Rugby win:Eves from the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bhubaneswar, won the Central Zone Women's Rugby Tournament held on the CC&FC ground in Calcutta on Sunday. The KISS girls defeated top team Jungle Crows of the host city under the captaincy of Meerarani Hembram with an emphatic scoreline of 7-0. Altogether five teams, including three from Calcutta, took part in the 10-a-side tournament. The KISS women started their campaign with a 7-0 win over Young Rugby Club of Calcutta. Their next two victories were against Sri Shikhshayatan and Jungle Crows 42-0 and 14-0, respectively, during the league matches to reach the semi-finals. They defeated state mates Bhubaneswar Rugby Club 14-0 in the semi-finals.

Fastest woman

Top sprinter from the state Dutee Chand made a memorable debut in the National Open Athletics Championship by winning the 100m gold at Birsa Munda Athletic Stadium in Ranchi, Jharkhand, on Tuesday.

Representing ONGC in the 53rd edition of the four-day championship, Dutee emerged the fastest woman, clocking 11.73 seconds. Odisha Olympic Association general secretary Ashirbad Behera congratulated Dutee for his achievement and announced a cash award of Rs 50,000 for the athlete from Jajpur district. The Odisha Athletic Association had sent a four-member state squad for the championship. The members of the squad were woman sprinter Srabani Nanda (100m, 200m), discus thrower Parbati Sethi, male sprinter Amiya Kumar Mallick (100m, 200m) and long-jumper Rabi Das. Srabani and Amiya finished fourth in respective 100m sprints.

Two other Odia athletes, heptathlete Purnima Hembram and hurdler Jauna Murmu, also represented the ONGC at the national championship.

 

Chess challenge

The Utkal University Inter-College Chess Tournament concluded at the M.S. Law College in Cuttack on Sunday. Sumit Banerjee of the host college emerged winner while Rajat Kumar Sahoo of SCS College, Puri, finished runner-up.

Mahesh Prasad Sethi (Vani Vihar), Johnson Sahu (PN College, Khurda) and Jitu Samantaray (Godabarish College, Banapur) occupied the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.

 

Ball game

Chhattisgarh girls retained their title and Delhi boys emerged champions in the 64th Junior National Basketball Championship.

The tournament concluded at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium recently. Chhattisgarh eves defeated Kerala 79-68 with their star performer and the tallest female player in the country, Poonam Chaturvedi, scoring 43 points. She also emerged the top scorer with 321 points from in seven games.

In the boys’ finals, the Delhi team defeated the Punjab boys 89-82. Tamil Nadu boys and Maharashtra girls finished third, beating Kerala and Tamil Nadu, respectively. Odisha boys finished seventh, the state’s best performance ever.

 

Aim for archery

Ranjit Naik of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences has been selected for the Youth World Archery Championship to be held in China in October.

Two boys from the state, Ranjit Naik and Raj Kumar Naik, were provisionally selected for the camp where Ranjit was chosen for the team in final selection. Ranjit scored 21 points and was placed third in sub-junior boys category. Ranjit is a Plus Two first-year arts student. He hails from Jadabani of Mayurbhanj district.

 

Football fever

Football lovers will have a tight schedule during the last quarter of 2013. The All-India Kalinga Cup Football Tournament will jointly be organised by the state sports department and the Football Association of Odisha (FAO) from November 1 to 10.

Eight club sides from outside the state, along with four semi-finalists of FAO first-division league-2012 (Odisha Police, Jobra Durga Club, Rising Students’ Club and Sunrise Club) and four semi-finalist of FAO inter-district club championship will take part in the tournament. The inter-district club championship, considered the qualifier for Kalinga Cup, will be hosted by the Mayurbhanj District Athletic Association in Baripada from September 24 to October 5.