President’s Gold Cup Volleyball from Sept. 16
Harsha Samaranayake, General Manager - Brand and Media, Group Marketing, Dialog Axiata, Amali Nanayakkara - Group Chief Marketing Officer, Dialog Axiata, Ranjith Siyampalapitiya, President - Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation and its Secretary A.S. Nalaka at the event launch
The 12th Dialog President’s Gold Cup Volleyball Tournament’s District Level matches will be held from September 16 on an island- wide basis. The President’s Gold Cup tourney which has a history spanning over two decades is sponsored by Dialog Axiata for the 12th consecutive year, underscoring the Company’s commitment for the development of the country’s national sport.
The President’s Gold Cup is hosted by the Sri Lanka Volleyball Federation, and is worked off island-wide over a period of four months, attracting teams from over 300 Grama Seva division’s island- wide. The matches will then subsequently be worked off at district and national levels. The opening ceremony of the tournament will be held at Ruwanwella Rajasinghe MMV grounds, where the Kegalle District tournament will herald the competition on September 16 and 17.
The competition is for Open Men and Women and Under-22 Men and Women. The contest will be held under four categories. Over 2500 teams will take part in the competitions featuring 40,000 players. From all districts eight teams (champions and runners-up) will qualify for the National Level round.
The finals are being planned to be played on December 18 at the Maharagama National Youth Council (NYSC) indoor courts.
The tournament was launched at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel where the chief guest was Volleyball President Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya. This tournament will also serve as a Talent Search for international tournaments to be held in 2018. The tournaments are: Asian Club Championships (men and women), Asia Cup (men and women),Asian Under-19 Women Championships, Asian Under-20 men’s championships, Youth Olympic Games and Asian Beach Games.
Training for National Volleyball Pools is expected to commence from January 2018 for these international games. The Dialog President’s Cup Gold Cup tournament will serve as a trial to select these pools.