Kubotan self-defence tricks make a debut in the state while an Odia hockey umpire gets a thumbs up
Pitch perfect
Defending champions Media-XI grabbed the Tata Friendship Cup Cricket tournament for the fifth time in a row defeating Bureaucrats-XI by 23 runs at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Sunday. Four teams - Media-XI, Bureaucrats-XI, Legislative-XI and Tata-XI - took part in the one-day tournament that was held after a year. In the Media-XI final match, all-rounder Abdul Aziz, who missed a half-century by four runs, was adjudged as the man of the match, while Manoj Mohapatra and Faizal Ali of the same team received the best batsman and best bowler awards, respectively. Ramaswamy of the Bureaucrats team, who scored an unbeaten 57 runs in the final match, bagged the all-rounder award. G. Rajesh and Deba Priya Biswal bagged best wicketkeeper and best fielder awards, respectively. Earlier, in the first two matches, Bureaucrats edged out Legislative-XI by 10 wickets, while Media-XI won against Tata Steel XI by 49 runs.
Self-defence
A seminar on kubotan self-defence was held for the first time in the state at Utkal Karate School in Bhubaneswar. Kubotan is a self-defence key chain weapon developed by Soke Takayuki Kubota in the late 1960s. Kubotan is a long stick, wide as the width of a finger, and it has a key ring attached to it at the end.
More than 100 participants took part in the programme and after the seminar, participants were provided with a kubotan each. B.H. Chaudhury from Mumbai conducted the training programme and the seminar. Kubotan is mostly used as a key ring but later it was used as a self-defence weapon. Police in Tokyo and the USA use this weapon.
Smash it
An interstate open badminton tournament was hosted at the indoor stadium at Khallikote University in Berhampur on November 18. Altogether, 16 doubles team took part in the men's event of the five-day tournament hosted by the Rotary Club. Hema Nagendra Babu and Kiran Behera of Visakhapatnam emerged champions of the Sandeep Memorial Tournament defeating Arjun Reddy and Mouili of Hyderabad. Palav Bose and Subrat Chattarjee from Calcutta finished third. The champions' team received a trophy along with a cash award of Rs15,000, while the runners-up were given Rs10,000.
Wushu wows
A 15-member Wushu squad, including six girls, from Odisha are taking part in the 15th National Junior Wushu Championship, which is being organised at Bhilwara Sports Complex at Pune in Maharashtra from December 18 to 23. The team was selected on the basis of their performances in the state championship held on November 26 and November 27. Members of the Wushu Association of Odisha flagged off the team.
Upscale umpire
Odisha's Nishan Jyoti Mohanty has been selected for officiating as the umpire in the 121st All India Beighton Cup hockey tournament to be held at Calcutta from December 19 to 27. Hockey India is organising the tournament. Mohanty, who works with East Coast Railway, had earlier officiated many matches. The tournament is one of the oldest hockey tournaments in the country. Teams from across the country will take part in the event. The decision to appoint Mohanty was announced by Hockey India recently.
Cage fights
Three Odisha youths took part in the first edition of the mixed martial arts (MMA) premier league played at Hyderabad. The league was organised by the All India MMA Association.
The participants were Priyadarshini Ghatuary, Amareshwar Singh and Pankaj Kumar and trained by Utkal Karate School. Mixed martial arts is a full-contact combat sport that allows striking, grappling and standing on the ground using techniques from other combat sports and martial arts. It is popularly known as cage fighting.
Kabaddi for kids
A 30-member team, including both boys and girls, are going to Gujarat to take part in the National Junior Boys' and Girls' Kabaddi Championship being played at Vadodra from December 21 to 24. Both the girls' and boys' teams have 12 players each, coaches and managers. The teams were selected through events organised by the state kabbadi association.
Nepal aces
Football Tennis Association held a meeting in Cuttack last week. It was decided at the meeting that the senior men's and women's football tennis teams from Nepal would be invited to Odisha to play 10 exhibition matches next month to give exposure to Odia players. These matches will be played at various districts. Besides, Odisha will host a tri-nation football tennis tournament in March next year that will include Nepal and Bhutan. Selection trials for the upcoming matches will be held at Cuttack next week. Measures would be taken to increase the popularity of the sport.
Wrestle mettle
The district wrestling championship in Cuttack will be held on January 2 and 3 on Llamutt campus at Sheikh Bazaar. Various clubs in the district will take part in the event, that will be held across various age and weight categories. Wrestling is a popular sport in Cuttack. The selected players will try for state team in the coming days.