In the men’s title clash, APF edged past Police while the result was reversed in women’s category. The winner and runner up of both categories bagged a purse of Rs 100,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively. [break]
Kailash Bhatta of APF in men’s section and Kopila Uprety of Police in women’s section won the best players of the tournament award. They were given Rs 10,000 each.
In the men’s title clash, APF was pushed to four sets but continued with its dominance over departmental rival. APF won the first two sets 25-15, 25-20, but lost the third set 23-25. The fourth set turned to be decisive as APF took atleast four point lead from the beginning to wrap it 25-21.
APF resisted Police attacks with good defence, checks at the nets and well coordinated show. The beginning of first set looked competitive but APF took six points margin by the mid making it 14-8 and finally wrapped it with 10 points margin. Police continued the second set in similar fashion as Police never succeeded in leveling the points with APF. The third set looked fairly competitive with difference of only one or two points from the beginning to the end.
APF skipper Kushi Chaudhary said that his side was confident of beating the Police in the final and come with high spirit. “We have defeated the same team in the final of the Sixth National Games thus we were confident of beating them,” said Chaudhary.
Police skipper Em Rana Magar said that his side was defeated due to nervousness of new players.
In the highly competitive women’s final, Police made a dramatic comeback in the last three sets after going down in the initial two. Police were down 21-25, 22-25 in the first two sets but took other sets 25-18, 25-17, 15-12. The last set of the women’s final remained highly entertaining with the score tied on 12-12. Kopila Uprety bagged last two points for Police.
Police skipper Nita Shah commented that they lost two sets due to lack of good understanding and coordination. “However, I was confident from the beginning that we would beat them and there was good understanding and coordination from third set,” Shah said.
Meanwhile, Nepal Army Club finished third in men’s category while New Diamond Academy got the third place honours in women’s category. Both third place finishers bagged a purse of Rs 25,000 each.
Best spiker title went to Sanjay Aryal of the Police in the men’s and Ramila Tandukar of New Diamond in women’s category. Mahendra Shrestha and Chandrwati Rana of APF won best blockers, Khusi Chaudhary and Binita Budathoki of APF best blockers in the women’s category, Kul Bahadur Thapa and Sushila Thapa of Police best lifter and Pushpa Jung Malla and Jyoti Chaudhary of APF best defence awards in men’s and women’s category respectively.
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