By Susil Premalal

Colombo, Jan. 2 (Daily Mirror) - The newly appointed national netball coach P. D. N. Prasadi today said that she is determined to help Sri Lanka complete a hat-trick of victories at the 2024 Asian Netball Championships.

The 13th edition of the Asian Senior Netball Championships, conducted by Netball Asia will be held from September 26 to October 6 in Saudi Arabia.

Sri Lanka won the title in 2018 in Singapore and retained the crown in 2022 at the same venue and now they are in with a great chance of becoming the first nation to win three back-to-back tournaments.

Sri Lanka also has the unique record of having won the Asian Netball Championships on more occasions than any other country having emerged champions on six occasions, winning the title in 1989, 1997, 2001 and 2009 respectively.

“Yes, I am confident of leading Sri Lanka towards their third successive Asian Netball Championship,” Prasadi told the Daily Mirror.

“We have already set up an 18-member national pool and hope to start our residential training from January 8 after the medical test on January 4,” the former schoolgirl from Dhammissara National School explained.

“I need sufficient time to conduct my training sessions methodically and my request from the sports ministry is to appoint a qualified trainer to support my programme,” stressed Prasadi, who has represented the country at two Asian Championships (1993/1997), two Commonwealth Games (1998/2002) and three World Cup Netball Championships (1995/1999/2003).

Meanwhile, the national pool will be pruned to 15 before April and the final 12-member touring squad will be announced during the third week of May. “The absence of senior player Tharjini Sivalingam is a huge setback for us but we are trying our best to get her back to the side,” said Prasadi, who led the country to win the Asian Netball Championships in 1997.

“Therefore, we have given Thisala Algama the chance to participate in the national pool training until the final selection trial,” said Prasadi, who retired from Army recently.