East Zone Inter-University Football Tournament, which concluded here today, brought a big reward for host Sambalpur University team as they qualified for the first time to participate in the All-India University Football Tournament to be held at Jallandhar next month.

Sambalpur team earned the fourth spot in the zonal tournament despite losing all their three matches in the round robin league. Manipur University emerged champions of the tournament on the basis of better goal average. They tied on points with Burdwan University. Both the teams got seven points each. Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeetha finished at third spot with one win over Sambalpur.

The last match of the round robin league between Manipur and Burdwan at the Ispat stadium here ended in 1-1 draw. In the earlier league matches, Manipur had beat Sambalpur 3-0 and MGKVP 3-1, Burdwan defeated Sambalpur 2-1 and MGKVP 2-0 while MGKVP got the better of Sambalapur 2-0.

L Fernando Singh (Manipur) was declared player of the tournament while Iswar Prasad (Burdwan) was chosen as best goalkeepr, Satish Mahato (Sambalpur University) best defender and Abhishek Singh (MG Kashi Vidyapeeth) best forward. A total 32 teams participated in this knock-out cum round robin league tournament (Sept 20 to 25). Urban Development Minister Sarda Prasad Nayak distributed the prizes at the closing function.