CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu kabaddi teams put up a spirited display on Friday to stay in hunt for semifinal berths at the 6th Khelo India Youth Games 2023 being held at Chennai. Tamil Nadu women dominated their Group A clash to register an emphatic 78-13 victory over Telangana, while the men defeated Chandigarh 46-31 at the matches played in the Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium.
Both the home teams had lost their opening round-robin matches against defending champions Haryana on Thursday evening and needed a win to get their campaign back on track. And backed with a sizeable crowd the women thoroughly dominated the proceedings against Telangana. They scored a total of 45 points in the first half with eight all out and five bonus points.
In response, Telangana only managed to score four points. Though the hosts slowed down the tempo a bit in the second half, Telangana never really had a chance to fight back as they were all-out six times and never really looked in the contest.
“It was creditable show by our girls. They combined well as a unit and put up a spirited display,” said Kavitha Selvaraj, coach of the Tamil Nadu women’s team. “On Thursday our team could not perform to potential as a player was injured and we had a poor start. Today we picked the right players for each and every role and the team combination too worked very smoothly as per plans and thus we could win by a good margin,” added Kavitha.
Haryana have already secured a semifinal spot after beating Maharashtra 45-40 in their second group match.
In the men’s category, Tamil Nadu made a strong start to grab the initiative and opened up a 20-11 lead at half-time. Chandigarh boys fought back well in the second-half and stayed neck-and-neck with their opponents but could not overturn the deficit. Tamil Nadu will now face Delhi in their last group clash on Saturday.
Pooja, Tavneet top seeds
Tamil Nadu’s R Pooja Arthi and Madhya Pradesh’s Tavneet Singh Mundra have been given top billing in the women’s and men’s sections of the squash competition at the KIYG. The squash event will be conducted at the Indian Squash & Triathlon Academy in Chennai between January 20 and 24 and comprises men’s and women’s individual and team events. The individual draw is based on the players’ SRFI national rankings, while eight states will feature in the team event in each category.
Pooja Arthi, runner-up at the 2023 National Games, was given pride of place as she is currently No 4 among senior and No 2 among U-19 category in India. N Ramachandran, Patron, the Squash Rackets Federation of India expressed delight at the sport’s inclusion in the KIYG which will help further popularize the sport. “I would like to thank the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu for their steadfast support that has helped in the growth and development of squash in Tamil Nadu and India and we look forward to hosting a successful event,” said Ramachandran.
Results: Kabaddi
Men: Group A: Rajashthan bt Maharashtra 34-28; Madhya Pradesh bt Bihar 36-26;
Haryana bt Delhi 40-37; Tamil Nadu bt Chandigarh 46-31
Women: Group A: Haryana bt Maharashtra 45-40; Tamil Nadu bt Telangana 78-13.; Group B: Bihar bt Chandigarh 35-22.