The Hindu : Sport : Railways men and women reign supreme; Punjab and Andhra take third place

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 21, 2006

Sport

Sport

Railways men and women reign supreme; Punjab and Andhra take third place

M.C. Raman

RASPING HIT: Railways' Sunil Kumar smashes one past the Services players in the final of the National volleyball championship on Friday. — PHOTO: VIVEK BENDRE

Pune: It turned out to be Railways' day in the 54th National senior volleyball championship as it won both the men's and women's titles at the Sri Chatrapathi sports complex here on Friday.

While the Railways' men team, despite its shaky defence, lowered the colours of Services at 24-26, 29-27, 25-23, 27-25 to take the M.M. Joseph Trophy, its women's team crushed the hopes of Kerala's title defence with a hard fought and exciting 25-20, 21-25, 25-17, 17-25, 18-16 victory to bag the Sivasubramaniam Trophy.

Shoddy defence

Kerala made some unforced errors in the decider and even before that its defence was shoddy. The defending champion had another problem in its inexperienced setter Jomol Kurian. Kerala's main spiker Gisha Thomas too failed completely leaving the task of spiking to Prajisha, who played brilliantly, Ashwini Kumar and Sheeba.

"My team played only 60 per cent of its game and the attack was just about 25 per cent. Still we managed to take the title. But Kerala's libero Vincy George created the problems for us by retrieving all the shots brilliantly," said Railways coach Jose.

Geeta Raju led the Railways offence with some well angled shots and Gayathri also played her part well. "My team is comparatively less experienced. But I told them to tighten up the block before the match. But the block did not work well. Gisha's failure was a bad omen for us. Anyway they fought well," said Kerala's coach S. Manoj.

In the men's final, Railways did not start well and Services got into its groove straightway with Shijas Mohammed attacking superbly from the corners. Railways' block looked shoddy and the Army team called the shots. Even in the second set Services led 23-21 but Railways hit back to make it 23-all and pushed the set to extra points. Though Railways' main spiker Srikanth was not at his brilliant best, Sudarshan Varma took over and blasted out the rival defence.

Pradeep also did an excellent job as high ball attacker.

"What we planned came down crashing as our block did not work. I told them to get Pradeep and Srikanth, but Varma became free to hit. The team did not combine so well and the second set loss was a big setback to us," said Services coach Aman, a former international.

In fact, both the coaches were not satisfied with their teams' performance. But Railways managed to keep up the pressure on Services better and longer. And that worked in the final moments.

"My team's performance was not satisfactory. I did not like one bit of our block. Somehow they managed but that was not the way I wanted. Pradeep saved us with his spiking at crucial stages. Of course Varma picked up his attack at the right time. Setter Kapil Dev was also not in fine nick. Had we lost the second set things would have been different, but I told the boys to hang on," said Karimullah, the Railways coach.

Shiraj dazzles

Despite conceding a six point lead (6-12) Railways fought well to make it 21-all and was on set point at 24-22. At this stage Shiraj's superb spiking helped the Army team to surge ahead and take the set. It was Shiraj's jump serve and attack that shook the Railways time and again. Rajil Mathew too gave him good support. But Railways kept its cool in the exciting final moments of the second set and snatched it from Services. After that Railway's confidence soared and even substitute Manikandan blocked well to help it take the third set.

In the fourth set Railways trailed by two or three points. But it still managed to block out the Army spikers at the right time to take the set and match on a disputed decision.

The results:

Men: Final: Railways bt Services 24-26, 29-27, 25-23, 27-25. Third place: Punjab bt Uttaranchal 25-23, 20-25, 25-20, 25-19.

Women: Final: Railways bt Kerala 25-20, 21-25, 25-17, 17-25, 18-16. Third place: Andhra bt Bengal 22-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-18, 15-12.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport