Mumbai: All but one team from East Zone swept through the finals of the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) 2019-20 National Football Championships. Two teams from Imphal and one each from Shillong, Malappuram and Asansol grabbed the honours across the five categories here at the Reliance Corporate Park Ground in Navi Mumbai today. The champions battled through their respective categories across 5 months which witnessed 1,20,000 young athletes competing in five categories of Sub Junior Boys, Junior Boys, Senior Boys, College Boys and School Girls. The road to the National Finals witnessed 6700 football games featuring 10,000 educational institutions across 90 cities.
The Unique Model Academy, Imphal emerged as winners of the coveted Sub Junior trophy, the newest category introduced in the competition this season. The boys from Manipur played like champions from the word go to humble Progress High from Goa 4-0.
Nilamani English School successfully defended their title in the School Girl’s category after seeing out tough opposition from the Haryana Girls. Thoibisan Toijam scored in the last minute of injury time to make it two in two for Manipur on the day.
Unlike Nilamani, Shillong College HS were unable to defend their crown in the Senior Boys category going to MSP HSS 2-3. The winners had too much in store for Shillong in a match which witnessed some quality football on offer from both sides.
H Elias Memorial took the game to tie-breakers as they failed to break down Govt Oriental HS. However, thanks to heroics from goalkeeper Wankit Mawphlang, the current Subroto Cup winners won the Junior Boys title 2-0 in the penalty shootout. It was a dream finish to season four with Shillong College giving up a two-goal lead to allow Asansol to finish 4-4 at full-time. The surprise packages from West Bengal made it 6-5 on penalties lifting the College Boys title for the first time.
