Revolutionising and reinventing grassroots sports with SFA Championships

The eighth day of SFA Championships began with chess competitions at the Shahaji Raje Krida Sankul (Sports Complex) in Andheri, with close to 370 players competing in U-7 to U-17 categories. The day recorded a whopping more than 2400 participation of young sporting talent in 7 sports, including Shooting and Chess at the Shahaji Raje Krida Sankul (Sports Complex) in Andheri; Football at St. Pius College Ground (Goregaon) and Railway Police Ground (Ghatkopar), Basketball, Volleyball and Judo at Mumbai University (Kalina); and Squash at the National Sports Club of India.

The Shahaji Raje Krida Sankul (Sports Complex) in Andheri saw the culmination of shooting with intense competitions of over 40 shooters in the U-14 and U-17 Boys categories. Volleyball finals for U-12 to U-18 Boys and Girls, saw more than 100 athletes competing in 13 matches. For the squash finals for U-9 to U-19, an impressive 21 matches with over 65 players, competed at the courts.

Mother of chess champion, Avyaay Garg, Advocate Fazāā Shroff-Garg, proudly shared the chess journey of her son, who holds a FIDE rating of 1418 and national ranking of 8 in U-9 Chess. She said, 'My twins, Avyaay and Araaya, were introduced to chess when their maternal grandparents gifted them a chessboard. I taught them the basics and later got coaches for them. While Araaya took a break from chess during lockdown to focus on her passion for publishing her Book, Ballet & Horse-riding, Avyaay continued to thrive in Chess. At the age of 7, in 2021, Avyaay competed in his first ever Open tournament in Hyderabad, facing much older players and defeating several Rated opponents. He has represented India in several international championships in Singapore, Georgia, Greece, France, Abu Dhabi & Serbia. My aim is to support his passion and help him look beyond wins and losses. We are at the SFA Championships for the first time, and feel that everything is well-organised here and we look forward to its growth in India." Avyaay expressed that playing chess competitively for the past 2 years has taught him patience and humility, and he aspires to someday become the number 1 chess player in the world!

The excitement continued to grow on the football fields with more than 120 participants competing in U-14 and U-16 Boys at Railway Police Grounds, (Ghatkopar). Meanwhile, St. Pius College Ground, (Goregaon) hosted 32 matches for U-10 and U-12 Boys and Girls. On the basketball court more than 120 players dribbled their way in U-16 and U-18 categories, while more than 400 judo enthusiasts in U-8 to U-12 categories, thrilled the spectators with their sharp skills.

Day 9 of SFA Championships will have the finals in Basketball, Chess and Judo. On the other hand Swimming and Throwball will kickstart, across age categories.

From today catch all the sporting action from the SFA Championships on the Jio Cinema app and for television on Sports18-2 and Sports18 Khel (https://jiocinema.onelink.me/fRhd/892kyx1r)

SFA Championships is poised to make sports accessible for young athletes across the country, thereby empowering today’s talent to become the Champions of tomorrow.

Results of Day 8:

Sports: Judo

Category: Female U-12 (30 kgs)

Gold: Vaibhavi, Adarsh Vidyalaya, Goregaon

Silver: Alshifa Shaikh, Kherwadi Mps, Bandra (E)

Bronze: Mahek Sheikh, Kherwadi Mps Bandra (E)

Bronze: Zoya Shah, Kherwadi Mps Bandra (E)

Category: Male U-12 (63 kgs)

Gold: Ridhat, Vibgyor High, Goregaon

Silver: Keshav, Children's Academy, Malad

Bronze: Kalpesh, Mvm International School

Bronze: Archit, Podar International School, IB

Category: Male U-12 (23 kgs)

Gold: Ishawar Vishwakarma

Silver: Zeeshan Shaikh

Bronze: Ashawin Jaiswal

Category: Male U-12 (42 kgs)

Gold: Pravya Garg

Silver: Ishawari Bavkar

Bronze: Dia Takasali

Bronze: Raha Chaudhary

Category: Male U-12 (40 kgs)

Gold: Shaurya, SVKM International School

Silver: Kunal, Gurukul Educational Institution

Bronze: Ketak, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan School

Bronze: Ayaan, BCN International School

Sports: Boxing

Category: Girls U-11 (42+)

Gold: Riddhi Akul, Rose Manor International School

Silver: Aarohi Kalmaste, Gopal Sharma Memorial School, Powai

Bronze: Grishma Parab, B S Bane International School

Bronze: Saumya Veerkar, SSL English School

Category: Boys U-11 (24-26)

Gold: Zishan Shaikh, St Mathew’s High School and Junior College

Silver: Swaraj Joshi, B S Bane International School

Category: Boys U-13 (28-30)

Gold: Shubham, Maharashtra Military School, Murbad

Silver: Abhinandan Yadav, St Mathew’s High School and Junior College

Bronze: Shivansh Survaiye, Children Academy (Thakur Complex)

Bronze: Adey Salvi, St.Paul High School

Category: Boys U-13 (32-34)

Gold: Abhay Das, Shahajinagar Primary School, Trombay

Silver: Harsh Choudhary, Gopal Sharma memorial school

Bronze: Shaurya Padwal, Don Bosco High School, Matunga

Bronze: Hassan Kagalwala, Diamond Jubilee High School – Mazgaon

Category: Boys U-15 (61-64)

Gold: Swarup Sante, Maharashtra Military School, Murbad

Silver: Ayaan Gupta, Chatrabhuj Narsee School (Kandivali)

Category: Boys U-15 (-30)

Gold: Taufiq Ansari, St Mathew’s High School and Junior College

Silver: Shubham Chaurasia, St Mathew’s High School and Junior College

Bronze: Rishabh Rameshram, Gopal Sharma memorial school

Category: Boys U-17 (80+)

Gold: Daeman Basumatary, Shri Harshad C Valia International

Silver: Jagdish Rathod, St Mathew’s High School and Junior College

Sports: Basketball

Category: U-18 Female

Gold: Vile Parle East MPS

Silver: PVG Vidya Bhawan School

Bronze: JBCN International School

Category: U-11 Female

Gold: Vibgyor High Goregaon

Silver: PVG Vidya Bhawan School

Bronze: Childrens Academy , Thakur Complex

Winner Score: 23-04

Sports: Shooting

Category: U-14 Girls Peep Sight

Gold: Ananya Ashok, The Green Acres Academy, Chembur

Silver: Arisha Saurabh Sharma, Arya Gurukul School Ambernath

Bronze: Sharanya Kadam, St. Gregorius High School

Category: U-17 Girls Air Pistol

Gold: Ritu Swapnil Darekar, Amt. Sulochana Devi Singhania School, Thane

Silver: Krsna Jitendra Naik, Vasudev C Wadhwa Arya Vidya Mandir

Bronze: Ashrriya Santosh Sharma, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan Vidyalay, Borivali

The daily schedule & detailed results is available on – www.sfaplay.com. For real-time updates, highlights, and exclusive behind-the-scenes moments, follow our social media channels – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Download the Jio Cinema app and watch the curtain-raiser episode of SFA Championships here.

SFA Championships is poised to make sports accessible for young athletes across the country, thereby empowering today’s talent to become the Champions of tomorrow.

About Sports For All (SFA)

Sports For All (SFA) is India's  largest tech-enabled multi-sport grassroots competition platform. The vision is to make youth fall in love with sports through inspiring and joyful sporting experiences. Founders  Rishikesh Joshi and Vishwas Choksi, since the inception of SFA in 2015, have determinedly focused on transforming and mobilising school sporting championships in the country, by providing an inclusive, diverse, safe, and best-in-class platform for the youth to realize their fullest potential through sports.

SFA Championships, SFA’s flagship IP, brings forth the potential of large-scale multi-sporting competitions propelled by tech and data analytics. Being  phygital in nature, the SFA Championships have today become the backbone of identifying sporting potential at the grassroots level. In 2023, SFA has pledged to encourage 2 lakh athletes to participate at 10 SFA Championships. This city-based model will be held across Indore, Dehradun, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Bangalore, Delhi and Ahmedabad (in this order), to determine the “number one school in sports”, in that city.

With a technology-led approach at its core, SFA enables the entire grassroots sport ecosystem via SFAPLAY.COM, a platform designed to empower and connect all stakeholders via statistics, data, analytics, match videos, content, performance management, and competition management systems.

SFA is the leading sports entrepreneurial venture empanelled with the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the “official partner” of the Indian Olympic Association, enabling support for Indian contingent to the Tokyo Olympics, 2020; Birmingham Commonwealth Games, 2022; Asian Games, 2022; and ‘official sponsors’ for Khelo India Youth Games (for the next five years). The 36^th National Games, Gujarat, 2022, the 37^th National Games, Goa, 2023 and editions of Khelo India Youth Games in Haryana, Pune, Guwahati, and Panchkula, were powered by SFA’s Tech IP ‘Games Management System’ (GMS).