Haryana won the title ofthe 15th Hockey India Junior Men National Hockey Championship by defeatingOdisha 3-2 in a tough competition at local Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium Patialain Punjab.

While Punjab won thebronze medal by defeating Uttar Pradesh 4-3 via shootout. The prizes weredistributed to the winners by Punjab Cabinet Minister, Mahendra Bhagat.

Speaking to the gathering,he announced to give Rs. 11 lakh to Hockey Punjab. He said that in the comingtime, the Punjab Government will make a significant contribution in anynational or international level tournament organized by Hockey Punjab.

In the final, Odisha wasleading 2-0 at half time. But in the second half of the game, Haryana made abrilliant comeback. Odisha's Deepak Pradhan scored in the 17th minute andPratap Topo in the 19th minute to make the score 2-0. Haryana won the match 3-2with goals from Chirag in the 50th minute, Nitan in the 51st and 60th minutes.

Earlier, in the matchplayed for the third place, Punjab showed the best game. The score remainedtied at 3-3 till the end of the stipulated time. In the penalty shootout,Punjab defeated Uttar Pradesh 4-3 to win the third place.

Prominent among others presentwere Nitin Kohli, president Hockey Punjab; Amrik Singh Powar, general secretaryHockey Punjab; Olympian Sanjeev Kumar; Ajitpal Singh Goldy, Olympian HarpreetSingh Mander; Olympian Rajinder Singh Senior; Ashfaq Ullah Khan, NicholasTolatis, Rana Tut, Iqbal Singh Sandhu, Surinder Singh Bhapa, Gurmeet Singh,Daljit Singh Dhillon, Varinderpreet Singh, Ripudaman Kumar Singh, Angad SinghKapoor, Manjit Singh, Avtar Singh, G.S. Sangha, H.S. Sangha.

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