Netball: Lankasports.com Challenge 2014 this Saturday

A total of 18 teams representing institutions in Sri Lanka will vie for honours at the Sri Lankasports.com Netball Challenge 2014 which will unfold come Saturday (17) at the Indoor Stadium at St. Joseph’s College in Darley Road.   Inaugurated in 2006, the tournament held for establishments reached a new pinnacle after being hosted for four consecutive years.   Sri Lankasports.com, the organisers of the tournament, celebrates its 15th anniversary this year and this event will mark yet another milestone in the journey which began in the year 2000.   “Since 2010 the Inter-Company netball tournament reached the pinnacle in Sri Lanka with its innovative concepts and approach. It has acclaimed the much awaited Inter-Company Netball Championship in the country with the demand and the requests of the netball enthusiasts,” stated Hishan Welmilla, the head of SriLankasports.com, the country’s first sports website.   The tournament will feature 12 teams in the Female Category and six teams will compete under the Mixed Category.   The unique netball championship has adopted the seven-a-side rugby format where each game will be played with two halves, each consisting seven minutes with a one-minute break.   After the first round the categories will be separated into Cup, Plate, Bowl and Shield according to the placing of the division.   Hatton National Bank, Seylan Bank, Nations Trust Bank, National Development Bank, Commercial Bank, Pan Asia Bank, David Peiris Motor Company, LB Finance, AIA Insurance, Kanrich Finance, Explore Holdings will battle in the Female Category while Hatton National Bank, Seylan Bank, Nations Trust Bank, National Development Bank, David Peiris Motor Company, LB Finance and Kanrich Finance will be the teams competing in the Mixed Category.   Last year Hatton National Bank clinched the Division One title while LB Finance took away the Division Two championship.   Nations Trust Bank won the Mixed Division championship. The third and fourth places of the Division One were won by HSBC and Ceylon Biscuits respectively.   Brandix and Amaya Lake won the third and fourth places of Division Two respectively while Nations Trust Bank became runner up in the Mixed Division.   The event sanctioned by the Netball Federation of Sri Lanka and Mercantile Netball Association, will receive the technical assistance from the Academy of Netball in Kotte.   Sri Lankasports.com has a successful history of organising special sporting events of this nature and all those events happened to be the first of its kind in Sri Lanka.   Sri Lankasports.com inaugurated the Inter-Company Netball Tournament in 2006 and conducted for four consecutive years with the participation of top companied in the corporate sector while coming out with three other major sporting events in Sri Lanka such as Inter Club Day-Night Beach Football Challenge, the Under-17 Inter-School Futsal Challenge and the Under-15 Girls and Boys Inter-School Handball Championship.