Although Sri Lanka was unable to record victories in the matches held on Thursday evening, the Number two team comprised of Sampath Peiris and Wasantha Ratnapala proved that Sri Lanka will have a future in beach volleyball, in F.I.V.B. Chennai Challenger Beach Volleyball Championships.

Peiris and Ratnapala who appeared for the first time in an International Tournament, beat United Arab Emirates in their first outing on Thursday. They suffered defeat at the hands of Japan which held in the evening, but the duo proved that they could stand head to head with experienced players.

Inexperienced Sri Lanka duo stood head to head with Japan, the most experienced men’s team in the Championship until the 13th point was scored. Later Japan came back to beat the Sri Lankan pair 21-16 in the latter half. In the second half, Sri Lanka was leading 6-3 at one stage but Japan came back quickly to seal the set 21-14.

Peiris and Ratnapala were to compete with India number three team at 7 p.m yesterday. Victory from that match will book their place in the best 16 teams in the competition. Although Sri Lanka were favourites against the Indian pair, they will have to beat number one ranking Israel teamto remain in the competition.

The most experienced pair namely Mahesh Perera and Dinesh Pradeep were eagerlywaiting to meet Finland at 6 pm yesterday.

Women’s matches held in the evening on Thursday, Sri Lanka’s Number one women’s team nominated,W.W. Sujeewa and Taxila Niranjali and Number two team of Sagari Gunasinghe and Tharanga Sewwandi suffered 2-0 defeats at the hands of Malaysia and Thailand respectively. The way they competed at the match showed that Sri Lanka needed to improve a lot in many areas as to be worthy candidates in international competitions.

The two Sri Lankan women teams were to meet Indian teams in the matches scheduled for the evening yesterday.

Because of the high temperature prevailing in Chennai ,many matches were scheduled to evening hours.

From the matches played so far USA, Brazil, number one team of Finland, Japan, Austria, number one team of Canada remain unbeaten in the men’s category.