Sprint queen

Srabani Nanda once again showcased her skills and secured a bronze medal in the 100-metre sprint at the Asian Grand Prix Athletics Meet-2015 in Thailand. She clocked 11.58 seconds to clear the finishing line. Kazakhstan girl Zyabkina Viktoriya grabbed the gold, finishing at 11.36 seconds, while Liang Xiaojing from China clocked 11.52 seconds to secure the silver medal. Apart from the 100 metres, Srabani is also taking part in the 4X100 metres relay race while Odia boy Amiya Kumar Mallick will run in the 4X100 metres men’s relay race.

Tennis tourney

The All-India Tennis Association and the Odisha Tennis Association are jointly organising the Talent Series tennis tournament at the Kalinga Stadium tennis complex in Bhubaneswar since Monday. Around 95 participants from Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam and the host state are competing for the titles in different categories. 

Hockey trials

The selection trials for the enrolment of cadets at the SAIL Hockey Academy, run by Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) were held at the Biju Patnaik Hockey Stadium recently. The final list of 12 selected cadets has been declared. Over 130 hockey players from Sundargarh district as well as from across India took part in the trials. The selection committee was headed by Michael Kindo (Olympian), Surendra Khanna, deputy general manager (sports) SAIL corporate office, Sudarshan Singh; representative of SAIL, corporate office and R.K. Saini (coach) identified the budding talents based on their performance at the four-day long trial. Initially, 22 cadets were selected and finally 12 were short-listed for this year. The selected players are Santosh Majhi, Biren Lakra, Vudu Tuti, Johnson Ekka, Mihil Toppo, Samir Ekka, Premchand Kongari, Jayaprakash Patel, Ravi Rajput, Rabins Jaiswal, Prem Sanjay Ekka and Anand Lakra. Of the twelve, four have been selected from outside the state. They are Patel and Jaiswal from Varanasi, Rajput from Ahmedabad and Kongari from Ranchi. Anand Lakra, a rising star in the men’s junior team is presently participating at the national selection trial. Lakra, has the credit of representing the country in two prestigious assignments. He participated at the 4th Sultan of Johor Cup in Malaysia and also represented India at the test series against Australia in the junior team. 

Chess champs

Woman Candidate Master Saina Salonika made a massive impression by winning three gold medals at the World Under-10 Girl’s Chess Championship category of the 16th Asean Age Group Chess Championship that concluded at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore recently. The Bhubaneswar girl won a blitz event and earned two team gold medals in standard and rapid events. Of the nine-round blitz event, Saina won eight games and lost only one. She secured eight points in the blitz category and finished fourth in rapid category with 4.5 points. In standard category, though top seeded, Saina finished fifth with six points out of nine. Around 459 players from 16 countries of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) took part in the nine-day championship. India occupied the third position with a tally of nine individual medals, which included six golds, two silvers and one bronze. Vietnam topped the table with 53 medals and was followed by the Philippines. The 6th Schools Open Chess Championship organised by DAV Public School, Kalinga Nagar, Bhubaneswar concluded on Sunday. Over 70 players from 14 schools had taken part in the two-day 8-round Swiss tournament. Lalit Ranjan Sahoo of Old Stewart School, Cuttack, emerged champion by scoring 6.5 points.

Kabaddi time

Women from the Jajpur Kabaddi Association emerged champions in the 60th All-India Kabaddi Tournament, which concluded at Khanditara in Jajpur district this week. In the men’s event, Haryana beat Uttar Pradesh 9-5 in the 
finals to emerge champions. The Jajpur women’s team clinched the title by defeating Bengal 12-10. Bijay Kumar of Haryana and S.P. Mahal of Jajpur were chosen as the best male and female player, respectively. Earlier in the last-four stage, Jajpur had defeated Pipili 17-13, while Bengal had a landslide victory against Madhya Pradesh, beating them 45-10.

Star archer

Odia archer Ranjit Naik, a student of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), has been identified as a potential medal winner at the Olympics and has been included in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme for the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics by the Union ministry of youth affairs and sports. A high-level identification committee of the ministry recommended Ranjit’s name along with five other archers in the senior men’s category. The identified athletes would be provided support, which includes funds, competition exposure and training, under the scheme, for preparations for the quadrennial event. Ranjit, who hails from tribal dominated Mayurbhanj district, was selected because of his stellar performances at the national and international level. He has represented India in the Senior Recurve Round for World Cup Stage-I in Shanghai, China; World Cup Stage-II Archery Championship in Turkey, second Asian Grand Prix Archery Championship in Taipei and World Youth Archery Championship in Wuxi, China, where he won the silver medal. Recently, he completed his training in Calcutta and proceeded to Patiala for further practice.