AITA Tennis U-14 Ranking Tournament begins
Bhubaneswar: Former Davis Cupper and former National Coach Akhtar Ali inaugurated the AITA Tennis Ranking Tournament 2013 (Boys’ and Girls’ Under-14 and Men’s) at IBCS, in the SOA University Campus on Sunday. The tournament is being organised by the SOA University under the auspices of Odisha Tennis Association. The Under-14 tournament will be held from September 23 to 27, the men’s tournament will be played from September 30 to October 4. Both the tournaments will be preceded by a qualifying round due to high participation. In the Under-14 category, 55 budding tennis players from nine States (Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Assam and hosts Odisha) would take part.
Amit Beniwal of Haryana (all India rank 35) has been top seeded for the boy’s singles event in the Under-14 category while Karnataka’s Muskaan Rajan is the top seed for the Under-14 girl’s singles event. In the Boy’s Under-14 section, eight players from Odisha have found place in the main draw with Nishant Kumar (all India rank 61) and Swastik Pradhan (all India rank 82) being seeded number two and three respectively. Four girls from the State, including Alisha Samal (all India rank 92) and Rutuparna Choudhury (all India rank 112), who have been seeded number four and five respectively, will be playing in the main draw. The winners and runner-up in the Under-14 category will get 25 and 20 points respectively. Among others, Managing Member of the SOA University Gopabandhu Kar, Vice-Chancellor of the University RP Mohanty were present.
Women Football: Rasmita scores hat-trick
Bhubaneswar: Rasmita Podha of Sambalpur scored hat-trick in the inaugural day and powered the team to beat Keonjhar by 4-0 goals in the league round match of the Senior Women Inter-District Football Championship for PC Behera Trophy at Titilagarh in Bolangir on Monday. After the barren first-half, Sambalpur intensified the attack and Karmi Munda draw the first blood in the 42nd minute. Rashmita Podha cracked the defence line of Keonjhar and netted three goals in the 47th,48th and 70th minute. Member of Parliament Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo inaugurated the championship as the chief guest of the opening ceremony. Among others, Bikram K Mohapatra, Football Association of Odisha joint-secretary Sangeeta Sharma, Bolangir District Athletic Association secretary Hari Naryan Pujari, Srikrara Mishra and Abhimanyu Sahoo were present.