Mohd. Ghufran, Kajal Kumari bag men’s, women’s crowns

Kajal Kumari and Mohd. Ghufran, both representing Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), registered contrasting wins to bag the women’s singles and men’s singles crowns respectively in the LIC of India sponsored 24th Federation Cup All India Carrom Championship, organized by the All India Carrom Federation and hosted by the Maharashtra Carrom Association, at the Halari Visa Oswal Samaj Hall, Dadar (East).

In the women’s final Kajal played fluently and was in complete control and went on to score an authoritative 25-13, 25-12 victory against Aisha Mohd of Jain Irrigation. On the other hand, Ghufran started with a flourish, but later faced quite a strong challenge from World Champion Prashant More of Reserve Bank of India before scraping through by a close 25-13, 12-25, 22-19 scoreline in a tense and thrilling men’s final showdown.

Starting with the white coins, Ghufran quickly settled into a rhythm. Showing calm and steady nerves, he exhibited good control with his shots to grab the upper hand by pocketing the first game against the current world champion More.

The Mumbai-based More, backed by a large gathering of local vociferous supporters, did not disappointment them as he bounced back into contention with some steady and clever play, taking the second game to force the third game.

In the decider, the scores ran close, before More raced to a 19-11 lead at the end of the sixth board. But the local player made a couple of mistakes and missed opportunities in the next which his rival cashed in to narrow the gap to 18-19 going into the final board. In the last board, both players were nervous and started to miss simple shots before Ghufran managed to steadily pocket the queen and his coins to win four points which helped him win the contest 22-19 and emerge champion.

In the men’s doubles competition, which was a fight between PSPB pairs, K.Srinivas and Sandeep Deorukhkar rallied from the loss of the first game to overcome Yogesh Pardeshi and K. Ramesh Babu 22-25, 25-16, 25-15 to emerge champions.

The women’s doubles final also contested between PSPB pairs, witnessed a similar trend as Nagajyoti and I. Ilavazhki, after tamely losing the opening game, gave a strong fighting reply to brush aside the challenge from Rashmi Kumari and Kajal Kumari (PSPB) 4-25, 25-11, 25-7.

Results
Women’s singles – Final: Kajal Kumari (PSPB) beat Aisha Mohd (Jain Irrigation) 25-13, 25-12. Third place: Rashmi Kumari (PSPB) bt M. Parimala Devi (PSPB) 25-7, 17-25, 25-11. Semi-finals: Kajal Kumari (PSPB) bt M. Parimala Devi (PSPB) 25-17, 25-1; Aisha Mohd (Jain Irrigation) bt Rashmi Kumari (PSPB) 11-25, 25-20, 25-12.
Men’s singles – Final: Mohd. Ghufran (PSPB) beat Prashant More (RBI) 25-13, 15-25, 22-19. Third place: Riyaz Akbarali (AI) bt Rahim Khan (Jain Irrigation) 25-8, 25-10. Semi-finals: Mohd. Ghufran (PSPB) bt Rahim Khan (Jain Irrigation) 25-18, 25-6; Prashant More (RBI) bt Riyaz Akbarali (AI) 16-25, 25-12, 25-14.
Men’s doubles - Finals: K.Srinivas/Sandeep Deorukhkar (PSPB) bt Yogesh Pardeshi/K. Ramesh Babu (PSPB) 22-25, 25-16, 25-15. Third place: Prashant More/L. Suryaprakash (RBI) bt Zaheer Pasha/Ravi Waghmare (RBI) 25-10, 25-12.
Women’s doubles - Finals: Nagajyoti/I. Ilavazhki (PSPB) bt Rashmi Kumari/Kajal Kumari (PSPB) 4-25, 25-11, 25-7. Third place: Sangeeta Chandorkar/Kavita Somanchi (RBI) bt R. Gayatri/L. Amshavarthini (TN) 25-4, 8-25, 25-10.