Nagpur claim double crown

Nagpur Division claimed a grand double in the Chhatrapati Shivaji State Volleyball Championships when their U-21 Youth teams won the title in contrasting fashions at the Worli Sports Club in Mumbai.

Egged on by the 3000-strong crowd,the Nagpur men beat Amravati Division in a no-holds barred five-setter in a little under two hours. The final score read 25-12,22-25,21-25,25-23,16-14. Their women however,won the title with ease,beating Pune 25-19,25-21,25-20. The other title contests in the juniors (U-18) saw the Pune girls snatching an incredible win after being two sets down and trailing 6-16 in the third. The final score line of 21-25,22-25,25-22,25-17,15-11 reflects the intensity of the contest but not the full story. Two aces served by Shraddha Pawar at 11-11 in the decider gave Pune the strength to make the dash to the finish. Amaravati had the consolation of winning the boys title beating Kolhapur 26-24,25-20,22-25,25-18 with the duo of Shubham Telgote and Sayyed Naved putting an impressive show. All the champions went home richer by a whopping Rs1.75 lakhs each from the total prize money of Rs17.60 lakhs offered by the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs,Maharashtra. The losers too earned a substantial sum of Rs1.25 lakhs each.

The clash between Nagpur and Amaravati in the U-21 Championships saw the former breeze through the first set in just 12 minutes with the trio of Parth Tiwari,Pranav Thakre and Akash Todase striking a perfect rhythm. But Amravati came back strongly winning the next two games. It took them an hours relentless smashing and defending through Mohd. Akib,Sameer Khan and Amit Pande to overcome the strong defence by their rivals especially Parth Tiwari.

Nagpur let go a handy 21-16 lead in the third set and also faltered in the fourth. After coming close at 23-20 they allowed their opponents to square the scores but Akash and Parth set up two perfect blocks to force the decider. Nagpur trailed from the beginning but managed to catch up at 11-11. The lead changed hands and when Akash served out it spelt doom for the winners. But Nagpur found their man at that hour in Pawan Chaudhari. A precise smash from him and a failed block by Amaravati settled the argument in favour of the winners.