Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) succeeded in pumping enthusiasm through the veins of college students with their invitational Basketball tournament. YMCA has been hosting such events since past 10 years with the sole intention of promoting sports among students. The tournament began on 8th Sept. and attracted a huge lot of crowd which enjoyed the matches and cheered for their favorite teams.
This six-day long tournament saw more than 30 teams (including teams of both girls and boys) from different colleges from University of Delhi, ITM University and Jamia Millia Islamia as well. The stadium at Patel Chowk, where the tournament was held, witnessed around 6-7 matches per day. The matches between various teams took place from afternoon till evening with the last match ending at around 8:00 p.m.
The competition throughout was intense. Among some breath-taking moments were the ones where Hansraj College lost to Venkateshwara College in the last 10 seconds of the quarter finals. Teams from Venkateshwara College (Boys) and Jamia Millia Islamia (Boys) defeated Kirori Mal College and St. Stephens College, respectively to make their way to the semi-finals. This broke the ritual of teams from Hindu College and Hansraj College being the semi-finalists from last 3 years which were knocked out during the quarter finals this time. Girl’s teams from SRCC and St. Stephen’s College stood against each-other in the semi-finals.
Kirori Mal College (Boys) won the final match against Jamia Millia Islamia (Boys) with a lead of 11 points. On the other hand, girls’ team of St.Stephen’s College was defeated by the team of SRCC. Thus, Kirori Mal College and SRCC took away the titles with utmost pride and glory.
“YMCA gives us a golden opportunity to brush up our skills and showcase our talents through such matches and they also reward us back which boosts up our enthusiasm to another level. No one usually pays much attention to this sport and we don’t get proper facilities but events like the one held at Patel Chowk keeps us from losing faith”, said Dilshad Singh, a third year student from Hansraj College, captain of the college Basketball team.
YMCA encourages students to take part in such events by offering attractive cash prices. This tournament offered a sum of 11 thousand to the winner team and had in store cash prizes worth 8 thousand and 5 thousand for the first and second runner up, respectively.
This tournament gave a pleasant start to the sports season in Delhi University with events in colleges like St. Stephen’s and BITS, Pilani waiting round the corner and are hoped to be filled up with even more excitement.
Shaurya Sahai
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