Western Railway regain Inter-Railway hockey title

CHENNAI: Former champions Western Railway reclaimed the All India Inter-Railway hockey title, getting the better of South Eastern Central Railway 4-3 in the final at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Saturday.

The teams were level 2-2 at half time. SECR went into the lead in the 12th minute through a penalty corner conversion by Shabad Khan and seven minutes later Deepak Kishore made it 2-0.

However, SECR’s superiority was short lived as Western’s Jayakaran came up with a superb brace in the 22nd and 33rd minutes to level scores.

Crossing over, SECR’s Sameer Baxla scored off a penalty corner in the 37th minute but the hardworking Western forwards made good use of lapses in the rival defence to score twice in a matter of a minute.

In the 61st minute, Jayesh Jadhav found the mark and seconds later Chinlensana scored the winner for Western, who messed up their four penalty corner chances.

Olympian and former India captain Vasudevan Baskaran, who is due to retire this year from Railway service, was honoured by the Railway Sports Control Board for his stupendous service.

Chinlensana was adjudged the Best player of the tournament while Shabad Khan was named the upcoming player.