News: Sports contingent at Udghosh 2015

What work could possibly go into attending a sports meet? Between getting all the required permissions, developing a budget and then working within it, handling  and coordinating with the officials of Udghosh ’15 (the sports meet in question, which was held at IIT Kanpur from the 1^st of October and took place over four days), it may have gotten quite trying. Not to mention having to manage a sports contingent having a strength of about 196 people, around the number of countries there are in the world. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this trip was that the Sports Secretary, Praveen Prabhakar, and all the captains of the various teams representing our institute returned sane.

When not admiring the beautiful campus, eating at the dhabhas that simultaneously catered to the tongue, stomach and pocket, availing their food coupons or splurging on the Baskins Robbins’ scoops that were subsidized in cost, the participants were out making a name for the college and themselves, giving their best in their matches or events. This much can be at least be worked out from the results, if nothing else. Something everyone had in common, discounting the final years, whether or not they returned with medals, was a motivation to do even better the next year. Something else everyone came back with, especially the final years, were great memories. A recurring sentiment amongst those in the contingent was that individuals of a team went to Udgosh, and members of a family returned to NITT. The teams spent their time travelling bonding within themselves and with the other teams, where everyone… interacted (yes, that’s the perfect word for it). The dip in the quality of the food served in the train, the lack of reliable sockets and the presence of the aggressive extortionists that donned sarees would probably have had a big role in bringing everyone together as well.

The Athletics team opened the account with the boys bringing in the first medal – a bronze – in the Triple Jump event. The girls would not be outdone, bagging a silver in Long Jump, as well as two bronzes in the relays – the 4×100 and the 4×400.
The Kho-kho girls proved they were the champions, coming home with gold medals. The boys had an extremely close game in the semi-finals that could’ve gone either way, against the home team that later came first. The kho-kho teams’ hard work was especially visible to every spectator.
When it came to racquet sports, the Table Tennis team emerged victorious, with the boys placing first and the girls, second. The Tennis team was just as successful, with the genders swapping places, as the girls placed first and the boys, second. The badminton girls only nearly missed a medal, faltering in the semi-finals against the team that went on to win, IIT Kanpur.
The players of the rest of the ball sports also sought to set their names in stone, with the Football team only conceding their first goal in two trips to Kanpur in the semi-final match. In fact, the few matches they played this year were enough to convince the panelists to award them with the Best Goalkeeper. The girls Basketball team outclassed the other colleges, proving that they were out of this league dominating almost all their matches and bagging first place, giving the girls of the sports contingent more gold than a leprechaun at the end of a rainbow.

The sports secretary was quite grateful to several members of the faculty. “I’d like to thank the sports convener, Dr. Alphonse, Mrs. Lalitha, the Director and the Dean, Students’ Welfare, Dr.VenkatesaPrabhu. I’d also like to thank the Physical Director, Dr.Rajendra Kumar for his continuous support,” he said. He also went on to call the trip a success, thanking the teams that participated, “Every team put in their best effort. While some won and others lost, the effort was all that mattered. The support of the entire sports contingent was uncompromising and without them nothing would’ve been possible. I’m also grateful to Naveen Kumar, Associate Sports Secretary and Vicky, Chairman – Sportsfete for their help. Lastly I’d like to thank one wonderful person who took it upon himself to help me out. He’s spent as many sleepless nights as I have and bunked as many classes to make sure the entire trip was smooth. I thank Mohamed Ghouse, Organising Head – Sportsfete.”