Bhubaneswar, Nov. 16: Women sportspersons from across the state have gathered at the Kalinga Stadium to showcase their skills in athletics, handball, hockey and tennis at the four-day state-level women sports competition.

Babita Santa, a 16-year-old athlete from Sundargarh, is finding the competition a great opportunity to display her skills, learn tips from sportspersons who have gathered here and also make new friends.

"The competition is like a huge get-together of women sportspersons from across all districts. There is definitely a spirit of contest and a desire to win, but we are also making new friends and discussing techniques of our sport," said Santa.

Handball players from Subarnapur and Ganjam were also seen exchanging inputs on techniques. "After the day's events are over, we hang out together and explore Bhubaneswar. This way we will get to know players from other district and this camaraderie will help us play together in national-level events," said a player from Ganjam.

The women's state-level competition is an annual affair and hosted in four phases clubbing a few disciplines together in each phase. This year, the first phase involving basketball, badminton, swimming and table tennis was hosted at Cuttack's Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium from November 7 to 10. In Puri, gymnastics was hosted from November 12 to 13 and this is the third stage of the event. The final leg of the competition will be hosted in Balasore for volleyball, kho kho and kabaddi.

"There are 548 participants from 30 districts in the entire event. The state-level competition is organised as part of the central government's Rajiv Gandhi Khel Abhiyan (RGKA) scheme. The winners are given a cash prize of Rs 500, Rs 300 and Rs 200 for first, second and third positions, respectively, apart from certificates and trophies," said A.K. Jena, director, state sports department.