Lanka plays several Int’l VB tourneys

by Leslie Fernando

VOLLEYBALL: Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation had made arrangements in collaboration with the International Volleyball Federation for Sri Lanka ‘spikers’ to compete in several international volleyball tournaments for the year 2010.

Deputy Minister, Dilan Perera, President, Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation together with the Secretary SLVB Susil Ranasinghe is going flat-out to field strong teams, both men and women for forthcoming international volleyball and Beach Volleyball competitions.

Volleyball chief Dilan Perera and Secretary Ranasinghe told the Sunday Observer that already two to three volleyball pools have been formed and our ‘spikers’ are gearing up to participate in the tournaments and give a good account of themselves.

At the 11th South Asian Games held in January in Dhaka Bangladesh, our men’s volleyballers fared prominently, but due to bad luck missed winning a silver medal. The players right now are showing lot of promise and tremendous form and they are bound to excel in the forthcoming international tournaments, said both the volleyball boss Dilan Perera and Secretary Susil Ranasinghe.

At first Sri Lanka will participate at the 15th Asian Junior Women’s Volleyball Championship in Vietnam from September 12 to 20. Team selections will be on June 2. Prasanna Kulatunga, Vice-President SLVBF has already been appointed as the Manager of the team. He will oversee all arrangements regarding the pool.

The 15th Asian Junior Men’s Volleyball Championships will be held in Thailand from October 1 to 9. The team selections will be on June 1. Upali Hewage senior member of SLVBF is the Manager and will oversee all arrangements in this regards.

Our ‘spikers’ will also participate at the Asian Beach Games in Oman in September and at the 16th Asian Games Volleyball discipline in China in December.

Dilan Perera announced that SLVBF has made arrangements to send six qualified coaches to India for the International Technical Seminar conducted by FIVB during the first week in June.