Gangpur-Odisha emerged as the ‘B’ division champions in the 5th Hockey India junior men’s National championship 2015, when it beat Bengal 4-2 in the final played at the Chamundivihar stadium here on Sunday.
Gangpur-Odisha’s forward Sibren Lakra hogged the limelight by scoring a hat-trick. The Gangpur outfit controlled proceedings in the early part of the first half, but Bengal came back strongly and went into the lead in the 10th minute, when Gurpreet Singh scored off a penalty corner conversion.
Gangpur-Odisha equalised in the 19th, when a good move initiated from the right flank saw Sibren Lakra intercept Pratap Lakra’s cross to the centre and deflect it into the goal. At half-time the teams were level 1-1.
Early in the second half, both teams earned a penalty corner each but could not convert. Gangpur-Odisha then started another move from the right flank and the resultant pass to the centre was again converted by Sibren (40th minute).
Sibren completed his hat-trick in the 54th minute.
Bengal raised hopes of a fightback when Nitish Nuepane converted a penalty corner in the 55th minute. However, Gangpur’s Sanjay Xalxo scuttled any such hopes with a clean strike in the 66th minute.
Both Gangpur-Odisha and Bengal were promoted to the ‘A’ division to be played next season.
Earlier, in the play-off for the third place, Mumbai beat Puducherry 3-1.
After a day’s rest, the ‘A’ division matches for this season get off to a start on April 14.
The results: Final: Gangpur-Odisha 4 (Sibren Lakra 19, 40, 54, Sanjay Xalxo 66) bt Bengal 2 (Gurpreet Singh 10, Nitish Neupane 55).
Third Place: Mumbai 3 (Vinay Valmiki 5, 44, Nitesh Kamble 18) bt Puducherry 1 (P. Thiru Murugan 30).