Senior National Women's Kabaddi Championship 2023: Haryana take crown from Himachal Pradesh
Defending champions Himachal Pradesh lost to home team Haryana by seven points. This was Haryana’s first title in the senior women’s kabaddi nationals in nine editions.
Hosts Haryana defeated last edition’s winners Himachal Pradesh 35-28 in the Senior National Women's Kabaddi Championship 2023 final to win their first title in nine editions in Mahendragarh on Sunday.
Haryana had finished runners-up five times in the last nine editions of the women’s kabaddi nationals.
The Haryana women’s kabaddi team was led by Priyanka, who also led India to a gold medal at the 2019 South Asian Games in Nepal.
While Himachal Pradesh settled for the silver medal in Mahendragarh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan each claimed the bronze.
The final was a close affair between the two teams with Himachal Pradesh leading by a single point at the end of the first half. Haryana, however, inflicted the first all-out early in the second half and gathered momentum to eventually win the 69th edition of the Senior National Women's Kabaddi Championship by seven points.
In the semi-finals, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh registered wins in contrasting fashions. Haryana pipped Rajasthan 34-33 while Himachal Pradesh proved too strong for Jharkhand and won the match 49-20.
Haryana were in Group C along with Jharkhand and Odisha at the senior kabaddi nationals. They lost their match against Jharkhand but beat Odisha to advance to the round of 16.
In the round of 16, Haryana beat Tamil Nadu 46-17 and upstaged Indian Railways 38-23 in the quarter-finals.