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(Posted
9:30 a.m., Aug. 18)
Orléans
native helps Canada to 5th place finish at PanAm indoor field hockey championships
By Fred Sherwin
Orléans Online Orléans
native and former Cairine Wilson grad Malinda Hapuarachchi recently added to her
international field hockey accomplishments by helping Team Canada to a 5th place
performance at the Indoor PanAm Championships which recently wrapped up in Venzuela.  The
Canadian women finished third in their pool with a 1-2 record in the round robin
portion of the tournament with their lone win coming against Peru in the opening
game.
Hapuarachchi,
who was named team captain prior to the tournament, was her stellar self on defence
turning away several attacks by the opposition. The
Canadians were up 2-1 in the second half of their final round robin game against
Uruguay before their opponents scored two goals in three minutes to steal the
win and the berth in the semi-finals. Canada
took out their frustration on not making it to the medal round against the host
Venezuelans, scoring two unanswered goals in the first half before cruising to
a 3-0 win. Hapuarachchi
has been with the Canada's national indoor team since 2008 and has played in five
international matches. The
Carinie Wilson grad won her first medal playing for Team Ontario at the Canada
Summer Games in 2001. Following a successful high school career she went to the
University of Toronto where she helped the Varsity Blues win a bronze medal at
the CIS national championships in 2006. That
same year she was named a First Team All-Canadian and won the Liz Hoffman Player
of the Year Award and the Gail Wilson Award handed out to the student who best
combines the pursuit of excellence on the field with academic success while helping
her team both on and off the field.
In
2007, Malinda moved to the Netherlands where she both coached and played. She
also found time to play for Team Canada at the World Cup in Vienna. After
returning to Canada in 2008 to pursue her Master's Degree at Queen's University,
she was named to the national indoor team and in 2009 she was named the tournament
MVP at the Senior Indoor National Championships in Calgary playing for Team Ontario. (This
story was made possible thanks to the generous support of our local
business partners.) Return
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