The hockey team from Gangpur brought laurels for the state by winning the title in the national junior men's championship in Mysore while Odia athletes are all geared up for the forthcoming athletics meet in Goa

 

Chess camaraderie

The first ever state-level open chess championship for schools was organised by Kutie Kids Pre-School on Sunday. The tournament was held on the school campus at Nayapalli in Bhubaneswar. Haraprasad Chatterjee of Venkateswar English Medium School, Chandrasekharpur topped the chart with eight points. Anshuman Nanda of St Joseph's High School and Amrutanshu Mohanty of Blossoms School secured the second and third positions respectively. Around 74 players from 17 schools all across the state, including 11 girls, participated in the two-day tournament. The youngest participant was 6-year-old Bikash Lenka of Prabhujee English Medium School, Bhubaneswar. The tournament was conducted by Debasis Panigrahi.

Athletics meet

The 12th National Youth (under-18) Athletic Championship-2015 will be held at Goa from April 16 to 18. The Odisha team consists of eight athletes. Six of them are girls while two will participate in the boy's event. The athletes left Cuttack on April 14 for the event. The participating athletes are Binkash Barwa (400 Metre Hurdles), Kamakshya Prasad Nayak (200 Metre), Sanjukta Mallick and Tapati Sahoo (100 and 200 Metres), Samsad Ara Begum (3,000 Metres), Salmi Kispotta (Discus), Carmela Barla (Javelin) and Jasmi Kisku (Heptathlon).

Hockey hurrah

In the 5th Hockey India Junior Men's National Championship (Division-B) held at Mysore, the hockey team from Gangpur showcased a brilliant performance to clinch the title. They defeated Bengal Hockey Asssociation 4-2. Sibren Lakra was the hero of the match. He scored three goals at the 19th, 40th and 54th minute while Sanjay Xalxo scored at the 66th minute. Earlier, the Gangpur team whitewashed Hockey Patiala 7-0 in their last Pool D match and stormed into the semi-finals. The Odisha team also trounced Bihar 7-1, Rajasthan 21-0, Chandigarh 5-3 and Assam 15-0.

The state team is ready to participate in the 5th Hockey India Senior National Men's Hockey Championship to be held at Pune from April 26 to 28. The 18-member team includes Ankit Gulia and Subodh Tirkey as goalkeepers, David Minz as captain and the other members are Abhishek Singh, Dillip Toppo, Amit Lohchhab, Alok Barla, Sunil Toppo, Uday Pratap Singh, Teophil Kujur, Arbin Barla, Amon Miras Tirkey, Rajin Kandulna, Deepak Lugun, Joseph Toppo, Isad Miraz, Rahul Yadav and Amal Pal. Ranjan Kumar Das is the team manager and Pradeep Sarangi is the coach.

Football coaching

The second All-India Football Federation (AIFF) grassroots coaching course was held at the Satyabrata Stadium. The coaching course concluded on April 12. It coincided with a grassroots festival in which around 100 kids aged between 6 to 12 years participated. Nearly 36 candidates from various parts of the state were also awarded with the AIFF grassroots coaching certificate. AIFF candidate Anju Turambekar was the chief instructor of the course. On the closing day, the vice-president of Football Association of Odisha (FAO) Bijoy Das was present. Akshya Das and Gitanjali Khuntia were the co-ordinators of the coaching programme.

Girls' football is catching up in the state after hockey. Four Under-14 football players of the state have been selected by the All India Football Federation for the national football team for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-14 Girls' Regional Championship-2015, schedule to be held at Kathmandu, Nepal from April 18 to 25. The players are Santi Murmu and Bannya Kabiraj from Sports Hostel, Janaki Murmu from KISS and Eva Panna from Sundargarh. Veteran football star of the state Sradhnajali Samantray has been made the assistant coach.