The state didn’t have much reason to celebrate last week other than the cricket team’s performance in the ongoing Ranji. There was no Odisha team vying for the top spot at the All-India Kalinga Cup football tournament and Delhi took away all the prizes at the 22nd Sub-Junior National Badminton Championships

The Eastern Region qualifier of the Toyota IGU National Club Challenge that was hosted at Bhubaneswar Golf Club saw some highly competitive golf. Satyajyoti Mohanty won in the 0-6 H’cap category scoring 29 points in the day. Around 100 golfers with handicaps of 24 and below took part in the Bhubaneswar Golf Club’s team selection round to represent their club at the Toyota IGU National Club Challenge. The winners in other categories were Ranjit Singh (29 points) in 7-10 H’cap category, Dalbir Singh (29 points) in 11-15 H’cap category, Anup Mohapatra (38 points) in 16-20 H’cap category and Geeta Biswas (31 points) in 21-24 H’cap category.

Geeta Biswas, the first woman to seal a berth in the zonal finals, said: “I’m very happy and proud of my efforts. I managed to hit four pars today and that was enough to grab the opportunity to represent Bhubaneswar Golf Club in this pan-India tournament.” The team selected will go to the second stage, the East Zone finals, which will take place at Tollygunge Club on December 13. At the 18-hole zonal finals, the best-five 18 hole total stableford scores of the six players will make the team score and the top two teams from each of four zonal Finals will qualify for the third stage - the national finals.

In other golf news, Srimoy Kar of Bhubaneswar Golf Club won the Commander’s Cup Golf Tournament, which concluded at the 120 Infantry Battalion Golf Course on Monday.

Lancers’ logo

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday unveiled the logo and jersey of Idco-MCL Kalinga Lancers, the state-based franchise that is set to become the sixth team of the Hockey India League.

“This will provide a highly visible and attractive platform to inspire young and talented hockey players of the state,” said Naveen.

“It is also a matter of pleasure that the synthetic turf hockey stadium in Bhubaneswar has been chosen as the venue for next Champions Trophy in 2015 and Junior World Cup in 2016. It is also the first preferred location in the bid for men’s World Cup in 2018, which will be hosted by India,” he said.

The Odisha franchise will take part in the upcoming second edition of Hockey India League, scheduled to be held from January 25 next year.

The other teams taking part in the league are Delhi Waveriders, Mumbai Magicians, Uttar Pradesh Wizards, Punjab Warriors and Ranchi Rhinos.

Back with a bang

Bouncing back after the first loss to Punjab, Odisha gained three points by taking a 71-run first innings lead in their four-day Group-A Ranji match, which ended in a draw against Vidarbha at VCA Stadium in Nagpur. The state team put up a first innings total of 453 for six and declared, following which Vidarbha folded up for 382, thanks to a brilliant five-wicket haul by Basant Mohanty. Vidarbha settled with one point.

Among the good performers in the match is Niranjan Behera, who registered his third first-class century before being dismissed for a career best of 131. Also, Odisha A gained three points by virtue of taking a slender seven-run first-innings lead against Andhra A in their C.K. Nayudu Trophy (U-25) Elite Group-C match, which ended in a draw at Cudappa on Monday. Hosts Andhra were 214 for four on the fourth and final day when both the captains agreed to settle for a draw.

Nail-biting finish

The All-India Kalinga Cup Football Tournament concluded last week with a final that went down to the wire. The match was played between Southern Samity (Calcutta) and Air India (Mumbai). Southern Samity won 4-2 in a tie-breaker after the match had ended 0-0 in the regulation time.

Sixteen teams, including eight from the state, took part in the tournament, which was jointly organised by state sports department and Football Association of Odisha.

The champion team got a cheque of Rs 3 lakh and the runner-up, Rs 2 lakh.

Badminton loss

The state’s 19-member squad failed to make a mark at the 22nd Sub-Junior National Badminton Championship for the U-13 and U-14 boys and girls, which ended in Cuttack’s Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium recently.

Delhi clean swept both the boys’ and girls’ singles titles in the under-15 category. Manipur and Maharashtra claimed the two singles titles in under-13 age group of the weeklong championship, which was hosted for the first time in Odisha.

Local players could not even make it to the quarter-finals. The tournament, which began last Monday, saw around 600 participants.

Volleyball selections

The selection of Bhubaneswar District Senior Volleyball Teams (men and women) will be held at Unit-I High School Volleyball Court on Wednesday.

Interested volleyball players staying in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Area are requested to report to Pravat Kumar Patra at the Volleyball Court at 7am. Both the men and women volleyball teams will be selected on the basis of their performance in the selection trial.

Then the team will proceed to Paradip on November 22 to take part in the Senior Inter-District Volleyball Championship (men-women) to be held from November 23 to 26.

Cue sports

The 20th State Billiards and Snooker ranking championship will begin in Bhubaneswar from November 22 to December 1.

The Cue Sport Academy is going to host the championship that will see top cueists of the state such as Subrat Das and teenager Ashutosh Padhi vying for the top spots.