Fifteen points is not a close final. Government Degree College Kathua beat MIET College 52–37 at the Gymnasium Hall to win the Inter-Collegiate Kabaddi (Men) Tournament 2026–27, run by the Directorate of Sports and Physical Education, University of Jammu.
In the third-place match, the PG Department, University of Jammu edged GDC Bhaderwah 13–10 — a tight, low-scoring game of a very different character to the final.
Dr Daud Iqbal Baba, Director of the Directorate of Sports and Physical Education at the University of Jammu, presented the championship trophy and the medals.
Why a college result is worth your attention
Because for most students in this region, the inter-collegiate circuit is the competitive ladder. There is no academy pathway waiting for a kabaddi player in Kathua. There is a college team, a university tournament, and whatever comes after it — and the university's own Directorate of Sports is the body that runs the whole thing.
Which is what makes the scoreline worth a second look. GDC Kathua is a government degree college roughly 80 kilometres up the road; MIET is a well-resourced engineering college in Jammu city. The belt beat the city, by 15 points, in the city's own gymnasium.
That is not a one-off pattern this season either. Government degree colleges and zone sides from outside Jammu city have been turning up at university and district level across several sports this month, which says something quietly encouraging about where the region's playing base actually sits.
The officials
Eight referees officiated across the tournament: Anil Sharma, Ajay Gupta, Dheeraj Sharma, S. Harpreet Singh, Amandeep Singh, Prajwal Slathia, Ashfaq Hussain and Gagan Kumar. It is a reminder that a university tournament needs a bench of trained officials as much as it needs teams — and that refereeing is itself a route into the sport for a student who has stopped playing but has not stopped turning up.
What happens next
Honestly, we do not know yet. Whether this result feeds an inter-university or All India Inter-University berth has not been announced, and we are not going to guess at a pathway that has not been published. If you play for a college side and want to know where the next stage is, the Directorate of Sports and Physical Education at the University of Jammu is the office that would have the answer — and it is also the office that publishes the fixture calendar for the rest of the inter-collegiate season, across every sport it runs.
