The Under 19 Schools’ Hockey nationals kicked off today at the Sri Lanka Hockey Astro turf in Colombo with the participation of 11 Boys’ and 10 Girls’ teams.
The first round of the Boys’ competition is scheduled to be held at the Astro turf while the Girls will compete at the St. Peters’ College grounds Bambalapitiya.
In the boys’ category, the Colombo Reds, tipped to be one of the favorites, were put to test by the Galle team which put in a gutsy performance having arrived at the venue minutes before the game began. The game ended as a 1 all draw. Colombo Reds managed to shake off the shackles in their next game thumping the Kalutara side 6-1 where they played to a better formation and looked to be more coordinated. Matale Golds, the other team that is expected to do well, made their intentions clear with a comprehensive 7-1 win over a struggling Gampaha side. However Gampaha looked a different team when they played against the Kandy Whites where they controlled proceedings, keeping possession and frustrated the Kandy Whites defense to win the game 4-0.
In Bamabalapitiya, where the girls’ tournament was worked off, the Colombo Reds demolished the Matale Maroons with a comprehensive 8-0 victory and made their intentions clear as one of the strongest teams in the competition. Matale Golds took on Colombo Blues in the most hotly contested girls’ event of the day and honours were shared after an evenly fought out game as the scores stood at 1 all at the long whistle. The Gampaha girls went down to the Kandy Whites 2-0 earlier in the day but managed to get revenge and topple the same team in the second game 3-0.
The quarter finals of the boys’ category will be worked off from 11.00 am on the 30th at the Astro turf while the Girls’ quarter finals will be worked off at the Royal College grounds. Both the Boys’ and Girls’ semi-final games and the finals will be held at the Astro turf on the 01st of July.
Full results of Day 01
Boys
Colombo Reds – 1 Vs Galle – 1
Matale Golds – 7 Vs Gampaha -1
Colombo Blues – 1 Vs Kandy Blues 2
Puttalam D H C – 3 Vs Matale Maroons – 1
Colombo Reds – 6 Vs Kalutara – 1
Kandy whites – 0 Vs Gampaha – 4
Colombo Blues – 0 Vs Kandy blues -2
Puttalam DHC – 0 vs Ratnapura – 3
Girls
Kandy Blues -1 Vs Kalutara – 0
Colombo Reds – 8 Vs Matale Maroons – 0
Gampaha -0 Vs Kandy whites -2
Matale Gold -1 Vs Colombo Blues -1
Gampaha -3 Vs Kandy Whites -0
