The Sri Lanka Youth Volleyball team with Volleyball Federation and team officials.
The Sri Lanka Youth Volleyball team, lead by Davi Samara spiker Damith Sanjaya Silva will encounter the Maldives today at 7.30 pm in their first match of the Asian Youth Boys’ Volleyball Championship, which will ceremoniously open at the Sugathadasa Stadium, at 10.00 am, today.
The seventh edition of the Asian Youth Championship is a qualifying tournament for the Youth World Championship to be held in Milano, Italy, next year. Eleven countries will compete in this tournament. The countries are; Japan, China, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Australia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Kuwait, India, Maldives and hosts Sri Lanka.
The tournament will start with the match between defending champions Iran and Japan at 11.30 am and it will herald five days of action packed spiking at the Sugathadasa Stadium, where there will be five matches each day for five consecutive days.
Sri Lanka, who have never been placed among the top three teams in any of the past editions, will face mighty India (2003 champions) tomorrow and will take on Australia, China and Chinese Taipei respectively on 16, 17 and 18 October.
The Sri Lanka team includes spikers from the volleyball strongholds of Davi Samara MV Seeduwa, Senanayake MV, Madampe, Dhammissara MV, Nattandiya and St. Anthony’s College, Thoduwawa and players from Vijayaba Vidyalaya, Hungama, Bandaranaike MV, Meerigama, Bandaranaike MV, Veyangoda and President’s College, Homagama.
The Youth Volleyball Championship is for spikers Under-18 years and it will be the first time that all these players will be representing Sri Lanka. And incidentally, it will be the first time a team under Terry Raphael, Sri Lanka’s Cuban coach will enter a tournament.
Although the youth players have not represented the country before, the team has three players who have travelled abroad for volleyball tournaments, representing their schools and the National Youth team.
Skipper Damith Sanjaya Silva has toured England representing Davi Samara MV and Hiranya Kesala who stands at 195 centimeters and Ashen Jeevantha have represented Senanayake MV and St. Anthony’s College respectively, in India.
Hiranya Keshala, Deepthi Romesh, Romesh Prasanna and Chalindu Silva will strengthen Sri Lanka’s brace of attackers while the rest of the team will share the other responsibilities. A. W. Lakmal will be the Libero player.
The team
While skipper Damith Sanjaya Silva, Krishan Nissanka and Madusha Wickramasinghe are from Davi Samra MV, Seeduwa, Hiranya Kesala, F. H. Nawaf and Chalindu Silva are from Senanayake MV, Madampe. The rest of the team is made up by Ashen Jeevantha (St. Anthony’s College, Thoduwawa), A. W. Lakmal (Vijayaba MV , Hungama), Deepthi Romesh (Bandaranaike MV, Meerigama), Thanura Dayal (Bandaranaike V, Veyangoda), Pramesh Prasanna (President’s College, Homagama) and Nisal Tharaka (Dhammissara MV, Nattandiya).
This is the first time that Sri Lanka is hosting an Asian Youth Volleyball Championship and the other countries to have hosted the events are Philippines (1997), Chinese Taipei (1999), Iran (2001 and 2005), India (2003) and Malaysia (2007). South Korea and Chinese Taipei won the first two championships, India, the champions in 2003, is the only country to have challenged the might of Iran, who have reached the finals in the last four championships and have claimed first place on three occasions.
Sri Lanka match schedule:
Match Date Time
Sri Lanka Vs. Maldives 14th 7.30 pm
Sri Lanka Vs. India 15th 5.00 pm
Sri Lanka Vs. Australia 16th 5.00 pm
Sri Lanka Vs. China 17th 3.00 pm
Sri Lanka Vs Chinese Taipei 18th 5.00 pm
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