Strong arm tactics

The 4th Bhaina Memorial Odisha Open Arm-wrestling Tournament, organised by the Bhaina Memorial Trust, concluded recently at Utkal Karate School. Chanda Kumar Behera and Lucky Rani Patra claimed the Champion of Champions titles in the men and women categories of the tournament respectively. Behera emerged winner in the 100-kg category while Patra grabbed the title 75-kg category. Close to 100 arm-wrestlers from eight districts contested for the titles in 19 weight categories of the championship.

Hockey tourney

The 6th Junior Women Asia Cup Hockey Tournament will begin at Bangkok, Thailand from Wednesday. The 18-member Indian squad for the tournament, led by Ritu Rani, has three Odia players – Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Lilima Minz and Anupa Barla. Surabhi Pradhan from Odisha is a member of the eight stand-by players chosen for the tournament. India will play the opening match against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Impressive play

Odia chess players have been performing brilliantly at the Asian Youth Chess Championship that is on in Sri Lanka. Among the 10 Odia chess players who are a part of the 52-member Indian squad, U-12 Asian bronze medallist Rakesh Kumar Jena has maintained a perfect score of four out of four rounds by winning against all his rivals in the four matches. Similarly, Sankalp Baliarsingh from Odisha has not lost a match yet in the U-12 open championship. But Sankalp has so far attained three points. Among the girls, FIDE master Rutumbara Bidhar has also won her four matches till now. Other Odia players at the tournament are Debashis Das, Utkal Ranjan Sahoo, Sambit Panda, Rudraksh Parida, Anwesha Mishra, Adyasa Mohapatra and Sidhant Mohapatra.

Table top

Durgapur Steel Plant (DSP) won the Inter Steel Plant Table Tennis Championship organised by the Sports Unit of Rourkela Steel Plant in the steel city. The DSP team claimed the title beating Salem Steel Plant 3-2 games on Wednesday. Eight teams took part in this tournament. The matches were played in the new ‘Swathing Cup’ system.

Tee off

The Tata Steel IGU East Zone Junior Tour resumes after a three-week break when the Bhubaneswar Junior/Sub-Junior tees off at the Bhubaneswar Golf Club here on Tuesday. The Bhubaneswar Junior/Sub-junior forms the fifth leg of the nine-leg Tata Steel IGU East Zone Junior Tour. The 36-hole event will see players fighting for honours in four categories with Raghu Bir Choudhary, who had annexed the RCGC Junior/Sub-Junior title at his home club, being the favourite in the top category (A&B).

On target at shooting camp

The second state-level shooting camp organised by the State Rifle Association and Utkal Karate School concluded on June 25 at the Karate School shooting range in Bhubaneswar. Twenty-three shooters took part in the camp that offered training in air pistol and air rifle categories. The participants were awarded according to their performances at the camp. Sandip Mohanty topped in the air pistol category while Khitish Kumar Behera stood first in the air rifle segment.