The State Badminton Championship began at the Ispat Stadium in Rourkela. Organised by the Odisha State Badminton Association and the Rourkela Sports Association, the championship features matches for all segments of men and women and boys and girls as well as veterans. The tournament began on Tuesday and it will conclude on September 28.

Chess masters

Odia woman grandmaster Padmini Rout and international master Debasis Das are on a winning streak at the World Junior Chess Championship. At the championship in Turkey, Padmini is in the joint third position after nine rounds with 6.5 points.

She defeated Indonesian player Medina Warda Aulia in the eighth round and drew against woman grandmaster Arajibe Mary of Georgia in the ninth round. Chess followers in Odisha are closely following Debasis' performance also. A good show might make him the state’s first grandmaster. He seems to be on track after defeating his opponent from China in the ninth round.

Court game

The All-India Tennis Association and the Odisha Tennis Association have jointly organised an U-14 champions' series tournament from September 23 to 27 at Siksha 'O' Anusandhan University. Around 100 boys and girls from nine states are taking part in the event. Amit Beniwal of Haryana and Muskaan Rajan of Karnataka are the top seeds among boys and girls, respectively. Eight boys and four girls from Odisha were chosen for the main draw. The winner will earn 25 AITA points, while the runner up will get 20 points.

Hockey time

Rasrajpur of Sundargarh district won in the final match of the 11th Rural Hockey Tournament after beating Veteran Club of Rourkela 1-0 in the men's category. In the women's final, which was held at Rourkela’s Biju Patnaik Hockey Stadium, STC, Rourkela, beat NYC, Kukura 2-0. As many as 74 men's and eight women's teams took part in the tournament. Rural hockey players got an opportunity to play on synthetic turf at the event organised by the sports department of Rourkela Steel Plant from September 8 to 22.

Football fever

At the 49th Junior National Championship, which is also known as the B.C. Roy trophy, in Ranchi, the state team opened its account by defeating Haryana 2-1. The team’s match against Uttar Pradesh ended in a goalless draw. The 20-member state team is being led by Hari Mohan Soren. Odisha next match is against Mizoram.

In another development, the Senior Women Inter-District Football Tournament, also known as P.C. Behera Trophy, is being held in Balangir. Women footballers from more than 20 districts are taking part in the tournament. Similarly, the Inter-District Club Football Championship is on at Baripada. The best performers will qualify for the All-India Kalinga Cup Tournament.

On medal path

At the National Inter-Zonal Junior Athletics Championship, which will conclude in Kochi today, Sekunta Kulu of Bhubaneswar and Rajeswari Bhoi of Sundargarh bagged silver and bronze medals in their respective events. Sekunta won a silver medal with a long jump of 5.47 metre.

Rajeswari grabbed the bronze medal in 100m hurdles by clocking 14.98 seconds in girls' U-18 group. Among other Odisha athletes, Saraswati Chhater of Bhubaneswar secured sixth place in 100m hurdles in girls’ U-16 event. Sumi Oram of Sundargarh finished fourth in 100 and 400 meter hurdles for girls' U-20 group. Salimi Kispotta came fifth in girls’ U-16 shot put, Latika Basara of Bhubaneswar finished fourth in girls’ U-18 triple jump and Suman Jena of Angul came fourth in the 10,000 metre walking event. Binkash Barwa of Sundargarh came sixth in 100m hurdles for boys in the U-16 group, while Champa Tirkey of Cuttack finished fourth in 400m hurdles in boys’ U-18 group.