Manipur girls start strong favourites

Chandigarh, Jul 9 (UNI) Defending champions Manipur start strong favourites in the third edition of the Girls Under-17 Junior National Football Championship which begins here tomorrow.

Manipur have an easy match against lowly rated Jammu and Kashmir in their opening cluster A encounter.

Manipur coach Chaoba Devi was confident of retaining the title.

''Our girls have been training hard. They have come here after attending coaching camps in phased manner. In the one-month coaching camps, we have also played matches against the senior team which gave us more confidence. All our players are fit and raring to go,'' said Chaoba Devi.

''Our captain Bem-Bem is an international player and has played in the Asian Championship for Under-17 in Thailand. Besides, today's rain has given us relief from the scorching heat,'' said the Manipur coach.

She predicted that either last year's runners-up Orissa or Tamil Nadu would be Manipur's opponents in the final here. Chaoba firmly ruled out West Bengal entering the final.

''We have seen them training. We have routed them by 10-0 in the semi-final in the last edition,'' said Chaoba.

However, West Bengal coach Kajol Rakshit was confident that his team would storm into the final as they had prepared well during the one-month coaching camp at Yuva Bharti Kiryangan in Kolkata.

''We have a very good half-line comprising Shuvli Roy, Rojina Khartoon (captain), Kalpana Kumari and Alpana Roy. Strikers Sobita Bagri and Lipika are in good form,'' said Rakshit, who however, admitted that goalkeeping was his weak department. In the absence of their number of one goalkeeper, Chhabita Dulai will guard the West Bengal goal.

Jammu and Kashmir, where no sports infrastructure is available for women soccer, will face the might of Manipur in their opening match.

Coach Iqbal Singh was frank in admitting ''Our aim is to restrict the margin of victory of Manipur, who are the champions. With no women football culture in Jammu and Kashmir and the prevailing conditions, the girls competing here are all from Jammu itself.'' Meanwhile, 14 teams out of 24 have already arrived and remaining are on the way. Those reported are: Manipur, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Delhi, Tripura, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Goa, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

Most of the teams had light stretching excercises as the grounds were soggy due to rain.

All technical officials appointed by the All India Football Federation have arrived as a meeting of all managers was convened by Match Commissioner S Kumari Devi of Manipur.

UNI XC DP AY DB1959