Laurels for women hockey players
Three women hockey players from Odisha have been selected for the junior women national camp scheduled to be held at SAI centre in Bangalore from May 24 to June 3. Jiwan Kishore Toppo, Premanjali Toppo and Janhabi Pradhan were selected for the camp from the National Junior Championship in Bhopal from May 4 to 14.
Winds of change
The daughter of a former Maoist Chelemma from Malkangiri district has made it to the under-18 national volleyball team, which will take part in the International Volleyball Tournament in China in August.
Fifteen-year-old Sirisa Kurami was selected for her performance at the Junior National Volleyball Championship camp held from April 19 to 24 at Ernakulum in Kerala. She has been under training at the sports hostel in Malkangiri.
State honours
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik felicitated karate players of the National Junior and Sub-junior Karate Championships at the secretariat in Bhubaneswar on Friday. Emerging volleyball player Sirsa Karami and chess player Rutumhara Bidhar were also felicitated.
Sports minister Chandra Sarathi Behera announced on the occasion that an amount of Rs 5 lakh would be distributed among the felicitated sportspersons shortly.
Cricket match
SR XI won the Somnath Mishra Memorial Police Colony Premier League defeating Challengers XI by 26 runs at Odisha Police High School Ground in Cuttack recently. The winning team scored 80 runs in six overs while the opponent scored only 54.
The three-day tournament was played in memory of the late Somnath Mishra, former teacher of Odisha Police High School, who passed away earlier this month. Eight teams took part in the championship, which was hosted by Police Colony Youth Club.
Checkmate
Smaraki Mohanty from Odisha won the title of the 3rd Nalinikanta Memorial State Women Chess Selection Tournament, scoring 5.5 points at Kendrapada last week. Smaraki finished top by winning five and drawing a match in the six round meet. Priyanaka Routray, Krushna Mishra and Sairup P got five points each and were placed in the second, third and fourth spots, respectively. Altogether, 48 players took part in the meet.
Chess championship
The Odisha State Chess Association and Puri District Chess Association is all set to organise the 24th Makhanlal Halder Memorial All India Open Chess Championship from June 16 to 18 in Puri. The champion and runners-up will get Rs 10,000 and Rs 8,000, respectively while the third spot holder will get Rs 5,000. Special cash prize of Rs 1000 each will be given to the best veteran player (above 60 years) and the best woman player.
Barriers broken
Differently-abled sprinter Jayanti Behera, who is the daughter of a daily wage labourer, has brought laurels to the state by qualifying for the World Para Athletics Meet to be held in London in July. She qualified for the meet after winning a gold medal in the women 400metre event with a timing of 1.02 minutes in the China Open Para Athletic Grand Prix Championship on May 14. She is the only differently-abled woman sprinter from the country to be selected in the 400-metre race and to take part in the world meet.
