Kudos to karatekas 

The 6th All-India Open Karate Championship was hosted at the Bhubaneswar-based Utkal Karate School. Odia fighters won as many as 159 medals, including 39 gold, 39 silver and 81 bronze. Madhya Pradesh and Bengal finished second and third respectively in the medals tally. Four karatekas played significant role in putting Odisha on the top of the medals tally. Abhishek Pattnaik, Dillip Kumar Jena, Payal Baral and Anupama Swain emerged the most significant players for Odisha. Abhishek, who trained at Utkal Karate School, won three gold medals and one silver in the three-day event. Dillip and Anupama, also groomed at the host school claimed three gold medals each. Payal from Sunabeda in Koraput district also bagged three gold. Around 500 karatekas from five states participated in the event, which was hosted in association with Shukokai Karate-do Union India. Karate Association of India general secretary Bharat Sharma, Bhubaneswar mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, MLAs Priyadarshi Mishra and Bijay Kumar Mohanty and the founder of Utkal Karate School, Hari Prasad Pattanayak, handed over the medals at the closing ceremony. 

Cricket laurels

Odisha all-rounders Deepak Behera and Swagatika Rath were awarded the 23rd Saheed Sporting-Maruti Estate Cricketer of the Year award. Left-arm orthodox spinner Pragyan Ojha, who has represented Team India, handed over the awards in the presence of eminent cricketers Debashish Mohanty, Rashmi Ranjan Das, hockey Olympian Lazarus Barla and former India women's football captain Sradhanjali Samantaray. Deepak was conferred the award for his impressive performance at the 2014-15 Ranji season. He clinched 33 wickets and scored 137 runs in eight matches. International woman cricketer Swagatika became the second woman after Madhuri Meheta to bag the award. She was given a trophy and a cash award of Rs 21,000. 

Mind games

In the Nalinikanata Mohanty Memorial FIDE rating Odisha State Women's Chess tournament 2015, Smaraki Mohanty emerged the champion. Rutumbara Bidhar from Khurda emerged the first runner up while Akankhya Kabi and Anoushkaa Mohanty stood third and fourth respectively. The top four players have been selected to represent Odisha in the forthcoming 42nd National Women's Challenger Chess Championship 2015 to be held at Thane, Maharashtra, from July 2 to 11. In the Odisha State Sub-junior Chess Championship hosted simultaneously, Ashirwad Behera of Nayagarh and Bhubaneswar girl Rutumbara won the titles. The event was hosted at D.S. Law College in Kendrapara. The top two finishers in both the categories qualified to represent Odisha in the Sub-junior National Chess Championship, which will be held at Jammu from September 21 to 29. 

Serves & volleys

Odisha girl Rutuparna Choudhary lost in the singles final of the All India Shaishya TPPAG Super Series Tennis Tournament for Under-14 girls at Ahmedabad. In the semi- final, she defeated all India rank No 14 and the number three seed Sanya Singh from Maharashtra by 6-1,6-2. In the girls Under-14 doubles, Rutuparna, along with Ameek Kiran Batth, entered the final. In the semi-final, they defeated Sanjana Rayarala and Srujana Rayarala from Andhra Pradesh by 6-3,6-3. Shreya Gulia of Delhi won the Girls’ Under-14 crown beating sixth-seeded Rutuparna 7-5, 6-0.

Track queens

Odia athletes Srabani Nanda and Purnima Hembram were given a hearty welcome after they returned home this week from the 21st Asian Athletics Championship held in Wuhan, China. Both had won bronze medals for India at the event. Srabani won the medal in the 200 metres event where she clocked 23.54 seconds, which incidentally is her career best. Earlier, Srabani put up a valiant fight in the 100-metre sprint where she stood fifth clocking 11.48 seconds. Purnima Hembram stood first in both the women’s 200-metre and the 100-metre hurdle and second in the javelin throw in heptathlon and claimed the bronze medal. This was Purnima’s first medal at a senior international meet. Srabani as well as Dutee Chand, the sprinter, who was banned for a year for high testosterone and later fought and won her appeal to participate in international events, were part of the four member women’s relay team that finished fourth. The only Odia boy who was part of the Indian contingent, Amiya Mallick, was part of the men’s relay team that finished sixth. Odisha Athletic Association secretary Ashirbad Behera congratulated Srabani and Purnima and announced cash awards of Rs 25,000 each for the athletes.