State Cricket Association announces dates for Ranji Trophy selection camp and state athletics team bags gold, silver and bronze medals at Vadadora meet.
State girls' team narrowly missed out on a gold medal and had to settle for silver at the Societe Generale Junior (U-18) National Rugby Sevens Championships at the SDAT Race Course Ground at Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The tournament took place from July 20 to 22.
The state boys' team, after losing their semi-final contest, won the bronze medal play-off game. The state eves lost 12-17 to neighbours Bengal in the summit clash while the boys defeated Bengal 21-14 in the third-fourth place play-off on the final day.
Selection camp
Keeping an eye on the upcoming Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season, the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) on Sunday announced the dates of the selection camp. The camp will start on July 27 in Cuttack with 128 players, who will take part in the selection trials. Thirty four players, including members of the last season's Ranji squad and players, who played in senior level national tournaments, will be called for the trials in the opening phase. The players have been informed that prime importance will be given to fitness. The remaining 94 players will be called in the first week of August for trials. In the next phases, the players who played in U-23 tournaments last season and four players each from every district will be called for the trials. Cricketers, who performed well during the Kalahandi Cup, will also be given a chance to prove their mettle. The training camp of the U-16 state team will start from August 2 in Cuttack.
Tennis tourney
Rabi Narayan Sahoo of Odisha stunned third seed VayamKrishna of Bengal 6-2, 6-1 to clinch the U-14 boys' singles title at the Gurukul AITA-OTA Talent Series Tennis Tournament in Bhubaneswar recently. Rabi defeated compatriots fourth seed Steven Ankit Ekka in pre-quarterfinals, seventh seed Debabrata Pradhan in quarterfinals and top seed Debasis Sahoo in the semi-finals.
Singles' champion
Odisha's Ameek Kiran Batth stunned top seed Harleen Kaur of Chandigarh 6-2, 6-7(4-7), 6-4 in the final to emerge U-18 girls' singles champion in the AITA Championship CS 7 Series Tennis Tournament at Chandigarh lawn tennis association courts recently.
Athletes bag medals
Odisha's athletics team bagged three medals, which included a gold, silver and bronze medals, in the three day 15th National Youth Athletics Championship-2018, which concluded at Manjalpur Sports Complex at Vadadora in Gujarat on July 23. On the final day, Jyoshna Sabar won a bronze in 400 metres hurdles. She clocked 1 minutes 05. 82 seconds. While the gold and silver medals were won by Vishnu Priya of Kerala and Prajna K of Karnataka with a timings of 1 minute 02.52 seconds and 1 minute 05.08 seconds, respectively. Women Medley Relay team finished 6th and Sukhi Baskey finished 8th in 200 metres.
Talent development
Fourteen state players were named among the 734 players announced by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) under the Khelo India Talent Identification Development scheme for training and support. An annual stipend of Rs 1.2 lakh will be given to each player on a quarterly basis for pocket expenses, treatment of injuries and other expenses. The identified players will be trained at SAI, state-run and private academies with 21 non-SAI academies accredited according to the facilities available.
Taekwondo meet
S. N. Taekwondo Academy in Cuttack won 23 medals, which included four gold, 10 silver and nine bronze medals, in the two-day National and Invitational International Taekwondo Championship, which concluded at Malda in Bengal on July 15. The team was accompanied by coach Tapas Das and technical head Sudipta Nanda.
