SAAF team Championships ( Men), Team India. India won gold (6 points), Sri Lanka won silver (16 points) n Nepal won Bronze (25 points) n in women SAAF team Championships, India won gold (6 points), Sri Lanka won silver (19 points) and Nepal won Bronze (20 points).
By Imna Longchar, TFM Nagaland Correspondent
As Nagaland hosted the second South Asian Athletics Federation Cross Country Championships (SAAFCCCs) and the 56th National Cross Country Championships (NCCCs) on Saturday at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, Kohima, successfully, the team India emerged as the winner of the end edition.
Participated by five South Asian countries which included Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, the Indian team of both men and women respectively registered their win in the 10 Km event while, Sri Lankan team took the second position followed by Nepal in the third position.
In the 8 km event of Under-20 category for boys and 6 km for Under-20 girls, Indian team took the first position followed by Sri Lanka. According to an official bulletin, in the 56th National Cross Country Championships (NCCCs), Service Sports Control Board (SSCB) bagged the first position in 10 Km event for men, while the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) emerged as the winner in 10km event for women. Nagaland women’s team took the third position.
In Under-20 categories, Uttar Pradesh boy’s team took the first position in 8Km event while girl’s team from Maharashtra bagged the first position in 6 Km event.
The championships hosted by the Nagaland Athletics Association (NAA) under the aegis of Athletics Federation of India (AFI), more than 600 participants took part in the event where 50 athletes were seen competing in the internal section and 34 States and Boards in the national section competing in the eight events for both the championships.
Nagaland Chief Minister, Neiphiu Rio congratulated all the winners and extended his best wishes to all the athletes for their future endeavours while stating that Nagaland was honoured to host the championships which termed it as an recognition of the state’s potential in sports.
It may be mentioned that that on March 25, Athletics Federation of India (AFI) president, Adile J Sumriwala, had expressed his happiness that the Nagaland Athletic Association (NAA) has put in their best efforts in terms of preparation, providing facilities to the athletics and technical assistance.
Seeing the tremendous talent of the northeast, Sumriwala also disclosed that AFI was trying to identify talent (s) through the event and to support Nagaland where high performing coaches were entrusted to train the state team.
Meanwhile, as per the AFI associate vice-president, Abu Metha, informed that out of the actual budget of Rs 4.6 crore estimated for the events, Nagaland government had sanctioned Rs 2.3 crore, out of which, 50 percent of the amount sanctioned had been received while the Bank of Baroda had chipped in Rs
18 lakh as sponsor for the event.