The 37th Junior Women National Championship was successfully organized by the Madhya Pradesh State Sports and Youth Welfare deparment at Gwalior between 27th
September and 10th October 2007. The Railway’s hockey stadium, which sported a new turf since last year was the venue.
s2h visited gwalior on the eve of semifinals and snapped some momements for the benefit of the viewers.
There was in general lot of crowd, cheering the little kids. The formation of a State Women Hockey Academy at Gwalior further lent enormous significance for the spectators to cheer about. The young team, of just an year old, reached the quarterfinals, much to their and the crowd’s surprise.
Member of Parliament from Gwalior, Yasodaraje Scindia, during whose tenure as the Sports minister in the State government, sowed the seeds for the women hockey Academy took personal interest, and was seen cheering the teams lively. Quite expectedly, she was the chief guest for the closing ceremony. It was nice to see her interacting with the players comfortably, and with consummate ease.
In the bronze medal match, Orissa defeated ever improving Punjab 2-0, while in the one-sided finals the Haryana side retained the crown comfortably (6-2). In fact, after conceding three goals in the early part of the proceedings, the Jharkandis recouped to post a brace of goals, but at that time some shoddy umpiring put paid to their aspirations. A disputable stroke and a couple of penalty corners titled the scale of the game forever.
During the awards ceremony, local men’s top coaches, former players, coaches of women hockey teams were all honoured with a shawl at the hands of the visiting dignitary. The crowd patiently waited till the long ceremony was over. GS Bhangu, coach of the MPSWHA delivered a lengthy but very impressive vote of thanks.
Images (from top left):
The turf being cleaned before the semis
Orissa-Jharkhand Semifinal Action
Semifinals between Punjab & Haryana
Punjab team that finished fourth
Umpire PS Anupama asserts her authority in the finals
Jharkhand team received the silver
Winners Haryana
Vote of thanks by GS Bhangu
Player of the Tournament Joydeep Kaur (Haryana) receiving her special trophy