Chess fest

Sandipan Chanda, the Grandmaster from Bengal, beat Himanshu Sharma in the 10th and final round to win the 8th KIIT International Chess Festival. Chanda was the runner-up last year and won Rs 3 lakh this year. Russian Grandmaster Pavel Smirnov emerged runner-up to win Rs 2 lakh, while Georgian Grandmaster Mikheil Mchedlishvili won the third prize of Rs 1 lakh. Among the Odisha players, International Master Swayams Mishra was the most successful, finishing 17th with 6.5 points. Debashis Das, the only Grandmaster of the host state, occupied the 37th place with six points. In the platinum category (ratings 1999 & below), which concluded on May 27, Uttar Pradesh teenager Rishabh Nishad became the winner on the basis of Buchholz tie-break method. Punjab teenager Ashwani Kumar Grover won the premium category title. The chess festival featured 741 players.

Throwball time 

The Senior State Throwball Championship will be hosted from June 5 to 7 at the Railway Institute Field, Cuttack. The event will be jointly organised by the Odisha State Throwball Association and Cuttack District Throwball Association. There will be 20 men's and women's teams for the championship. The event will feature 600 participants and 50 officials and teams from 20 associations hailing from 18 districts of the state. 

Swimming feats

Over 200 swimmers from 13 districts of the state participated in the two-day 56th State Swimming Championship that concluded at the OCA Club Swimming Pool in Barabati Stadium, Cuttack, on Monday. Bhubaneswar repeated last year's performance to win the overall championship by collecting 340 points while host Cuttack finished second with 244 points. Sayantan Sattwik of East Coast Railway and Pratyasa Ray of Bhubaneswar were the most successful swimmers in the men's and women's categories respectively, each winning four gold medals. The events included 400 metres, 100 metres freestyle, 50 metres, 100 metres butterfly, 50 metres backstroke, 50 metres breaststroke, 4x100 metres relay and 200 metres individual medley relay. The Odisha Olympic Association conducted the championship.

Tennis tourney

Odisha’s top tennis player Chinmay Pradhan missed out on becoming the first Odia to win an AITA men's singles title outside the state. He emerged the runner-up at the finals of the CIRCAR AITA All-India Men's Ranking Tournament at the Town Hall Club in Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh. He lost to Tamil Nadu's Vijay Kannan 2-6, 0-6 in the final of the Rs 1.5 lakh prize money tournament. Pradhan collected 20 ranking points by reaching the finals. In his run up to the semi-final, Pradhan, who was third seed, upset the local favourite and second seed Srinivas Kondri 6-1, 6-2 and also his coach Santosh Kumar Mallik 6-4, 6-4 and Ramakrishnan Rangaraju of Tamil Nadu 6-1, 6-4. In the quarter-final, Pradhan beat Gujarat's Jay Soni 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. With this win, Pradhan avenged the defeat he suffered against Soni recently at the All-India Men's Ranking Tournament held in Visakhapatnam.

Seven-a-side soccer

Rohit Academy emerged champions in the first seven-a-side football tournament. They defeated the RBI Sports Club 4-3 in the final via a tie-breaker at the PM Academy ground. The three-day tournament was organised by the Junior Gallant Club. In the five matches, Rock Star FC beat Mangala Club 1-0, Rohit Academy beat Swaraj United 2-1, Bidanasi Club beat Chand Club 3-0, RBI Sports Club beat Barabati Sporting 6-4 in tie-breaker (Full time: 2-2) and Rohit Academy beat RBI Sports 4-3 via tie-breaker (Full time: 1-1).

Hockey championship

Hockey Odisha girls finished third in the 5th Hockey India Sub-Junior Women's National Championship (Division A). They defeated Hockey Haryana 5-2 in Ranchi. Earlier, the Odisha team lost to Hockey Punjab 8-3 in the semi-final. They had won all three of their league matches to reach the semi-final defeating Karnataka 10-1, Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu 10-0 and Delhi Hockey 4-0. The Hockey Odisha players included Kumudini Lakra, Manju Lakra (captain), Bharti Ekka, Sarita Kerketta, Priyanka Kujur, Priyanka Ekka, Elima Minz, Mariana Kujur, Ashim Kanchan Barla, Asmita Barla, Ajmina Kujur, Sangeeta Tirkey, Puja Tanty, Bimla Barwa, Puspanjali Behera, Rajkumari Naik and Abinasi Kukti Surin. 

Hockey Gangpur-Odisha, the second team from the state, missed the opportunity to make it to the last-four stage as they lost to Hockey Haryana 0-2 in their third and last league match in Pool C.

Namita Panda