Sri Lankan netballers outsmart the rest in Australia – By DHAMMIKA RATNAWEERA
Source : sundayobserver
The champion Sri Lanka Track Masters netball team comprising Lakmini Gunasekara (captain), Tharjini Sivalingam, Sashika Samarasinghe, Kumarine Silva, Narmada Wijesinghe, Chandi Mendis, Dhammika Wickramasinghe, Pabasara Gunasekara (player and umpire), Kindu Jayaliya Anjalee Vithanage, Shayamalee Dehigaspitiya and Darshika Abeywickrama (coach) pose with their gold medals
Track Masters netball club in Sri Lanka performed well to win the Gold medal on Friday by beating Humming Birds at the12th Pan Pacific Masters Games held in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
The team was led by Lakmini Gunasekera and had the likes of former Sri Lanka captains Sashika Samarasinghe, Kumarine Silva and Tharjini Sivalingam which gave them a big boost to win the title.
In fact Asia’s best goal shooter the six foot 11 inch Tharjini was once again the main highlight throughout the tournament with a superb display.
The double International player Kumarine Silva (basketball and netball) and Sashika Samarasinghe who is the present HNB coach used their experience to win the title in grand style.
Humming Birds met the Track Masters team in the League round and had a tough game to lose 36/37.
But Track Masters played a better game in the final to take the championship as the final score read 52/32, a 20 points margin.
The Track Masters team made a good start defeating Black Diamonds 29/18 while in their second game Track Masters lost by a narrow two points 28/30 after a tough battle.
However two back to back victories over Jalapenos Hotties 39/28 and ADF Ladies Masters 36/25 gave them the much needed confidence.
They had to play a very tough game against Tarkine Tigers which ended in a draw (28-28) and defeated Lightning Strikers with a huge margin of 30 points (46/16).
In their next game Track Masters made it easy to win 60/7 against RAF Masters and at the semi finals Track Masters produced a good display to beat Tiare 52/28 to enter the final with more confidence.
“This victory at the12th Pan Pacific Masters tournament was a huge achievement while all our players really worked hard throughout the tournament,” said Sashika Samarasinghe the former Sri Lanka skipper and presently coach of HNB.
“We had a good experience playing against top clubs in Australia as well as England while our player Pabasara Gunasekera had a dual role as umpire and player and former National player Dharshika Abeywickrama gave us good support as a coach,” added Samarasinghe a product of Ratnawali Balika Gampaha.
