The Hindu : Sport : Railways women win title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

Railways women win title

Principal Correspondent

BANGALORE: Indian Railways defeated Karnataka 46-41 to retain the women's crown in the 26th Federation Cup kabaddi tournament that concluded here on Sunday.

Karnataka could not convert its two-point first-half lead into a winning margin. Despite some fine raids, the host failed to check the brilliance of Tejaswini and Bhakti Kulkarni who scored 26 points each, and lost by five points.

Railways, for which Sumathi Poojari did well in the role of a catcher, had 12 bonus points and four lonas as against Karnataka's 11 bonus and four lonas.

Swetha Naidu once again played a stellar role for Karnataka, while both Mamatha and Jayanthi earned points with inspired raids.

Maharashtra, last years runner-up, downed Hyderabad 31-26 for the third place.

In the men's section, Punjab snatched a thrilling 48-46 victory in a tie-breaker over Tamil Nadu to finish third. The scores were 41-41 at full-time after Punjab led 28-15 at the break.

However tactical errors by Gunashekar cost Tamil Nadu in the final minutes of the game.

The results: Women (final): Indian Railways bt Karnataka 46-41 (22-24). Third place: Maharashtra bt Hyderabad 31-26 (17-10).

Men:: Indian Railways bt Services 20-18. Semifinals: Railways bt Punjab 43-31 (21-25). Third place: Punjab bt Tamil Nadu 48-46 (full-time: 41-41; half-time: 28-15).