DAV College (Jalandhar) had the speed and stamina to edge out Al Ameen College (Bangalore) 2-1 in the final of the 19th SAIL Nehru Champion Colleges hockey tournament at the National Stadium, here on Monday.
Though it struggled to string a meaningful move for long and was constantly under pressure after having shot ahead in the fifth minute with a carpet drive by Jai Pal Singh off the team's first penalty corner, the Jalandhar team showed resilience to swing the balance in its favour at the crunch.
It was a gem of a goal with about 10 minutes left for the final whistle.
Manpreet Singh tapped home a fine pass from Mohit Singh Thakur that clinched the match for DAV.
The Bangalore team had done very well to make a fight of it earlier with the equaliser midway through the first half.
The forwards capitalised on a defensive lapse, with Honnur Swamy finding the cage after being put through by Mohan Muthanna.
Quite notably, Al Ameen College was not able to capitalise on the four penalty corners, and it was unable to put the finishing touches to some quality attempts in the climax.
The champion team was presented Rs. 1 lakh and the coach of the team, Manu Sood, was given Rs. 8,000. The runner-up team was given Rs. 64,000 and its coach Manohar Katke was awarded Rs. 5,000.
CRA College (Sonepat) defeated Municipal College (Rourkela) 5-2 in the match for the third place and pocketed Rs. 32,000. Its coach Manjeet Panwar was presented Rs. 3,000.
The results: Final: DAV College (Jalandhar) 2 (Jai Pal Singh, Manpreet Singh) bt Al Ameen College (Bangalore) 1 (Honnur Swamy). Third place: CRA College (Sonepat) 5 (Naveen Sangwan 3, Amit Lochab, Parvesh) bt Municipal College (Rourkela) 2 (Sunil Ekka, Amit Rohidas).
