Milo Schools netball championship from today
The cream of the schools’ Netball will compete in the Sri Lanka Schools Milo Netball Championship which will be held from today to November 13 at the Albert F. Peiris Stadium in Wennappuwa.
The three-day event organised by the Sri Lanka Schools Netball Association under the guidance of the Ministry of Education. This event is sponsored by Nestlé Milo for the 29th year.
Nirodha Abeywickrama, the President of the Schools Netball Association and also the Principal of the Maliayadeva Balika Kurunegala said this is going to be a keen tussle as all leading schools from Colombo and outstations will participate in this event after laps of two years due to global pandemic.
Bandula Egodage the Vice President of Nestle Lanka Ltd said Milo always supported Netball and it‘s nice to see several top-level National players come to the light during Milo Netball Tournaments. “We as the sponsors always back School sports which is the platform for the next level, said Bandula Egodage.
The tournament will be conducted in two divisions (A and B), in four age groups: under 13, 15, 17, and 19. The championship is expected to draw the participation of almost 4000 school players from around the country and will be conducted in a carnival atmosphere. Under 13 category will have the most number of participants. Earlier this tournament was scheduled to be held in Galle last month but due to bad weather, the venue and dates have been changed. The finals of each group will be held on the 13th Sunday evening. Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala, is coached by Amalka Gunathilleka, and Musaeus College is coached by P.D.N. Prasadi, who are the two top teams while Kalutara Balika, Hillwood College Kandy also have strong sides. Earlier, an All Island schools game was conducted at Kurunegala two weeks ago and HFC Kurunegala won the overall championship in the age categories of under 14, and 16 championships and becomming runner-up in the under 20 tourney. However, HFC Kurunegala emerged champions at the Junior National Championship which was held in Polonnaruwa last weekend.
The National netball team which won the Asia Cup has been invited by the organisers to be present at the opening ceremony today where junior players have a good opportunity to get pictures and exchange their ideas with the National Netball team led by Gayanjali Amarawansa.
Sri Lanka Junior Netball Team is scheduled to take part in the Asian Junior Netball Championships held in South Korea and World Junior Netball Championships in New Zealand. National Netball Federation will plan to form the National Junior Netball pool after this Milo All Island Netball Championship.