Commendable feat by Kerala’s universities

Raseena Iqbal takes some time to measure her opponent, who seems to be in a hurry. C.K. Krishna’s tactic of all-out attack doesn’t quite work, though, on this rainy Thursday afternoon at the St. Thomas College Indoor Stadium in Thrissur.

Raseena’s superior technique wins her the gold in the 60kg category. The bout — between the boxers representing Thrissur’s Vimala College and Kozhikode’s Government College of Physical Education — has turned out to be one of the highlights of the Calicut University women’s boxing championship.

It is late into the night when the competitions are finally over. The following day, the men’s championship would get underway.

When it finished on Saturday, with Christ College (Irinjalakuda) emerging as the overall champion, it marked the end of the sporting calendar of Calicut University. The overall title in the women’s event has not been decided, with Vimala (Raseena’s college) lodging a protest after being declared as the runner-up to the host, St. Thomas.

No mean effort

All the 75 events, in disciplines ranging from athletics to volleyball, have been completed. Not a mean effort in these trying times of the pandemic.

And Calicut is not the only university in Kerala that has conducted a large number of championships this academic year. MG and Kerala too have done rather well; for them, only the swimming competitions remain.

“We were determined to conduct all the events and are delighted that we could do it,” says V.P. Sakeer Hussain, director, Department of Physical Education, Calicut University. “That became possible because the physical education teachers, of all the nearly 400 colleges affiliated to the university, supported our decision.”

Grace marks

The university’s decision ensured that the students would get their grace marks, which would come in handy while applying for higher education or jobs.

“We didn’t want the students to suffer and that is why we decided to conduct all the events, though there would be no all-India championship for the academic year,” says Jayarajan David, who heads Kerala University’s Physical Education department.

The universities conducted the events following the COVID-19 guidelines.

“Only those who reported negative after COVID-19 tests were allowed to compete,” says Binu George Varghese, director of Physical Education, MG University.

Kannur University has a few more events to complete, but its Physical Education director K.P. Manoj is hopeful of doing it by the end of the month. “We have conducted 40 events so far and only 18 remain,” he says.