The Young Generation Table Tennis Association is hosting its 20th Open Table Tennis Championship from August 10 at the Barabati Stadium Club House. Organising secretary Choudhury Nihar Ranjan Mishra said the three-day event would include 10 categories such as singles and doubles for men and women as well as junior, sub-junior, cadet and youth segments

In this season of Olympics, the state is on a sports high. All eyes are either glued to TV sets or mega football tournament, the Football Association of Odisha First Division League. A number of chess championships are lined up while karate and badminton players are getting ready for upcoming tourneys

Crazy for football

The league rounds of the Football Association of Odisha (FAO) First Division League are on at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack.

Sunrise Club beat Rising Student Club 1-0 in a close match while the league between SAI and Azad Hind Club ended in a goalless draw on Sunday.

The day before, Odisha Police won their match against Western Mahaveer Club 2-1 and East Coast Railway emerged winners with a score of 1-0 against Radharaman Club.

Two matches were scheduled for Tuesday evening where Mangala Club took on Western Mahaveer and Odisha Police played against Independent Club.

The rest of the preliminary league matches will be concluded by August 9 after which the super league round will begin.

Uncorked

The State Badminton Championship will begin in Bhubaneswar from August 13 at the Saheed Nagar Indoor Hall. Organised by the Odisha State Badminton Association, the four-day event will feature events in categories such as senior men and women, U-19 and U-17 junior (boys and girls). After initial qualifying rounds, eight top qualifiers will join the main draw already hosting selected players.

On your squares

The 26th National U-11 Chess Championship-2012 is on at Jamshedpur from August 6. The Odisha team for this tournament includes Sankalp Baliarsingh, Rakesh Kumar Jena, Sambit Panda, Ansuman Samal, Pranab Kumar Patra and Chintan Nayak for boys and Rutumbara Bidhar, Sovna Sonali Jena, Sweta Senapaty, Anisha Mishra and Ankita Sahoo for the girls’ events.

The All Odisha Chess Association is all set to organise the 1st Keshabananda Das Memorial All India Open Rating Chess Championship 2012 from August 18 to 23 at Hotel Empires in Bhubaneswar. Also, the State Under 19 Chess Championship will begin in Rourkela from August 9 at the Chess Hall in Ispat stadium. Top four players from boys and girls categories will represent Odisha in the National Chess Championships scheduled at Indoor Stadium, Rajasthan, from September 2 to 11.

Kick-start

A week-long karate camp is on at Utkal Karate School in Bhubaneswar for participants of the Senior National Karate Championship from the state. The campers were chosen from last week’s State Karate Championship. “Those who stood first and second in their respective categories have been included in this camp,” said Hariprasad Patnaik, secretary of the Odisha State Karate Do Association. There are 14 players. Three officials will accompany the team to New Delhi where the National Championship will be held on August 17 and 18.