Hockey Punjab wins Junior men's national title, defeats UP in final

Hockey Punjab recorded their second consecutive shootout victory to claim the Junior men's title defeating Uttar Pradesh in the final on Thursday.

Punjab won the shootout 4-3 after the match ended in a 3-3 draw after the regulation time.

Sukhwinder Singh (5’), Jarman Singh (33’) and Jobanpreet Singh (39’) scored for Hockey Punjab. Ajeet Yadav (31’) Suraj Pal (48’) and Akash Pal (54’) scored one goal each for Uttar Pradesh Hockey.

In the shootout, Akash Pal, Nitish Bhardwaj and Ajeet Yadav scored for Uttar Pradesh Hockey whereas Hockey Punjab proved out to the better one on the day of the final as Japnit Singh, Sukhwinder Singh, Jarman Singh and Lovenoor Singh scored for Hockey Punjab to lift the trophy.

Earlier, Punjab came back from 0-3 deficit in the semis against Haryana and forced a 4-4 draw.

In the resulting penalty shootout, Punjab defeated Haryana to reach the final.

In the other semi final yesterday, Uttar Pradesh had comprehensively defeated Karnataka 3-1.

In the other match, Hockey Haryana defeated Hockey Karnataka 5-0 to steal the third place on the podium. Amit Khasa (30’), Navraj Singh (50’), Nitin (54’), Manish Kumar (55’) and Sahil Ruhal (59’) scored one goal each for Hockey Haryana and took the game away from Hockey Karnataka.