On target

Dipak Mishra, Gouri Mohanty and Ashish Kumar Nayak

Three Odia shooters have been selected to represent the state at the 55th National Shooting Championship to be held in Pune. State champions Ashish Kumar Nayak, Gouri Mohanty and Dipak Mishra from the Odisha Rifle Association are participating in the event after being selected on the basis of their performance in the GV Mavlenkar Shooting Championship. The event began on November 14 and will continue till November 22. All champion shooters from across the country, including participants at international and world championships as well as Olympics will be attending the event.

Dribbling past opponents

A state-level football tournament held at Nachuni Mini Stadium in Khurda concluded on November 13. Saradhapur Sports Association emerged champions in this 15th Dina Maheswar football tournament that was inaugurated on November 4. Meanwhile, the AFC ‘C’ License Coaching Course, which was being conducted by Football Association of Odisha (FAO) from October 28, concluded on November 11. Twenty-four participants, including six women, attended the course, which was conducted by AFC instructor Parthasarathy Thulasi. Three senior international women players — Sradhanjali Samantaray, Gayatri Mallick and Gitanjali Khuntia — and junior international woman player Sarita Jayanti Behera participated in the course along with junior international player Akshya Das. The closing ceremony was held at Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) conference hall. Present on the occasion were Ashirbad Behera, secretary, OCA and Odisha Olympic Association, Bhakta Ballav Das, vice-president, FAO and others such as Rusinath Sahoo, Avijit Paul, Sangeeta Sharma, joint secretary, FAO, Md. Shahid Jabbar, chief coach, national women team.

Quest to salvage pride

The Uttar Pradesh Ranji team featuring international players such as R.P. Singh, Piyush Chawla and IPL player Sudip Tyagi reached Odisha on Monday. They will be playing against the Odisha team at the VSS Stadium in Sambalpur from November 17. A per records, the Uttar Pradesh team has earlier defeated Odisha once. The home team is going through a rough patch, scoring its lowest score of 73 in Elite segment against Punjab in the last match played in Mohali. Meanwhile, in the East Zone Women’s Cricket Championship held in Cuttack, the Bengal women’s team emerged champions while Odisha team won the runners-up title.

Tennis glory

The Odisha Open Tennis Tournament held at the Bhubaneswar Club tennis court concluded on Sunday. Youngster Farhan Ali bagged a double. Farhan won against Chinmay Pradhan in the men’s singles and claimed the doubles’ title as well with the help of partner Satirth Patnaik. The pair of Ajay Nishank and Komal Vishakha won the mixed doubles by defeating Tanmayi Patnaik and Adwitiya Patnaik’s pair in the finals. The veteran title was claimed by G.R. Das and B.K. Naik.

Hitting the water

A six-member Odisha team has left for Ranchi to participate in the 65th National Swimming Championship that will be held from November 16 to 20. The team includes Raundi Tudu, Mohan Bhoi, Chintan Nayak, Raju Pradhan, Aparna Beria and Niharika Patel. Coach Dilavar Hosain is accompanying the team for the championship.

Para-sports

The Open National Para Athletic Championship- 2011 would be from December 14 to 18 at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore. The Odisha para athletic team of 40 members will participate in various events of the championship that has a participation of 1,200 members from 24 states. The contests will be held for men and women with different forms and degrees of physical and mental challenges.