Maharashtra win 5th edition of Wheelchair Rugby Nationals 2023
Pune, 11th September 2023: Maharashtra: outplayed Karnataka: 31-10 to win the
5th Edition of National Wheelchair Rugby Championship 2023 organised by The Indian Rugby Football Union (Rugby India), the sole governing body for the sport of Rugby in India, in association with the Wheelchair Rugby Federation of India and Mitsubishi Corporation which concluded at the Indoor Hall, Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex at Balewadi in Pune, Maharashtra
in the semifinals Karnataka edged out Haryana 9-7 while Maharashtra scored a big 22-13 win over Bihar.
The winner Maharashtra team got trophy. The prizes were given away at the hands of Mr. Ankush Arora, COO of Rugy India and
Dr. Shivaji Kumar, President wheelchair rugby federation of India
Rahul Bose, President, Rugby India, film actor and director said that, The Story of Wheelchair Rugby in India has been an astonishing story. There were ten players eight years ago, today there are 14 states playing the national championship here. Rugby India Board and Federation takes no credit. Everything has been an accrual of what people have been doing in the past. All we can do is to carry this flag forward. The flag says very clearly, anybody who enjoys any form of this game, whether it’s touch Rugby, whether it’s 7s or 15s Rugby, where it’s wheelchair Rugby, please come. You are absolutely welcome, we will open our arms to you and do whatever we can.
I would like to thank the organisers, the sponsors this is as important to us as anything else. Which is why we have put our teams, our technical staff, our organisational staff, everybody is here to make sure that this event is a resounding success. Finally to all our partners, thank you for keeping the faith. We will grow this from 14 states states today, to hopefully if all goes well, the entire country. Keep watching this space, it’s going to be exciting.
Following are the results: Semifinal Round:
Karnataka: 9(Manjunatha LH 3, Shrikant Desai 5, Mahantesh Hongal 1) bt Haryana: 7(Raja S 3, Sandeep 3, Ramesh Kumar 1)
Maharashtra: 22(Agnel Francis Naidu 11, Somnath Jadhav 8, Surendra Kasure 3) bt Bihar: 13(Deepak Sharma 3, Shailesh Kumar 3, Dheeraj Kumar 3, Rajeev Kumar 4)
Final Round: Maharashtra: 31(Somnath Jadhav 11, Surendra Kasure 7, Agnel Francis Naidu 9, Anthony John 4) bt Karnataka: 10(Manjunatha LH 4, Nadish BN 2, Mahantesh Hongal 1, Shrikant Desai3)
3rd and 4th place:
Bihar: 13(Deepak Sharma 3, Deepak Kumar Singh 3, Shailesh Kumar 3, Rajeev 4) bt Haryana: 5(Raja S. 5)
