CHANDIGARH, JAN 2 :The Chandigarh Hockey Academy for girls, a venture of Chandigarh Administration, gave the "City Beautiful" a New Year gift by emerging winners in the 54th National School Games at Warangal (Andhra Pradesh) from December 26 to 32.
The 16-member Chandigarh School team, captained by Monika, returned on Thursday. In all they played seven matches, including final and gave outstanding performance by scoring 32 goals and conceded just two. They started their campaign with an authoritative 3-0 victory over Manipur.
They most facile victory the Chandigarh girls registered was against Jammu and Kashmir whom they routed by 11-0.
Maintaining their winning spree they overcame a tough Jharkhand by 2-0 and routed Tamil Nadu by 7-0. In quarter-final encounter, they ousted Himachal Pradesh by 3-0.
They encountered a tough resistance from Andhra Pradesh before overcoming by an aggregate 5-2 margin in tie-breaker after playing a 2-2 draw in the regulation period. Officiating captain-cum-goalkeeper Swati played a sterling role in shaping Chandigarh’s entry into the final. In the tie-breaker session, an alert Swati stood like a rock. An elated Swati said "in the tie-breaker session, I saved two penalties and the third Andhra Pradesh muffed. As Chandigarh had taken an unassailable 5-2 lead, the AP did not take the fourth and fifth penalties."
Having a psychological advantage Chandigarh eked out a narrow 1-0 triumph over Jharkhand whom they had beaten earlier by 2-0.
"Though the team played a joint lot, Ritusha Arya was the leading Chandigarh scorer with nine goals.
It the second title win for Chandigarh Hockey Academy who have earlier lifted the All-India Mohinder Pratap Singh Grewal Women Hockey Tournament (Grade I) in Ludhiana in November last year.
The CHA girls are studying in the Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 18.
Chandigarh Sports Director-cum-Additional Deputy Commissioner Inderjit Singh Sandhu congratulated the Chandigarh Hockey Academy girls for winning the Nationals School Games. Joint Director Sports Dr JPS Sidhu said that the girls were training under overall supervision of former Indian coach Rajinder Singh.