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PANJIM: Goa bagged the bronze medal in beach volleyball championship at the ongoing 38th National Games, Uttarakhand, on Thursday.
In a tough and competitive match, the Goan team consisting Rama Dhawaskar and Nitin Sawant outplayed Telangana by fighting back after losing the first set 22-20. They won the next two sets 21-19, 15-13 to win the medal from the defending champions.
Post match, Coach Pralhad Dhawaskar said, “It was a very tough match with both the teams playing very well. It is great to have beaten the former champions. Our boys kept their nerve and won the match. This result was due to the hard practice the team had undergone for 21 days in Panjim. We had three sessions with each session lasting 2.5 hours. The boys worked very hard.”
Rama, the veteran player, who was also involved in the Gujarat Games, said that the match was tough but it was good.
He said, “We played the mind games. We lost the first set and decided to start attacking while taking care of our defence. We were nervous in the first set and then we attacked like I said. It caught them slightly off guard. By the time they recovered their posture we had won the second set. In the third set we were confident. We were 10 all but from there we pushed ahead and won the match.”
Nitin said, “It was very helpful to have somebody like Rama in your team. He guided me and changed the strategy based on the conditions of the match. Winning the medal is great. After losing the first set we changed the strategy and it helped us.”
Irvin Soares, former president of the association said, “It is absolutely great our Goan team won a medal. I was hoping for the gold and silver. We have the beach which is given by nature and our talent and hard work did the rest. The boys can expect to get Rs 1 lakh each for the bronze medal from the State government.”
