Patna: West Bengal emerged overall champions at the Senior National East Zone Basketball Championships, claiming men’s and women’s titles at Patliputra Sports Complex here on Monday.
By round-robin method, West Bengal women’s team was declared the winner. In the men’s final, Bengal defeated Uttarakhand 52-73. Raghu S scored 32 points and Harish scored 7 points for the winning team, while Amandeep S scored 16 and Keshav Singh scored 7 points for Uttarakhand. In the four-day championships, apart from hosts Bihar, about 250 players and officials from the teams of West Bengal, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar participated.
Bihar finished fourth after defeating Uttarakhand 58-32 in the women’s category in the play-off for the third and fourth positions. For Bihar, Radha Gaud scored 19 and Ritu 10, while for Uttarakhand, Aarti got 12 points. Uttar Pradesh finished second and Odisha finished third.
Bihar Minister of Arts, Culture and Youth Department Jitendra Kumar Rai, who was the chief guest and director general of Bihar State Sports Authority Raveendran Sankaran, who was the special guest gave away the prizes. Vinod Kumar Gunjiyal, director, art culture and youth department, Pankaj Kumar Raj, director cum secretary, Bihar State Sports Authority, Ramachandra Rao, general manager (finance), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited; and Uttarakhand team’s international player and Arjuna award winner, Vishesh Bhrigavanshi were present on the occasion.
In his address, director general of Bihar State Sports Authority Raveendran Sankaran told Biharis playing in other state teams to return home immediately. While introducing himself to the players, he found that many players in West Bengal teams are from Bihar. He immediately requested the secretary of the Basketball Association of Bihar, Sushil Kumar, to meet with the sports minister to get these players back home.
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