Best handball players for nationals

By T.B. Rahaman

The cream of handball players will be in action for various teams at the inaugural Handball National Championships to be held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium from May 20 to 22.

There will be ten men’s teams and four women’s teams with the best players being picked to represent their respective districts.

The men’s teams are: Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Galle, Colombo, Government Services, Army, Navy, Air Force and Prisons.

The women’s teams are: Ampara, Air Force, Navy and Army.  The men’s teams will be divided into two groups and will play on a league basis.

The women’s teams will play on a round robin basis with the team emerging on top will be the champions.

The opening ceremony will begin at 9 a.m.on May 20 and the teams will begin their matches on a league basis. The second day also will see the teams complete their league round and begin the knock-out round.

The final day will see the finals being played from 4 p.m. onwards and the closing ceremony will be held at 6 p.m.

As this is a fairly new sport only trophies and medals will be distributed to the winners and runners-up. However, this sport is an Olympic discipline and Sri Lanka will endeavour to popularise this sport in the districts and among school children.

President of the Handball Federation Hemasiri Fernando said that the best teams had been selected to represent the districts. Most of the players are from the outstations and steps are being taken to promote the game throughout the country.

Fernando also said that this game can be played outdoors, indoors or in the beach and become very popular here. Sri Lanka has about 20 trained coaches and many technical officials already who can be moved around to teach the game in the villages.

Sri Lankan coaches were trained by highly qualified coaches from India and Germany. Very soon a coach will be obtained from Korea on a long term basis and will be taken around the country.