NATIONAL Sevens Rugby player 32-year-old Andrea Lashley scored three goals at the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) ground last Boxing Day, during the quarterfinal match-up between eventual champions Western Tigers and Topp XX in the just concluded 20th Annual Kashif and Shanghai (K&S) football tournament.

It was enough to earn the mother of two who resides at Diamond Housing Scheme on the East Bank of Demerara, the top goalscorer award in the Soccerama-organised Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GT&T)-sponsored small goal penalty shoot-out competition.

At a simple presentation ceremony held in the canteen of the sponsors, Lashley and 11 other contestants who were randomly selected to participate in the half-time entertainment show for paying patrons were rewarded for their efforts.

According to Mark Bradford, who hosts the Soccerama football programme on HBTV Channel 9, all the contestants had to do was top up their GT&T phones from as low as $200 at the mobile units which were stationed at the games.

“There were lots of female entrants, which augurs well for the promotion, especially in a male-dominated sport and what is more heartening to me as the organiser of this promotion was the fact that Lashley came out on top, even ahead of national female coach Sheron Abrams,” Bradford said.

GT&T’s Marketing Officer Abena Fung expressed her company’s pleasure at being associated with not only the Kashif and Shanghai annual end-of-year football extravaganza, but Soccerama on such a small promotion which can be seen as a sidekick to the K&S tournament.

In an invited comment with Chronicle Sport, Lashley, who was a member of the successful national Sevens team which won the last Sevens tournament in Mexico last month, said she was not fazed by her competition.

“Some people would have been saying that they are male competitors and are expected to play a dominant role in this promotion. But I am not like that. I compete with the opposite sex on the rugby field and that was the attitude I took with me when I went there to take my kicks, even reminding myself I am better than they,” Lashley, also a former national footballer, stated.

Six contestants namely Lashley, Abrams, Robin Phillips, Iantha Oudkerk, Thandi McAllister and Andrew Major, the son of Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major, each received a Nokia 1202 cell phone from the sponsors, while Jerry Bishop, Bryan Robinson, Odell Williams, Mark Phillips,

Gavin Williams and Inspector Davis were the recipients of a portable DVD player, also with the kind compliments of GT&T.