3rd Inter-Departmental Football Tournament gets underway

GANGTOK, 17 Aug: The 3rd edition of the Inter Departmental Football Tournament was inaugurated by the Sports & Youth Affairs department, Principal Secretary, Dr K Jayakumar here at Paljor Stadium this afternoon. 29 teams are taking part in this month-long tournament which is being organized by Boys’ Club, Gangtok.
In his inaugural address, Dr Jayakumar appreciated the efforts of the Boys’ Club for organizing the tournament in a professional manner. While expressing his best wishes to the participating teams, he said that teams should celebrate the spirit of sports in the tournament.
In the inaugural match of the tournament, the defending champions Forest Department outplayed Labour Department 4-1. However, Sonam Thendup of Labour Department was awarded with the Man of the Match title.
In another match between Rural Management & Development Department and SISCO Bank, the former defeated the latter by 4-1. Tshering Thendup of RMDD was adjudged the Man of the Match.
Boys’ Club general secretary, Nima Thendup informed that the main objective of the tournament is to encourage government employees to stay fit by living a healthy and better life as well as a form of recreation. He added that the tournament has also encouraged employees towards a healthy lifestyle and also improved the standard of their game.
The last edition of the tournament had 23 teams participating while this time 6 more departments have joined the tournament.
Mr Thendup informed that the 29 teams have been distributed into 7 groups which will play league matches with each other. Two matches will be played every day at 1 PM and 3 PM.