Once no-hopers to nearly champions

Panaji: Goans have come so far in beach volleyball now that even a silver and bronze medal at the National Beach Volleyball Championship is no consolation.
Two of Goa’s three participating teams at the National Beach Volleyball Championship in Chennai made it to the last four; two of them ended up with medals. But while most would have celebrated a silver and bronze at the national level, Goa were left to rue their failure to grab a gold.

“We came close. We should have won this one. Honestly, we couldn’t play our best game in the final,” said Rama ‘Pappu’ Dhawaskar, who playing alongside Aaron Pereira, lost to Railways in the final.

The second Goan team consisting of Anil Shirodkar and Pralhad Dhawaskar settled for the bronze medal and even they wondered if they could have done more and gone all the way.

Goa are minnows in volleyball, regularly getting smashed at the national level in indoor volleyball. But for the last couple of years, Goa has taken rapid strides in beach volleyball with the quartet of Pappu, Aaron, Pralhad and Anil leading the way.

“It’s good for all of us that both teams will now be part of the national camp. Of the four teams, two will get the nod to take part at the Asian Beach Volleyball Championship in Jakarta,” said Dhawaskar, who is hoping that at least one team from Goa will get the nod.

In the final, Pappu and Aaron started well but having dropped the first set 18-21, surrendered meekly in the second. Pralhad and Anil edged out Tamil Nadu for the bronze medal.

Results (final): Men: Railways (K. Rajesh & Krishna Chaitanya) bt Goa-1 (Rama Dhawaskar & Aaron Pereira) 21-18, 21-11; Women: Tamil Nadu-1 (R. Subraja & S. Shalini) bt Tamil Nadu-2 (P. Yogeshwari & G. Jenifer) 21-14, 21-15.