PSPB win youth boys crown for yet another time

Dharwad, August 22, 2013: Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), led by the experienced G. Sathiyan, extended their reign on the Youth Boys title, winning all their matches in the four-team round-robin league for yet another time here at the District Indoor Hall here.

First, they beat Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) and followed it up with a win over Air India, before accounting for Airports Authority of India. As for the victory margins, there was a familiar pattern to
it as PCPB cleaned up all their opponents 3-0.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) finished with the silver while Air India and RSPB, who had a good match against AAI, had to be content with the bronze medals.

With Sathiyan leading the charge for PSPB, it was only natural for the other young paddlers—Sourav Saha, Abhishek Yadav and Sudhanshu Grover—follow their leader as they accomplished the tasks with
clockwork precision. Abhishek, the bronze medal winner at the recent Asian Youth Games at Nanjing, played true to his potential against Railways’ Arnab Adhikari and Sudhanshu Grover, replacing Abhishek,
completed the task against Air India’s Siddesh Pande.

Simialrly, Sushmit Sriram and R. Anandraj, despite being a defeated force, helped Airports Authority of India beat Air India 3-1.  AAI had finished behind PSPB in the last edition at Kolkata and there will be
no difference to the script here.

In the Youth Girls section, which has a five-team round-robin format, only two matches have been played on the opening day and a clear picture will emerge only on the morrow. However, the indications are
that PSPB should sail through comfortably, thanks to paddlers like Manika Batra, Suthirtha Mukherjee and Narasima Priya who form their core team.

In the men’s team event, PSPB have already notched up two wins over Major Ports and Ordinance Factories; so was the case with RSPB, the runners-up last year, who downed both Dena Bank and ESIC. With more matches to follow in the women’s team championships late into night, it remains to be seen which other teams, barring the PSPB and RSPB, make it to the last 16 stage.

Results:
Men: Group A: PSPB bt Major Ports 3-0, PSPB bt Ordinance Factories
3-0; Group B: RSPB bt Dena Bank 3-0, RSPB bt ESIC 3-1; Group C:
Central Revenue w/o BSNL, Central Revenue bt Air India 3-1; Group D:
AAI bt State Bank of Patiala 3-0, AAI bt DASCB 3-1; Group E: LIC w/o
Air Force SCB, LIC bt RBI 3-0; Group F: Indian Audit bt DAE 3-0.

Women: Group A: PSPB bt BSNL 3-0, Group B: RSPB bt RBI 3-0, RSPB bt
LIC 3-2; Group C: Dena Bank w/o ESIC, Air India w/o ESIC; Dena Bank bt
Air India 3-1; Group D: AAI bt Indian Bank 3-0.
Youth Boys: PSPB bt RSPB 3-0, AAI bt Air India 3-1, PSPB bt Air India
3-0, AAI bt RSPB 3-2, PSPB bt AAI 3-0.
Youth Girls: Indian Bank bt RSPB 3-1, PSPB bt Air India 3-0, PSPB bt
Indian Bank 3-0.