Departmental giants Nepal Armed Police Force (APF) Club claimed the title of the fifth Dhorpatan National Open Men’s Volleyball Tournament with a comfortable victory over Gandaki Province at New Buspark, Kathmandu on Saturday.

APF dominated the show from the early period to register a straight set victory of 25-19, 25-16, 25-17. The departmental team, studded with Nepali internationals, had a cake walk en route to title in absence of their arch rivals Tribhuvan Army Club (TAC) and Nepal Police Club (NPC). The two departments had not competed in the tournament. While the Army team pulled out of the tournament due to their internal sports meet, NPC stated technical reasons for their no show.

The two major withdrawals benefitted APF as they finished on top of their groups without losing single match to progress into the quarter-finals. Only a group round match against Badigard Rural Municipality of Baglung had prolonged into fourth set.

In the knockout stage too, APF stamped their domination with a straight set win over Mandali Sports Club of Palpa in the quarter-final and an identical win over Geetanjali College. Winners APF bagged a cash purse of Rs 100,000 along with trophies and certificates.

Runners up Province 3 walked away with Rs 60,000. Geetanjali won the third place honours defeating hosts Dhorpatan Club in straight sets 25-22, 30-28, 25-15. They were rewarded with Rs 35,000.

APF also dominated the individual awards winning four honours including the best player of the tournament. Mahendra Shrestha of the departmental team was declared the best player and it won him a two wheeler.

Similarly, Dinesh Shrestha of APF was declared the best setter while his teammates Tek Raj Awasthi (spiker), Baliram Chaudhary (quicker) and Gyanendra Bista (coach) were other winners for the departmental team. Daulat Singh (server) of Geetanjali, Rajan Darlami (defense) and Hari Paney (blocker) of Gandaki also won individual awards displaying the best in their position. All of them received Rs 5000 each.

Nepal Olympic Committee president Jeevan Ram Shrestha, Nepal Volleyball Association president Manoranjan Raman Shrestha among other distributed the prizes. The league-cum-knock out tournament was organised by Dhorpatan Sports Club and it featured a total of 16 teams.