VELS University clinches inaugural Yuva Kabaddi Series Tamil Nadu Clubs title
The entertaining Yuva Kabaddi Series Tamil Nadu Clubs 2024, saw VELS University outperform other team in the grand finale. This was the first ever kabaddi tournament organized with a view of scouting new talent in the state and the final of this season ended on Thursday 6 June at Velammal Bodhi Campus, Ponneri.
This was highly one sided where VELS University emerged clear winner as Karpagam University Coimbatore scored a meager 19 after being totally outplayed by VELS with the scoreline reading 49-19. It confirmed that players made very tactical decisions in order to secure the win and the presence of the skilled loaders. As for the Taipei asia opponents, VELS had four players with PKL experience; Satish Kumar, R Sakthivel, V Arul Nanda Babu, and Babu Murugasan.
The dominant moment for VELS in the final came early in the 4th minute of the match when Satish Kumar strikes a “Super Raid” and scored 5 points. This surge put VELS University at a 10-1 advantage, and Karpagam University found itself trying to play catch-up. This lead was complemented by a dominant performance from the defensive side from VELS for the rest of the first half and successfully went into the halftime break with a healthy lead of 28-9.
The second half looked almost as identical to the first half in terms of dominance of one team over the other. Moreover, Karpagam University could just not have found a way to breach through the defense being employed by VELS. Sathish Kannan being a prominent player of the VELS team, was able to score 12 points that became a significant contribution for his team. Other points were scored by R Sakthivel who contributed 8 points for his team that attributed to their triumph in the finals to clinch the title.
The Yuva Kabaddi Series was a way to find untapped raw talent of Tamil Nadu. The tournament involved 16 teams, including more than 320 players. These players contested in three phases and these three were the challenger round, the booster round, and the last but not the least - the summit round. In all overall, 121 matches were conducted throughout the tournament which only proved how much people of the state love the the Indian game- Kabaddi.
However, success was not solely with VELS University Some of the other achievements presented are; The tournament laid a basis for many potential players, who were expected to be identified and called up for the subsequent national championships in kabaddi. The addition of competitive opposition will surely help develop these talents and set the stage for a new generation of rising kabaddi athletes.
The Yuva Kabaddi Series is also a program that embraced prized champions too. The two main prizes of the event were reserved as follows; the defending champions of VELS University had their skills tested and went home with a 20 lakh rupee, while the runner-up, Karpagam University took home a 10 lakh rupees prize.
The individual awards were also given. Ganganath Krishnan from KR sports was the best raider of the tournament scoring 161 raid points which was the highest in the tournament. The well-coordinated efforts made him deserve the prize money of 50,000 rupees. Moving to the defender category, Karpagam University’s Sakthivel Thangavelu emerged the best defender of the tournament and won 50,000 rupees and had scored 58 tackle points.
The Yuva Kabaddi Series Tamil Nadu Clubs 2024 has been effective in giving the clubs the competetive edge they need and in giving the sport of kabaddi a new life in the state as well as discovering talents. Though the event aimed at promoting talent from the grassroots level, and did have a well-planned format, it has laid the foundation for future editions of the tournament, for unveiling the future of kabaddi from Tamil Nadu.
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