Western Province managed to claim the 1st ever Dialog Netball Rising Stars title, held to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021, by defeating North Western Province comfortably in the final.
Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, Dialog Axiata PLC in partnership with the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka (NFSL) and the Department of Sports Development conducted the provincial netball tourney to identify and develop new talent on the 7th and 8th of March at the Torrington Grounds in Colombo.
Photos : Netball Rising Star 2021 – Day 02
9 teams from each of the nine provinces participated in the tournament, split into Group A and B for the preliminary round. The top two teams from each group progressed to the semi-final and the winners of the respective games battled it out for the title.
- Group A – Uva, North Central, North Western, Northern
- Group B – Sabaragamuwa, Western, Eastern, Central, Southern
Apart from the main competition, the organizer put on a shooting competition, with only players above the height of 5 feet 10 inches eligible to participate, as well as a Fast5 Netball Exhibition match that featured many national stars.
Fast5 is what we can call an amped up version of Netball, approved by the International Netball Federation where only 5 players take the court from each team (as opposed to 7 in regular Netball). Games are generally quicker and require a wide range of skills, including shooting the long ball for more points. You can see the full set of rules for Fast5 Netball here.
Match Replay – Final & Exhibition Fast5 | International Women’s Day Netball Tournament 2021
The winners of the competition received a cash price of Rs. 50,000 while the runners-up received Rs. 20,000. The winner of the shooting competition received Rs. 10,000.
The list of winners are as follows:
- Champions – Western Province
- Runners-up – North Western Province
- Best Shooter – Tharushi Thathsarani (UWA Province)
The full list of results are as follows:
Preliminary Round – Group A
- Uva Province 43 – 05 North Central Province
- North Western Province 30 – 17 Northern Province
- Uva Province 15 – 32 North Western Province
- North Central Province 10 – 22 Northern Province
- Uva Province 42 – 12 Northern Province
- North Central Province 08 – 42 North Western Province
Preliminary Round – Group B
- Sabaragamuwa Province 08 – 29 Western Province
- Eastern Province 25 – 20 Central Province
- Southern Province 16 – 13 Sabaragamuwa Province
- Western Province 34 – 13 Eastern Province
- Central Province 13 – 31 Southern Province
- Sabaragamuwa Province 17 – 14 Eastern Province
- Western Province 33 – 06 Central Province
- Southern Province 32 – 20 Eastern Province
- Sabaragamuwa Province 13 – 17 Central Province
- Western Province 30 – 12 Southern Province
Semi-finals
- North Western Province 34 – 33 Southern Province
- Uva Province 13 – 40 Western Province
Third place playoff
- Sothern Province 38 – 28 Uva Province
Final
- North Western Province 9 – 23 Western Province
