Balwant Hockey: BRC Danapur clinch trophy

Tribune News Service

BRC Danapur won the 8th All-India Balwant Singh Kapur Hockey tournament at Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium by beating Birsa Munda Vidhyapeeth Rourkela by 4-3 via tie breaker here today.

The winners bagged Rs 1 lakh and Mata Parkash Kaur Cup, where as the runner ups bagged Rs 60, 000. Rs 30,000 and Rs 20,000 were handed out to third and fourth placed teams, respectively.

The tournament committee declared six best players of the tournament and honoured them with Rs 5, 000 each. Ansalem Hemrom from BRC, Danapur was declared the best player, Sumit Toppo from Birsa Munda Vidyapeeth was declared best forward, Anup Roshan from BRC Danapur was adjudged as best goalkeeper, Amarbir Singh from Sports School, Jalandhar was declared as best full back, Ajeet Pandey from BSNV Lucknow was the best half back, Rajat Sharma from Mumbai the promising player of the tournament and Lovepreet Singh from Government Model School, Jalandhar was declared the best scorer.

Earlier in the day, the final began at a brisk pace. But despite both teams trying hard to break the deadlock, the first half remained goalless.

In the second half, BRC Danapur mounted pressure and got a penalty corner in the 41st minute, and converted through the stick of skipper Ansalem Hemrom (1-0). For Birsa Munda boys too the equaliser came through a penalty corner when Alok Barla sounded the board (1-1).

At the end, both teams were locked at 1-1. Tie breaker resulted in a 4-3 win for Danapur.