Run for glory

The last leg of the Asian Grand Prix Athletic Meet-2015 was completed in Chanthaburi, Thailand. The Indian women’s relay team bagged the bronze medal at the 4X100 metres where Odia girl Srabani Nanda took part. She missed the bronze at the women’s 100-metres by a whisker and stood fourth.  In the men’s 4X100 metres relay team event, the Indian team finished in the fourth position, in which Odia athlete Amiya Kumar Mallick was a member. In the two earlier legs, Srabani won three bronze medals, while Amiya grabbed one bronze in the second leg. Odisha Athletic Association secretary Ashirbad Behera congratulated the athletes for their good performance at the international arena.

Tennis laurels

The All-India Tennis Association and Odisha Tennis Association Talent Series U-12 and U-14 tournament concluded at the Kalinga Stadium on June 26. In the Boy’s U-12 singles final, Odia boy Amrutjay Mohanty defeated Bengal player Ritabrata Sarkar 6-3,6-2. However, in the U-14 Singles final, Jharkhand player Asish S. Sinha defeated Odia player Pratyush Mohant 6-4,6-2. Bhubaneswar girl Ameek Kiran Batth, who was the top-seeded player at the event, was crowned the U-14 Girl’s Singles champion. The event was organised by the Odisha Tennis Players’ Parents’ Association.

Football league

FAO Women’s League 2015 (Odisha First Division League) will be held from July 5. A total number of eight teams will be taking part in the league. The teams have been divided into two groups. Group-A will consist of Mangala Club, Odisha Police, Sunshine Club and Radhagobinda Club while Sunrise Club, Chand Club, East Coast Railway and Sports Hostel are slotted in Group-B. All the matches of FAO Women’s League will be played at the Bidanasi ground in Cuttack.

Snooker tourney

The first All-Odisha Open Handicap Snooker Tournament concluded at the Vintage Club in Bhubaneswar where Cuttack boy and the present state senior snooker champion Jeet Kishore Das emerged champion. Jeet beat finalist Rakesh Roshan Pradhan from Bhubaneswar in the final by 4-2 frames. Organised by Vintage Club and sponsored by tripprocess.com, the first-of-its-kind tournament was a success and used a new format of the handicap rule.
Based on the players’ rankings, top seed Subrat Das was placed in A or Zero category.

Other 47 players were divided in categories A-1, B, B-1, C, C-1 and D with handicaps of 7, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 and 56 points in descending order. Current state champion Jeet Kishrore Das, former junior national champion Ashutosh Padhy and state title winners Nishant Biswal and Rakesh Roshan Pradhan were included in A-1 group with handicap of plus seven. Greenhorns Ram Agarwal, Siddharth Behera, Gourav Kakkad, Anjan Ghosh and Ankur Swain belonged
to category-D and had the highest handicap of plus 56. There were shock exits as both Subrat and Ashutosh crashed out early.

Castle move

Saina Salonika of Odisha bagged a silver at the U-12 Commonwelath Chess Championship in Delhi.

The 22nd Makhanlal Halder All-Odisha Open Chess Tournament will be hosted from July 3 to July 5 at the Durga Bari Samiti, Puri. The event will be organised by Puri District Chess Association. Manas Parida won the open tournament last year. Twenty top players will be given cash prizes at the contest.  
Namita Panda