One Guyana King and Queen of the Sand Football: Speightland are still the Queens; LA Ballers are the new Kings

A massive crowd and classical on-pitch battles were the highlights of a resounding end to the third edition of the One Guyana King and Queen of the Sand Football on Saturday night at the People’s Progressive Party office ground, located at Five Corner, Industrial Area.

Speightland, the defending champions of the queens segment in retaining their title, handed the previously-undefeated Iconic Strikers their first loss of the competition to walk away with the $800,000 winners’ purse.
In the male championship match, new kings were crowned and as predicted, LA Ballers were too good for their opponents, Goal IQ whom they blanked 2-0 and were duly rewarded with $1.5 million.
The story of the still reigning queens, Speightland is one to savour as they ended as the second best team to Iconic Strikers following the end of the group stage, their only loss was to the same team, 1-0.
However, they came back storming in the semi-finals when they upstaged the GDF in a humdinger of a clash, 5-4 and then placed the icing on the cake with a commanding victory on Saturday night, winning 3-1.

Nikita Wayne led the championship charge with a double, scoring in the 5th and 23rd minute with the other goal coming off the boots of Alliyah Venture in the 24th minute. Shaniah Thornhill netted Iconic Strikers’ consolation goal and for their efforts, they were presented with $300,000.
The GDF were rampaging in the third-place clash as they trounced Hururu 7-1, led by a hat-trick from Sandra Johnson, who scored in the 4th, 7th and 26th minute. She was ably assisted by Glendu Lewis, who scored a brace in the 27th and 28th minute respectively with once each from Niomi Williams in the 7th and Jalade Trim in the 8th minute.
Hururu’s only response had been Nickesha Persaud striking in the second minute, they drew first blood. GDF claimed the third-place prize of $200,000 with Hururu collecting $100,000.
There were no surprises in the king’s final with LA Ballers romping to a comfortable 2-0 triumph over Goal IQ. They were led by their most prolific scorer – Marcus Tudor, who scored back-to-back goals in the 17th and 18th minute. Tudor ended the tournament with 14 goals and certainly led the charge for the $1.5 million pay day.
Goal IQ received $500,000 for their efforts while the third-place match saw Spaniards collecting $200,000 without breaking a sweat as their opponents, Hard Knocks failed to put in an appearance.