Imphal, April 11: Meiraa, Bashikhong lifted the championship title of the inaugural State Level Veteran Hockey tournament after a hard-fought 6-3 victory via the tie-breaker in the final against KhSC, Khongman at Khuman Lampak Hockey Tournament today.

After a 2-2 draw at the end of normal period penalty shoot-out had to be applied to decide the champion veterans wherein composure of the Meiraa penalty takers ensured triumphant conclusion to their campaign.

N Ibomcha, B Sanatomba, Th Ojit and M Ratan converted their penalty strokes into goals while only M Phalguni succeeded out of three KhSC attempts.

Earlier, Meiraa set the pace of the game when Th Nimai banged home in the second minute only for the lead to be erased with a five minute strike from M Shantikeshwore.

Similar trend persisted in the keenly contested second half as well with Th Ojit scoring Meiraa's second goal in the 44th minute and S Modhumangol restoring parity for the opponent side two minutes from end of regulation period.

Ten minutes additional time was applied to decide the match but the score remained unchanged.

The match period was divided into three quarters of 20 minutes each.

The champion side was awarded Rs 5000 with the runnersup having to content with Rs 3000.YAC, Yaiskul and HU, Lairikyengbam Leikai were declared joint winners of third place of the tournament organised by Veteran Hockey Association Manipur.

In all seven teams participated in the tournament.

The best player award was bagged by RK Nripen of YAC, with Ch Roman of KhSC bagging the man of the final match prize while N Chandikumar of HU claimed the highest goal scorer prize with a competition total of six strikes.

Each of the awards carried Rs 500 each.

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