Rajendra Prasad Mohapatra
Cuttack, July 15: East Coast Railway (ECoR) who were deemed to be the superior of the two finalists were given a run for their money by Sports Hostel, Bhubaneswar in the final of the FAO women’s football league played at the Bidanasi Ground here Wednesday, but at the end of the day they managed to scrape to a 1-0 win and emerge champions of the competition.
Sports Hostel eves were the better of the two sides in the first half as they created a lot of chances but failed to convert them. High humidity also took its toll on the players and they failed to perform according to their potential as the first half ended in a stalemate.
After the change of ends Sports Hostel carried on from where they had left and were running the ECoR defenders with their speed but the latter managed to keep their citadel intact with stout defending.
As the game progressed, the ECoR players took control of the match with short and accurate passes and as a result of one of their attacking moves in the 48th minute, they got a corner from which Pratima Minz scored the all important goal of the match through a stunning header.
After that it was all one way traffic as ECoR created a lot of chances before the end of final whistle but were kept at bay by the opposition goalkeeper.
Orissa Olympic Association (OOA) secretary Asirbad Behera who was the chief guest on the occassion gave away the prizes. Champion team ECoR bagged a cash prize of `25,000 while Runners-Up Sports Hostel took home `15, 000.
Top seeds advance
Top players Jeet Kishore Das and Rakesh Pradhan advanced to the quarterfinals of the VIth Pradeep Sen Memorial Snooker Championship after registering facile victories against their respective opponents in the pre-quarters at the Cuttack Club here Wednesday. Rakesh thrashed Satyajit Mohanty 3-0, while Jeet drubbed Mihir Bhora by an identical margin.
Other results: Jiten Sarangi bt Satyajit Mohanty 3-1, Siddharth Sen bt Akash Mohapatra 3-1, Amiya Nayak bt Mishal Swain 3-1.