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Giant killers Renown SC and Air Force in today’s FA Cup final
By M. Shamil Amit
Top class soccer will be dished out today at the Sugathadasa Stadium when giant killers Renown SC and Air Force SC will clash in the final of the Sharp FA Cup which is scheduled to get underway under floodlights at 6.30 p.m.

The two teams put up some extraordinary performances in the earlier games before qualifying to meet in the finals. The semi finals which were played last week went to the wire with both the games being decided on penalty shoot outs with the Premier League champions Negombo Youth SC and runner up Police SC being ousted by Renown SC and Air Force SC in the semi finals. Both the results had identical scores of 4-3.

It should be a game of high quality with Renown who were placed fifth and Air Force who were placed sixth in the recently completed Premier League championship hoping to land the coveted Sharp FA Cup and a cash award of Rs. 250,000 which is on offer. Renown with their present form will be under pressure to get the better of Air Force who will also be a threat and they come into the game having overcome the strong Negombo Youth which had five national players in the side and who were the favourites to win the title.

Either teams don’t have too many big names to boost of but Renown SC who have the national team captain in their side and some up and coming players are sure to give the young Air Force team a run for their money. But the Airmen wont be pushovers they also know the agony they had undergone to reach the final and would expect to give off their best.

Nevertheless the soccer fans could be assured of quality soccer being dished out. Soccer fans are in for a bonus today as entrance to the tiers will be free. While the organisers will be offering three prizes a TV set, cassette recorder and a mountain bike after a raffle draw on tickets purchased to witness the finals. The winning team in the final will recieve the Sharp FA Cup plus Rs. 250,000 while the loser will get Rs. 100,000.

The teams:
Renown SC - M.K. Janaka Priyantha, G.K. Jayantha Premalal, Rasia Dharmendra, Chrysantha Abeysekera, K.P.J. Kumara, Dinesh Jayasinghe, R.A.G. Perera, H.D. Hettiarachchi, Prabath Perera, H.M.D. Jayasinghe, S.C. Olupathiranage, Vijaya Baskaran, Vijaya Surendran, Arumugam Loganathan (Capt), Dammika Thilakaratne, Dudley Steinwall, Niroshan Abeysekera, A.J.P. Sanjeewa, A. Prasad Indika, Buddika Ratnasiri, Mohamed Ajmal, Mohamed Fawmi, Sritharan Peiris, Karuppiah Ramar, I.P. Gunaratne.

Air Force - R.M. Wahid Mohamed, Shantha Lala Wijesena, Chaminda Steinwall, Ifthikar Hameed, Rajamani Dewasagayam, Saman Bogahawatte, Neil Priyantha, Priyantha Dayawansa, Hasan Roomy, Susantha Jayalath, Razak Kaliyulrahuman, Mohamed Haniffa, T.N. Susantha, Gafoor Raheem, Imtiyas Raheem (Capt), Mohamed Rezvi, Sellah Kumar, Sinnawan Srikanth, Manoharan Reginold, Liyanage Sanjeewa, Kumara Fernando, Thilakaratne Liyanage, Tharanga Hapuarachchi, Kumara Ratnayake.

Asitha does Sri Lanka proud
Former tennis player Asitha Attygala has done Sri Lanka proud by being selected as one of the international tennis umpires in the ongoing Wimbledon Tennis Championship. He is one of the three Asian officials who have been given this honour. He will be officiating in both the qualifying stages and the main events that are to be played.

Asitha on an earlier occasion has umpired in the qualifying matches of Wimbledon 2001. He is the only Sri Lankan to be certified as an international umpire (Bronze Badge) by the International Tennis Federation. At 24 years he is now regarded as the youngest international tennis official.

An old Anandian who was a champion and top ranked player during his school going days, he was compelled to give up playing tennis at a higher level as there was no competetive tennis at that time. He then decided to concentrate on coaching and umpiring the game. His career as an umpire started in 1993 at the federation cup which was held in Sri Lanka. Since then he has officiated in almsot all the local tournaments.

The turning point was when he participated and succeeded in the ITF's Level II course which was held in Doha Qatar in which he obtained the White Badge in the process becoming one of seven to pass out from the 25 participants who came from various countries. He went on to receive the Bronze Badge where only eight passed out from a list of 19 candidates. This qualification opened him to umpire all top professional tournaments such as the Grand Slam, Davis Cup, ITF, ATP and WTA.

His Wimbledon assignment followed his success in having umpired in over 400 international matches in over 18 countries. He has umpired matches involving the following top players namely Paradon Sricapan (Men's World No.10), Daniella Hantuchova (Women's World No.9), Anastasia Myskina (Women's World No.10) and Elena Dementieva (Silver Medalist, Sydney Olympics).

Asitha is going to be a busy umpire in the days to come as he has been appointed by the WTA to officiate in some major tournaments that are to be conducted which includes the Polo Open Shanghai, China on September 15, AIG Japan Open in Tokyo Japan on September 29 and many other tournaments. -MSA

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