Imphal, February 08: The eleven edition of sub-junior national hockey championship has kicked off today with Manipur drubbing Himachal Pradesh by seven goals to one.

The opening ceremony was held this afternoon at the Khuman Lampak hockey stadium with Manipur Chief Minister O.Ibobi as chief guest.

Manipur Hockey Association (MHA) president Bijoy Koijam, sports minister K.Govindas Singh, legislator K.Ranjit Singh and Manipur Olympic Association president E Binoykumar also attended the the opening ceremony.

The championship is being hosted by MHA under the aegis of Indian Hockey Federation.

It will continue till February 14.Altogether 25 teams are participating in the championship.

Assam which is hosting the next National Games did not participate in the championship.

Only three states from the region - host Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland are participating in the championship.

Chief minister took the salute of march past.

The opening ceremony was marked by rhythmic performance of "Pung Cholom" and "Kabui Naga" dance.

A two minute silence was also observed by the players and people gathered at the stadium to show respect to the tsunami victims.

On the opening match Manipur drubbed Himachal Pradesh by a margin of 7 goals to one.

Manipur opened its account by L.Herojit in the 3rd minute through a penalty corner.

Manipur captain K.Suresh added another two goals in 25 th and 28 minutes through penalty corners.

Th.Manjeev converted a pass from left flank into goal in 37 minutes.

In 45 minutes, another goal was scored by K.Chinglensana through a pass from Ak.Ratan.

KH.Kothajit and Th.Manjeev ended the goal scoring spree of Manipur in 51 and 61 minutes respectively.

The solitary goal for Himachal Pradesh was came from Ajayi in 68 minutes.

In the other matches played today, Punjab defeated Delhi by 3 goals to nil, Hyderabad grilled Tripura by 8 goals to nil while Uttar Pradesh drubbed Nagaland by 13 goals to 1 and Andhra Pradesh crushed Jammu and Kashmir by 8 goals to nil.

Comment