Amrith and Ami take top honours at Victoria
Number 74 was lucky for Sri Lanka’s Amrith de Soysa and Qin Ami of Pakistan who earned top honours at the 15th SriLankan Airlines Golf
A golfer in action
Classic which ended after four days at the Victoria Golf and Country Club in Digana, Kandy last Sunday. Amrith and Qin finished off with 74 points each to grab the overall Men’s and Ladie’s championships respectively overshadowing closer to 200 other golfers in contention.
Behind Amrith in the Men’s segment was fellow Sri Lankan Jessie Perera who finished off with 64 points. United Kingdom’s Morley Pauline, with 73 points, conceded the top position to Qin in the Ladie’s Overall category.
Overall winner of Ladies’ gross score (52 points), Qin Ami of Pakistan receiving her award from Nishantha Wickramasinghe, the Chairman SriLankan Airlines
Sri Lanka’s Harsha Abeywickrema, with 80 points, took the lead in the Men’s Overall Division ‘A’ category while the Division ‘B’ top position was shared by Marc Chicano of Spain and Li Ling of China. Both had 78 points each under their belt but Chicano was declared the winner on the countback. The Men’s Division ‘C’ was won by Sri Lanka’s Fazeel Mohamed who earned 87 points.
Pauline Morley won the Ladie’s Division ‘A’ championship while Shamara Wettimuny who had 75 points at the end of the fourth day bagged the Ladies Division ‘B’ title.
However the four-day competition which began on Wednesday, September 24, was hampered by inclement weather which interrupted play most of the time. But the great effort made by the officials and the sponsors, SriLankan Airlines ensured a smoothly run competition, which culminated with a gala awards ceremony.
Overall winner of Men’s gross score (74 points), Amrith de Soysa of Sri Lanka receives his prize from Nishantha Wickramasinghe, the Chairman SriLankan Airlines
The competition drew in more than 200 amateur golfers from 18 different countries. Over half of the lot represented the hosting nation Sri Lanka. Other competitors were from Abu Dhabi, Dubai, India, Malaysia, Kuwait, Canada, USA, Singapore, Thailand, China, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Italy, England, Spain, Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia. The international line-up of keen, consistent golfers was joined by over 100 Sri Lankan golfers which will increase the total number of participants to around 200 players, creating a great challenge and an opportunity to enjoy two consecutive days of leisure golf on the par 73, 18-hole course overlooking the picturesque Victoria Reservoir. The tournament was played on two consecutive days by each player and points were allocated for a player’s Gross and Nett Stableford scores over their two rounds.
The award winners with the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines - Pix by Pradeep Dilrukshana