Sri Lanka suffered a close 10-07 loss at the hands of Thailand in their final game at the men’s 9-13 placing game at Hangzhou yesterday (26). Previously on the same day, Sri Lanka beat Nepal 68-00. Sri Lanka played under the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) banner at the Asian Games with minimum preparation due to the Sri Lanka Rugby (SLR) governing body being in jeopardy.
When The Daily Morning Sports contacted World Rugby Coach Educator Boa Athu – the statspert from Auckland, New Zealand – on how to build the island nation’s sport from the current mess, he had the following to say:
“Here’s a very simple plan. SLR should name a 20 member sevens squad on a merit-based revolving door policy. They only play sevens. That's it. It can be a four-year cycle, aiming to work their way one tier up each year. In the fourth year, make it to the world series or super sevens. We will have to play in the basement league for a while in the first year until we get the fitness and skill sets. Then progress. There is another way though... "Imports"...fast track those four years down to three if SLR can get around the whole passport and residency issue of foreign players willing to come down to play the game here.”
Asian Games gold/silver/bronze rugby updates:
Men’s gold medal match – Hong Kong 14-7 South Korea
Women’s gold medal match – China 22-21 Japan
Women’s bronze medal match – Hong Kong 7-5 Thailand
Men’s bronze medal match – Japan 21-19 China
Chess – Sri Lanka’s Susal Thewjan beat his Thai opponent (1.0 - 0.0) at the individual round four game. Susal lost (0.0 - 1.0) against his Vietnamese rival in round five. He made a comeback to win against his Mongolian counterpart in round six.
Swimming – Ganga Senavirathne finished fifth in the women’s 200m backstroke heat one.
Sailing – Arianna Taalya ranked fifth at the girls’ dinghy – ILC4A race 11. Tharen Nanayakkara finished 11th in the boys’ dinghy - ILC4A race 11.
Artistic gymnastics – Nadila Nethviru ranked 17th in the men’s all-round final results with a score of 71.065.
Boxing – At the men’s 51-57kg preliminaries, Rukmal Prasanna lost to Bangladesh’s Salim Hossain 3-2.