Australian Tchoukball representative Lasiru “Lasi” Samaranayake is on a mission to bring the international sport of Tchoukball to Mount Gambier.
Samaranayake will host his second come and try day for the sport at the Wulanda Recreation and Convention Centre on this Sunday from 2pm to 5pm.
There are currently 85 countries playing Tchouckball and the main championships are the Asia-Pacific Tchoukball Championship, European Tchoukball Championship, African Tchoukball Championship and Pan America Tchoukball Championship.
Tchoukball originated in Switzerland in the 1970s by Swiss biologist Hermann Brandt who wanted to create a sport that would reduce injury and aggression between players.
Samaranayake said the game was ‘very friendly’.
“During the game we do not have any physical contact with each other so we have to give them full freedom to pass the ball to their team and go in and score,” he said.
“When they are scoring there is a small net, they shoot for that net and rebound the ball.
“That rebounding ball is going to be caught by the other team.
“If they catch it they are going to continue playing and if they do not catch it whoever the shooting team is gets a point.
“We cannot disturb for the shooting people and the other team cannot disturb for the defending team.”
Samaranayake represented his home country of Sri Lanka in the Asia Tchoukball Championship in 2018, the Bangkok National Championship in 2018 and 2019 and the Asia Pacific Tchoukball Championship last year.
Samaranayake said he will show his support for Sri Lanka at this year’s Asia-Pacific Tchoukball Championship based in Taiwan during August.
“So last time we had it in Malaysia and Singapore (before that) so it is already rotating around the countries,” he said.
Samaranayake said he and others were just playing Tchoukball for fun in his home country until 2014 when the International Tchoukball Federation (who are mainly based in Taiwan) visited the country.
“When we started in Sri Lanka we started with 24 people, now it is around more than 5000,” he said.
Samaranayake is planning to visit the schools in the area as part of his plan to introduce the sport to the Limestone Coast.
For more information contact Mr Samaranayake on 0423 665 857.
