Monday, Dec 02, 2002
Monday, Dec 02, 2002 |
| Sport | ||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Entertainment |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Sport
-
Volleyball
By Kirti Patil
The Uttaranchal men's team which won the 51st Senior National volleyball championship at Chautala, Haryana on Sunday. — Photos: R.V. Moorthy
Scripting a kind of fairytale result, Uttaranchal routed the eight-time champion, Kerala, 3-0, in what would go down as one of the best ever performances by an unseeded team. With spiker Abhijeet Bhattacharya in full flow and captain Y. Subba Rao inspiring the team through his all-round display, Uttaranchal made mockery of the seeding system and won 25-21, 25-22,25-18 in just over an hour. The capcity crowd rooted for pre-tournament underdogs while Kerala found the going tough under the conditions. Tom Joseph and junior international Kishore Kumar failed to put up the kind of performance they were famous for, leaving enough gaps for Uttaranchal to pound on. Earlier in the morning, Punjab scored a consolation 3-1 win against the last year's runner-up, Tamil Nadu, in the play-off for the third position. On a bright sunny day, Punjab skipper Jagbir Singh and libero Manoj Kumar capitalised on an out of sorts Tamil Nadu and won 28-26,25-20, 19-25, 25-6 in 72 minutes. The semblance of power was, however, retained in the women's section. Railways won its 20th National title defeating Kerala 3-1 in 84 minutes. Captain K. Geetha Raju and M. Sunitha excelled in the women's final as Kerala women succumbed to a much superior side despite taking a decent lead by winning the first set. Kerala led 10-5 before Railways staged the rally through Geetha and Sunitha. With Vaishali Phadtare taking care of the back-court and Vini Thomas spiking well, Railways closed in the gap nicely. 
The Indian Railways team which emerged winner in the women's section.
On regulation, Kerala should have won the set easily, leading 20-16 at one stage and on the set-point at 24-23. But Railways made a match of it when Kerala captain Gisha Thomas sent down a wide smash allowing Railways to equalise. On its second set point, Preethy Kartha and P. V. Sheeba blocked perfectly to give it the first set. Realising the mistakes it committed in the first set, Railways went on the offensive right from the word go in the second set. Geetha won many crucial points while Vini Thomos did most of the blocking as Railways raced to 18-10 lead. Kerala tried its best to narrow the gap but Railways pocketted it 25-19 in 24 minutes. The others were a formality for Railways as it won 25-19 and 25-9, Geetha Raju scoring the winner through a delicate drop. In the play-off for the third place, Karnataka prevailed over West Bengal 25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 25-19, in a match that went on for 85 minutes. Bengal women emerged as the vastly improved side stretching the likes of Kerala, in the semis, and Karnataka, in the play-off on Sunday. If one wishes to write down the memoirs sometime in the near future, Uttaranchal's historic win and the way the entire team jelled together, must get some mention. If Subba Rao was the cornerstone of Uttaranchal's maiden triumph, the youngsters, Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Rathish Nair, Avnish Kumar Yadav and Mithlesh Kumar Singh, were the stars of the championship.Nobody expected Uttaranchal to do so well. "I can't believe that we have won the championship,'' Subba Rao kept on repeating. "Once we were given the legitimate chance of playing Railways again, we were pepped up to prove our point,'' he said of the decision to allow Uttaranchal play a repeat quarterfinal. Subba Rao gave all the credit to Abhijeet Bhattacharya for his expemplary show. Abhijeet played like a man possessed. He pounced on any opportunity that came in his way on the left side of the court.The ONGC employee Abhijeet's left-court domination was such that Kerala libero, Raj Vinod, was sprawled many a time while retrieving the smashes. He hit the ball so hard that even international Tom Joseph was left wondering. ``We had nothing to lose. We went for the kill and achieved it with telling effect,'' said Subba Rao. Opening a massive 12-6 lead in the first set, Uttaranchal went on a high then on. Kishore Kumar and Tom Joseph won some points through blocks, but their smashes weren't working. After having wasted its first match-point, Abhijeet a smashed cross-court winner to give his team the lead. Such was their combination and it was one of the best days that nothing could go wrong for Uttaranchal. Subba Rao and R. Kamraj blocked a strong smash to give their team the second set point. Mithlesh chanced on after a long rally and made a good drop to put his team 2-0 ahead. The third set was Uttaranchal's property from the start. Kerala had lost all the hopes and gave up meekly. The results: Men:Final: Uttaranchal bt Kerala 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-18). Third place play-off: Punjab bt Tamil Nadu 3-1 (28-26, 25-20, 19-25, 25-6). Women: Final: Railways bt Kerala 3-1 (25-27, 25-19, 25-19, 25-9). Third place play-off: Karnataka bt West Bengal 3-1 (25-18, 25-22, 22-25, 25-19)
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Entertainment |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | Home |
Copyright © 2002, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
