Mumbai girls, Pune boys emerge victorious

Claim state hockey titles in u-14 as well as u-17 categories in inter-school meet conducted by DSO at Vashi grounds

Mumbai girls and Pune boys won double crowns in the inter-school state-level hockey tournament conducted by District Sports Office (DSO) that concluded on Monday. Mumbai girls bagged titles in under-14 and under-17 category while Pune boys repeated the feat in under-14 and under-17 categories.

In under-14 girls, Mumbai defeated Nagpur 1-0 while Mumbai under-17 girls got better of Kolhapur 2-0 in the final. Similarly, in the boys category, Pune defeated Mumbai 1-0 and Kolhapur 6-5 through penalty shootout in the under-14 and under-17 categories respectively.

With this victories, the winning teams will represent state in the national-level tournament, the dates and venue of which, are yet to be announced.

In the third-fourth place matches, Mumbai girls bagged third place in under-14 category, while in under-17 Nagpur girls managed to bag the third place. In the boys category, Kolhapur players bagged third place in both the age categories.

It was a first-of-its-kind opportunity for Thane district to organise the state-level hockey tournament, giving much needed exposure to the local hockey players. “Our boys and girls got to witness hockey games of much better standard, and it will certainly give a positive boost to their own games,” said tournament organiser Ravindran Nair, adding that the success of the meet was due to the joint effort of the Vashi schools that came together for the same.