The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

SPORTS

Carrom gets a boost
Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, October 26
Carrom got a good promotion here with the successful conducting of the junior national championship in the Sector 45 St Stephen’s School last week. The meet saw the participation of more than 300 carrom players from different parts of the country.

Mr Mahesh Sekhri, Secretary of the Chandigarh Carrom Association, said the city had hosted this national tournament for the third time in the past few years. Before this, the city had organised the India-Germany Tests and the senior nationals. Mr Sekhri, who was recently made the treasurer of the Asian Carrom Confederation, said the nationals had also been organised at Jalandhar last year, but no other city in the region had hosted as many carrom tournaments as Chandigarh.

He said, for raising the finances for holding these national meets, a great deal of help had come from the All-India Carrom Federation and the Union Government. However, the organisers had been unable to find any big tournament sponsor because the game was new for the masses as a competitive sport.

Sekhri said Indian carrom officials were getting good representation at the international level. Mr Pradeep Hazarika had been nominated the vice-president of the Asian body of the sport. Mr Vijay Kamble, president of the Maharashtra Carrom Association, was, now, the vice-president of the International Carrom Federation.

The holding of various tournaments and coaching camps here had raised the public interest in the sport. The Principal of St Stephen’s School, Mr Harold Carver, was the first promoter of the game here. He gave the association space for carrom tables. The junior nationals had been staged in the basement of the school and the participants had been satisfied with the venue. Mr S.K. Sharma, secretary of the AICF, who was here during the junior nationals, had appreciated the arrangements.

Mr Sekhri also said Maharashtra and Goa would organise the junior and senior nationals, respectively, in 2003. Indian carrom players were doing well in international competitions. In India, carrom was, now, part of the inter-school-sport calender and a number of institutes had shown interest in hosting carrom tournaments.

DAV-8 win in handball, kabaddi
Our Sports reporter

Chandigarh, October 26
DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, emerged winners in the under-17 handball and under-19 kabaddi events in the UT Inter-School Sports Meet played here today. In the handball final, DAV boys outplayed Sri Guru Gobind Singh Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, 24-21. In the kabaddi final, DAV boys got the better of Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 23 by 63-61 after having a close fight.

Karate tourney

Mamta of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 10, won laurels in the below 45-kg section of the junior girls event of the 11th Chandigarh State Karate championship played here today at Skating Rink, Sector 10. The tournament is being held under the aegis of the Amateur Karate Association of Chandigarh.

Other winners in girls section: Anu, Deepika, Pardeep Kaur, Harminder, Kanchan and Jaspreet Kaur. In boys section, the winners: Sohit Verma, Naresh, Devinder Singh, Sawan, Ajay, Mohan Kapoor and Vijay Prasad.

In final

New Public School, Sector 18 and DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8 made it to the final of the boys section of the CBSE Cluster XI Basketball tournament.

In the girls section, Vivek High school, Carmel Convent School, Pine Grove School, Subathu and IS Dev Samaj School, Sector 21 reached the last four.

Ludhiana SSP to replace Jain
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, October 26
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has cleared the name of Ludhiana SSP Harpreet Singh Sidhu as SSP Chandigarh, said sources in the Chandigarh Administration here today.

He would be replacing Mr Parag Jain, who has been repatriated back to his parent cadre - Punjab. Mr Balbir Singh, Superintendent of Police (Traffic and Security), would be replaced by Mr Amitabh Singh Dhillon, who is presently posted as ADC to the Haryana Governor.