New Delhi: In a race to emerge as the top teams, the participants continued to dominate and showcase fine hockey skills today at the ongoing 5th Hockey India Sub- Junior National Championship (Division A).

The day started with Hockey Punjab taking over Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu by 6-1 on the score-board. The second match went in favour of Hockey Gangpur-Odisha, which dominated and defeated Chhattisgarh Hockey by 18-1. The third match of the day between Hockey Jharkhand and Hockey Maharashtra was an intense clash where the former defeated the latter 5-1. In the fourth match, Hockey Karnataka won the match against Hockey Andhra Pradesh by 10-0.

The first clash of the day between Hockey Punjab and Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu resulted into a significant victory for Hockey Punjab which defeated Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu by a good margin of 6-1. The proceedings started by Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu in the 8th minute through A Alan Rubenraj’s field goal. Hockey Punjab opened its account in the 25th minute when Dilpreet Singh smashed a beautiful field goal in support of the team. Hereon, there was an intense struggle between both the teams to take the lead. However, it was once again Hockey Punjab which added to their score-card with a penalty corner conversion from Gursahibjit Singh, allowing the team to lead by 2-1 by the end of the first half. The first few minutes of the second half was a tough battle between both the teams to enter the opponent’s defence. In the 50th minute of the game, Karanbir Singh from Hockey Punjab earned another penalty corner for the team. Gauging the need of the hour, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu made continuous efforts to bounce back in the game. However, Hockey Punjab with three more field goals in the 57th, 63rd and 66th minute, attained a wonderful triumph over Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu by 6-1.

The second match of the day witnessed Hockey Gangpur-Odisha defeating Chhattisgarh Hockey by 18-1. It was a one-sided affair where both the teams showed competitive skills but Hockey Gangpur-Odisha made a cracking start in the third minute when Amandeep Lakra converted a penalty corner. This was followed by a beautiful field goal, which came through the stick of Mandip Kerketta in the 19th minute, taking the lead to 2-0. Hockey Gangpur-Odisha sounded the score board by 4-0 when Biraj Topno quickly struck two back-to-back field goals in the 22nd and 23rdminutes. Prakash Dhir surged ahead in full strength and scored a brace in the 30th and 32nd minute through a penalty corner conversions. Hockey Gangpur-Odisha was leading 7-0 by the end of the first half. The leading team maintained its scoring momentum over Chhattisgarh Hockey and managed to score a series of continuous goals in the 37th, 38th and 39th minutes through Mandip Kerketta, Nahas Barwa and Prakash Dhir respectively escalating the lead to 10-0. Chhattisgarh Hockey finally broke the shackles and scored a lone goal in the 43rd minute through Gurpeert Singh to take the score card to 10-1. Hockey Gangpur-Odisha continued to rain goals as they bagged 8 more goals to take the winning lead to 18-1, thereby defeating Chhattisgarh Hockey.

The match between Hockey Jharkhand and Hockey Maharashtra witnessed the former the dominating the match and going on to win the match by 5-1. Making their intentions clear, Hockey Jharkhand scored the first initial goal of the match in the 12th minute, scored by Noel Topno and taking the score to 1-0 in their favour. Looking at equalizing the match, Hockey Maharashtra came back strong as that struck their first goal in the 22ndminute coming from the stick of Rahul Shinde. With no further goals added the first half ended with 1-1 on the scorecard. In the second half Hockey Jharkhand completely dominated the match by scoring 4 goals in the session. The 2nd goal from Hockey Jharkhand was scored by Sunil Xaxa in 44th minute and which was immediately followed by the third goal in the 49th minute which was penalty corner converted by Patras Kujur. With scores at 3-1, Hockey Jharkhand added two more to the tally in the 55th and 69th minute to take the game 5-1.

The last match of the day saw Hockey Karnataka winning the match against Hockey Andhra Pradesh 10-0. The match witnessed intense actions from both the teams and it was Hockey Karnataka who opened the account in the 11th minute through Harish S Mtuagar. The second goal was added to Hockey Karnataka’s account by Likith BM in the 16th minute to double the lead by 2-0. Hockey Karnataka did not stop here as Pavan M Madiwalar and Captain Rajesh notched two goals in the 28th and 35th minute respectively. The score-board read 4-0 before the end of the first half. In the second half of the match, Hockey Karnataka continued to dominate the game as they added six goals to take the tally to a sum of 9-0. Hence, the match concluded in favour of Hockey Karnataka who trumped Hockey Andhra Pradesh 10-0.

Results of the Day-

Pool C Hockey Punjab Dilpreet Singh(25min-FG,57min-FG) Gursahibjit Singh (35min-PC,63min-FG), Karanbir Singh (50 min-PC), Harmanjit Singh(66min-FG) VS Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu A Alan Rubenraj (8min-FG)

Pool C Hockey Gangpur- Odisha 18 Amandeep Lakra (3min- PC, 68min-PC), Mandip Kerketta (19min- FG, 37min- FG, 69min- FG), Biraj Topno (22min-FG, 23min- FG), Sudeep Chirmako (27min- FG, 46min-FG, 49min-FG), Prakash Dhir (30min-PC, 32min-PC, 39min-PC, 64min-FG), Nahas Barwa (38min-FG, 55min-FG), Shakti Kujur (48min-FG, 51min-FG) vs Chhattisgarh Hockey 1Gurpeert Singh (43min-FG)

Pool D Hockey Jharkhand 5 Noel Topno(12min-FG), Sunil Xaxa(44min-PC), Patras Kujur(49min-PC,69Min-FG), Nimeshan Kerketta(55min-FG) vs Hockey Maharashtra 1 Rahul Shinde(22min-PC)

Pool D Hockey Karnataka 10 Harish S Mtuagar (11min- FG, 53min- FG, 59min- FG), Likith BM (16min- FG, 38min- FG, 45min-FG, 60min- FG), Pavan M Madiwalar (28min- FG), Rajesh (35min-PC), Rahul (61min-FG) vs Hockey Andhra Pradesh 0.