Jr Men Hockey Nationals: Chandigarh, J&K, Delhi win in Div B; Karnataka, U.P., Punjab shine in Div A

Jalandhar, Aug 16 (IANS) Chandigarh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Delhi won their respective Division ‘B’ fixtures while Karnataka, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab won their matches in Division ‘A’ on Day 5 of the 15th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship. Three matches in Division 'B' and four in Division 'A' were played on a busy day at the Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium here on Saturday. 

In the first Division ‘B’ match of the day, Hockey Himachal lost to Hockey Chandigarh 3-5 with Gurjeet Singh (35’, 48’, 51’, 56’) scoring four of the five goals for Hockey Chandigarh. The fifth goal was scored by Sharandeep Singh (23’). Meanwhile, Anubhav Rangra (52’), Anuj (6’), and Tanish Kumar (39’) scored a goal each for Hockey Himachal.

The next match was a closely-contested affair with Jammu & Kashmir defeating Hockey Arunachal 5-4 in the very last minute. All five goals for the winning team were scored by captain Rajveer Singh (13’, 23’, 46’, 53’, 60’) while, Shatish Kumar Thakur (21’), Vivek Yadav (9’), Abhi Rajbhar (42’) and captain Amarjeet Singh (38’) scored a goal each for Hockey Arunachal.

In the last Division ’B’ match of the day, Delhi had a comfortable 3-0 win against Hockey Uttarakhand, with Bhanu (7’, 38’) scoring two goals and Yuvraj Singh (50’) scoring one goal for Delhi.

Division ‘A’ pool matches also kicked off on Day 5 of the 15th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship, with the first match being played between Hockey Karnataka and Hockey Andhra Pradesh.

Hockey Karnataka registered a dominating 10-1 victory over Hockey Andhra Pradesh with Harpal (12’, 35’) and Tanish Ramesh Hulakund (17’, 56’) scoring two goals each for Hockey Karnataka while captain Dhruva BS (25’), Achaiah MM (24’), Kushal Bopaiah CB (51’), Raju Manoj Gayakwad (5’), Nitesh Sharma (10’) and Poojith K.R (58’) scored a goal each. The lone goal for Hockey Andhra Pradesh was scored by Patan Asad Musfin Khan (29’).

In the next Division ‘A’ match, Hockey Haryana defeated Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu Hockey 3-0 with Nitin (19’), Chirag (58’), and Sunil (59’) scoring a goal each for Hockey Haryana.

Next match Uttar Pradesh Hockey defeated Hockey Maharashtra 9-2 with Ujjwal Pal (17’, 26’) and Mithalesh Yadav (8’, 57’) scoring two goals each for Uttar Pradesh Hockey while Satyam Pandey (56’), Fahad Khan (25’), Akash Pal (53’), Manoj Yadav (60’) and Venvanshi Triloki (6’) scored the remaining goals. Captain Arjun Santosh Hargude (30’) and Kartik Ramesh Patare (48’) were the two goal scorers for Hockey Maharashtra.

The last match of the day was played between Hockey Punjab and Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu. The host team faced a tough fight from Tamil Nadu till the very last quarter when Hockey Punjab scored three goals back-to-back to take the game away from Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu and win 8-4.

Amandeep (21’, 29’), Lovenoor Singh (43’, 52’), Charanjeet Singh (5’), Jobanpreet Singh (53’, 54’) and captain Gursewak Singh (44’) were goal scorers for Hockey Punjab, while Akash K (12’) and Manimaran V (21, 27, 40,) were the two goal scorers for Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu.

--IANS

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