Amid celebrations of National Sports Day across the state by various organisations on Monday to observe hockey legend Dhyanchand’s birth anniversary, sportspersons kept themselves busy last week with various events. The Telegraph turns the spotlight on what went on in the sporting arena in the past week.

Basketball champs

Cuttack District Basketball Association and Orissa Basketball Association (OBA) are organising the 13th sub-junior state basketball championships at the Barabati Stadium basketball complex in Cuttack. The event, which began on Sunday, features 20 teams - 16 boys’ and four girls’. The teams are from Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Keonjhar, Bhadrak and other parts of the state. The tournament will conclude on August 31.

Bhopal bound

The Orissa team consisting 14 athletes (nine boys and five girls) will be participating in the 23rd National Inter Zonal junior Athletic Championship-2011 to be held in Bhopal from September 2 to 4. The team left Cuttack on Tuesday. The Oriya athletes have practiced hard for the tournament and the team is hopeful of good a performance, said Asirbad Behera, secretary, Orissa Athletic Association. The team members are from Puri, Cuttack, Bargad, Bhubaneswar, Sundargarhand Jajpur.

Carrom schedule

The Orissa State Carrom Association has announced the schedule for the sixth Inter-district Carrom Tournament. The event will begin from September 15 at the Srashta Townhall in Jatni. The Khurda District Carrom Association will be organising the tournament. The men’s category will include both team and singles events while women’s category will have only singles event. Application for participation can be sent within September 12.

Brilliance in rugby

Women rugby players from Bhubaneswar put up a brilliant performance at the All-India Women’s Rugby Sevens Tournament that concluded in Pune last weekend. The Bhubaneswar team finished third in the tournament by reaching the semi-finals where defending champions Jungle Crows from Bengal defeated them.

Arjuna Award

2010 Commonwealth Games gold medal winning weightlifter K. Ravikumar was awarded the prestigious Arjuna Award on the occasion of National Sports Day on Monday at Rasthrapati Bhawan in New Delhi by President Pratibha Patil. He became the seventh sportsperson from the state to win the reputed award and joined the league of cyclist Minati Mohapatra, weightlifter Bijay Satpathy, athlete Rachita Panda and former national hockey captains Dilip Tirkey, Ignace Tirkey and Jyoti Sunita Kullu. The weightlifter is currently training for the upcoming World Weightlifting Championship to be held in France in November.

Hockey cheer

The sports department of Rourkela Steel Plant has organised the 9th Rural Hockey Tournament 2011 (men and women). Seventy-two men’s teams and eight women’s teams are participating in this tournament. The event was inaugurated on Monday on the occasion of Major Dhyan Chand’s birthday that is celebrated as National Sports Day. The tournament is on at the Biju Patnaik Stadium, Rourkela. Tata Steel Hockey tournament, which was held at SAI centre in Sundargarh, concluded last week. SAIL Hockey Academy team emerged champions in the boys’ category after an easy victory over Panposh Sports Hostel players in the final. The winning margin was 3-0. However, there was much to cheer for the Panposh Sports Hostel members as the girls’ team won a thriller over SAI-SAG team from Ranchi. The match went to into tie-breaker after both teams had scored a goal each. The Panposh girls scored three goals while the Ranchi team managed only one in the deciding phase. Hockey fans of the state also have another reason to celebrate. The Tata Steel’s Hockey Academy has been proposed to be set up in Bhubaneswar. The academy will have state-of-art infrastructure and residential facilities for hockey players.

Weighty affair

Berhampur, the city of internationally recognised weightlifters, has been chosen as the venue for the National Weightlifting Championship that will be held later this year. The 64th men’s and 28th women’s national championships will feature top weightlifters from across the country. The Orissa Weightlifting Association is already busy with the preparations for the mega event that will begin from December 24 in the city.

Karate website

The Utkal Karate School recently launched a website on various sports activities and coaching that is provided on its premises. Former national hockey captain Dilip Tirkey launched the website on Monday. The site will have information on activities and events regarding martial arts, shooting, powerlifting, weightlifting and so on.

Battle Australia

The Orissa Ranji team, which is presently touring Australia, will play a series of matches with the RTA Speed Blitz Blues in Sydney starting Tuesday. The Orissa team is being coached by Michael Bevan, former New South Wales and Australia left-hander.

Football glory

The Football Association of Orissa (FAO) leagues for men and women concluded on Sunday. The men's first division league title was claimed by the Orissa Police team that beat Radhagobinda Club 3-1 in the match held at Barabati. The scorers for the police team were Jacob Lama, Hrushikesh Behera and Abhimanyu Pandey while Alfred Jaryan scored the only goal for Radhagobinda. This is the second title for the Orissa Police team in three years, their last victory being in 2009. The Radharaman team won the women's league on Sunday at the same venue. They, too, won 3-1 in the finals by against Chand Club. Sulochana Malik, Pratima Senapati and Sarojini Tirkey were the goal scorers for the winning team. In the ongoing Bhubaneswar Football League organised by the Bhubaneswar Athletic Association, former champions Yazdani Club-73 defeated KIIT 4-0 on Monday.