NE Sports Week kicks off as Manipur shine in football, badminton & TT
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, April 28 2022:
Both men's and women's football teams of Manipur got their campaign off to a resounding start as the North East Regional Sports Week 2022 kicked off with a grand opening ceremony here at the Khuman Lampak Main Stadium on Thursday.
Around 700 athletes from seven north eastern states - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and hosts Manipur will be competing in archery, badminton, boxing, football and table tennis.
The North East Sports Week runs through May 3 .
The opening day's football fixtures saw two men's matches and three women's games being decided.
In the men's tournament, Manipur made a strong start to their campaign with a 5-0 thumping of Arunachal Pradesh in their Group B match.
The hosts took the lead in the 21st minute via an own goal by Bishal Munda.
Myn Arif Hussain then put Manipur 2-0 up in the 28th minute.
Khaigunhao Joel made it 3-0 in the 55th minute before Vs Thotkadhar (70th) and P Naoba (76th) added a goal each to wrap up the victory.
Earlier, Assam opened the men's football event with a comfortable 5-1 win over Sikkim in their Group A encounter.
Urjay Brahma netted a double as S Basumatry, L Basumatry and Mithinga contributed a goal apiece in their triumph.
Kunzaman scored the lone goal of Sikkim.
Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh are placed in Group B while Group A has Mizoram, Assam and Sikkim.
In women's football, Manipur cruised past Assam 4-1 courtesy of a double from S Rinaroy and a goal each from Sultana and Y Luxmi.
Assam's only goal was scored by P Boro.
Nagaland, meanwhile, beat Tripura 2-0 with strikes from Roni and Mhasikhonuo.
In the day's third match, Sikkim women put six goals past Mizoram.
Suju Hangma grabbed a hat-trick as Signorina Thapa, Pratima Mukhia and Laxmi Thatal collected one goal each for Sikkim.
BADMINTON:
In badminton, Manipur along with Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam made it to the semifinals.
The state team defeated Tripura by a 3-0 margin in their meeting.
M Meiraba Luwang made light work of his Tripuri opponent 21-5, 21-12 in the men's singles event while Ksh Maheshwari Devi eased past Maithili Pal 21-5, 21-12 in the women's event.
The state pair of K Dingku Singh a nd Kh Manjit Singh produced a 21-7, 21-6 performance against Tripura's duo of Akash Sinha and Srijan Das in the men's doubles contest to see Manipur secure a commanding 3-0 margin win en route to the last four.
Mizoram too had it easy on their Way to the semifinals with a 3-0 victory over Sikkim.
In the men's singles duel, Mizoram's Malsawmsanga outplayed Pranay Sarkar 21-15, 21-12 as Rebek Lalremruai defeated Tashi Chiden Gurung 21-12, 21- 8 in the women's contest.
In the men's doubles event, Ladingtluanga Tlau and Lalrinawma got the better of Rewash Rai and Wangyal Lepcha 21-11, 21-16 to ensure Mizoram s wept aside Sikim 3-0 into the last four.
Arunachal also earned a smooth passage to the badminton semifinals after beating Nagaland by a 3-0 margin courtesy of Laa Talar and Dolma Tamang, who both triumphed in the men's and women's singles matches, backed by a win through Charu Jaji and Laa Talar in the doubles event.
Assam, meanwhile, received a first-round bye that propelled them to the semi finals where they will meet Arunachal Pradesh while Manipur face Mizoram.
TABLE TENNIS:
Manipur also did well in the team table tennis competition, beating Arunachal Pradesh 3-0 in the first round.
H Senerita Devi outclassed Neelam Dilli 11-7, 11-3, 11-6, S Thajamanbi Devi overcame Debolina Das 11-9, 2-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-6, and M Bindiya Devi outshone Mamuni Taniang 11-7, 11-8, 11-8 to hand Manipur a dominant first-round win.
Mizoram rode on triumphant performances of Lalthansangi Sailo, Malsawmtluangi and Jenny Liansangpuii to beat Tripura by a 3-0 margin in other table tennis fixtures.
Assam too made a clean sweep of their three matches against Nagaland with the help of Liyah M Hussain, Adrija Sarmah and Pratiksha Konwar in the first round of the table tennis competition.