Anantapur District emerging State Champs in both Judo and Hockey

The Anantapur boys hockey team

Anantapur Sports Academy athletes have warmed up vying to plunge into their competition phase with its football teams drawing first blood with tours to Chandigarh along with the commencement of the Anantapuram Football league.

Following close suite have been the ASA Hockey & Judo athletes who represented the Anantapur district at their respective state championships. These tournament outings were preceded by short training camps.

The Anantapur District Hockey teams had a relatively shorter, more intense training camp for four days at Anantapur Sports Village (ASV), with their tournaments being held just before Dussehra.

ASA had five boys at the Sub-Junior State Hockey Championship at Madanapalli, Chittoor between 15th and 18th of October while 12 of their seniors represented Anantapur district at the U19 State Hockey Championship held at Gudur, Nellore between 18th and 20th October, 2015.

The Sub-Junior Hockey team played well to reach the semi-finals of the tournament before bowing out to tournament winners Chittoor district that beat Kadapa in the finals, having to settle with fourth place with third place going to Guntur district on goal difference.

Their seniors on the U19 squad made it seem like a walk in the park, despite being quite a contest, as they won all of their games en route to the Championship. They also made it a point to stamp their authority on the turf, returning back with more good news as four of the ASA boys being selected to represent the state team at the upcoming national championship.

The Anantapur judokas on the other hand, had a longer, 10-day training camp with about a week more towards their competition as opposed to the hockey teams owing to their tournament being scheduled after Dussehra. Effectively the judokas trained hard for ten days before getting a much needed day and a half break to return home for the festivities.

The judokas would however, return to the ASA and depart the same evening of the 22nd for the tournament. The ASA Judo team sent out 7 boys and 5 girls, to represent Anantapur district as part of the contingent, at the Cadet and Junior Inter-District Judo Championship Anakapalli, Vishakhapatnam between 23rd and 25th October.

All that said and done the Judokas could not step back, after their hockey counterparts proved their point. They took the state meet by storm to lift the team championship in both girls and boys’ categories with all 31 judokas winning a medal, with only one of the boys having to miss out owing to a sudden injury.

Seven boys and five girls from the contingent being ASA judokas, returned home with a medal to don themselves with. An enviable medal tally with the Anantapur girls taking 15 Gold and One Silver, a narrowly missed clean sweep of gold, while the boys took eight gold, four silver and two bronze.

The Anantapur Judokas

The ASA judokas showing unmatched dominance with the boys taking six gold and one silver and all five girls pummelling their competition to take gold in their efforts for their district team.

Commenting on the success of the Anantapur Judo team, a joyous K N Babu, Secretary of the AP Judo Association & Anantapur District Judo Association said that “We were very pleasantly surprised as a few of the Anantapur judokas were pitted against strong former national level judokas, whom they beat to cause an upset, making a mark for themselves as they look forward to the upcoming Junior Judo Nationals to be held in Vadodara between 19th and 23rd November for which they will be set to train in Vijayawada.”