New Delhi: It was a fantastic double for Tamil Nadu. Their boys and girls deservingly lifted 37th Sub-Junior National Volleyball Championships trophies after beating Uttar Pradesh and Kerala, respectively, in the finals held at the Ajmal Khan Park here today.

It was not a cozy ride for the Tamil Nadu boys against UP in the final. UP, who finished the bride’s maid yet again, made their opponents struggle for every point and as Tamil Nadu won 25-14, 20-25, 25-22, 23-25, 17-7 to retain the title.

In contrast, however, Tamil Nadu’s girls beat West Bengal in straight sets of 25-18, 25-11, 25-18 to win the silverware which they missed at Chennai in the last edition. Uttrakhand in the boys’ section and Kerala in the girls’ category claimed the bronze medals.

Tamil Nadu boys started very positively, taking the first set rather easily, thanks to their well coordinated efforts. But UP came back strongly in the second to restore parity. The trend continued with excellent set-ups and spiking by both teams as the scores indicates. But the Tamil Nadu boys, knowing the UP squad’s capability too well, surged ahead in the decider and logged quick points. That helped them in more ways than one as UP struggled to find their feet on the court and lacked cohesion even as Tamil Nadu went about scoring freely to sew it up.

As for their girls, it was a cakewalk against West Bengal. The team from the east had done all the good work so far only to falter at the final hurdle as the Tamil Nadu girls did not allow them any leeway in the final.

In fact, Tamil Nadu girls were too quick to thwart any effort coming from across the net while regularly scoring points of their own services. They also got to score off their opponents’ efforts which only hastened the outcome of the match in each of the sets to its logical conclusion.

Dronacharya Awardee and Director (Sports), Delhi Administration, Satpal, and Member of Parliament and Organising Committee chairman Hariom Pandey gave away the medals to the winners. Olympian Sushil Kumar and wrestler Bajrang were guests of honour at the closing ceremony.

The results:

Boys final: Tamil Nadu bt UP 25-14, 20-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-7; Bronze winners: Uttarakhand.
Girls final: Tamil Nadu bt West Bengal 25-18, 25-11, 25-18; Bronze winners: Kerala.