PANJIM: Goa women emerged champions of the Slum Soccer’s SPN National Inclusion Cup defeating Haryana 3-1` in the enticing final played at Miramar beach on Tuesday.
Goa’s upcoming star and women’s sensation –Ansiva Vaz stole the limelight at the famour Miramar beach as she scored a fine hat-trick to help Goa lift the crown.
Haryana’s Samiksha scored a goal but that was not enough as Goa were dominant in the game and held on to their two-goal cushion till the end.
Meanwhile, in the men’s category, Goa went down fighting against Manipur 5-7.
Goa led 5-1 at the break and squandered their four goal in the second half as they conceded six times to lose to crown.
Hussain Walikar scored a brace for Goa while Shivanand, Prakash Rathod and Suraj Viramat scored a goal each.
For Manipur, Maibham scored quadruple while Khundongbam scored a brace. Phuritshabam netted the other goal for the winners.
With an aim to empower marginalized sections of the society via sports, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), under the aegis of its CSR theme ‘Ek India Happywala’ sponsored the fourth consecutive edition of ‘SPN National Inclusion Cup 2020’ in association with the FIFA awarded charitable organisation ‘Slum Soccer’.
This year, the annual championship tournament will be spread over five days and saw the participation of young athletes from across India.
Youth from different states of India like Assam, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Gujarat, and Maharashtra participated in the unique tournament.
Out of 52 teams and 520 participants, the best performing 16 players, eight men and 8 women were selected to represent Team India to compete against 63 nations at the 18th edition of ‘The Homeless World Cup 2020’ in Finland in June 2020.
The SPN National Inclusion Cup concept pioneered by Prof. Vijay Barse, promotes and encourages the development of sports at grassroots level by setting positive pathways for the youth and imparting life skills for community leadership.
