In a golden week for Odia sports, girls win gold medals in national and international championships. Tournaments are hosted at home while local sportspersons take part in various events in Odisha and outside the state ranging from chess in Sri Lanka to table tennis in Rourkela.

Purnima’s pride

Odia athlete Purnima Hembrum has earned pride for the state by winning a gold medal in the women’s heptathlon event at the 15th Asian Junior Athletics Championship, which concluded at Sri Lanka’s Sugathadasa National Stadium in Colombo recently. Purnima was leading from the first day with 2921 points while she finished with 4979 points. The 19-year-old Mayurbhanj athlete got ahead of Thailand’s Sunisa Khotseemueang, the first runners-up, by 77 points. Kirnos Nadezhda of Kazakhstan took home the bronze medal with 4585 points. Among the seven disciplines in the event, the Odia girl stood first in 100m hurdles as well as 200m sprint. She stood second in shot put and 800m while finishing third in high jump, long jump and javelin. Purnima’s success at the event is also her first international medal. She had won the pentathlon gold in the 11th Federation Cup Junior National Athletics Championship in Pune last month.

Table wars

The Inter-Steel Plant Table Tennis Championship organised by the Sports Unit of Rourkela Steel Plant got off to a splendid start at Ispat Indoor Stadium, Sector-2, on Monday. Eight teams representing the eight steel plants — Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP), Salem Steel Plant, Tata Steel, IISCO Steel Plant (ISP), Bhilai Steel Plant, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Alloy Steel Plant (ASP) and hosts Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) — are taking part in this prestigious championship. The teams have been divided into two groups and the matches will be played in the new “swathing cup” system. Under group A, the inaugural match was played between the reigning champions DSP versus ISP and in group B, the first match was played between last year’s runners-up RSP versus ASP. The tournament will conclude on June 20.

Breathtaking wins

The 57th All-India Kabaddi Tournament concluded at Khanditara in Jajpur district recently. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) team emerged winners by defeating Uttarakhand 34-25 in the final. CISF had beaten Mumbai Police 40-22 while Uttarakhand won against Calcutta Police 32-19 in the semi-finals. A state-level tournament was also organised alongside the national championship by Jajpur Kabaddi Association. Both the men’s and women’s championships were claimed by Barabati Club (Cuttack) team. The Barabati Club women won against Kalinga Stadium team from Bhubaneswar while the men beat Sambalpur.

Taekwondo tourney

The 27th State Taekwondo Championship held at Barabati Stadium concluded recently. Cuttack and Bhadrak grabbed the maximum number of titles at the event. The championship organised by the Odisha Taekwondo Association saw participation of 156 competitors from 13 districts. The competitions were held for different weight categories in the segments of men, junior and sub-junior boys and girls.

Medals in a row

Three Odia girl rowers won gold medals at the 15th Sub-junior and 16th Challenger Sprint National Championships at Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu. Kajal Jena clinched gold in the scull category of sub-junior championship and a bronze in the single scull category of the Challenger Sprint Championship. Pricila Buxla and Manisha Kispotta also won gold medals for the state in the coxless pair event of the sub-junior championship. The medal winners were a part of the seven-member team from Odisha that included four boys. The team, along with coach Jose Jacob, reached Bhubaneswar on Monday to a grand welcome and felicitation from the Odisha Association for Rowing and Sculling.

All on board

A 52-member Indian squad will leave this week for the Asian Youth Chess Championship that will begin from June 23 in Sri Lanka. The Indian team includes 10 Odia chess players. Last year, the championship was held in the Philip-pines and India had claimed 10 out of 12 gold medals at the event. Odia players Rutumbara Bidhar, Sankalp Baliar Singh and Debashis Das, who recently won the National Premier Chess Championship, had won gold medals while Rakesh Jena and Utkal Ranjan Sahoo had bagged bronze medals last year. All of these Odia players are participating in the event this year and five other players from the state - Sambit Panda, Rudraksh Parida, Anwesha Mishra, Adyasa Mohapatra and Sidhant Mohapatra - are also taking part.