Delhi withdraw protest against Chandigarh

MUMBAI: A day after lodging a protest against Chandigarh for fielding overage players, Delhi withdrew it on Friday in the Under-17 boys national hockey championship being held at the MHA Mahindra Stadium.

“Delhi which had lodged a protest against Chandigarh naming seven of their players overage, withdrew it officially today when their manager submitted a two line letter to the organising secretary of the tournament.

“This means as of now none of the Chandigarh boys who were sent for a medical test have been disqualified and the earlier result of 3-1 stands in favour of Chandigarh,” a statement issued on behalf of Mumbai Hockey Association said.

“However, the fate of the seven Chandigarh players has not been yet decided although the reports of their medical tests have been received,” it added.

Organising secretary Gurbax Singh said that the reports of the medical tests would be kept in sealed envelopes and opened if the need arose in the tournament.

Later Chandigarh made it to the last eight when Delhi thrashed Manipur 3-1. Only one team from each of the eight groups advances to the quarterfinals.

A brace of goals each by Basavraj and T V Pratik enabled Karnataka register a facile 6-1 victory over Jammu and Kashmir in Group G.

Karnataka were off the mark in the very first minute through Basavraj and consolidated their position further to notch a commanding 4-0 lead by the break.

MP Hockey Academy too made a good start by beating Vidarbha 7-3 in their first outing in Group H. The winners have their task cut-out as they run into favourites Punjab who mercilessly slaughtered Gujarat 33-0.

Results: Karnataka 6 (Basavraj 2, T V Pratik 2, K G Milan, Jay Kiran Kumar) beat Jammu Kashmir 1; Punjab 33 (Ramandeep Singh 11, Gurjant Singh 7, Devindar Kumar 4, Harsahib Singh 4, Simrandeep Singh, Juzhar Singh, Navraj Singh 3, Jobanpreet Singh, Sukhdev Singh) beat Gujarat 0.