Sri Lanka women runners-up at Queen Sikkirit Tourney in Bangkok
by S.M. Jiffrey Abdeen - Kandy Sports Corr.
Sri Lanka Women Hockey Team put up an overall absorbing performance
to finish runners-up at the Asian Challenge Womens Hockey Championship
2013 organised by the Asian Hockey Federation and played at Queen
Sikkirit Hockey Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand.
The Sri Lanka Womens who were unbeaten upto the finals lost the
championship title to Thailand surprisingly by a big margin of 3 - 0.
Surprisingly they beat Thailand 3 - 2 in a League match and closer
contest was expected in the finals but that was never to be.
Humble in defeat, the coach of the Sri Lanka womens team M.A.M.
Ashroff, said that they lost to a better team and the Thailand stickers
coached by a top Korean coach is one of the best in the region. In the
earlier year they had beaten Sri Lanka 6 - 3.
But he said we could have done better but our girls were tired of
playing so many matches in a few days as it was a six nation
tournament.Sri Lanka started off by defeating Pakistan 5 - 0 and
followed with a 6 - 0 win over Myanmar which was largely dominated by
centre forward Madhushani Jayanetti who slammed four goals which
included the hatrick.
Next they swamped Kampuchea by the huge margin of 27 - 0 which was
the biggest victory achieved by Sri Lanka in the international scene.
Centre forward Madhushani Jayanetti was in such blistering form that she
scored ten goals which once again included the hat-trick. Skipper
Chathurika Wijesuriya and Buddhika Nelum Kumari scored seven goals each
to rout the Kampucheans.
In the next match Sri Lanka squeezed through to a 3 - 2 win over
Thailand. Special mention must be made of the goal keeper Jeewanthika
Keerthiratne who made a brilliant stop of the penalty penalty stroke
which was awarded to the Thailand as otherwise this match would have
ended in a draw.
In the final match the Sri Lankan losses had tiredness written all
over them as they were held to a two all draw by Singapore.But the
'plum' of the awards were won by the Sri Lankan women stickers. Centre
forward forward Buddhika Gunaratne was adjudged player of the tournament
for her positional play and studying of the opponents weakness and
dribbling the ball and sending out the passes at crucial stages.
Madhushani Jayanetti was awarded the trophy for the Highest scorer of
goals in the tournament. She scored 18 in all which is a record.
The team was captained by Chathurika Wijesuriya of Sri Lanka Navy and
former Seetha Devi Girls College player and the vice captain was
Madhushani Jayanetti of Sri Lanka Navy and learnt her hockey at
St.Anthony's Girls College, Kandy.
M.A.M. Ashroff was the coach and he achieved something the foreign
coaches could not achieve in other sports.
Finally Sri Lanka Navy had 14 players and Sri Lanka Air Force 4
players in a squad of 18 which made the tour party. |
