever finish for the National Team after a Silver medal in the South Asian Water Polo Championship in 2007.
Sri Lanka Women’s then met People’s Republic of Korea in the Women’s Bronze Medal game but missed out on the medal when they lost 11:4.
In the men’s competition Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Guam, Thailand, Hong Kong ‘B’, Hong Kong ‘C’ and Chinese Taipei participated while for the women’s competition Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand and Chinese Taipei participated.
By looking at the performance of both the Men’s and Women’s performances one can agree that this is the best ever performance National teams have put on so far. There were also a lot of praise from other coaches, players and organizers about the improved performance of the National teams and they were really surprised at the drastic improve of the level of Water Polo Sri Lankan teams displaced over the last 3 days.
Sri Lankan Airlines are the Official Airline Partner and Mobitel Sri Lanka are the Telecommunications partner for the Sri Lanka Water Polo Teams.
Men’s Team: Dhanushka Seram (Captain, OTSC), Yahan Samarajeewa (Vice Captain), Shehan Dasanayake, Musharraf Uwais, Wasim M Bawa, Shan Lakshitha, Kanitha Munasinghe, Bhanuka Wijesundara, Avinda Kaldera (All from Sri Lanka Navy), BACA Perera, Devshan De Mel (both from OTSC), Chethana Munasinghe (RCUAC), Kosala Wijewardena (STC)
Women’s Team: Hashini Warnapura (Captain), Charya Dharmadasa (Vice Captain), Deethri Samarajeewa, Dharithri Amarasekara, Varuni Ekanayake, Sachini Seneviratne (All from Sri Lanka Navy), Aneka Abeywickrama (Vishaka), Aneesah Fowzie, Ashanthi Sumanapala, Minuri De Silva, Soraya Wickramasekera (All from Bishops), Nideesha Ellawala, Lara Modder (Both from Ladies)
Officials: Lt Malaka Chandrasa (Head Coach), Awnee Razack (Coach), Ajantha Silva (Coach), Hiran Ukwatte (Chef De Mission), Ulfath Uwais (Manager), Sameera Hunupolgama (Asst. Manager), Lalani Jayathilaka (Lady Chaparone).
