Bihar women’s rugby team has created history.Bihar women’s rugby team became champions by defeating West Bengal in the final of the 9th Senior National Rugby Championship on Sunday.Bihar won the title by defeating West Bengal 15-5 in the final held at Patliputra Sports Complex Kankarbagh on Sunday.In this match, Bihar’s female player Shweta scored 10 points, while Dharamshila scored five points.
Director General of Bihar Sports Development Authority, Ravindra Sankaran said that it is a matter of pride for Bihar.Bihar women’s team has won this rugby title in senior category for the first time.Earlier in the national competition in Hyderabad, the sub-junior team had won the final.Congratulating the players, he said that this victory is historic.Now the national champion match of women’s and men’s junior team will start from June 16.
Throughout the match held at Patliputra Sports Complex, the players of Bihar maintained their dominance till the end of the match.During the match, the agility of the women players of Bihar repeatedly overshadowed the Bengal team.Bihar got the gold medal in this competition, the runner-up West Bengal team got the silver while the third place Odisha team got the bronze medal.
It was a contest between Maharashtra and Odisha for the third place in which Odisha won the bronze medal by defeating Maharashtra 24-12.Earlier, in the women’s first semi-final match, West Bengal defeated Odisha 17-15 to make it to the final.Whereas in the second semi-final match, Bihar team reached the final after defeating Maharashtra 24-17.The whole team continued to celebrate the victory in the final match for a long time.
Haryana became national champion in men’s category
In the final of the men’s category, Haryana defeated Delhi by 15-00 to claim the title of champion.In the match, Delhi’s team was seen lagging in front of the players of Haryana from start to finish.However, earlier Delhi had made it to the finals by defeating West Bengal 12-07.Haryana, on the other hand, ensured their way to the finals by defeating Maharashtra 29-07.In the third place match, West Bengal defeated Maharashtra 24-12 to claim the bronze medal.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh, Special Guest Health Minister Mangal Pandey, Indian Rugby Football Union Secretary Gerald Prabhu, Rugby Football Association Secretary Pankaj Kumar Jyoti and others were present as the chief guest at the prize distribution ceremony.Everyone cheered the players.
Irtiqa has also leveraged the power of social media to ensure that her efforts and talent don’t go unnoticed.
As she speaks to me over the phone in Hindi from her home in Safakadal in Srinagar, Irtiqa confesses that she has always been into sports and loved playing football. But when rugby was first introduced in her school, she was hesitant to play.
“I had no idea about the sport, the rules and how it’s played. I hadn’t even seen how the ball looked like. When the coach encouraged us, I decided to give it a try but was still hesitant,” she says. However, after a week of playing rugby, she realised that she was going to enjoy this rough contact sports.
Since then, there has been no looking back. Irtiqa has won seven gold medals at the state level, and seven at the district level. She won a silver medal for Rugby 7’s in 2016 and 2017, and a gold medal for snow Rugby in 2017.
About a year-and-a-half ago, Irtiqa decided to take her love and passion for the sport to the next level and began coaching assignments in schools and colleges across the Valley. When she had started playing, there were very few girls in sports. But over the years, rugby’s popularity has grown not just among girls, but across the Valley.
Sports has become a way to not just channel the spirit of the youth, but to build teams that can play for India. Given the Valley has so much snow, it provides an excellent opportunity for players to play snow rugby too.
Love for sports
As she speaks to me over the phone in Hindi from her home in Safakadal in Srinagar, Irtiqa confesses that she has always been into sports and loved playing football. But when rugby was first introduced in her school, she was hesitant to play. “I had no idea about the sport, the rules and how it’s played. I hadn’t even seen how the ball looked like. When the coach encouraged us, I decided to give it a try but was still hesitant,” she says. However, after a week of playing rugby, she realised that she was going to enjoy this rough contact sports.
Since then, there has been no looking back. Irtiqa has won seven gold medals at the state level, and seven at the district level. She won a silver medal for Rugby 7’s in 2016 and 2017, and a gold medal for snow Rugby in 2017.