LUCKNOW, Dec. 10 -- On a day when hosts Uttar Pradesh men won the bronze medal in the 37th Federation Cup Handball Championship, their women counterparts stormed into the final, notching up a thrilling 18-17 win over BSF here on Tuesday. The men's team, however, went down fighting to Punjab 48-50 in the semi-. The two teams were tied at 40 but Punjab won in extra time to advance to the final. UP men put up a strong fight, forcing Punjab to fight for every goal, but victory slipped away after regulation time. For the hosts, Avinash led the scoring with 32 goals. Mankesh added 5, Vikrant 4, Pradeep 3, and Kamran 2. For Punjab, Jagmeet scored the most goals with 10, followed by Ravinder Pal with 8. Supporting them, Gurpreet scored 7 goals, Gurjinder, Sanju and Jasmeet scored 5 goals each and Deepanshu scored two goals, bringing the team to the threshold of the title. In the women's final, Uttar Pradesh will face Himachal Pradesh, which defeated West Bengal in the other semifinal. In this low-scoring match, UP women managed a 7-6 lead at halftime. Khushboo once again starred in the hosts' victory, scoring seven goals. Suman scored four, Kaneez two, while Aradhana, Rajpati, and Samridhi each scored one goal. Manjil displayed considerable aggression for BSF, scoring 13 goals alone, but the team fell short of victory. In the second semifinal of this category, Himachal Pradesh easily defeated West Bengal 18-8. Himachal Pradesh established its dominance from the start, taking a 12-3 lead at halftime and never looked back. The tie-draw of the SBI Cup Media Premier League 2025 will be held December 10, at the KD Singh 'Babu' Stadium here at 2.00 p.m. The event is being organised under the aegis of the Lucknow Sports Journalist Association (LSJA) to provide a platform to journalists from different print and electronic media houses from December 13 to 19, at the KD Singh 'Babu' Stadium here. LSJA's secretary, SM Arshad informed that arrangements are being made on a large scale to make the event a grand success. "As many as eight teams have confirmed their participation, including the defending champions Electronics Media XI and the runners-up Times of India," he said....