Royal Double Trouble for Thora

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Royal College won both the Under-19 and under- 15 Sri Lanka School’s Water Polo Championship in the boy’s category and Visakha Vidyalaya also won both the Under-19 and Under-15 Championships in the girl’s category.

Boys Final

This was Royal’s final chance to get silverware this season after they lost the Hayman to Thora and National Finals to Navy this year. Royal once again met STC in the all important finals and it was a battle for pride as Hayman had all ready claimed the all important Hayman. 

Royal shock the Hayman Champions with their attacking moves during the entire game.  Royal stuck first blood through Chandula Fernando and during the 3rd minute of the game Chandula stuck once again to take Royal to an early 2-0 lead. Thora then made their mark by a Keshan Munasinghe to cut the Royal deficit. Rifat Uwais of Royal then scored right from Center back to extend the Royal lead. In the dying minutes of the 1st quarter Ashen Francis for Thora scored to make the score board 3-2 at the end of the 1st quarter. Royal Goal Keeper Waleed Uwais and Ashen Francis were sent off from the game right after Ashen’s goal as both players were found guilty of FINA rules. This was a disappointing moment for both teams as Waleed was Royal’s leading goal keeper for this entire season and Ashen was controlling the game for Thora during the entire season. 

Thomian Captan Devshan De Mel took matters to his own hands and began scoring in the 2nd quarter to from long range to level scores. It was Royalist Chandula Fernando who was the star from team Royal on this day as Chandula stuck two magnificent goals for Royal to take Royal right back in to this game. Yasodha Wasalage for Royal then scored again to take Royal for a winning position with a score of 6-3 at half time.  

The 3rd quarter was a very defensive quarter as both team marked their counter men very tight and 3rd quarter just saw a solitary goal from Thomian Captain Devshan De Mel to take Thomian just two goals behind Royal’s lead 6-4.

Royal Yasodha Wasalage then opened scoring in the 4th quarter to extend the Royal lead. Devushan, Thomian’s sole fighter for the day scored once again in the 4th quarter but that was not enough to stop Royal from defeating Hayman Champions Thora with a final score of 7-5. Royalist Chandula Fernando was the star for Royal with 4 goal in this match winning game. 

Both school’s teams end their season and with this win it can be said Royal had the better season by winning the Hayman 2nd leg, becoming Runners up at the National Championship and now winning the Sri Lanka School’s Championship but nothing can make up for their loss at Hayman 1st leg with a 3 goal deficit which saw them loosing the Hayman after 2 years. 

Girl’s Finals

The girls finals was a repeat of the LC- VV encounter. Visakha were looking forward to end a perfect unbeaten season while Ladies College was (LC) were looking to create an upset and make up for their defeat at the LC- VV encounter. 

Ladies College stuck 1st blood to take control of the game by a goal from Anoushka Tissera and extended their lead by another goal from Dharithri Amarasekara. Aneka Abeywickrama for Visakha then scored to cut down the LC lead. End of 1st quarter LC leading 2-1.

In the 2rd quarter Varuni Ekanayake scored for Visakha to level scores but Dharithri Amarasekara once again got in to the act to score for LC and take the lead.  Then Upuli Dodangoda scored to once again level the scores at 3-3 at half time. 

In the 3rd quarter Aneka Abeywickrama scored once again to take Visakha in to the lead for the 1st time in this game. Ladies College player for the day Dharithri Amarasekara then scored once again for Ladies making a hat trick for her and leveling the match score. But just as how Visakha came back from behind to win the LC- VV, Visakha did the same here today but scoring a late goal to put Visakha once again in the late by Aneka Abeywickrama goal and with this goal she too claimed her hat trick for the game. 

In the 4th and final quarter of the game Visakha Captain Thusari Ekanayake managed to score the solitary goal of the game and when the final whistle blew scored read as 6-4 in favor of Visakha. 

With this Visakha end a perfect season winning the LC- VV encounter and the National Championship where they played as OTSC ‘A’.

Junior Results

Royal beats STC 7-5 (Boys)

Visakha beats LC 16-6 (Girls)

The Sri Lanka School’s Water Polo Championship was organized by Sri Lanka School’s Aquatic Association.