The 8th Hockey India Senior Men’s National Championship 2018 has been formally inaugurated at Khuman Lampak astro turf hockey stadium in Khuman Lampak sports complex in Imphal on Sunday.
In the inaugural matches of the 15-day long tournament which was played on Sunday, Sports Authority of Gujarat team defeated host Manipur by 3-2 goals while Telangana defeated Assam by 8-3 goals.
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In other matches in the opening day, Food Corporation of India beat Madhya Pradesh 8-4, Andhra Pradesh beat Vidarbha 5-2, Central Secretariat beat SAI 3-2 and Canara Bank defeated Central Industrial Security Force 3-0.
The Assam team will play against Central Secretariat in their pool A match on Tuesday morning. Sports Authority of India (SAI) is the fourth team of the pool A.
There are total of eight pools. Each pool has four teams and their matches were played simultaneously at the hockey fields of SAI, Takyelpat and Khuman Lampak Sports complex both in Imphal. Thus altogether, 32 teams from across the country have been participating in the championship which is being organised by Manipur under the aegis of Hockey India.
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The day’s formal inauguration function was attended by deputy chief minister Y Joykumar, Jiribam MLA Ashabuddin, Chief Executive Officer of Hockey India Elina Norman, sports director N Praveen Singh, secretary general Sunil Elangbam of Manipur Olympic Association and treasurer Tapan Kumar Das of Hockey India and officials of Manipur Hockey.
In his address, deputy chief minister Joykumar expressed the need to develop astro turf hockey stadium at least one each to all the districts so that players can avail of the facility to train themselves considering the potentials of Manipur sportspersons. So far the state has produced many Olympians and most of them are from Hockey.