Jagadish Barik of Puri wins 6th Bhusandpur Chess Championship & two state hockey teams enter quarterfinal of 7th Hockey India Sub-Junior Women National Championship.
Masterstroke
Jagadish Barik of Puri emerged champion in the two-day 6th Bhusandpur Chess Championship by scoring 6.5 points. Around 86 players from Angul, Balasore, Bargarh, Dhenkanal, Gajapati, Ganjam, Jajpur, Khurdha, Nayagarh and Puri took part in the event. Yuvinash Baliarsingh and Sk Ezaz Ahmed of Khurda got six points each and finished second and third respectively in the seven-round tournament. The secretary of All Odisha Chess Association, K.K. Sarma, gave away the prizes during the closing ceremony.
Cricket league
The KIIT University inaugurated the 10th KIIT Premier League on the campus cricket stadium on January 15. All matches of the eight-day tournament will be played in T-20 format on turf wicket on league basis under floodlights. The tournament was inaugurated in the presence of actor and MP Anubhav Mohanty, MLA Priyadarshi Mishra and former cricketer Ajay Jadeja. Winners will get the trophy and a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh, while the runners-up will get Rs 1 lakh. Plenty of individual cash prizes will also be given away on the final day. The league has the distinction of being the highest prize money tournament in the history of university sports in India. Teams from 12 universities from various parts of India are taking part, with each group having four teams.
Tennis stars
Top seed Ansu Kumar Bhuyan bagged the men’s singles and doubles title in the three-day 4th All-Odisha Utkal Open Tennis Tournament, which concluded at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on January 15. He defeated Ajay Kumar Nishank 6-2,6-2 in the men’s final while Ansu partnering with Ajay won the doubles title, defeating Adarsh Sahoo and Abhilash Chandra Sahoo 6-1,6-1. Rutuparna Choudhury won the women’s singles trophy, defeating Ameek Kiran Batth 6-1,6-0. Abhishek Mohapatra was the champion in the U-14 boy’s singles category.
Bronze joy
Odisha players shone at the National Soft Tennis Championship held at Ahmedabad recently. Both the boys’ and the girls’ teams won bronze at the event.
Football coaching
The Football Association of Odisha will organise the AIFF ‘D’ license coaching course at Cuttack from February 8 to 12. The course is an introductory step to professional football coaching in India.
Hockey feat
State teams, Hockey Odisha and Hockey Gangpur, have qualified for the quarterfinal of the 7th Hockey India Sub-Junior Women National Championship (Division-A) at Tamil Nadu. The teams have qualified for all the four group league matches to enter the quarterfinals that will take place on January 19.
ODI manager
The deputy director of horticulture, Nabarangpur, Balakrishna Rao, has been appointed as the local manager for the upcoming India-England second one-day international cricket match at Barabati Stadium to be held on January 19. The Odisha Cricket Association made the announcement recently.
Goals and aces
Odisha Football Tennis team has fared well at the 7th Football Tennis Federation Cup held in New Delhi from January 6 to 8. Afsara Begum was champion in the singles event while Rupali Sahoo and Bhawani Patra won the doubles event. In the men’s events, Sidhanta Mohanta finished third in the singles event while Debi Prasad Sahoo and Shahanawaz Khan finished third in the doubles event.
