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Kiren Rijiju with other dignitaries at the closing ceremony of the 13th NEC Tamchon Football Tournament on Saturday.[/caption]
Dimapur, Nov. 11 (EMN): The 13th NEC Tamchon Football Tournament, one of the biggest football and cultural events for the people of Northeast in Delhi, concluded on Saturday. Union Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju graced the closing ceremony of the sporting extravaganza.
The Tangkhul Naga Society Delhi (TNSD) has been organising the tournament annually since 2007 in memory of late RN Tamchon, a young police officer (ACP) of the Delhi police. An update from the organisers has informed that this year’s event was sponsored by NEC Ministry of DoNER, COSCO, Oil India Limited, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Ministry of Home Affairs.
Rijiju highlighted remarkable talent of north-eastern people in sports and shared “his dream of promoting it to international level”.
“I’m delighted to see football fever gripping into our capital city of Delhi. Football is a religion in North-East India. I’m excited to watch the final match of Tamchon Football Tournament between Indian Air Force and SSPP FC,” the Union Minister said.
“We organised this event to encourage and give platform to the young footballers from North-East, so that they can step on to higher sports platform. At the same time, to bring solidarity among the people of North-East in Delhi and also to connect ourselves with other people in Delhito build some kinds of integrity and uniformity in our country,” said Yaruingam Awungshi, president of Tangkhul Naga Society Delhi.
Several musical and cultural events were also performed at the event.
The Indian Air Force and SSPP FC, who were up against each other at last year’s final, played for the championship title this year too. This time, the Indian Air Force defeated the defending champions 2-0 and walked away with a cash prize of INR 6 lakh. The prize money for the first runners-up was INR 3 lakh and INR 2 lakh for the second runners-up.
The individual prize winners were: Best Striker - Phungtanlian Jr. No.17 (SSPP FC); Best Midfielder - Patrick Jr. No.8 (ZFC); Best Defender - Rary S. Raj Jr.No.6 (IAF); Best Goalkeeper – Dinesh Jr.No.22 (IAF); and Best Coach – Darshan Singh (IAF).
A total of 16 teams participated in the 15-day tournament this year, according to the organisers.