Navua Sanatan Upsets Champions Suva

The Garib Chand-coached Navua side created the first upset in the 60th Shree Sanatan Inter-District Championship, at Tuva Primary School ground, Nadroga yesterday.

The side, who were the defending champions of the Sanatan World Cup, beat the defending champions of the IDC, Suva 3-1 in their opening pool play.

The capital city opened the scoring in the 19th minute through Menon Ram. A minute later saw Navua equalised through Vinit Chand.

In the second half, Navua capitalised with goals from Mohit Chand and Vyas Pratap in the 41st and 52nd minutes respectively.

Coach Chand said, “We hope to return to Navua with the IDC trophy as the last time we won was in 2008 and 2011. We have set the benchmark and to beat IDC champions Suva is awesome.

“We had issues of training as we had only three days due to the wet weather but we are settling in well in Tuva.”

Suva bounced back to thrash Sabeto 4-1 in their second pool match and Na- vua was playing Sabeto when this edition went to press last night.

The capital city side had Ivon Kumar, Akitesh Kumar, Ricky Sharma and Roshan Ram.

National Sanatan Sports wing president Pravin Singh said for the first time in the history of the IDC, a prize purse of $20,000 is at stake alongside 40 trophies.

“We are very thankful to our sponsors such as Pratap Ashpalt for coming on board. This is history to have such prize purse,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nasinu will defend its title in the Shree Sanatan Dharm Nari Sabha Inter-District Championship netball. The side defeated Tuva 11-2 to win last year.

Results: Open men: Uluisila 3 -1 Na- droga, Navua 3–1 Suva, Makoi 1-0 Tuva, Nadi 2 – 1 Savusavu, Nabua 2 – 2 T/ Varoka, Nabua 1 –0 Drasa, Tavua 2– 5 Nasinu, Savusavu 1–2 Ba, Nasinu 0–0 Lautoka, Rakiraki 0–3 Cuvu, Suva 4–1 Sabeto, Korovuto 6-0 Votualevu, Labasa 3- 1 Tuva , Cuvu 0-0 Rewa, Uluisila 1- 0 Wairabetia. Other results (Masters): Tuva 0-0 Cuvu, Cuvu 0 –4 Navua.

Edited by Osea Bola

Feedback: waisean@fijisun.com.fj