Eastern India Bodybuilding

Assam bodybuilder wins title:
Guwahati, Oct 5: Shyamal Debnath of Assam emerged champion in the 55kg category in the Mr Eastern India Bodybuilding Championship held at Asansol in West Bengal recently.
At the same venue Mr North East Bodybuilding Championship was also held where Shyamal won the title in his group. Other competitors from Assam, Trailukya Das, Dhrubajyoti Barik, Jitumoni Das, Nipananda Hazarika, Mnoj Kr Boro, Dulal Gogoi, Mubarak Hussain and Mridu Paban Dutta also won medals in their respective weight groups.
Shyamal also was placed among top 10 competitors in the 47th Senior National Bodybuilding Championship for the Mr India title held at Pune from September 24 to 26.

Assam Netball Teams Named

Nazira, Oct 5: The senior men and women Netball teams of Assam have been selected for taking part in 34th National Games to be held at Jharkhand and for the national selection camp in New Delhi from October 4. The India netball team will be selected for Common Wealth Games from the New Delhi camp.
The Assam team’s selection was made after the five-days camp held at Rohiteswar Saikia Memorial Indoor Stadium, here recently where players from Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Nazira, Jorhat, Baksa, Guwahati, Orang and Mariani districts took part.
The teams: (Men) Dipak Gogoi (Sivasagar, Captain), Dipu Deka (Baksa), Atul Boru (Baksa), Pinku Borgohain (Nazira), Siladitya Bhattacharya (Nazira), Devajit Dihingia (Nazira), Jamal Ali (Nazira), Dipankar Gosh (Tinsukia), Sunil Senapati (Tinsukia), Guneswar Sonuwal (Sivasagar), Manash Sonuwal (Jorhat).
Women: Lolita Deka (Baksa), Trishna Mahanta (Baksa, Captain), Maidangshree Boru (Baksa), Nayanmoni Deka (Guwahati), Rumi Chetia (Sivasagar), Kripa Doimari (Orang), Jumashree Musahari (Orang), Rumila Basumatari (Orang), Simi Chetia (Nazira), Boby Baishya (Nazira) and Rita Bora (Nazira).

Sub-Junior National Football

Punjab, Mizoram set up title clash
Hoshiarpur: Hosts Punjab and Mizoram will meet in the final of the 31st Sub-Junior National Football Championship for Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy in Mahilpur on October 6.
In the semifinals played on October 4 at the Principal Harbhajan Stadium here, hosts Punjab eked out a hard-fought 1-0 verdict over Goa.
After a barren first session, Punjab managed to score a goal in the 46th minute. Sarbjit pounced on a rebound off the Goa goalkeeper and shot into the goal which turned out to be the winner.
In the second semifinal, Mizoram got the better of Assam 2-1. The Assamese opened the account through Hitler in the 7th minute. Mizoram restored parity in the 17th minute through Lalnunmawia.
Lalnunmawia again scored in the 64th minute to steer his team into the finals.
Source: United News of India (UNI)

Justice for Monika

Sit-in-protest staged on Monika issue:
Imphal, Oct 4: Functionaries and volunteers of North East Students' Organisation's constituent bodies as well as former and present-day sportspersons staged sit-in-protest at Latasil ground in Guwahati in denunciation for preventing weightlifter L Monika Devi from participating at the recently concluded Beijing Olympic Games as well as in demand for making public the investigation report on the said issue.
An AMSU statement further maintained that the protest was organised to condemn exclusion of Monika Devi from the Beijing Games which is akin to discriminating against the people of North East region and to demand punitive action against the guilty persons responsible to denying the weightlifter an opportunity to compete with the world's best.
While AMSU president Khamba Laishram along with hockey Olympians Thoiba, Tiken and body-builder Kh Pradipkumar represented Manipur at the protest, NESO's functionaries led by its chairman Dr Samujjal Bhattacharya and a number of sportsperson also took part at the sit-in-protes.
In their remarks at the demonstration site, representatives of NE States un-equivocally expressed that preventing Monika from the Beijing Games clearly reflects discriminatory attitude of the Central authorities against the people of the region and pledged to work in unison to eradicate such step-motherly treatment.
Source: The Sangai Express

Thoiba Singh Speaks Out

IHF should give proper attention to junior level: Thoiba
Guwahati: The former star of the Indian hockey team Thoiba Singh, who was in the city to join a sit-in-strike organized by North East Student Organization (NESO) to seek justice for weightlifter Monika Devi, said that lack of proper training facilities to the junior players is the reason behind the downfall of Indian hockey. Here is the excerpt.
Q: This time India failed to qualify for the Beijing Olympics. Your reaction.

A: I was really hurt by the episode. You know, hockey is the game where once India dominated totally and also won the Olympics title for eight occasions. But we have lost the past glory and it is really very unfortunate for us that we didn't qualify for the recently concluded Beijing Olympics.
Q: Why such things are happening in the Indian hockey? Do you feel we don’t have quality players?

A: No, there is no dearth of talent in our country but we are still far away from proper planning. We failed to qualify for the recently concluded Beijing Olympics for several reasons. We are continuously ignoring to develop our junior players and as long as this type of system would be continued in our country I feel we will see such type of failure in the future also.
Q: Your suggestion in this regard.

A: We have to give equal attention to the junior players and should give them all type of training facilities. Unfortunately Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) failed to do so. Federation should play a vital role in this regard if they really want to bring back the golden day of the Indian hockey.
Q: Few experts feel that proper attention to be given at the time of selecting junior players. Do you feel it so?

A: I agree. Nowadays hockey is played in the astro turf and to play on that surface you need both physical fitness and speed. So during the selection we should keep both the points in our mind and special attention should be given on the speed.
Q: Are you actively involved with coaching nowadays?

A: Earlier, I did coaching regularly but due to different reasons it is not possible for me to continue coaching.
Q: Would you like to involve yourself for the development of hockey in the NE region?

A: I am always ready to do that. You would be glad to know that in the recent past, I had a talked with the officials of the Assam Hockey Association also regarding the development of the hockey in this region. I am always ready to help the game whenever my service would be sought.
Q: You know everything about the incident of Monika Devi. Would you tell us whether this type of incident did occur in Indian sports during your days?

A: It would be little bit difficult for me to give reply as I played the team game and Monika is associated with individual game. In the team game, it is difficult to do this type of injustice with a player.
Q: From a player’s points of view what will be the effect on Monika after the entire episode?

A; There will be a big impact on Monika after the incident. A player has to sacrifice a lot to reach a respectable position. After got selection in the team for a event like Olympics and all of a sudden if you dropped out from the team for a wrong reason then I feel that it is enough to finish a bright career.
Source: The Sentinel

NE hockey from Oct 21

Guwahati: The second edition of the North East Hockey Championship will get under way at the Vetapara Hockey Stadium from October 21.

All the States of the North East are expecting to take part in the championship. The secretary of the Assam Hockey Association, Tapan Das said that this time they are trying to organize the tournament in a different way and if everything go according to plan then the participating team would get appearance money.

He added that they are in touch with two big companies and they would be the main sponsor of the tournament.
Source: The Sentinel