South Asia Gateway Terminals (SAGT) have taken it upon themselves to uplift women’s sports in the island. Last evening they signed an agreement to sponsor the Sri Lanka Women’s Rugby Team ahead of their Asia 7s series which will commence in Hong Kong with the 1sts leg to be held on the 2nd & 3rd of December.
Terminal giants SAGT sponsored the Sri Lanka Women’s Rugby team last year as well and despite the team’s poor performance, they have come forward yet again to encourage the growth of the sport in the country.
Special guest Gayani De Alwis, Chairperson of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, delivered a motivational speech, at the press conference held to announce SAGT’s sponsorships deal with the Women’s Rugby Team. She expressed how Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala, who became the 1st Sri Lankan to summit Mount Everest, is a great inspiration and example of what a woman can achieve.
“First of all you must win your mind otherwise you will never be able to conquer anything, so make sure your inner feelings are always positive” Ms Alwis spoke on the importance of a positive mindset.
Mr. Erwin Haze CEO of SAGT said, “We all see big support for cricket and golf as lot more people are enthusiastic about it, not many people want to support a rare sport like the women’s teams in Sri Lanka, we celebrate success but in the meantime we should know how to accept defeat.”
Vice President of Sri Lanka Rugby Football Union (SLRFU) Mr. Lasitha Gunarathne also addressed the gathering “There are so many sponsors to do men’s and schools’ rugby, Thanks to SAGT for coming forward to uplift women’s rugby in Sri Lanka.” He also went on to thank SW Chang for putting forth the idea of sponsoring the Women’s team to SAGT.
The women’s team is set to travel next Tuesday evening along with the men’s team. Below is the pool for women’s tournament.
Japan, Singapore, Guam and the hosts Hong Kong have been drawn in the other pool.
Photo Album – SAGT Sponsors Sri Lanka women’s rugby
Sri Lanka finished at the bottom in the Asia 7s series last year and they only managed to win one game over Singapore in the Colombo leg. As a result they were demoted to play the qualifiers in division one. However, Sri Lanka did not participate due to the security reasons as this tournament was scheduled in Chennai, India. Nevertheless, Sri Lanka gets the automatic qualification for this year and they need to finish in the top 7 to survive in the Asian top category for next year.
Stay tuned to ThePapare.com for more updates.
 has taken pride of uplifting the women’s sports in the island. Last evening they exchanged agreement in sponsoring the Sri Lanka women’s rugby team ahead of their Asia sevens series which will commence the first leg in Hong Kong on 2nd & 3rd December.){kind=link}