Sport - Sports : General

Superb show by Thrissur

— Photo: S. Gopakumar

SWEET DOUBLE: The Thiruvananthapuram boys’ and girls’ teams, which won the under-17 tennis titles, at the 51st Kerala School Games at Kottayam on Friday.

KOTTAYAM: Thrissur, with a string of victories, was on the threshold of clinching the under-17 championship, at the end of the first day’s events in the 51st Kerala School Games here on Friday.

It was as usual a chaotic start to the six-day event with the official machinery failing once again to get its act together.

What made up for all the hardship endured by one and all, including the big media contingent, was the effortless manner in which Thrissur established its supremacy.

It finished on top in volleyball (both in the boys’ and girls’ sections), basketball, kabaddi and football (in the boys’ section) besides finishing second in table tennis (boys) and basketball (girls).

Though the official points tally remains incomplete — for want of results in certain events — Thrissur at the end of the day had 62 points compared to Thiruvananthapuram’s 41. Palakkad has 34 points while Kannur is on 30.

While the finals of most of the events scheduled for the day were completed, the title-round clashes in cricket, hockey and ball badminton were forced to be postponed to Saturday due to bad light.

In football, Thrissur had to slug it out against Ernakulam before Safeeq turned out to be the hero with his winning strike, with just five minutes left for the final whistle.

In the earlier rounds too, Thrissur had difficulty, being forced to go the full distance against Kasaragod before winning the semifinal encounter 4-3 via the tie-breaker. Ernakulam had made it to the final in similar fashion defeating Kannur 7-6.

Thrissur’s win in kabaddi (boys) also came the hard way as it was forced to strain every sinew by Thiruvananthapuram in the final. However, displaying tough determination, the Thrissur boys won 53-50.

But, it was a different story in volleyball. Thrissur — both in the boys’ and girls’ finals — had it easy against Kozhikode. The boys’ side came through blazing with a 25-17, 25-22 victory while the girls’ team, which was impressive throughout, won 25-16, 25-22.

A major achievement which went unnoticed amid the superb run of the Thrissur contingent was the sixth consecutive title clinched by Thiruvananthapuram boys in the under-17 tennis competition. Thiruvananthapuram’s triumph this time around was at the expense of Palakkad with a 2-1 scoreline. With its girls’ side too retaining the title, it was a sweet double for Thiruvananthapuram in the event.

The results (under-17 section):

Boys: Tennis (final): Thiruvananthapuram bt Palakkad 2-1. Losers final: Thrissur bt Ernakulam 2-0.

Badminton (final): Kozhikode bt Kollam 2-0. Losers final: Ernakulam bt Alappuzha 2-0. Table tennis (final): Wayanad bt Thrissur 3-1. Losers final: Kozhikode bt Idukki 3-2.

Basketball (final): Thrissur bt Kannur 44-28. Losers final: Thiruvananthapuram bt Alappuzha 50-25. Football (final): Thrissur bt Ernakulam 1-0. Losers final: Kasaragod bt Kannur 3-2. Volleyball: Thrissur bt Kozhikode 25-17, 25-22. Losers final: Thiruvananthapuram bt Kannur 25-20, 25-23.

Girls: Tennis (final): Thiruvananthapuram bt Palakkad 2-0. Losers final: Kasaragod bt Thrissur 2-1.

Badminton: Ernakulam bt Kozhikode 2-0. Losers final: Thiruvananthapuram bt Palakkad 2-0. Table tennis (final): Thiruvananthapuram bt Idukki 3-2. Losers final: Kannur bt Palakkad 3-0.

Basketball: Kottayam bt Thrissur 50-34. Losers final: Kannur bt Malappuram 24-22. Volleyball (final): Thrissur bt Kozhikode 25-16, 25-22. Losers final: Kannur bt Ernakulam 25-14, 21-25, 25-14.

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