She was good at flying high, but the last leap never ended. And the fall has been for her loving ones. So here they are doing the next best thing - keeping the name alive, in a way that she would really like.
The Hyderabad Basketball Association and the YMCA, Secunderabad, are jointly organizing the Ritu Bora Inter-School Basket Ball Competitions commencing from the 27th of this month. Ritu Bora was a student of St. Mary's School, Secunderabad, and died in a road accident a decade ago. She was a sports champion in her school, and so for the past 10 years her parents have been organizing this tournament in her memory, incurring an expenditure of about Rs. 30,000 each time. Around 20-25 schools from the twin cities take part in this tournament every year.
Each of the teams participating will have to produce a letter from its school Principal saying that the members of the team are bonafide students of the school. Tournaments for both boys and girls will be held separately. Students up to class X are eligible to take part in this tournament.
This year around 20 boys teams and 14 girls teams are participating. Each team will comprise of 12 players and a coach. There is no entry free, but an amount of Rs. 100 should be paid in case of any dispute, as fee for the judges to clarify. The amount is levied to avoid disputes, says G M Sampath Kumar, Secretary, Hyderabad Basket Ball Association.
There are no league matches held, but 2-3 knockout matches between the teams are conducted everyday, to save time.
7th August is Ritu's birthday, and so the final match will be held on that day. Ritu's parents will distribute chocolates to all the students who gather, and will give away the prizes to the winners.
Please contact Sampath Kumar at 780-0128 for further details.