North zone inter-varsity football tourney held

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Phagwara, December 24

GNA University organised the Association of Indian Universities (AIU’s) North Zone Inter University Football Tournament (Men) on its campus. This event was a platform to grab the prestigious chance of being among the top four teams of the north zone to play at national level.

This mega event witnessed 84-odd teams with around 1,700 footballers with their coaches from more than 50 universities or institutions across the north region such as Delhi University, University of Kashmir, Punjabi University, Kurukshetra University, Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjab University, Himachal Pradesh University, Amity University, Guru Kashi University and many more to showcase their talent and sportsmanship.

Displaying zeal for ‘football fury’, this tournament had started on December 16. On the first day of the event, more than 40 teams slugged it out in the knockout rounds. The second day of the tournament again had knockout matches between the participating teams.

The closing ceremony of this tournament was graced by Dr. Baljit Singh Sekhon, Joint Secretary, Association of Indian Universities, Delhi. He witnessed two league matches. In his address he motivated all the players and asked winning teams to gear up for the upcoming challenges, as at National Level competition will be more difficult. He also complemented GNA University hosting this tournament and for providing magnificent facilities to players. During the Final league matches Dr. R.P. Singh, Sports Director, Kanpur University acted as observer. To witness the culmination ceremony Mr. Kunal Bains, Deputy Registrar, Dr. Vikrant Sharma, Dr. Sameer Varma, Mr. CR Tripathy, Dr. Deepak Tilgoriya, various Sport Coordinators and other dignitaries were there.

During the event, the energy and enthusiasm portrayed by every player was overwhelming. This exclusive event encouraged many young players to showcase their skills that would be beneficial for this game in our country. Teams faced a tough competition during the quarter-finals and finally four teams qualified for semi-finals. Out of those, the team of Panjab University, Chandigarh, bagged the first position and the gold medal, the team of Sant Baba Singh University, Khiala, bagged the second position and the silver medal and the team of Punjabi University, Patiala, bagged the third position and the bronze medal and the team of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, also managed to get the fourth position.

S Gurdeep Singh Sihra, Pro-Chancellor, GNA University, congratulated all the winners, the participants and the organising team of the AIU North Zone inter-university football tournament, GNA.

Dr VK Rattan, Vice–Chancellor, GNA University, appreciated all the players for giving their best during the tournament and suggested them to maintain mental and physical balance for excelling high in this game. He expressed his happiness at the enthusiastic participation of teams all across the Northern region.

Dr Hemant Sharma, the Pro Vice-Chancellor thanked the management for providing this opportunity to the players.

Dr Monika Hanspal, Dean, Academics, GNA University, stressed that sports are an integral part of academics. She lauded all the players for maintaining agility and maintaining good coordination throughout the matches.