A MASSIVE crowd and classical on-pitch battles were the highlights to a resounding end to the third edition of the ‘One Guyana’ King and Queen of the Sand Football on Saturday night last at the People’s Progressive Party Office Ground, located at Five Corners, Industrial Area, Linden.

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 dollars.

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 semifinals when they upstaged the GDF 5-4 in a humdinger of a clash, and then placed the icing on the cake with a commanding victory on Saturday night as they returned the favour, winning 3-1.

Nikita Wayne led the championship charge with a double, scoring in the 5th and 23rd minutes, with the pother goal coming off the boot 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 by Sandra Johnson, who scored in the 4th, 7th and 26th minutes. She was ably assisted by Glendu Lewis, who scored a brace in the 27th and 28th minutes, with one each from Niomi Williams in the 7th and Jalade Trim in the 8th minute.

Hururu’s only response came from Nickesha Persaud in the 2nd minute, when 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 minutes. 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.