Para athletes brought joy to the state with their brilliant performance at the national championship. Plenty of other sporting events kept spectators busy across Odisha.
Dribble time
Cuttack District Athletic Association is hosting the first Under-14 Boys’ Football Championship at Odisha Cricket Association's (OCA) academy complex. The weeklong event will continue till April 12. The event aims at promoting football at the grassroots level in Cuttack and at finding out new talents, said an official of the Cuttack District Athletic Association. Eight teams are taking part in the tournament. The teams are Football Club (FC) Choudhury Bazar, FC Bidanasi, FC Sartol, FC Darghabazar, FC Sutahat, FC Khannagar, FC Tulsipur and FC Nimasahi. In the opening day on Monday, FC Choudhury Bazar won the match against Sartul by 6-0 goals while Bidanasi won against Dargha Bazar 2-1.
Against all odds
In the upcoming Asian Wheelchair Fencing to be hosted from April 7 to 10 in Hong Kong, star players from Odisha — Rakhal Kumar Sethi and Ramesh Rao - will represent India. Both have won various international medals before and have also been national champions in different categories. Also, in the 16th National Para Athletic Championship hosted at Panchkula in Haryana, Odisha won 12 medals including seven gold, four silver and one bronze. “The medal winners are Jayanti Behera, Pankaj Bhue, Sukhram Majhi, Durga Hembram, Punil Mansingh, Susanta Kumar Mallik, Sagar Nayak, Niklas Pradhan, Akshay Kumar Sahoo and Anil Kumar Sahoo,” said Bishnu Charan Sahoo, the secretary of Odisha Para Athletic Association.
Square cuts
The final match of the Kalahandi Cup Senior Inter-District Cricket Tournament, organised by the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA), was held at Sunshine Ground in Cuttack. Cuttack-A emerged champion by defeating Rourkela. In the first innings, Rourkela were bundled out for 92 with Soumendra Das picking four wickets for Cuttack-A. In reply, Cuttack-A put up a strong total of 398, thanks to Arvind Singh's 114 and half centuries by Souvagya Mishra, Bikash Pati and Rajesh Dhupar. In the second innings, Rourkela was all out for 230 and Cuttack-A won by an innings and 76 runs. Earlier, in the first semi-final Cuttack-A qualified for the final by virtue of first innings lead against Bhubaneswar-A and in the second semi-final Rourkela qualified to the final even though the first innings could not be completed, by virtue of higher net run rate during.
Clear winners
In the All-India Tennis Association (AITA) and Odisha Tennis Association (OTA) Championship Series Tennis Tournaments for Under-14 and Under-18 players, Odisha girls and boys came out in flying colours. In the event that concluded at the Kalinga Stadium on April 2, Odia girl Ameek Kiran Bath emerged runners up in the girls Under-14 final despite winning the second set in the three set match against Bhakti Shah. In an all Odisha Under-18 boys final, Avilash Mishra won 7-5, 6-1 against Aditya Satpathy. In the girls Under-18 category, Odia girl Rutuparna Choudhary lost to Bengal's Yubrani Banerjee. The single finalists duo got together to emerge winners in the doubles category against Bhakti Shah and Smriti Bhasin. All winners and runners-up will get 25 and 20 AITA ranking points respectively.
Hockey hurrah
Hockey Odisha is hosting the 14th Nalco Cup State Hockey Championship from April 2 to 9 at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. There are 23 men’s teams from various districts, Odisha Police, KIIT University, Nalco, East Coast Railway, Paradip Port Trust, CRPF, Rourkela Steel Plant and SAI. Players who make a mark will be selected for the state team.
Drag flicks
Anupama Swain of Odisha has been selected by the Karate Association of India for the Dubai Open World Karate Federation League. She will be part of the Indian team at the event to be held from April 7 to 10 in Dubai. Anupama trains and teaches karate at Utkal Karate School.In a recently held match, Nalco won against Dhenkanal 1-0.
Magic moves
The 2nd Triple ‘C’ All India FIDE Chess Championship organised by Triple ‘C’ Chess Club in association with District Chess Association of Puri is under way at Hotel Rumani in Puri. The event has a total of 209 rated players from 16 states. There are 68 players from Bengal and 35 from Andhra Pradesh. International Master Diptiyan Ghosh is the top seed in the event.
