Cairns Predators teams snared nine of the 11 available titles to dominate the inaugural Northern State Regional Futsal Championships at the Bendigo Bank Basketball Centre last weekend.

Teams from Mackay, Townsville, Cassowary Coast, Tablelands and Cairns competed for the NQ title in age divisions ranging from under-10 boys through to open men’s and women’s competition.

The strength of performances from Cairns teams at the championships means players from the host city can expect a strong presence in Northern Stingrays teams to contest next year’s national championships.

Stingrays open men’s and women’s teams will also tour New Zealand in August to contest the Vikings Cup.

Vikings Futsal Association Northern Queensland CEO Tony Cifuentes, who oversees the coaching and development program in Cairns, was delighted with the host city’s success.

“It was good to see all the hard work come off,” he said. “In Cairns, the game is getting stronger every year and we have a number of representative players in the area going to Brazil and China and other countries to play.”

Winning teams and runners-up in each division have been invited to participate in the state championships at Easter.

The Cairns under-12 girls team, which this month captured a national title when representing FNQ, contested the boys under-13 competition but did not reach the semi-finals. However, all was not lost with the team then pitted against the top under-15 girls team from Townsville and smashing their older opponents 7-1 in the final.

The team of Meg Bolton, Kate Messervy, Holly Spence, Madison Cater, Ashleigh Amadio, Bree Blackshaw, Natalie Cullen, Ashlee Robson again stamped their class with the win.

Finals results: Under-10 boys – Cairns d Townsville 7-0; Under-11 boys – Cairns d Townsville 14-2; Under-12 girls – Cairns d Townsville 6-0; Under-12 boys – Cairns d Townsville 18-2; Under-13 boys – Cairns d Townsville 4-3; Under-15 girls – Cairns d Townsville 7-1; Under-15 boys – Cairns d Townsville 13-1; Under-16 boys – Townsville d Cairns 4-3; Youth men – Townsville d Mackay 4-1; Open women – Cairns d Mackay 7-2; Open men – Cairns d Townsville 7-2.

Source : Cairns.com.au
By : Craig Ross
Published : 28/1/2009