CURATED BY – UMESH KUSHWAHA | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Satna, In the presence of State Minister of Urban Bodies, Smt. Pratima Bagri, Chief Guest, Minister of State for Urban Bodies, Madhya Pradesh Government, Kunwar Abhay Singh Roli Bhaiya presided over the function and special guest, President of Mumbai Wholesale Hosiery Merchant Association, Shri Moti Mani Singh Ji, President of Municipal Council Kothi, Smt. Sukhwanti Bai Bunkar, Harshvardhan Singh Raja Bahadur Kothi, along with dignitaries from the city and surrounding areas and thousands of sports loving spectators, a colourful closing ceremony of the 43rd Amar Shaheed Thakur Ranmat Singh Memorial All India Football Competition was organized at the Amar Shaheed Thakur Ranmat Singh Sports Ground in Kothi, in which the Balaghat team performed well and defeated the Raisen team by one goal and won the final match and the trophy. In today's match, both the teams played very well and in the first half of the match, both the teams played the match till a goalless draw, but in the second half of the match, 10 minutes before the end of the match, a foul found near a small D was declared a penalty by the referee, due to which the Balaghat team K Jackson Sharma gave his team the lead by converting the goal and that lead remained till the end of the match due to which Diamond Rock Balaghat team won by one goal over Raisen team and captured the trophy. Although Raisen team also played very well and tried to score goals continuously but due to lack of defense and strong goal keeper, they could not convert the goals and had to be satisfied with being the runner-up in the tournament. Today the ground was packed with spectators from all sides, even from the walls of the ground and the surrounding roofs, people enjoyed the match. The spectators enthusiastically encouraged the players and boosted their morale. After this, a ceremony was organized at the end of the match. The guests lit a lamp and garlanded the statue of Ranmat Singh and in the opening address, thanked the organizing committee and all the associates for organizing the event successfully and expressed their gratitude. The winning team Balaghat was awarded the Nirbhay Cup with a cash prize of Rs. 31000 and the runner-up team Raisen was awarded with a cash prize of Rs. 25000. Heera Cup was presented. Man of the Match was presented to Jackson Sharma, who was the scorer of today's match of Balaghat, in the memory of late Ishwar Pratap Singh, best player of Ranmat Club. Along with this, awards for Man of the Series, Best Goalkeeper and Best Defender were also given. Other cash prizes were also given. Best Hooter Award was presented in the memory of late Ram Lala Urmaliya, freedom fighter. All the colleagues who helped in the competition were awarded by the organizing committee. Before this, guests were welcomed by garlanding and putting badges by Ranmat Club President Vipin Singh, Secretary Nalinendra Mishra Dabbu and all his supporting members. Guests were presented with mementos. Children of Saint Clarendon School gave a captivating band performance, for which they were also awarded by the committee and other people of the city. Eyewitness account of today's match was narrated by Kamlesh Pathak and Ayush Soni. Ajay Singh Raja and Dharmendra Soni played the role of scorers. After the report by the Secretary, the process of lighting the torch was completed and the flag was lowered, which was presented by the Joint Secretary to the Chief. It was presented to the guest which the chief guest safely handed over to the secretary of the organizing committee for next year's competition. Thousands of regional sports loving people were witnesses during this.