Western Railway are Super champs

One name stood out from the rest in the team sheets of the two finalists in Wednesday’s MHAL Super League final (hockey) between Western Railway and Indian Navy. And 21- year-old national player Chinglen Sana did not disappoint scoring twice as the railmen won the match with 4-2 margin.

Sana, who is from Manipur, was awarded the man of the match.

Western Railway had finished third in last year’s edition but that didn’t play on coach Sunil Kumar Singh’s mind. “From the start we went in with the approach of taking it one game at a time. We stuck to our game plan and it was one those days where everything we had practiced on, worked for us.”

Commitments with the national team had kept Sana from the initial stages of the tournament and he played the last four games. After the final, his coach was all praise for him. “Sana couldn’t have timed his return to the team any better. His level-headed behaviour is the main reason why the team looks up to him and it also lifts their game a few notches up.  His presence on the pitch is also intimidating for the opposition which we got to see today as they had no answer to him,” said Singh. Sana said, “The team looks up to me, that is a sort of pressure but it has always brought out the best in me.”