NDA supreme, claim triple crown

PUNE, Oct 3: Hosts National Defence Academy (NDA) bagged a grand treble, sweeping the prestigious annual Hexagonal championships, the Bak...

PUNE, Oct 3: Hosts National Defence Academy (NDA) bagged a grand treble, sweeping the prestigious annual Hexagonal championships, the Bakshi Cup and Regatta Cup in the seven-day sports meet which concluded on Sunday.

Indian Military Academy (IMA), who fought NDA tooth-and-nail, finished runners-up in the Hexagonal and Bakshi Cup while Naval Academy took second place in Regatta championship.

Though NDA lost the tennis and volleyball finals today to IMA, a 6-1 win over IMA in the hockey final played at the PCMC Poligras Stadium due to last night rains, helped the hosts lift the Hexagonal Championship with 27 points. IMA amassed 25 points followed by Air Force Academy (18 pts), Naval Academy (13 pts) and INS Shivaji (7 pts).

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Hockey: IMA ruled the first half as they took an early lead in the 18th minute through Cadet AS Hooda. But just minutes before half-time NDA equalised through Kaushal Roy in the 32nd minute and later made it 2-1 with a 34th minute goal coming from the stick of Cadet SB Yadav.

In the second session, NDA stormed IMA’s citadel, scoring four goals in the 37th, 46th, 63rd and 69th minutes through Cadet P Singh (brace), Cadet A Joseph and Kadet K Rai, respectively.
Volleyball: Rains failed to dampen IMA’s spirit even as they were forced to play at the ASPT indoor stadium. IMA defeated NDA 25-20, 25-22, 22-25, 25-19 in the final. For the winners Cadets KA James, S S Murthy, D Chinnappan and PK Malik played well.
Tennis: IMA routed NDA 2-0 in the tennis final as Cadet A Sharma defeated Cadet Rahul Metha of NDA in straight sets 6-1, 6-0 and Cadet JS Hasanwalia (IMA) put the issue beyond NDA’s reach with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Cadet GS Rathore.

Later, Lt Gen S B S Kochar, AVSM, Commandant, National Defence Academy, who was the chief guest, presented the prizes.