Senior National Kabaddi Championship: Railways continue domination in tournament by defending men's and women's titles

Jaipur: Indian Railways clinched both the men’s and women’s senior national kabaddi championship titles on Friday in Jaipur, beating Services and Himachal Pradesh respectively. In doing so, both the Railways units defended the title successfully.

In the women’s final played in the afternoon, both teams went neck-and-neck till the half time, with just one point between the two at that stage. Himachal’s Nidhi Sharma clinched a Super 10 but it was not enough to take her team across the post as the team from North India could not handle nerves in the last minutes of the game. Her performance was toppled by Railways’ star raider and India player Sonali Shingate, who started off shakily but in the second half raised her game and collected bonus point after bonus point, breaching Himachal’s defence, which had been very tight till then. She eventually ended the game with 13 points and more importantly with a win for her side.

The men’s final between Services and Railways went to the wire, with the Pawan Sehrawat-led team taking a sigh of relief only after the final whistle. Services, who also went down to Railways last year as well, did deliver a better show this time around but it was marred by loss of focus during crunch moments of the game.

Rohit Kumar and Co started off brilliantly, leading 12-6 after the 10th minute of the match, having inflicted an All Out on Railway as Naveen Kumar continued to show his attacking prowess.

In the second half, Railways sharpened their defensive skills and it showed as Services made one empty raid after another. In just the fourth minute into the second half, Sehrawat made a successful raid which led to Services getting all out and eventually Railways gained a point lead over the opponents.

From there started the battle of nerves as both teams fought almost neck-and-neck till the last second of the final. However, Railways made sure they did not give back the advantage, even if the lead was a small one.

Pawan Sehrawat said it was the planning for these big matches which helped his team win the competition. “We played our natural game. We (Vikash Kandola, Rohit Gulia and he) got tackled but the defence was strong today and it showed.”

Services captain Rohit Kumar said though the team lost the final due to some errors in crucial moments but the team’s performance has been satisfactory. “We committed a few errors and that cost us the game and trophy. But overall, it was a good tournament for us. We did not play the tournament with any pressure whatsoever and knew that Railways would be a tough match. It turned out to be one and we had it under our control for most of the time but yes, some errors, took it away from us.”