Sri Lanka in four Beach Volleyball tourneys

by Leslie FERNANDO

VOLLEYBALL: Sri Lanka 'spikers' will participate in four International Beach Volleyball tournaments from August to December this year. The national beach volleyballers who are fancied to win a medal at the forthcoming tournaments are undergoing intense training at present said Deputy Minister Dilan Perera, the President of the Volleyball Federation of Sri Lanka. The volleyball chief Dilan Perera added that Sri Lanka will have a great chance of winning a medal at the 16th Asian Games to be held from 12 to 27 November in Guangzhou, China while the 2nd Asian Beach Games are due from 8 to 16 December in Muscat.

The other two tournaments are 2010 AVC Beach Volleyball Championship in Liupanshi, China from 13 to 18 August and Asian Open Beach Volleyball Tournament in Haikou, China from October 20 to 24.

The men's Beach Volleyball 'pool' is: Mahesh Perera, Sampath Peiris, Pubudu Ekanayake, Wasantha Ratnapala, Mahinda Yapa, Asank Pradeep, Dimuthi Krishantha, Gayan Dilruk.

Women's Beach Volleyball 'pool' consists of Asha Siriwardena, Nirosha Gunasinghe, Geethika Gunawardena, Sagarika Gunasinghe, Leena Sandamali, Sanjeewani, W.W. Sujeewa, Prasanna Udaya Kumara is the coach of the two teams.

According to President SLVF, Dilan Perera, arrangements have already been made to provide these teams with much needed international match exposure prior to these important tournaments.

Meanwhile, the final round matches of the 2010 DSI Super Sports School Volleyball Championships will be held from today to July 10 at the Vincent Dias Stadium in Badulla.

The tournament is being held for the 12th consecutive year. Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation, Education Ministry and Schools Volleyball Association are organising this event with the full sponsorship by the DSI Company. A record number of teams participated at the preliminary round matches at District and Provincial Level in the categories of under-12, under-14, under-16 and under-18 and 144 teams have been qualified for the final stage.

The finals of the tournament are schedule to be worked off on July 23 and 24 at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium.