Cricket, tennis, badminton and swimming took center stage, where else, but the Gulmohar Centre. The Big Man relented, rain stayed away for a bit, and sports action returned to the 3-acre ground and the badminton courts. Tennis started it all, with eager players showcasing their skills on the two clay courts in the remaining age categories. In the under 16 category, Kushagra Arora won the title, as expected, with Aviraj Singh in the runner-up place. Baani Kaur was the worthy winner in the girls’ category, edging out Leela in a hard fought clash. The men’s singles title in the 35-50 category went to Atit Arora who got the better of his brother, Kamal. Atit and Tanya Berry teamed up to beat Kamal and Harminder Singh in the doubles final. Badri Ramaswamy won the singles title beating Manish Gupta. Badri and Bharat Ramaswamy beat Sumeet Singhal and Manish Gupta for the doubles title.
The action shifted to football where the teams fought long and hard, with the ground reverberating with the sounds of fast feet, sliding tackles, diving saves in goal, skilful dribbling and beautifully scored goals, with not an inch given. The team captained by Raghav Sharma took the top spot, with Team Sanjeev narrowly losing in a penalty shootout. The cricket part of the Grand Sports Meet was filled with excitement, with Team Ravi Narain beating Team Vinayak Bhambri in a keenly contested final with every ball eliciting loud cheer from the sizeable crowd.
The badminton courts saw great action and had the spectators spellbound. Niti Bhardwaj and Arjun Berry won the Mixed Doubles title, Anshita Sharma and Pratic Ram coming in second. In Women’s doubles, Tanu and Naanki Kumar won the title beating Anshita Sharma and Niti Bhardwaj. In the over 45 category, Pratic Ram beat Govinda Berry in the finals, with Paramvir Thakur coming in third. Abhinav Singal and Kushagra Arora won the Men’s Doubles title, with Pratic Ram and Karan Berry coming in second, and Nikhil Verma and Sahan taking third place. In the women’s over 20 category, Tanya Berry won the title, with Niti Bhardwaj and Anshita Sharma taking the second and third place, respectively.
Salil Gupta took the men’s singles title in the over 30 group, beating Vinayak Bhambri in a thrilling final. Harminder Singh and Abhinav Singal were declared joint third.The long-anticipated swimming competition at the sparklingly clean Centre’s pool saw thrilling match ups. Viraj Singhal, Kushagra Arora and Jai Singal took the top three spots in the under 20 category over 25 meters freestyle, with similar results in the 50 meters distance, too. In the butterfly category, Kushagra was the winner, with Viraj and Jai taking the second and third place respectively. Priyal Kumar and Harshdeep Gupta took the first and second place in the 25 and 50 meter freestyle races for women under 40. In the above 30 years category for men, Riten Chadha, Ravi Krishnamurthy and Pratic Ram took the top three places, Riten,Ravi and Nitin Mantri coming in that order in 50 meter freestyle. Ravi Krishnamurthy won in the breaststroke event over 25 meters and 50 meters, edging out Pratic Ram and Riten Chadha.
The grand finale of the sports meet will follow soon, with athletics bringing what has been an exciting few months to a great finish.
