Sri Lanka Army ‘A’ comprising Wathsala Marasinghe (Bow), Maheshi Liyanage (Two), Iresha Perera (Three), Kanchana Weerakoon (Stroke) and Tharika Weerasinghe (Cox) won the Women’s Open Fours event with a time of 7:53 minutes while Sri Lanka Air Force ended up second in a time of 8:10 minutes, followed by Army ‘B’ in third place. In the Women’s Over 18 Single Scull event, Samaakhya Gajanayake of Colombo Rowing Club won in 8:41 minutes competing in lane two. Sri Lanka Air Force’s AM Dilhari took second place in 8:49 minutes and Army’s Kumari Herath secured third place with a time of 9:15 minutes.

Hashen Hettigoda of Royal College Colombo clinched the Schoolboys Single Scull event with a time of 7:35 minutes, the best of the four finals worked off yesterday. Hettigoda competing in lane 4, out rowed Suchith Alexander of Ananda College, Colombo who clocked 7:41 minutes in lane two. Third place was secured by Arjun Wickramanayake of S Thomas’ College Mount Lavinia with a time of 8:11 minutes in lane 1.

In the day’s last final, Ishara Abbey of Ladies College won first place with a timing of 8:31 minutes in the Schoolgirls Single Scull event. Abbey, competing in lane two, beat Senuri Uththara de Silva of Musaeus College. De Silva clocked 8:38 minutes while Maedhini Saeli Pilapitiya de Alwis also of Musaeus College clocked 8:54 minutes to win third place.

Twenty-two finals are scheduled for today, the final day of the three-day meet.

This meant that Kandy’s line has been still not crossed as their opponents in two matches had done their scoring via penalties.

This match did not produce any sparkling rugby as rain during the day made ground conditions wet and not conducive to fast open rugby. Under these conditions Kandy used their forwards to blunt the defence put up by the airmen.

Two back to back 45 metre penalties by full back Arshard Jamaldeen saw Kandy run up a lead of 6-0 by the 13th minute.

It was in 18th minute that flanker Sayuru Anthony scored off a scrum by the left corner flag and Arshard Jamaldeen made a good conversion. Kandy 13-0.

Shortly afterwards Air Force reduced the lead off a 40 metre penalty fired by fly half Nuwan Perera.

Another try by flanker Sayuru Anthony which was goalled by Jamaldeen saw Kandy stretch their lead to 20-3.

Air Force replied with a 40 metre penalty put over by fly half Nuwan Perera. Air Force 6-20.

Kandy further increased their lead when centre Richard Dharmapale scored off a three quarter move far right and Jamaldeen failed with the try conversion. Kandy 25-6.

Almost on the stroke of the short blast Kandy’s lock forward Gayan Ratnayake sliced through under the post and Jamaldeen added the extra points. Kandy led 32-6.

Soon after resumption the airmen reduced the lead to 9-32 through a 40 metre penalty put over by Mawan Perera.

Kandy continued to attack through their forwards and were rewarded when lock Heshan Silva scored by the right corner flag. Jamaldeen made another brilliant conversion to increase the tally to 39-9.

At this point the game lost its interest as the airmen failed to infuse life against the champion. The only interest was whether Kandy would tot up the half century mark and this they did through tries by lock Heshan Silva, winger Dhanushka Dayan and hooker Damith Dissanayake. Two of them were goalled by full back Tilina Wijesinghe and Nuwan Perera added his fourth penalty for airmen.

The Sailors got the better of the Airmen through their hardworking forwards spearheaded by Sathya Ranatunga, Sajith Saranga, Supun Peiris and Yoshitha Rajapaksa who held sway in the loose.

Navy opened scoring through a Penalty by Thlina Weerasinghe. Later the homesters went onto increase their lead with prop forward Sathya Ranatunga powering his way to score two tries with full back Weerasinghe adding the extrapoints to both tries.

The Airmen reduced the deficit when Nuwan Perera fired across a metre penalty and before the breather they cut down the deficit further through an unconverted try by Ishara Madushan and at lemons, the Sailors led 17-8.

The second half was dominated by the Sailors who breached the Airmen’s defence on three more occasions through tries by Centre Kosala Tissera [one], flanker Yoshitha Rajapaksa[one] and Supun Peiris [one]. Weerasinghe converted one try while fly half Dev Anand added the extra points to the other try and the Sailors ran out worthy winners by 36 points to 8 indicating that they are a strong contender for the ‘A’ division league title this year having being edged out into second place by eventual champions Kandy SC last year

Dialog Telecom are the main sponsor of this tournament and they are powering the tournament for the 10th consecutive year.

Sri Lanka Air Force and Colombo Football Club will clash in the curtain-raiser of the Super-8 Round at the Sugathadasa Stadium today.

The match will be followed by the Renown vs Java Lane clash at the same venue.

In this tournament, 22 teams participated under A and B categories while 55 matches were played under A category and 45 matches played under B category.

Sri Lanka Army, Sri Lanka Air Force, Crystal Palace and Renown Sports Club have qualified for Super-8 Round from the A category.

Under B category Colombo Football Club, Blue Star Soccer Club, Java Lane Soccer Club and Sri Lanka Navy have qualified for Super 8 Round.

Sri Lanka Army and Colombo Football Club are heading the points table under A and B categories respectively and they earn three bonus points each.

THIS WEEK-END’S GAMES AT SUGATHADASA STADIUM

Today:

Air Force vs Colombo FC at 3.00 pm
Renown vs Java Lane at 5.00 pm

Tomorrow:

Crystal Palace FC vs Navy at 3.00pm
Army vs Blue Stars at 5.00pm

The team was warmly welcomed by Director Sports of the Sri Lanka Army Brigadier Athula Galagamage, Secretary Defence Service Sports Council, Wing Commander Padman De Costa and other officials.

The athletes won one bronze medal at the 100 x 4 relay event, and the team comprised Supun Priyadarshan Abeykoon, Vinoj Suranjaya, Mohomad Ashraf and Mohomad Rajaskan participated in the event.

The Sri Lanka team for the 6th World Military Games was headed by Director Electronic and Technical Engineering of Sri Lanka Air Force Air Vice Marshal Rohan Pathirage. Air Cdre Sudarshana Pathirana lead the team while Lieutenant Coronal MKP Jayasekara, Captain C Bopegoda and coached the Sri Lankan team.