21st March, Mumbai:AThe group stage of the Honda CB Hornet 160R U Mumba Future Stars concluded on Sunday, 19thAMarch. After 48 hard fought games over a period of 6 days, the quarter-finalists have now been confirmed.
Gurukul College from Chiplun turned out to be the biggest surprise of the tournament, topping the group by beating one of Mumbai Universityas top ranked teams, Prabhakar Patil. M.D. College dominated their group, winning each of their games with a huge margin. In their final game, they beat C.L. Valia 95-5.The decider between P.D. Karkhanis College and Thakur College, played on the final day of the league stage turned out to be a real nail-biter, with P.D. Karkhanis edging it 35-32.
The Knock-Out stage games will be held at Shramik Gymkhana, Lower Parel. The Quarter- Finals will commence atA4pmAon Saturday, 25thAMarch. The Semi-Finals will begin atA5pmAon Sunday, 26thAMarch, followed by the finals.
The top 8 colleges to qualify are:
- Gurukul
- R.A.D.A.V
- BNN
- Indira Gandhi College
- Maharshi Dayanand College (MD)
- P.D. Karkhanis
- S.S Shinde College
- Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwala College (RJC)
The fixtures for the quarter-finals to be held on the 25thAof March are:
| MATCH 1A 4:00 pm | Winner Pool AAvsAPool H | Gurukul vs RJC |
| MATCH 2A 5:00 pm | Winner Pool BAvsAPool G | Indira Gandhi vs MD |
| MATCH 3A 6:00 pm | Winner Pool CAvsAPool F | R.A.D.A.V vs P.D Karkhanis |
| MATCH 4 7:00 pm | Winner Pool DAvsAPool E | S.S Shinde vs BNN |
The level of competition seen in the tournament this year is of an extremely high calibre, and a number of talents from the top 8 colleges are in the running to become the U Mumba 2017 Future Star. The 2 chosen winners will each receive a Honda CB Hornet 160R along with the opportunity to train with the U Mumba team in the run-up to the next season of Pro Kabaddi. U Mumbaas Captain Anup Kumar as well as Coach E. Bhaskaran will be present for the finals to select the Future Star. Founders, Ronnie Screwvala and Supratik Sen will also attend the semi-finals and finals.
After 6 days of hard fought matches between the participating 32 teams, the knock-out stage promises to be action-packed, with exciting young talents battling it out to become the U Mumba Future Star.
