Target Russia 

A 12-member kickboxing team will join the Indian contingent of 58 players for the 6th World Cup Diamond Kickboxing Championship to be held at Anapa in Russia from September 21 to 26. Apart from the players, Kartik Dakua and Jayashree Dakua will join the team as coach and manager, respectively. The team includes a woman player, Kirtirani Sahoo, who will compete in the light contact and musical form categories. The other players are Anshuman Dakua (32kg), Piyush Kumar Sahu (28kg), Aman Kumar Nanda (57kg, point fight), Pyari Khetish Sahoo (89kg, light contact, musical form), Raj Kumar Patjoshi (57kg, point fight and light contact), Bichitrananda Samanta (63kg, musical form), Jagannath Suna (65kg, low kick), Shekhar Suman Das (94kg, point fight) and Nabakishore Paikaray (67kg, full contact).

Double aces   

Prabin Kumar Nayak, the ITF white badge referee from Odisha, is participating as an official at the Asian Junior Tour U-14 Series Tennis Championship. Nayak is the chief tournament referee at the event that began in Kathmandu in Nepal on 
September 5. There is another good news for the tennis fraternity. Former Under-14 and Under-16 state tennis champion Avilash Mishra from Odisha has got a 100 per cent academic scholarship to Prairie State University in Chicago, USA. Avilash has a current international ranking of 1,085 in the Under-18 segment, while he is ranked 40th at the national level. Avilash will get an annual tennis scholarship of $10,000 from the varsity.

Police medals

Bighanaraj Maridia from Odisha has bagged the gold medal in the men's 400-metre event at the ongoing 65th All-India Police Athletics Championship at GMC Balayogi Stadium in Gachibowli, Hyderabad. Banita Lakra grabbed the silver medal in the 100-metre event, while Rina Baa clinched bronze in the 100-metre hurdles event. Director-general of police K.B. Singh has expressed his happiness at Odisha police personnel winning medals at the event after many years. The five-day championship will see more than 1,000 athletes from 29 teams competing against each other.

Football champs

East Coast Railway emerged champion in the Jayanta Memorial Women Football Tournament defeating Urmila Football Academy 3-2 in a tiebreaker. The event was held at Unit-6 High School Ground in Bhubaneswar on September 4. In the tiebreaker, East Coast Railway could convert three of their five chances, while Urmila Football Academy could only score twice. The champion team received a trophy along with cash award of Rs 4,000 and the runner up got Rs 3,000. Bhubaneswar Sports Hostel and KISS School finished third and fourth. They received Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000, respectively. Koeli Hemram from KISS institute received the rising player of the tournament award. 

Kabaddi registration

Following the guidelines of Indian Kabaddi Association, all players in the state have to register themselves with the state and national kabaddi associations. Secretary of the Odisha Kabaddi Association Ajay Kumar Behra has instructed all the district sports councils and affiliated sports bodies to do it by September 30. The players have to make demand drafts of Rs 200 and Rs 500 for the state and national associations, respectively, and then register their names online. This will help identify the kabaddi players and the association would easily work for their betterment and that of the sport. For more information, players have been requested to contact joint secretary of the state association Suryakant Mohanty. Players can also log on to www.indiankabaddi.org and register there.  

Googly

Odisha suffered an innings defeat to Punjab in the All-India U-19 Dhruv Pandove Trophy cricket tournament at Patiala on September 4. A 10-wicket haul by Abhisek Sharma helped Punjab thrash the visitors and the home team won by an innings and 168 runs. 

Punjab collected seven points with the win. Odisha had drawn their first match against Bengal.

Saina shines

The World Chess Federation has awarded Woman Fide Master Title to Saina Salonika of Odisha. With an ELO rating of 2093, Saina has become the top ranked national and Asian player in the U-13 and U-14 category. In 2012, the Class VIII student of KIIT International School, Bhubaneswar, became the youngest Odia player to be awarded the title of Woman Candidate Master. Daughter of Ganeswar Jena and Babita Jena, Saina hails from Sulana village of Hatadihi block in Keonjhar district. 

Saina will represent India in the World Youth Chess Championship in Russia later this month.