Malaita wins gold in beach soccer tournament
The Malaita Beach Eagle soccer team has snatched gold after winning 2016 the Solomon Games beach soccer tournament on Monday.
The final was played at the Waikiki beach, commonly known as Mamanawata beach soccer pitch.
Malaita concluded its undefeated campaign with an impressive 6-4 final result against Western province beach soccer team to claim their first beach soccer victory in the Solomon Games.
It was Western province who started off with the opening goal leaving the very vocal Malaita fans and supporters to watch in silence.
Before they could extend their lead, Malaita hit back leveled the score, followed by three other goals to take the lead in the first two quarters of the game.
Malaita further extended the lead with two more goals to make it six goals.
Western Turtles came close with another three goals but fell short of equalizing the score to the sound of the final whistle.
The win is history not only for Malaita but also the boys who all came from Kwai Islands in Malaita.
This is their first time to compete in Honiara and they have proven to be a hard nut to crack.
Meanwhile the third prize award was awarded to Team Honiara after defeating Guadalcanal in the losers final.
The presentation of awards was witnessed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Hon Manasseh Maelanga, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Home Affairs George Palua, NOCSI president Martin Rara and SIFF president William Lai.
Lai in his brief address to the winning teams and supporters said he was overwhelmed to see such level of beach soccer performance.
He assured that there is a road map in place to help prepare and get Solomon Islands back at the top of the Oceania region in beach soccer.
