No barrier too high 

Odisha became the champion in the National Cricket Tournament for the Blind, 2016, held on Gymkhana Ground in Hyderabad. In the finals, the match was reduced to an event of five overs each due to heavy rain. Gujarat won the toss and elected to bat first to score 53 for seven wickets. The nail-biting final saw Odisha achieve the target in the last ball of the match, setting the base on Sukhram Majhi's fantastic knock of 34 runs in 17 balls and Pankaj Bhue's 13 off eight balls. Odisha became the champion for the first time in the blind cricket's national tournament. Majhi was declared the man of the match, while Bhue won the title of man of the series in the B-2 category.

Winning strokes   

In the Sports and Cultural Association (SCAN) Cup Silver Jubilee Cricket Tournament, Cuttack team Rising Students emerged champions defeating the hosts SCAN in the finals played on the Unit-II Girls’ High School ground. The final match gained momentum despite frequent disruptions caused by intermittent spells of rain. Rising Students won by 11 runs with the SCAN boys managing to score only 70 in nine overs against a target of 82. 

In the Inter-District Women’s Tournament going on at various venues in Cuttack, Nuapada beat Sambalpur, Bargarh emerged winners against Angul, Rayagada won against Ganjam, Sundargarh beat Dhenkanal, Kendrapara beat Boudh and Koraput bet Nabarangpur.

Summer kabaddi 

A summer Kabaddi camp has begun on the Kalinga Stadium premises in Bhubaneswar. 
The camp is training both boys and girls aged between 12 and 18 years. National-level players are assisting kabaddi coach Sanhita Singh to groom the 40-odd participants. With Kabaddi Premier League becoming popular at the national-level, Odisha players can go a long way, said Sanhita, who is conducting the camp.

Hockey victory

Two teams of Odisha taking part in the Hockey India Sixth Junior Men's National Championship (Division-A) at Raipur are faring well. The teams - Hockey Odisha, which is also the defending champions, and Hockey Gangpur Odisha - started off on a winning note on Monday. 

Hockey Odisha won 3-0 against Manipur, while the Gangpur team pulled off a victory against Uttar Pradesh 5-2. 
Overall, 16 teams sorted into four pools are taking part in the championship. Hockey Odisha is placed in Pool-A while Hockey Gangpur Odisha is in Pool-B. 

The Gangpur team had won the Division-B Junior Nationals title last year.

Mixed scores

In the 2nd Indian Grand Prix hosted at National Institute of Sports, Patiala, Odisha’s Dutee Chand, the gold medallist at the recent Federation Cup in 100 metres, again took home the first prize in the category. She timed 11.37 seconds to win gold, while Srabani clocked 11.60 seconds to win the bronze medal. However, they could not qualify for Olympics, for which the qualifying time is 11.32 seconds. The last chance for Indian athletes to qualify for Olympics is the upcoming National Senior Inter-State Athletics Championship to be held in Hyderabad from May 28. In another development, in the Junior Federation Cup that concluded in Banaglore recently, the eight-member team from the state could not win a single medal.

Chess 

In the Odisha State Under-11 Chess Championship hosted in Puri, Dikshant Dash emerged champion in the open category, while Aditi Mohanty won the girls title. The event was hosted by the District Chess Association of Puri under the aegis of All-Odisha Chess Association between May 3 and 5. Dash from Bhubaneswar scored 6.5 out of seven to emerge winner of the open category, while Cuttack girl Aditi, who was the defending champion, claimed the title this year too with six out of seven points. As many as 136 players took part in the event. Apart from Dash and Aditi, Harshit Ranjan Sahu and Pratyusha Priyadarshini - runners up in open and girls' categories respectively, have also been selected to represent the state in the National Under-11 Championship to be hosted in June in Raipur.