From showing skills of the mind at a major international chess tournament to excelling in football and cricket, the view from the ringside was full of happenings last week. While there was victory in the arena of chess and football, there was sheer disappointment for badminton players. The taekwondo team is set to leave for Goa, all eyes are on a tennis star of the state. Here is a collage of all the action from the world of sports that kept Oriya sportspersons busy

Chess glory

The Mayors’ Cup International Grand Master championship concluded in Mumbai on Saturday. Among Oriya players, Swayams Mishra stood third in the final points table after 11 rounds. Swayams was the only Indian and the first Oriya to make it to the top three with 8.5 points. Other players from the state also performed well. Satyapragnya stood 15th with 7.5 points, while Padmini Rout and Anwesh Upadhyaya also scored 7.5 points each. Swayams and Padmini also made two international norms.

Martial arts

The Orissa team was recently announced for the 29th National Sub Junior Taekwondo Championship. The 22-member team includes Binod Kumar Sahoo, Sunil Kumar Das, Sachikanta Mishra and so on in the boys’ squad. Valentine Guru, Lodi Hembram and eight others have been selected for the girls’ team. The team will leave for Goa on October 25 where the championship will be held from October 29 to November 1.

Tennis tournament

Bhubaneswar-based Gurukul Tennis Academy is holding the All-India Men’s Ranking Tennis Tournament at their new centre in Mendhashala. The main draw of the series began on Monday while the qualifiers were conducted during the weekend. The five-day event includes participation from Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh, Karnataka, and Bengal. A total of 95 players are participating in the tournament, which has Chinmaya Pradhan as the only player from Orissa in the main draw. Adwitiya Pattnayak, Bijay Abhinandan and Santosh Mallik received wildcard entries.

Badminton losses

Orissa shuttlers had to bow out in the semi-finals of the East Zone Badminton Championship on in Bihar. While senior women player Neela Saswat lost in singles on Friday, she, along with partner Monalisa Mohanty, also lost the doubles’ round. Similarly, the under-19 men’s and women’s singles and doubles hopes were dashed in the earlier rounds. However, state senior champion Manas Routray, who had seized victory against Jharkhand’s Satyaprakash in the quarterfinals, lost his match in the semis. The senior doubles pair of Pramod Rana and K. Manoj Kumar also lost their match against Bengal.

Olympic body

In a conference held on Sunday at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack it was announced that the Orissa Olympic Association would now include 17 new district sports associations under its wings. Each association will be granted Rs 10,000 annually.

Football victory

The Indian women’s team led by Oriya girl Sasmita Mallick won the series 2-1 against Bahrain during their friendly tour to the country. The Indian team won the final 3-1. Meanwhile, the Orissa team emerged runners-up in the 57th School Games Federation of India football tournament that concluded in Srinagar last week. In the Bhubaneswar Football League, Friends’ Paradise Club and Chandrasekharpur Athletic Association teams drew their match with one goal each on Saturday.

 

Cricket camp

A camp for batting and fast bowling begun at the Barabati Stadium’s Orissa Cricket Academy campus. Organised by Orissa Cricket Association, 40 cricketers from Orissa, Bengal, Jharkhand, Assam and Tripura (two batsmen and two fast bowlers from each of the five states in both under-19 and under-16 age groups) are participating in this camp. It is conducted by four coaches — Debasis Mohanty, Prasanta Mohapatra (both Orissa), Devang Gandhi and Barun Burman (both Bengal). The camp began on September 21 and will be on till September 30. Meanwhile, two Oriya female cricketers, Madhuri Mehta and Roshanara Parwin, have been selected for the women’s Challenger Trophy to be held in Baroda from October 1 to 4.