The winning Navua Sana­tan football team dedicated their Sanatan World Cup win to the late president Isht Deo who passed away during the San­atan convention.

It was an emotional moment for the Deo family when they re­ceived the trophy from the Navua Sanatan side yesterday.

Speaking to SUNsports yester­day, Navua Sanatan vice-presi­dent Sunil Chandra reiterated that the victory is dedicated to their former president.

“Our former president passed away two months ago,” he said.

“This is because Mr Deo had the organisation at heart and he was always supporting the develop­ment of the players as he wanted the team to participate in the World Cup.

“Since he’s not here we would like to remember him with the win.”

Chandra said they were confi­dent when going into the tour­nament and that contributed to their win.

“Since this is the first time that the tournament was held in Fiji. “We tried our best to win the ti­tle,” he said

“We are proud that Navua has won in the global arena. This is a big achievement not only for the Navua team but also to the people of Fiji.

“This is the first time that we have won the competition and also for Fiji as hosts.

“We want to show the people of Navua the hard work that the players had done as we were on the verge of losing but the play­ers kept things together and were able to turn the table around.”

– Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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