Cue sports

Ashutosh Padhy won the senior billiards title in the 22nd Odisha State Senior Billiards and Snooker Championship, beating defending champion and his coach Subrat Das in the final by 3-0 frames at Vintage Club in Bhubaneswar. He had won the junior billiards and snooker titles earlier in August. Only nine cueists in billiards and 38 snooker took part in the championship, which was organised by the Billiards and Snooker Association of Odisha. The champion and runners-up in each category will be eligible to represent Odisha in the Senior National Championship, scheduled to be held early next year in Indore.

Badminton wins 

Debadullav Das won two titles and Mahendra Kumar Barik claimed three in the Odisha Secretariat Open Badminton Tournament. The tournament was hosted at Unit-I Indoor Hall on November 28 and 29. Over 100 shuttle players took part in the two-day tournament, which was organised by Odisha State Secretariat Badminton Association (OSSBA). OSSBA’s working president Lalit Mohan Pattnaik and general secretary Chittaranjan Rout gave away the prizes at the closing function. Deepak Besra received a trophy as the new find of the tournament.

Hockey action

International and national level players of Odisha are organising the first Inter-City Gold Cup Hockey Tournament in Rourkela at two venues. The tournament began on November 29 and is being conducted in two categories — professional and rural. The professional category, featuring 13 teams, was inaugurated by Rourkela Steel Plant executive director Umesh Kumar at Biju Patnaik Hockey Stadium. 

The rural category, involving 40 teams, was unveiled by junior India defender Deepsan Tirkey at Panposh Sports Hostel. Umpires Nishan Jyoti Mohanty, Jayant Kerketta, Rajen Ekka, Praful Tirkey, Bernard Lakra, Sarat Toppo, Ruben Bilung, Fabian Samad, Deonish Bara; judges Sarojini Ekka, Elita Barla, Florencia Ekka, Amulya Behera, Bijay Lakra and D. Panda are officiating the matches under the guidance of tournament director Amulya Nanda Bihari.

Serve & volley

Rutuparna Choudhary won the Super Series Tennis Tournament for Girls’ Under-14 singles held at Bengal Tennis Association, Calcutta. In the final, she defeated fourth seed and all India rank 29, Ashrita Nagpal, from Karnataka, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. Rutuparna gained 50 ranking points by winning the tournament.

Medal rush

Saheel Suman Bhuyan of Cuttack and Anusweta Hembram of Odisha won one silver and two bronze medals on the third day to end their campaign with a total of seven medals in the 31st Junior National Athletics Championship at Birsa Munda Stadium in Ranchi, Jharkhand. 

Vinsen Samad of Sundargarh Sports Hostel secured a silver medal in the Under-16 Boys’ pentathlon with 3,196 points. Priyanka Mahalik of Cuttack secured her maiden national medal by bagging the bronze in the Under-16 Girls’ 3km walk with a timing of 16 minutes and 20 seconds. Bhima Soren of Mayurbhanj district pocketed a bronze medal in the Under-14 Boys’ 100 metre sprint, clocking 11.53 seconds. A 17-member Odisha squad, comprising eight girls and nine boys, earlier collected one bronze medal on the opening day and one silver and two bronze medals on the second day. Punga Soren of Bhubaneswar won the silver medal in the Under-16 Boys’100 metre hurdles with a timing of 13 minutes and 53 seconds. 

Arbin Minz of Sundargarh district secured a bronze medal in the Under-14 Boys’ triathlon event (a combination of 100 metres, long jump and shot put), scoring 1,725 points. Rajeswari Bhoi of Sundargarh also claimed a bronze medal in the Under-20 Girls’ javelin throw with an effort of 42.06 metres. Koraput teenager Chandan Beti secured a bronze medal in the Under-14 Boys’ long jump event by leaping 6.18 metres.

Goals galore

In the ongoing first division football league organised by the Football Association of Odisha (FAO), recent matches were mostly lop sided with at least two teams missing out on scoring any goals. In Monday’s match between Young Utkal Club and State Bank of India, the former won 3-0. The goal scorers for Young Utkal Club were Rakesh Das (11th minute), Narayan Behera (12th minute) and Sibaram Dora (27th minute). In the match between Radha Raman Club and SAI-STC, the latter failed to score any goal and Radha Raman Club won the match 2-0. The goal scorer for Radha Raman Club were Krishnun Das (10th minute) and Janmo Xess (64th minute).