Sri Lanka Youths qualify for Asian Youth Olympics
Sri Lanka Men’s Youth Beach Volleyball team represented by Isuru Madushan and Chamika Sandaruwan was qualified for the 2nd Asian Youth Olympics scheduled to be held in Nanjing, China in August 2014.
Isuru Madushan
On their way to the Semi Finals, which is a qualification for the Olympics the Sri Lankan pair beat Guam (21/9 – 21/10) and the strong Japanese team (21/15 – 21/16) in the preliminary rounds and beat Qatar in
Chamika Sandaruwan
the quarter-finals. This pair combining in defence and attack gave the opposing teams a tough time in every game played.
In their confrontation with favourites Thailand in the semi-finals these two schoolboys from Davismara Vidyalaya, Seeduwa made the opposition to fight for every point and at the end they went down fighting (18/21 – 17/21). According to the secretary of the Volleyball Federation, Susil Ranasinghe this is the first time that a Sri Lankan team was qualified to take part in the Asian Youth Olympics.
Meanwhile the Women’s Youth team represented by Milonie Saliduni and Nirmani Sulochana were defeated by Vietnam and they too had a slight chance of qualifying for the Youth Olympics if they beat Kazakhstan in the next round but their chances were foiled by the Kazakhstan women who scored 21/15 – 21/16 to be winners.