SFA Championships Pune: Jainam Singhavi, Rajlakshmi Chavan lead PICT Model School to title

Pune, Dec 17 (IANS) Powered by the stellar performances of Jainam Singhavi and Rajlakshmi Chavan, PICT Model School were crowned champions of the very first edition of the Sports For All (SFA) Championships Pune by clinching a whopping 53 medals as the exciting Olympic-style championship came to a grand slam finish on Saturday.

CM International finished as runners-up with 93 points and 24 medals while Vidya Valley School claimed third position with 88 points and 22 medals.

The Balewadi-based PICT Model School accumulated a grand total of 212 points, courtesy of 12 gold medals, 21 silver and 20 bronze. Showcasing their talent in football and athletics by clinching a gold medal each in both sports, the school's Jainam Singhavi and Rajlakshmi Chavan were proclaimed as the championship's Golden Boy and Golden Girl respectively and were rewarded with a trophy and INR 25,000 each.

"We are extremely delighted with how the premier edition of the championship in Pune has panned out as schools and young athletes turned up in large numbers to prove their mettle on this platform. The overall quality of every school and athlete participating here was top-notch and we can say that our vision of transforming and developing sports at the grassroot level in the city has started taking shape after the successful conclusion of this championship. Judging by the overall response and feedback we are confident of arousing curiosity about sports and further proliferating participation to ensure that a proper sporting ecosystem is created at this level. Congratulations to PICT Model School on their accomplishment and we look forward to seeing them defend their title against other schools in Pune's second edition of the championship in the near future." said Samera Khan, CMO, Sports For All.

To recognise the school and its athletes' consistently brilliant performances and first placed finish, PICT Model School were awarded with INR 1 lakh in prize money along with the coveted trophy. The school excelled in athletics and badminton by grabbing a total of 10 medals each in both sports.

"It is a great honour to emerge as champions of the very first edition of the SFA Championship in Pune. We are extremely proud of all our athletes who performed at the highest level and reaped the benefits of the hardwork that they put into their sport. This is an amazing platform provided by SFA to young athletes as it gives them the opportunity to experience an Olympic-style championship at such an early age and earn valuable lessons from their performances. I would also like to congratulate and applaud the efforts of every school as well as its students who took part in this competition. Hopefully SFA organises the next edition of this championship soon to give plenty more rising athletes the chance to exhibit their skills.", said Shridevi Jagdale, Sports HOD of PICT Model School.

The second placed CM International School secured INR 50,000 and third placed Vidya Valley School received INR 25,000 for their amazing performances throughout the championship.

Loyola High School with 81 points (5 gold, 5 silver) and Dr. Kalmadi High School with 61 points (5 gold, 5 silver and 7 bronze) attained the fourth and fifth place on the rankings table and were presented with INR 10,000 for their remarkable efforts.

Meanwhile on the final day of the championship, Nandini Menkar of the Marathwada Mitra Mandal Vidya Mandir High School clinched gold medals in the U-18 girls 50M and 100M freestyle events by recording a timing of 32.30 sec and 1.15.73 min respectively. The swimmer also won the silver in the U-18 girls category of the 100M butterfly event.

India's leading fully integrated digital plus on-ground multi-sport platform Sports For All, had organised the inaugural edition of this Olympic-style championship with the aim of revolutionizing sports at the grassroots level in Pune. In spite of this being the first season, the championship turned out to be a monumental success after witnessing a total participation of 8200 from more than 500 schools all over the city.

Following the conclusion of the championship in Pune, SFA has now successfully conducted 12 editions of the prestigious championship across Mumbai, Hyderabad and Dehradun.