Railway Sports Promotion Board crowned Champions of Hockey India 7th Senior National Hockey Championship 2017 (Men) & Division

Lucknow, 25 June 2017: Railway Sports Promotion Board held their nerve in a shootout to end up as Champions of the Hockey India 7th Senior National Hockey Championship 2017 (Men) ‘A’ Division today.

In a highly competitive final, both teams started off cautiously, cancelling each other out in the midfield. In a tense and often feisty first quarter, Punjab & Sind Bank struck the first blow, Gaganpreet Singh converting a PC in the 15th minute to give them the lead. Within moments of the second quarter, Amit Rohidas drew Railway Sports Promotion Board level with a PC in the 18th minute. The teams went into halftime level. Despite forcing a high line, and a marked increase in energy neither team could find the breakthrough in the third and fourth quarters taking the game into shootout. Punjab & Sind Bank had experience of the shootout having won one in the quarter-finals. Here though, they couldn’t hold their nerve missing three consecutive attempts. Railway Sports Promotion Board held their nerve, and despite missing the first attempt, Raju Pal, Sheshe Gowda and Nilakanta Sharma scored to give them the victory and the championship for the third consecutive year.

In the first game of the day, played for Bronze Medal, Hockey Punjab beat Hockey Chandigarh 2-1. Hockey Punjab drew first blood, scoring as early was the ninth minute via a Baljinder Singh PC conversion. Sarbjit Singh doubled their lead with a goal at the end of the second quarter to take them into halftime two goals to the good. After a goalless third quarter, Damandeep Singh pulled a goal back for Hockey Chandigarh with a 52nd minute goal. Buoyed by the goal Hockey Chandigarh pushed hard to get level, but Hockey Punjab held firm to deny them any more opportunities and took the win to finish third in the tournament.