Sri Lanka’s youth netball team were finished as runners-up at the 6th Asian Youth Netball Championship which was held in Hong Kong last week. This was the fifth time that Sri Lanka has participated in this tournament. Sri Lanka, who have won the championship twice, finished as the runners-up for the third time this year.

Although Sri Lanka could not bring the championship trophy, debutante Chamila Jayawardene who was the captain of the team was the Best Silver Shooter, an award presented to the second best shooter of the tournament.

Chamila Jayawardena, speaking to the ‘Sportstar’ said that the tournament provided immense exposure. "It was my first Asian tournament, so the exposure that I got was marvelous. I scored 240 points in the tournament to become the Best Silver Medal Shooter. It was a fantastic feeling," said Jayawardena.

While Jayawardena won the Best Silver Shooter award, Aruna Sadapull of Malaysia was adjudged the Best Gold Medal Shooter. She scored 260 points.

Jayawardena, who started her school netball career while at Grade five, at Vidrakara Balika Vidyalaya, Maharagama, was first coached by Sanjika Wijenayake.

Speaking to the ‘Sportstar’ on Sri Lanka’s performance at the Asian Championship, Thilaka Jinadasa, the coach of the Sri Lanka Youth team said that Sri Lanka did well to come back to reach the final after two defeats in the first round.

"We were hoping to win the tournament. But after we lost our first two games to Malaysia and Singapore, we did well to fight back to secure a final berth," said Jinadasa.

"The Sri Lankan team were in good shape for the tournament. We played some useful warm up games with stronger teams here at home before the Asian tournament. We beat a strong HNB Mercantile side in those warm games," Jinadasa added.

By finishing as runners-up Sri Lanka managed to secure their place in the World Youth Netball Championship, which will be held next year. The champions and the runners-up of the regional tournament qualified for the World Youth Netball Championships.

Jinadsa also said that Sri Lanka needed more international exposure to succeed at important international tournaments. "Our team needs more international experience to do well in the World Youth Netball Championship. If we don’t get that exposure before the World Youth Championship, we will be disappointed," she said.

Sri Lankan lost to Malaysia by 61 points to 45 in the final.

Although Sri Lanka couldn’t defeat Malaysia in the final, they recorded victories in several matches in the first round. They won four matches out of six in the first round and went on to defeat Singapore 46-44 in a nail-biting semi final.

In the first round, Sri Lanka beat India (83/28), Thailand (55/51), Honk Kong (68/45) and Chinese Taipei (89/39) and lost to Malaysia (41/42) and Singapore (41/42).