Al Ahalia win one-sided Jimmy George final

The final of the 11th Jimmy George Memorial Volleyball championship turned out to be a one-sided affair with favourites Al Ahalia Exchange Bureau proving too good for General Establishment for Import and Commerce (GEFCO).

Ahalia won 25-18, 15-19, 25-20 in front of a packed Kerala Social Centre (KSC) court.

Skipper Kapil Dev, who is also the Indian captain, lifted the UAE Xchange Trophy to record his third winner's medal here while Ahalia were winning the trophy for the third time in four years.

While Ahalia, packed with six Indian international players, were the favourites, much was expected from GEFCO.

But the newcomers, who had stunned defending champions ADSO in the group games, just could not withstand the power-play unleashed by the gifted Ahalia stars.

Kapil was his usual consistent self as he regularly flummoxed his rivals with clever drop shots while K.S Srikanth came up with a superb display.

Srikanth's contribution was particularly evident in the third set and most of his spiking earned Ahalia quite a few points.

Popular player

Tom Joseph, one of the most popular players here and playing his fifth consecutive final, and Abhijeet Bhattacharjee were also on target while Subba Rao's blocking blunted the younger spikers from GEFCO.

In both the first and second sets, GEFCO managed to stay close to their rivals up to 15 points but after that their challenge wore out. Ahalia took just 46 minutes to win in three straight sets.

For GEFCO, the UAE's national team player Hassan Al Attas and Kerala university star Shamji Thomas played their hearts out but the opposition was too strong. Thomas and Indian junior player Abdul Aziz gave their more experienced rivals moments of panic with the crowd behind the underdogs.

Indian Ambassador C.M. Bhandari, B.R. Shetty, Managing Director of NMC Group, and Sudhir Kumar Shetty, UAE Xchange Centre General Manager, along with KSC officials and other sponsors' representatives presented the trophies.