Rugby team leaves Korea without women’s team captain

By Shanuka Aravinda from Incheon, South Korea

Sri Lanka’s men’s and women’s rugby sevens teams, who took part in the second leg of the Asian Rugby Sevens Series in South Korea, left for Sri Lanka at around 11.30 pm last night (14th) without the captain of the women’s team.

The Sri Lankan team that participated in the tournament included 12 male players, 12 female players, two coaches, a manager, a female manager, a physiotherapist and a masseur.
The Namdong Police and the Korean Secret Police Unit launched a joint operation to search for Dulani Pallekondage, the captain of the women’s rugby team, who went missing on Sunday (13th) afternoon after the tournament. However, the police could not find Pallekondage by the time the Sri Lankan contingent left the hotel they were staying at for the Incheon Airport, at around 5:00 pm yesterday.

“There has been no report of her having an accident so far, so we are guessing that she may have escaped the team with the help of a friend of hers living in Korea. We have received statements from the team manager and the players who were last with her regarding the incident. She has received her visa. Since it is 10 days, operations are being carried out to find her.” said a Namdongu police officer.

It has been revealed that the missing player went from the main stadium to the training ground with two other players to look for her mouth guard after the tournament. The other two female players had returned to the players’ rest room and following a delay in the captain’s return, the rest of the female players and officials of the team have taken steps to search for Pallekondage.

Pallekondage has instructed the other two players who came with her to search for the mouth guard at one area of the training ground, telling them that she will check on the other side of the stadium. However, it is recorded in the statement given by the two female players to the police that when they returned, Pallekondage was not at her previous location.
The manager of the team told the police that Pallejondage had taken medicine for some illness before she disappeared, and when she was last seen, she was wearing the official shirt and bottoms of the Sri Lankan team, a black jacket and a bag hanging on her back. After the final match in which the women’s team participated, Pallekondage said, “Even if we are not there, the players ahead will do something good” when asked by ‘Lankadeepa’ about the next stage of the Asian tournament to be held in the United Arab Emirates. In the preliminary round of the tournament, the Sri Lankan women’s team, which competed under the ‘A’ group, lost to China by 55-00 points, Hong Kong team by 47-00 points, and Kazakhstan by 46-00 points. had to compete for (for the last 4 places in the tournament).

The Sri Lankan players, who won 17-14 against Malaysia in the last minute of the semi-final match for the Plate championship, qualified for the final match due to the efforts of Pallekondage.

However, due to a 43-07 loss against the Hong Kong team in the final match, the Sri Lankan women’s team had to settle for the runner-up position (sixth place in the tournament).
Japan managed to win the Cup championship in the women’s division of this tournament held in Incheon, South Korea with the participation of eight countries by defeating China 19-14 in the final. In the match for the third place, Thailand managed to record an easy victory of 26-06 points against Kazakhstan.