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Volleyball
Tamil Nadu, Railways take honours
By M.C. Raman
The Tamil Nadu team which claimed the men's title.
PAYYANUR, FEB. 10 Railways is an aging side. Still it is the best women's outfit in the country. It proved it once again by handing a straight set drubbing to the host Kerala at 25-22, 25-13, 25-19 in about an hour in the final of the 24th Federation Cup volleyball tournament at the Govt. Boys School ground here on Sunday.
It was a full house (about 14,000) that backed the home team, but realised soon that their team did not have the attack to challenge the rival. They were meeting for the second time in a gap of a month. Their first encounter fizzled out in the National championship at Raipur as Kerala lost tamely to the Railways. Now it happened again. This Railways squad has been playing as it is for the last 10 years.
Railways regained the Indra S. Pradhan Trophy it last won in the Cup competition at Chalakudi in 1998. In the next three years Southern Railway captured the title continuously. So the Railway outfit has always asserted its supremacy in this major event. In fact, it has lost only on two occasions in about 20 years, once to Tamil Nadu and later to Maharashtra.
Kerala's approach was faulty in a way. It depended heavily on its ace spiker Gisha Thomas, who, under pressure, was hitting the ball time and again into the net in the later stages of the match. There was no variety in the home team's spiking. A team like Railways should be challenged with shots in different angles as Tamil Nadu did on Saturday. But there were no cross court smashes. Sujatha tried but failed. So the straight hitting became a fodder for the Railways' strong double block. The experienced internationals of the Railways challenged every shot and Kerala began to struggle.
The Railways allowed five set points to Kerala (24-18 to 24-22) and still took that set. Kerala was unable to cash in on such situations. Salomi Ramu, the most experienced spiker of Railways, led the assault collecting about six points in the first set and five in the second.
Geetha Raju and Hemalatha contributed next with neat spiking. This trio steered the National champion to a comfortable lead in the first and second sets.
Kerala's block was patchy. At no stage the home side really challenged the rival attack at the net. Railways first pass was better, Vaishali's setting was neat and the team's attack functioned like a smooth machine.
It was a different story as far as Kerala was concerned. Sheeba, Bindu and Salitha Prasad were hardly in the picture in spike. Setter Minimol did not show variety in boosting. Perhaps the poor first pass affected her game too. So Kerala sank without a trace in the third set, conceding a 1-8 lead. It was clear that the National champion would wrap up the match without sweating much, despite the full backing of the crowd to the home side.
Tamil Nadu women finished third, beating Karnataka at 28-26, 25-21, 25-17 in 70 minutes. Kerala men came third, beating the National champion Railways at 25-15, 31-29, 25-16 in 46 minutes.
In the men's final Tamil Nadu won the Sivanthi Adithyan Cup beating Punjab 25-18, 25-8, 22-25,25-18 in about 55 minutes.Tamil Nadu last won the National-level tournament in 1995 at Chennai.
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