Five- star Railways retain crown
Railway Sports Promotion Board defeated Madhya Pradesh 5- 0 to retain the Hockey India Senior Women’s National Championship ( Division A) title for the record sixth consecutive time in Hisar, Haryana, on Monday.
Neha ( 12th, 16th minutes) and Navneet Kaur ( 25th, 28th) scored a brace each after Vandana Katariya ( 10th) handed RSPB the lead in the summit clash of the ninth edition of the tournament.
Haryana claimed the third spot after eking out a narrow 3- 2 win over Maharasthra in the thirdfourth place match earlier in the day.
Sonika ( 6th), Rani Rampal ( 39th) and Deepika ( 49th) scored for Haryana, while Lalruatfeli ( 13th, 42nd) struck both the goals for Maharasthra.
The final of the competition saw Railways Sports Promotion Board start strongly, scoring their first goal in only the 10th minute as experienced Forward Vandana Katariya got her name on the score- sheet.
Seconds later, it was Neha who
Haryana claimed the third spot after eking out a narrow 3- 2 win over Maharasthra
struck for the defending champions as she scored off a penalty corner in the 12th minute to make it 2- 0.
Madhya Pradesh found it difficult to defend against the constant attacking threat of Railway Sports Promotion Board, and ended up conceding a third when Neha scored off a penalty corner again in the 16th minute.
Madhya Pradesh tried to find their feet in the match, but topscorer Navneet Kaur came up two more goals in the 25th and 28th minutes to get her tally to 12 goals in the competition.
The fourth and the fifth goals almost finished Madhya Pradesh’s hopes of making a comeback, and they had to settle for a defeat in the final match.
In what turned out to be a replay of last year’s final, Madhya Pradesh came up short again to settle for silver medal, after having lost 0- 4 last year as well.
Whereas, in the bronze medal match, it was Haryana who also finished third for a second year running.
The match started with the hosts scoring the first goal through Sonika in the sixth minute, but Maharashtra cancelled out their lead twice as their Forward H. Lalruatfeli scored a brace. With the scores tied at 2- 2, it was only in the 49th minute that Haryana managed to score the winner through Deepika.