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Women stickers make history
By Bernie Wijesekera
The Sri Lanka Women's Hockey team, excelled at the Asian Hockey Federation Cup tournament held in Singapore last year. The Lankan girls gave a gritty display and did well to enter the Hockey championship to be staged in New Delhi from Jan. 31 to Feb. 5, 2004. This is the first time in the history of Women's in hockey that Sri Lanka has entered the Asiad.

In the preliminary rounds at the AHF championship in the local girls did well to get the better of Pakistan, Thailand and drew against Singapore to earn a spot in the field. According to experienced coach A.N. Perera, the success of the local team attributes to their total commitment to uplift the image of women's hockey in Sri Lanka.

The other participants at the forthcoming Delhi Asiad are:- Japan, S. Korea, India, Malaysia, China, Kazakhstan, Singapore. The team will be managed by K. Jayaratnam. Officials-A.N. Perera (head coach, L. Ittepana and M. Ashraff (Asst. coaches), Sriyani Mangalika (Lady Chaperon), N. Ittipola (Judge).

The team-Shyama Ranasinghe (capt.), S. Ratnayake (V. Capt.), Sudarma Herath, Shiroma Aturupana, Jayalakshmi Kaluarachchi, Sanji Lakruwani, L. Kumaratunga, Sudeshika Perera, Wasana Ekanayake, Nikeshala Attanayake, Nushanthi Ranatunga, Taranga Rajapakse, Dilmi Dilani, Irosha Liyanage, Kaushalya Fernando, N. Gayathri, Priyantha Rajapakse, Hemamali Punijjala.

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