Jalandhar: Hockey Haryana emerged as champions of the 15th Hockey India Junior Men National Championship 2025, defeating Hockey Association of Odisha 3-2 in Jalandhar, Punjab.
Hockey Punjab won their 3rd/4th place match against Uttar Pradesh Hockey 4-3 in a shootout after a 3-3 draw over the four quarters to clinch the bronze medal.
In the final, both sides couldn’t be separated initially as they exchanged possession but failed to find an opening goal. In the second quarter, Hockey Association of Odisha showcased brilliant skill by converting two successive penalty corners courtesy of Deepak Pradhan (17′) and Pratap Toppo (19′) to take a comfortable lead in the final. The scores remained the same in the third quarter, but Hockey Haryana turned the game on its head in the final quarter of the match.
Chirag (50′) scored his side’s first goal through a penalty corner, and in the very next minute, his teammate Nitin (51′, 60′) scored a field goal to level the game. Moments later, in the final minute of the match, Nitin skillfully dribbled past two defenders and fired a shot from distance to score the winning goal for Hockey Haryana and claim the championship.
In the 3rd/4th place match, Uttar Pradesh Hockey scored early in the first quarter as Satyam Pandey (8′) converted a penalty corner to open the scoring. Hockey Punjab replied with two goals in the second quarter by Lovenoor Singh (21′) and Japnit Singh (28′, 59′) to take the lead.
The third quarter saw the tide shift to Uttar Pradesh Hockey as Ujjwal Pal (48′) and Fahad Khan (57′) scored to take the lead again. In the last minute, Hockey Punjab’s Japnit Singh scored a penalty stroke to push the game into a shootout. Charanjeet Singh, Lovenoor Singh, Om Rajnesh Saini and Sunny were the goalscorers for Hockey Punjab in the shootout to finish on third in the tournament.
(IANS)
