Kings and queens
Chakravarthi Reddy M from Telangana clinched the championship crown at the 6th Keshabananda Das Memorial All India Open Fide Rating Chess Championship. He bagged a cash award of Rs 50,000 along with a trophy. Grand master Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi of Bengal and Muthaiah Al of Tamil Nadu came second and third, respectively. A record number of 259 players, including 193 rated players from 14 states and three government-aided units, took part in the event.
New records
Samsad Ara Begum bagged the best woman athlete title and Kishore Kumar Jena bagged the best man athlete title in the three-day state athletics meet that concluded in Cuttack last week. Samsad created two new meet records in 3,000-metre and 5,000-metre run in girls' U-20 age group while Kishore broke the javelin record, which was created in the year of 1998. Amiya Kumar Mallick won double gold in 100-metre and 200-metre events on the concluding day. He also created a new meet record in the 200-metre event with a timing of 21.4 second. Cuttack emerged as the overall champion by gathering 543 points while Sundargarh district grabbed the runners-up trophy with 353 points. Around 21 new records, including four new state records, were created at the meet.
Cricket action
Solar Cricket Academy emerged champion of the first Chhatia Cup T20 Cricket Tournament by defeating Rising Student in the final match by two runs at Bose Ground in Cuttack on April 8. In the nail-biting match, all-rounder Pradeepta Das of the winning team finished with an unbeaten 32 and also bagged four wickets. He was adjudged man of the match. The champion team received a cash award of Rs 20,000, while the runners-up team won Rs 15,000. Prayas Singh Thakur and Tapas Das, both from the winning team, won the man of the tournament and best bowler awards respectively. The award for the best batsman went to Biplab Samantaray of Rising Student.
Football tourney
The All India Football Federation will host the Federation Cup Football Tournament in Odisha from May 7. Competitions manager of the federation Sanjay Kumar recently inspected the infrastructure and grounds of Barabati Stadium, Bidanasi Ground and KIIT Stadium. Teams, including Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC and East Bengal, will take part in the tournament. Cuttack had hosted the tournament in 2010.
Wrestling
A 10-day training-cum-coaching camp was organised at Utkal Karate School in Bhubaneswar to train wrestlers at the grassroots level. The Khurdha Wrestling Association organised the camp in which about 25 wrestlers took part. American wrestler Mackenzie Cole Hutchison trained the participants.
Tennis star
D. Aryan Swamy from Odisha won the boys U-14 singles final of the Championship Series Tennis Tournament at Raipur. In the final match, he defeated Rahul Ravi from Maharashtra by 3-6,6-2,6-4. This was the maiden AITA (All India Tennis Association) singles title and fourth overall title for Swamy. Earlier, he grabbed three doubles titles.
