“Gold medals aren’t really made of gold. They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts”.
– Dan Gable
Sweat, determination and guts were seen not only in the participants but the organizers as well. For the event to run successfully, the organizers had to put their heart and soul in planning it. Here, are some successful sports hosted in SPoorthi:
TUG OF WAR
“Jor lagake haaisha” could be heard reverberating through the grounds of S.P.I.T with a fierce determination as the competitors were surrounded by fired up onlookers and more curious watchers from the classroom windows.
Aashish Nehete and Nikhil Kulkarni from the organizing team were overwhelmed with the response. “This was the first time Tug of War was included in our sports festival due to its huge popularity and response in the intra-college S.P.I.T Cup. The first edition itself saw participation from National Level players. The Sports Committee was also applauded for keeping a girls category, something not often seen in other sports festivals.”,says Aashish.
The team from VSIT won in both the boys as well as the girls’ category while the runner-up positions were bagged by the teams from Thakur College, again in both categories.
KABADDI
A sport that originated from our land itself, Kabaddi sees the perfect combination of quick reflexes and spontaneous strategizing. For the first time, Kabaddi was included in SPoorthi, increasing the thrill and excitement of the participants. The event took place on 2nd February with 10 highly skilled teams consisting of 12 members each, from various engineering colleges across Mumbai.
“Organizing this event alone was not an easy task and we could only do it successfully due to the massive support from our sports committee and our sports secretary Sharvika Raut who got us really pumped up to organize Kabaddi. It was only due to our collective strong will and motivated spirit that we got such a positive response.”, says organizer Kautuk Bhosle, a Kabaddi player himself. The finale was an intense match between the team from Vidyavardhini College of Engineering and Technology (VCET) and Atharva College of Engineering with VCET emerging victorious.
ATHLETICS
‘Life is a race. If you don’t run fast, you’ll be like a broken egg’, Upholding the same ideal, SPoorthi organized an all-day athletics meet consisting of 100m, 200m, and 400m races and 4*100m relay.
The day began with the 100m and 200m races for boys where Avinash Dubey (RGIT) and Pravin Mani (Viva college) secured the first and second spot respectfully. They also managed to secure the same spots in the 400m run. Coming to the girls, Muskan Jain (VJTI) secured the first place not only in the 100m race but also the 200m and 400m races, with Aditi Sharma ( VJTI) securing second in 100m and 200m races and Daksha Raut (RGIT) bagging second in the 400m run.
Finally, it was time for the most awaited race, the 4*100m Relay. Here, Muskan Jain, Vaishnavi Gawade, Swaroop Athorkar and Aditi Sharma from VJTI were crowned winners while Daksha Raut, Priyanka Jagtap, Sakshi Patil and Kashish Kohli from RGIT were the runners-up. From the boys, Harish Nimbde, Pravin Mani, Girish Gharat and Shubham Trimukhe from Viva college bagged the first place followed by Akash Sharma, Daivik Shetty, Karan Shetye and Aditya Parab from Universal College with the second.
We have reached the end of all the outdoor sports…But, not the end of SPoorthi. Stay tuned for the next article of SPoorthi – ‘Indoor Sports’.
– Report by Arya Stark, Noora Amalie Sætre, Artemis Fowl and Erza Scarlet.