33rd National Sports Festival

Two ‘golds’ for Central Province in Hockey

By L.D. Chandrasiri

Central Province won the men’s and women’s hockey titles at the 33rd National Sports Festival – 2007 worked off at the Nandimitra Ekanayake Astro Turf in Matale over the weekend. Central Province men’s team beat Uva province team by 5-2 in the final to bag the Gold Medal.

Having led 4-1 at the breather, Central Province registered a 5-2 win over Uva province before bagging the gold. For the champions, Anju Hewage scored two goals with S.B. Wickremasinghe, Dhammika Abeyratne and C.N. Cramer claiming a goal each while T.K. Wijeratne and T. Panditharatne sounded the boards once each for Uva Province who had to be contended winning the Silver. Indika Jayawardhane and H.M.C.H. Bandara controlled the game.

The bronze medal went to Sabaragamuwa Province who beast North western Province 3-0 in the play off for the third place in the semi finals Uva beat North Western 7-1 and central outplayed Sabaragamuwa 8-0. Anju Hewage of Central Province was declared the best player.

‘Gold” for women

Central Province Lasses bagged the ‘Gold’ for the 17th successive year (in the women’s segment) as they beat Western Province by 3-2 in a closely contested final. At half time Central Province led 1-0 with Shyama Ranasinghe scoring a goal in the 26th minute of play.

After the breather, Shyama Ranasinghe (1) (her second goal) and Chaturika Wijesuria one (1) added two more goals to their first half tally while Dinesha Perera and T. Abrew scored a goal each for the W.P.

Uva take the bronze

Uva province took away the bronze medal by defeating Southern Province by 3 goals to nil in the play off for the third place.
Semi finals: In the semi finals WP beat Uva Province 5-1.