Junior Netball Nationals finals in Galle today
The competition began with Schools defeating Matale 34-12
The four-time postponed Junior Netball Championships commenced at the Galle Stadium in the morning yesterday with Sri Lanka Schools recording a comprehensive 34-12 win against Matale in the curtain raiser game.
Matches are being held under a league basis with eight teams, winners and runners-up from four groups, advancing to the quarter-final stage.
This contest is a talent search to select a pool for the 2017 World Youth Championships in Bosnia. This motive proved to add terrific tussle for the championship title. Eighteen teams, representing 14 affiliations, are taking part in the event. Earlier two teams from each association were scheduled to enter the competition but six teams pulled out from the final fray. Mercantile, State Services, Army, Navy, Air Force and Police are not taking part in the competition as they have no Under-19 players.
This is after about 10 years that a competition of this nature is being staged in Galle. The finals will be held today starting at 4.00pm with Kalum Seneviratne, the Mayor of Galle, expected to grace the awards ceremony as the chief guest.
The draw for the contest took place in the morning yesterday the reason being that several teams arrived late for the competition. The tournament is being held under four groups. The first round will be conducted on a league basis and the group champions and runners-up in each group will qualify for the quarters. The quarters and semi-finals were scheduled to be worked off in the afternoon.
