Mysuru: A four-day district level basketball championship organised by the All Stars Basketball Club kickstarted at J P Nagar Stadium here on June 29. The championship is conducted under three categories-Inter high school boys and girls, U-16 boys and girls and affiliated clubs.

Speaking after inaugurating the championship, Mayor M J Ravi Kumar called upon the students to take part in sports actively so that they could keep good health and also improve their physique. On the occasion, he also mentioned that because of being active in sports during school and college days, he had managed to posses good height and physique.

M Chandrakumar, Professor, DOS in Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Mysore, who also spoke on the occasion lauded the efforts of former Mayor Bhyrappa who was instrumental in enhancing sports infrastructure in J P Nagar by coming out with a sports stadium here. He called upon Mayor Ravi Kumar to take steps to improve sports infrastructure in other wards across Mysuru City Corporation. Byrappa, during his presidential address said sports participation helps overall development of students.

M V Srinivas, retired deputy director, Department of Youth Service and Sports and C Venkatesh, President, All Stars Club were also present

In the inaugural match, inter high school boys section, Cauvery School proved too good for St. Mathias School as they registered 28-8 win over them. For Cauvery School, Deepak and Sagar played well to score 12 and 8 points respectively. In the second match, St.Joseph’s, Jayalakshmipuram beat MLZS school by 36-09 points. Suhas of St. Joseph’s School scored 8 points while in the keenly contested match, Pushkarani School (B-team) registered a narrow win over JSS, Saraswathipuram School by 32-28 points. Uday of Pushkarani (B-team) school came out with good skills to score 13 points.

In the high school girls section, St. Joseph’s Central School, Vijayanagara registered a good victory over Pushkarani (B-team) school by 15-08 points. Cresida Pearl of St.Joseph’s played well to score 13 points.