Football, hockey, tennis and athletics kept sports lovers busy this week. Odisha athletes shone at national championships, while the women’s hockey team is taking part in a national-level event. Basketball, carrom and swimming events also took place

Athletes’ glory

Odia athletes performed brilliantly at the 24th National Inter Zonal Junior Athletic Championship held in Pune, which concluded on Monday. They bagged 10 medals — one gold, four silver and five bronzes. Ashman Sahu of Bargard won the only gold medal for Odisha in the Boys’ Triple jump event. The state stood 10th while Maharashtra was first. The Odisha team consisted of 34 athletes (18 boys and 16 girls). Bhabani Sankar Jena was the coach, Saudamini Dash was the women’s manager and Rabi Nayak, the team manager.

Slam-dunk

The 25th State Youth Basketball Championship was organised in Cuttack recently. Among girls, the Bhubaneswar Athletic Association team emerged champions by beating Cuttack District Athletic Association emphatically (50-10). The Khurda District Basketball Association defeated Rourkela Steel Plant (60-32) to win the title. More than 50 players from all over the state took part in the championship hosted by Club The Supreme under the aegis of Odisha Basketball Association. The tournament was held from September 20 to 23.

Water babies

The Khateswar Pandey Memorial third All-Odisha Open Swimming Championship was held on Sunday at the Municipal Swimming Pool in Sambalpur.

Organised by Sambalpur Master Swimmers’ Club, participants from Bhubaneswar, Boudh, Sundergarh, Balangir, Keonjhar and Sambalpur competed for the various titles in the categories of breaststroke, freestyle and butterfly. A total of 172 swimmers took part in the event. The ages of the participants varied from five to 75.

Narrow miss

Odisha did not qualify for the quarterfinals of the second Senior National Hockey Championship, which concludes in Bangalore on Wednesday. In their first match against Tamil Nadu, the state hockey team drew (2-2). In their second match, they routed Kerala by an emphatic margin of 17-0 and six players scored two goals each.

With these two games, Odisha should have comfortably made their way to the quarterfinals.

However, since Tamil Nadu won (16-1) against Kerala, they qualified for the quarterfinals on the basis of a better goal difference (39), while Odisha defeated Gujarat (17-0) and managed to have a goal difference of 34. The final will be played between Punjab and Air India.

Hockey Odisha had organised a coaching camp-cum-selection-trial of junior hockey (women) for second Junior National Championship, which is on at RAI, Sonipat (Haryana), from October 1 to 12.

The selection trial was held on the Panposh Sports Hostel ground, Rourkela, from September 15 to 29, supervised by coach K.C. Chowdhury. Thirty participants from various parts of the state took part in the coaching camp-cum-selection-trial.

The selection committee at the camp picked up the girls who performed best and Pratap Satpathy, general secretary, Hockey Odisha, declared the final list of 18 members. Odisha is in pool-D of the second Junior National Championship.

The team will play their first match against Pondicherry on October 4. On October 5, they will play against Gujarat and on October 6 against Karnataka. Neelima Minz is the captain.

Racquet time

The Odisha Tennis Association is organising an All-India Tennis Association 50K Men’s Ranking Tennis Tournament at KIIT, Bhubaneswar, from October 1 to 5.

Participants from 13 states will compete for the title. Seven players from Odisha are in the main draw. Chinmay Pradhan, Santosh Mallik and Adwithiya Patnaik got a direct entry in the top 20 whereas Satirtha Patnaik, Ajay Nishank, Manoj Kumar Nayak and Tej Srijeet Abhishek are the wild card entrants.

Vinod Sridhar from Tamil Nadu is the top seed of the tournament.

On strike

A two-day carrom tournament, “The Striker 2012”, was recently organised at Maheswari Bhavan in Rourkela. Local players Mantu and his partner Sanatan won the tournament, in which about 60 players took part.

They defeated the duo of Prakash Das and Gopal Shetty in the finals (31-28). Lakhan and partner Rajesh were adjudged second runners-up. Himanshu Lal, superintendent of police, Rourkela, inaugurated the two-day tournament organised by Maheswari Samaj.

Howzat!

Roshanara Parveen shone in her first-ever international match at the ICC Women’s T-20 World Cup. The bowler grabbed two wickets to limit Pakistan to just 98 runs. However, the Indian team lost by just one run. Meanwhile, Ranjib Biswal, president of Odisha Cricket Association, has recently been elected chairman of the National Cricket Academy.