Crosscourts
Rutuparna Choudhury from Odisha clinched the Girls’ Under-16 as well as Girls’ Under-18 singles titles at the All-India Tennis Association (AITA) Championship Series Tournament. The tournament was organised by the All-Assam Tennis Association at Guwahati from June 20 to 24. In both the finals, she defeated Lenien Jamir of Assam 6-2, 6-0 and 7-5, 6-2 respectively. She missed the top slot in the doubles event and ended runners-up at the Girls’ Under-18. She partnered with Ameek Kiran Batth and lost to Lenien Jamir and Ishita Gupta by 2-6, 0-6. Till date, Rutuparna’ss AITA career titles have climbed to 29, that includes including 19 singles and 10 doubles.
Cover drives
Five teams took part in the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) Silver Jubilee Inter-Odisha Corporate Cricket Tournament at Anand Vihar in Sambalpur. The teams were MCL, Western Electricity Supply Company of Odisha (Wesco), Hindalco (Hirakud), Odisha Power Generation Corporation (OPGC) and Vedanta Limited. The tournament was played in the T20 format.
In a different development, Tuna-XI defeated the Good Morning team in the final match of the two-day Friends Memorial Cricket Tournament held at Saheed Sporting Ground in Bhubaneswar last week. As many as 16 teams from Khurda and Cuttack districts took part in the event.
The Hadiguda team emerged champions at the Saheed Memorial Cricket Tournament hosted at the Bagrijhola ground in Tikiri on Tuesday. As many as 16 teams from Kashipur and Laxmipur blocks took part in the meet that was organised by Utkal Alumina and Bagrijhola Yubak Sangha of Tikiri. Sukanta Naik of Hadiguda was declared the man of the match in the final while his team mate Kiran Naik got the man of the series award.
Stick works
Adding another feather to his cap, Odisha defender Dipsan Tirkey has been named as the captain of the National Junior Men's Hockey team in the EurAsia Cup that will be held in Russia followed by a six-match tour of England in July. This was announced by Hockey India on June 24. The EurAsia tournament will feature four teams and will be played on July 9 and 10. Apart from India, the other teams include Dinamo Stroitel, the Russian Team 1 and Russian Team 2. The England matches will be played from July 22 to August 1. Apart from Tirkey, the team also includes Nilam Sanjeeb Xess, another player from the state. Keeping in mind the junior World Cup that will be held in Lucknow later this year, the matches are crucial to give exposure to both the state players.
Moves matter
Manas Ranjan Parida of Bhubaneswar bagged the 23rd Makhanlal Haldar Memorial Open Chess Championship that concluded in Puri on June 26. Parida gathered eight points at the event hosted by the Puri District Chess Association. During the nine-round tournament, local boy Birakishore Behera also gathered eight points and grabbed the runners-up title while Prakash Chandra Sahoo finished third with seven points. Parida took the title on the basis of the Buchholz system. Around 118 players, including 21 rated players from 16 districts of Odisha, Bengal and Bihar, took part in the meet.
Dribble delight
Mirdhadera retained the champions title defeating Darlipali by a brace at the final of the 5th Belpahar Football League hosted at TRL Stadium in Belpahar. The championship was organised by Hallo Brother Football Association. While Shyam Bankera from the winning team scored the first goal in the fifth minute, Bharat Munda nailed the second goal at the 16th minute, taking away the title from their formidable opponent. The champion team received the trophy along with a cash award of Rs 30,000 and the runners-up team took home Rs 20,000. Bharat Munda, Ajya Khuntia and Shyam Bankera received the best forward, best goalkeeper and best player awards respectively while Navin and Ramesh Oram received accolades for being declared the best defender and top scorer respectively.
