PANAJI
St Anthony High School Monte de Guirim, the champion school from Goa, finished their campaign in the Nehru Hockey U15 boys national level tournament with one loss and one win in three-team group matches held at Shivaji Stadium New Delhi.
The Goa school started with a big loss 9-1 to Naval Tata Hockey Academy Jamshedpur followed by a 4-1 win over LK Singhania Education Centre Gotan Rajasthan.
The Goan boys started by scoring against the Jamshedpur opponents but could not sustain the pressure and went down fighting.
In the second match, the Goan school won with Rajiv scoring a brace and with goals from Suraj and Vihan.
Rajiv was declared man-of-the-match and got a hockey stick as a gift from the organizers.
Incidentally, Monte de Guirim school Under-17 girls’ team have also qualified for the Delhi tournament, while Janata High School Mapusa is the third school from Goa which will make the trip to Delhi.
Headmaster of the school Fr. Milchester Furtado said the qualification and participation in the Delhi tournament will help the boys and girls of the school to raise the bar.
“The plan is to give a good experience for the students and to build interest in them to develop higher in the game. Delhi will give the students a different and higher level of hockey experience.”
This year’s U15 is witnessing 18 teams in the first phase of the competition out of which six teams will qualify for the next phase and will be joined by the six seeded teams.
Meanwhile, the U15 boys tournament will have no prize money associated with it this year and it was not known whether the U17 girls and boys prize money has also been shelved.
“Due to shortage of funds, there will be no cash prize for winner and runners-up teams this year. Please note,” Kukoo Walia, Secretary General of the organizing committee has informed the participating teams.
