Odia girls gave remarkable performances at a national athletics event, while state karatekas won medals at a major event. Female sportspersons of the state also did well in cricket and tennis.
Olympics dream
Though the state team did not win any medals, Odia girls still made the state proud winning several medals at the 55th National Open Athletics Championship held in Calcutta. Dutee Chand made a strong comeback and is now aiming for a berth in the Rio Olympics. A member of the Railways team, she won gold in the 100m and 200m sprints and the 4x100m relay. Srabani Nanda bagged silver medals in 100m, 200m sprints and 4x100m relay for the Railways. Representing employers Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Jauna Murmu won gold in the 4x400m relay and silver in the 400m hurdles.
Karate medals
Odisha's eight-member squad made the state proud at the 8th Commonwealth Karate Championship, bagging one gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the first two days at Talkatora Indoor Stadium in Delhi.
While Abhishek Pattanaik won the gold in under-21 boys' kata, Payal Baral grabbed the silver in junior girls above 59kg fight on Saturday. Swagatika Sahoo and Udit Udam secured the two bronze medals.
Swagatika finished third in 12-13-year girls' 42kg fight, while Udit did the same in cadet boys' below 57kg fight.
Rugby rowdies
The All India Junior National Rugby Tournament hosted by Odisha Rugby Football Association is under way at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. In total, 16 teams and 450 players are taking part in the event. The Odisha boys’ team is being captained by Ganesh Chandra Hembram and Sumitra Nayak is the captain of the girls’ team.
Checkmate
In the 4th Keshabananda Das Memorial All-India FIDE Open Rating Chess Tournament held at Hotel Empires in Bhubaneswar, top seed International Master Swapnil Dhopade of Railways emerged as the champion. The 25-year-old drew his 10th and last game against defending champion and Tamil Nadu International Master Srinath Narayanan to bag the title with 8.5 points and take home the top prize of Rs 1.5 lakh. Also, Rutumbara Bidhar and Subhasis Barik won the girls and boys titles respectively in the State Schools Chess Championship (U-17 Boys & Girls), which was organised by Bhubaneswar Schools Sports Association at Janakalyan High School, Chandikhole, Jajpur on September 19-20.
Women’s football
Urmila Football Academy won the Jayanta Mohapatra Memorial One-day Women Football Tournament, defeating East Coast Railway 1-0 in the final at Unit-VI Boys' High School ground in Bhubaneswar.
Pyari Xaxa scored the only goal and won the Player of the Tournament award. Altogether, three teams participated in the tournament, which was organised by Unit-VI Athletic Association. Urmila Football Academy and East Coast Railway reached the final, beating Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) 4-0 and 1-0 respectively. State energy secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra handed over the trophy.
Meanwhile, the 12th Gati Krushna Memorial B Division Football League is being held by Bhubaneswar Athletic Association at Unit-I Boys' High School ground from September 12. Twenty teams are participating in the tournament.
Tennis events
At the Falcon AITA Super Series U-14 tennis tournament, which concluded at the Kalinga Stadium tennis complex in Bhubaneswar recently, ace Odia tennis player and second seed in the event Rutuparna Choudhury emerged champion in the girls' singles defeating Trisha P. Vinod of Kerala 6-3, 6-0. In the boys' singles event, Punjab boy Jaishvin Sidana won 6-0, 6-0 against Andhra boy Hasith S. Gummuluru.
In another important event, host KIIT University demolished Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, 2-0 in the final of the East Zone Inter-University Tennis Tournament (Women) on KIIT campus to emerge champions. Susmita Jennifer Kullu and Ahona Chakrabarty won the two singles matches for KIIT, defeating Aayushi Chouhan 6-2, 6-2 and Alka Yadav 6-2, 6-0 respectively. The top three finishers of the East Zone meet qualified for the All-India Inter-University Tournament to be hosted by KIIT University from December 25 to 28.
Also, top Odia tennis player Chinmay Pradhan secured an ATP point, a first for the state, in the India F-15 Futures, Madurai, by beating Bhavesh Gour (world rank-1,588) 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the main draw. Earlier, he beat former world number 1,288 Garvit Batra in the qualifying first round and Gagan Sharma in the qualifying second round. The ATP point will bring his world ranking to around 1,700-1,800, which will make him the first tennis player from Odisha to be in the ATP Ranking.
Odisha defeat Bengal
Odisha eves displayed a solid performance beating Bengal by six wickets in their opening league match of the East Zone U-19 Women's Cricket Tournament in Dhanbad, Jharkhand, on Tuesday. Odisha captain Sushree Dibyadarshini Pradhan guided the team to victory, bagging three wickets and scoring 27 not out. Batting first, Bengal were bowled out for 123. In reply, Odisha got a perfect start with a 57-run opening-wicket stand between Sasmita Mallick and Anjali Singh to achieve the target in 43.3 overs.
