Five girls from KISS — Sumitra Nayak, Soni Mandangi, Lija Sardar, Jemamani Naik and Parbati Kisku — have been named in the Indian rugby team for the Asia qualifiers for the Youth Olympic Games in Dubai from November 29 to 30. Head coach of the USA Sevens rugby team trained the squad at the Bombay Gymkhana, Mumbai, from November 7 to 26.
Ping-pong
Table tennis stars Ananya Basak, Swetapadma Dalai and M. Eshwar Rao won two singles’ categories each at the 23rd Inter-District and State Table Tennis Championships, which concluded in Bhubaneswar. Khurda girl Ananya outplayed her district mate Yoshita Jamula in the junior girls’ final. She outshone Poushali Ghatak of AG Odisha in the women’s singles final. Bhubaneswar girl Swetapadma defeated Soumyajyoti Das of Cuttack in the cadet girls’ final and beat Bhubaneswar’s Nandini Biswal in the sub-junior girls’ final.
Cricket team
The Odisha Cricket Association’s selection committee has named a 15-member squad for the match against Jharkhand U-16 in the Vijay Merchant Trophy East Zone League in Jamshedpur from December 7 to 9. Surya Mohapatra will lead the team, while Binayak Mohanty will be vice-captain.
Karate kid
Umakanta Senapati of Utkal Karate School recently took part in the Gujarat Karate Championships. Umakanta, who coaches young aspirants, won gold and silver in the 75kg category. The tourney concluded on November 26. He clinched gold in the men’s Kumite event and the silver in the open Kata event. On the basis of his performance, Umakanta qualified for the National Senior Karate Championships to be held in Calcutta in January.
Volunteers
Nilam Sanjeeb Xess, an 18-year-old fullback from Sundargarh, will volunteer in the upcoming Men’s Hockey World League Final. It will allow him to watch and follow top international stars from close quarters. Four other state players — Binit Ekka, Ashwin Kujur, Chandrakant Barik and Ashok Lakra — will also volunteer at the event. They will be joined by Biswa Ranjan Sarangi from Bhubaneswar, who officiated as a judge at the Men’s Asia Cup in Dhaka and national umpires Rajen Ekka and Nishan Jyoti Mohanty.
Skating tourney
An 11-member Odisha team will take part in the Under-14 National Roll Ball Skating Championship in Panjim, Goa, from December 1 to 3. The players have been selected from different schools and districts of the state.
The selection trial was organised by the Odisha Roll Ball Association in collaboration with Odisha Skating Academy. Arindam Samal, Asim Anurag, Pritish Aryan, Pabitra Mohan Khilar, Aditya Pattnaik, Srujan Nayak, G. Amit Kumar Patra, Omkar Sarangi, Sushobhan Mishra, Ayush Samal and Sivam Gupta have been named in the state team.
Swimming champ
Ace swimmer Pratyasa Ray bagged silver in the 200m backstroke at the 63rd National School Game Swimming Championship that concluded on November 27 at Talkotra Stadium in Delhi.
She had won silver in the 100m backstroke on the inaugural day.
Anwesha Ambaly
