Haryana beat Jharkhand to seal 12th HI Sub-Jr Women National Championship title

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, May 22 : Haryana registered a 2-0 win over Jharkhand to win the title of the 12th Hockey India Sub-Junior Women National Championship hosted by Manipur Hockey under the aegis of Hockey India here at Hockey Stadium, Khuman Lampak.
The opening goal for Haryana girls came in the 13th minute when Riya capitalised on a fine chance to flick home the ball. The second period of the final match that was played under floodlights saw the two sides traded few runs with Haryana trying to extend the lead and Jharkhand trying to pull level, but lack of finishing touch denied the two sides from adding to their tallies. After the halfway break, Haryana dominated the possession and after a few unsuccessful attempts, Sejal doubled the lead in the 39th minute to make it 2-0 in the third quarter.
The scoreline remained unchanged despite Jharkhand putting in diligent effort to reduce the margin and Haryana eventually emerged the champions of the 25-team tournament.
Earlier in the day, Uttar Pradesh beat Madhya Pradesh 3-0 to earn the third place title courtesy early goals from Pushpanjali Sonkar (4') and Manisha Patel (5') and late Purnima  Yadav strike (58').
The valedictory function of the tournament was graced by Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports Govindas Konthoujam; Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Sapam Ranjan; Principal Secretary Youth Affairs and Sports, SS Chhabra; Hockey India president, Gyanendra Ningomba; Manipur Hockey president, Dr Basudev as presidium members who also encouraged the prize winners of the tournament which kicked off on May 11.