Inaugural Red Bull Half Court-winning teams to represent Sri Lanka in Egypt
Red Bull concluded the inaugural ‘Red Bull Half Court’ Basketball Championship last week at the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation (SLBF) court, with the participation of four each of male and female teams that qualified through regional qualifiers in Southern, Central, Northern, and Western Provinces.
Red Bull Half Court is a 3×3 basketball tournament that is on the lookout for the world’s best ‘streetballers’ from among 15,000 players across 20 countries. Teams advance by winning games but there’s also a unique twist, the ‘Own the Court’ bonus is awarded to the team in each group that has scored the most points cumulatively across the games. This means even if a team doesn’t win most games, they still might make it through to the finals.
Red Bull constantly strives to give ‘wiiings’ to youth via sports as a global brand. This tournament is especially significant because this is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka. Red Bull intends to hold this tournament on an annual basis to create a platform for local basketball talent.
Over 400 players representing 20 teams from each province, took part in the event out of which four male and four female teams — one each from each province — made it through to the finals.
Team TSM, comprising of Thisaramala Anjalee Ekanayake, Benika Madhubashanei, Lubna Morseth and Nihari Perera emerged champions of the female category while the male category was won by Team Air Brothers, which included Nimesh Fernando, Rukshan Athapattu, Chanuka Shehan and Pawan Gamage.
The winners will represent Sri Lanka at the World Championship slated to be held in October in Egypt.