S’pore beat Sri Lanka to end 10-year wait for Asian netball crown
After a decade-long wait and two painful final losses, Singapore are finally the queens of Asian netball again.
In an absorbing Asian Netball Championship decider that ebbed and flowed, the Vandas summoned admirable grit to prevail with an overtime win over defending champions Sri Lanka 67-64 at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru, India on Oct 27.
The tears flowed freely as the Singaporeans hugged one another in joyful celebration to mark their fourth Asian crown, and their first since they beat the same opponents 59-41 on home soil in 2014.
Co-captain Toh Kai Wei said: “This has been something we have been talking about and targeting the whole year, so we are very happy and proud of our team performance. We were very composed and patient in overtime, pushed our legs and made a lot of movements.
“Of course, it’s sweeter to beat them after we lost two finals against them. We beat them twice at the 2023 Netball World Cup, but that didn’t show we were top in Asia, whereas this win proves we are now the best in Asia.”
Up against the two-time defending champions, who broke their hearts in the last two finals in 2018 and 2022 at the OCBC Arena, Singapore started with great intensity to force their opponents into turnovers all over the court.
The possession often ended up with Lee Pei Shan finding the net, as the 1.86m goal shooter contributed 12 goals in the opening quarter, which ended 17-12 in the Vandas’ favour.
But six-time Asian champions Sri Lanka came roaring back through their 1.91m goal shooter Thishala Algama, who finished with 50 goals, as they put up consecutive 15-11 scores in the next two quarters to lead 42-39.
Sri Lanka’s advantage stretched to 45-41 with just 10 minutes left in regulation time, as it appeared Singapore coach Yeo Mee Hong’s second-period move to replace goal attack Amandeep Chahal with wing attack Toh had backfired.
But with Algama missing during the nervy late stages, and Toh beginning to find her range, Singapore recovered to lead 52-51 with a minute left, only for Rashmi Perera to send the match into the two extra periods.
Yeo produced another tactical masterstroke, replacing Lee with Amandeep. The change proved fruitful as Toh (11 goals) and Amandeep (four) outscored Sri Lanka 15-12 in overtime to end 10 years of hurt.
Toh, who had 28 goals to share Singapore’s top-scoring honours with Lee, said: “I’m just doing my job. I’m quite familiar with both roles but the movements are really different and I have my teammates to thank for backing me up.”
Yeo also paid tribute to her team and said: “We wanted to play an efficient game, and we have been building up since our first game and consistently improving. Our basics were fantastic and I’m very happy with the girls’ composure and discipline with our passing in the final.
“In some patches of play, our players were not running. So we shifted Kai Wei to goal attack to add some variety and she did very well... and (Goh) Wei Ping and (Tan) Yi Jie did a great job providing more options feeding into the circle.
“In extra time, we changed our shooters because Pei Shan was shut down by defenders. We added some movements in the circle that gave us the opportunity to look for more options, and I thought the girls did very, very well.”
Yeo, Annette Bishop’s assistant before she took over from the New Zealander who stepped down in September, then challenged the 2015 SEA Games champions to end another 10-year drought.
She said: “No complacency and disrespect to neighbouring countries who have been improving, but our target is definitely to win gold at the 2025 South-east Asian Games.
“Moving forward, we will also be focusing on doing well at the Nations Cup before the SEA Games in Thailand.”
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