Aligarh, Nov 29 (PTI) Maharashtra’s boys and girls teams clinched gold medals at the 43rd Junior National Kho-Kho Championship which concluded here on Friday. It is the 19th consecutive gold medal for the boys’ team and overall their 35th in the competition. The girls’ team bagged their 10th title win in a row and overall their 26th in the history of the championship.
The championship was held at the Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar Sports Stadium here.
In the boys’ final, Maharashtra defeated Odisha 33-29. The winners led the game 18-14 at the halftime as their triumph was marked by an all-round contribution from Jitendra Vasave, Krishna Bansode, Parth Devkate and Prem Dalvi.
In the girls’ summit clash, it was once again a contest between Maharashtra and Odisha in which the former emerged winners 24-20.
Maharashtra held a lead of 14-10 at the halfway mark and players including Tanvi Bhosale, Sneha Lamkane, Pranali Kale, Suhani Dhotre and Prajakta Birajdar shone in their win.
“Teams earned ‘dream points’ when a batch of three players defends for four minutes, with additional points awarded for every subsequent minute until out the whole batch,” a release said.
“Maharashtra’s boys earned 1 dream point, while the girls earned 4. Odisha’s boys earned 1 point,” it added.
Awards: Veer Abhimanyu Award: Jitendra Vasave (Maharashtra) Janaki Award: Suhani Dhotre (Maharashtra) Best attacker: Prem Dalvi (Maharashtra), Lisa Rani (Odisha) Best defender: Bapi Murmu (Odisha), Tanvi Bhosale (Maharashtra). PTI DDV KHS