Panaji: When Aaron Pereira picked up an harm and it was clear that he wouldn’t be capable of make it for the open choice trials for India’s Asian Video games seaside volleyball group, Rama Dhawaskar felt helpless.
The 2 have mixed to win a number of medals for Goa, the final was a bronze on the Nationwide Video games in Gujarat final yr. However up subsequent was the possibility of their lives: to symbolize India on the Asian Video games.
Rama, higher often called Pappu in Goa’s volleyball circles, didn’t lose coronary heart. He partnered Nitin Sawant, a longtime participant within the state, and the 2 mixed to stun the remainder of the sphere in the course of the two-day trials on the Marina seaside in Chennai.
Rama and Nitin received the Asian Video games seaside volleyball trials event on Thursday to verify their place for the Asian Video games in Hangzhou, China, in September-October.
“There have been 15 groups which attended the trials right here and the highest two groups mechanically certified for Asian Video games,” Rama advised TOI. “It was powerful for us, there have been difficulties initially, however as soon as we obtained to know one another, we turned stronger. It feels nice to qualify for the Asian Video games.”
For greater than a decade, Rama has been amongst Goa’s better-known volleyball gamers, whereas Nitin has made heads flip along with his attacking recreation.
In Chennai, the Goan duo had beginning issues. Taking part in collectively on the seaside in a contest for the primary time, they took time to know one another’s strengths, and weaknesses. The opening spherical win towards revenue tax helped calm nerves.
“Our greatest battle was within the quarterfinals after we misplaced the primary set towards Tamil Nadu. They had been a robust facet and we needed to change our technique within the second set. We adopted an influence recreation and smashed utilizing medium set balls. That labored,” mentioned Rama, a volleyball coach with the directorate of sports activities and youth affairs (DSYA).
As soon as the Goan duo received the powerful three-setter, there was no stopping them as they put it throughout Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry within the semifinal and remaining, in straight units.
They had been coached by Pralhad Dhawaskar, employed with Goa police.
The trials had been initially scheduled to be held on the Miramar seaside early this month, however needed to be postponed resulting from a pink alert issued by the India Meteorological Division (IMD).
The trials had been performed by the ad-hoc committee of the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI).
The committee mentioned, “Participation of the chosen groups within the Asian Video games can be topic to the factors for fielding the Indian contingent for the Asian Video games as per additional evaluation of profitable likelihood of the group.”

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