Double delight for Bhopal: Both teams sail ahead with easy win against Ratlam

Bhopal: RCC Bhopal began their campaign on a winning note in the first edition of the state-level beach volleyball championship at Tatya Tope Stadium on Monday. Bhopal won opening matches in both girls and boys categories.

In the girls’ category, Bhopal defeated Ratlam in straights games 2-0. Bhopal grabbed the first game 21-11 while hosts had to face tough fight in the second as they won the game with 21-17.

Team Jabalpur also won their first match. Playing against Hoshangabad, the Jabalpur team registered 2-0 win. After a hard fought 21-18 win in the first game, Jabalpur won the second game 21-13. Narsinghpur also registered 2-0 (21-06, 24-22) win against Shajapur.

Tough fight was witnessed between Mandsaur and Jabalpur Corporation. After winning the first game 21-16, team Mandsaur Corporation lost the rhythm as it lost next game 17-21. Chasing their strategy, Mandsaur bounced back in the match and won the third game 15-13 to enter the next round.

In the boys’ category, RCC Bhopal defeated Ratlam 2-0. Such was the cake-walk win for the hosts that they completed the first game with the scoreline 21-08 and second in 21-12. In the other matches, Gwalior defeated Betul (21-17, 21-13), Jabalpur district defeated Khargone 2-0 (21-9, 21-9). Police Academy Gwalior also defeated Mandsaur 21-11, 21-11 in straight games. Earlier, chairman of MP Police Housing Corporation and former director of sports, Shailendra Shrivastava inaugurated the tournament. MP is the third landlocked state in the country after Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh that have artificially-made sand courts. Sports department has developed a dedicated court at the Tatya Tope Stadium. Besides, the department has developed same kind of court in six other districts across the state. It has been developed at Bhopal and Narsinghpur. Other courts are being developed in Jabalpur, Sagar, Ujjain, Gwalior and Chhindwara.

Beach volleyball court is 16m x 8m, with no clear attack line while an indoor volleyball court is 18m x 9m. It has a parallel attack line, 3m from the center line.