Barabati gets ready

Namita’s 100

Odia girl Namita Toppo (in picture) played her 100th international match during the ongoing Olympics at Rio de Janerio. The match the Indian team played against Australia on August 10 saw Toppo reaching the landmark. She said the Olympics were a great platform to achieve such a marvellous feat.

The 21-old-year defender from Sundargarh district started her career four years ago in the FIH champions challenge 1 in Dublin, Ireland, in 2012 and since then she has been an integral part of the Indian women’s hockey team. This speaks volume about her consistency and temperament, as she has completed 100 matches within four years of her international career. She was also a part of the Indian team that bagged a bronze medal in the hockey Junior Women’s World Cup in 2013 and bronze at the Asian Games in Incheon in 2014. Toppo also helped the Indian women's hockey team qualify for the Olympics after 36 years.

Games fever

People from Bhubaneswar came in large numbers to support sportspersons from the state who are in Brazil for the Olympics. The Indian contingent consisted of six women sportspersons from Odisha - sprinter Dutee Chand, athlete Sraabani Nanda, hockey players Namita Toppo, Lilima Minz, Deep Grace Ekka and Sunita Lakra. To celebrate their entry to the prestigious event, a local organisation in association with the local civic body and the development authority organised “Road to Olympics Women’s Cyclothon” and sports quiz events.  

A large number of people braved the rain to take part in the event. School and college students took special interest in the sports quiz. Athlete Amiya Mallick and Olympian Anuradha Biswal were present at the events.

Padhy fires

State champion Ashutosh Padhy defeated first time finalist Anuj Panda to clinch the title of the All Odisha Open Snooker Championship played at Golden King Snooker club in Cuttack. Padhy was too hot for Panda to handle as he thrashed Panda with a score line of 6-0. It was great match for the audience that watched Padhy knock out Panda easily as he compiled a break of 51 in the first frame and scored heavily thereafter not allowing the first-time finalist to trouble him. The winner received prize money of Rs 10,000 while the runner-up got Rs 5,000. Padhy took home the trophy and a cash prize for his historic break of 96 in the semi-final, which remained the highest break of the tournament.

Child prodigy

Child prodigy Chandan Nayak of Sabar Sahi slum in Bhubaneswar had a harrowing time trying to get a birth certificate for his passport, which he needed for a trip to Germany to train at a reputable football club. Chandan, an 11-year-old football player from the city, was selected for a training programme as an academy player at F.C. Bayern Munich, the iconic football club in Germany. He had to fly to Germany from New Delhi on August 21, but since he had no birth certificate, his passport could not be made. Bhubaneswar mayor Anant Narayan Jena came to his rescue. Earlier, Jena and sports and youth services minister Sudam Marandi, Bhubaneswar MLA Bijaya Kumar Mohanty and MLA Priyadarshi Mishra visited Chandan’s house and wished him luck for a bright future.

Medal man

Shuttler Pramod Bhagat received a warm welcome at the Bhubaneswar airport on his arrival from Indonesia where he bagged a gold and a bronze medal on August 9. Sportspersons from various fields met him at the airport to congratulate him on his success. He emerged champion of the 3rd Indonesia Para-Badminton International by defeating Ukun Rukaendi 2-0 in the final at Indonesia last week.

Battle of minds

In a game of swinging fortunes, top seed grandmaster Vladislav Artemiev of Russia and India’s star performer S.L. Narayanan split the point in a 78-move long struggle in the fourth round of World Junior Chess Championship in Bhubaneswar. This allowed a host of pursuers to join the two as the second seed grandmaster Jeffrey Xiong was able to outwit Quingyu Yuan of China. The biggest surprise was the defeat of the third seed GM Kirill Alekseenko of Russia by twentieth-seeded Iran’s IM Masoud Mosadeghpor. Masoud managed to pull this off by playing the highly speculative Smith-Morra gambit against Alekseenko's Sicilian. Five players lead the table at present with 3.5/4. India's Harsha Bharathakoti's sterling run came to an end with the defeat of Rasmus Svane of Germany. Xu Yi, who had a splendid run, could not keep pace and went down against Murali Karthikeyan of India. 67th seed Rakesh Kumar Jena of Odisha continued his killing spree by defeating Filipino IM Paulo Bersamina to move to 3.0/4  

ANWESHA AMBALY AND SANDEEP DWIVEDY