Mercedes Trophy golf debuts in B’neswar today
Bhubaneswar: The world renowned Mercedes Trophy makes its debut at Bhubaneswar Golf Club on Friday, with around 50 golfers vying for a spot in the National Finals to be held in Pune in March. The MercedesTrophy is one of the world’s largest amateur golf tournaments involving over 60,000 golfers in 60 countries worldwide. Now in its 15th edition in India, the MercedesTrophy will cover 26 days of competitive amateur golfing action in 14 cities engaging 2500 golfers, making it larger than ever before. The format of play will be Double Peoria in two handicap categories with all golfers vying for one coveted National Finals spot up. This year, the ‘Drive to Major’ contest will enable one golfer to travel to the British Open Championship at St Andrews, Scotland this July and compete for a chance to play on the championship course the day following the tournament. Adding to the excitement of the MercedesTrophy, a new prize category – “Best Gross” score has been introduced, which recognizes the best player each day. The winners from the qualifying rounds being held in 14 cities – Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Delhi and lucknow, will then compete at the National Finals in Pune. The National finals will be held at Oxford Golf and Country Club from 25th to 27th March 2015. The three winners at the National Finals will participate in the MercedesTrophy World Finals – at Stuttgart, Germany in September against winners from all over the world. As an interesting aspect of the event, Mercedes-Benz will host a golf clinic for beginners held by certified trainer Md Islam at the venue while the tournament is on.
SAI to meet TFA in Tata Utkalika Cup semis
Bhubaneswar: Sports Authority of India (SAI) of Cuttack would meet Tata Football Academy of Jamshedpur in the semifinal of the Tata Utkalika Football Tournament at Unit-6 High School Ground here on Friday. In the quarterfinal match on Thursday, SAI of Cuttack edged out Odisha Police by 3-0 goals. A Kanehe of SAI scored the first goal in the 18th minute. After the change of sides, K Marandi doubles the lead in the 40th minute. lakhai Murmu nailed the final goal in the 50th minute. K Marnadi of the winning team bagged the man of the match award. Prakash Das, Amit Nayak, Chandrakant Barik and Siba Sankar Panda were officiated the match referees.
Amiya, Srabani, Dutee enter 200 m final in NG
Bhubaneswar: Odisha sprinters Amiya Kumar Mallick, women sprinters Dutee Chnad and Srabani Nanda entered the final round of the 200 metre race of the 35th National Games at Kerala on Thursday. The final race will be held on Friday. Amiya clocked 22.23 seconds and 21.69 seconds in the prelms and semifinal event respectively. Similarly, Dutee and Srabani finished the prelms by clocking 24.67 and 24.87 seconds respectively. In the semifinals, Dutee clocked 24.19 seconds and Srabani clocked 25.05 seconds respectively.
Solar win in Bhuyan, Sourav Memorial Tourney
Bhubaneswar: In the rain disturbed match, Solar Sporting of Cuttack defeated Rameswar Sporting by net run rate in the 2nd NM Bhuyan and Sourav Mohanty Memorial Trophy Cricket Tournament at BJB College Ground here on Thursday. Winning the toss, Solar Sporting elected to bat first, Rakesh Mohanty smashed 69 runs and team total reached 241 runs in 40 overs by losing eight wickets. In reply, Rameswar scored 121 runs by losing seven wickets in 23 overs before the rain spoil the rest of the match. Rakesh of the wining team received the man of the match award. Brief score: Solar 241/8 in 40 overs (Rakesh Mohanty 69 (4x7, 6x3) (69 balls), Dibyajyoti Ratha 37(4x3) (71 balls) Prayas Thakur 35 n.o; (4x4,6x1) (27 balls), Ashish Pradhan 36/3, lallu Mohanty 58/3) beat Rameswar Sportings 121/7 in 23 overs (Alok Mangaraj 28*(4x2,6x2) (20 balls), Deepak Majhi 28(4x3) (26 balls) ; Anand Sahoo 15/2, Manish rout 21/2) by net run rate.
UP beat Odisha at visually challenged cricket
Bhubaneswar: Suvas Voya and Ganesh Mundkar of Uttar Pradesh (UP) scored 54 and 64 runs respectively and powered the team to beat Odisha in the league round match of the 14th Sakuntala Mishra memorial cricket tournament of the visually impaired at KD Sing Babu Stadium of lucknow on Thursday. Batting first Odisha scored 169 runs in 20 overs for the loss of eight wickets. Sukhram Majhi and Md Jafer Iqbal scored 49 and 30 runs respectively. In reply, UP reached the winning target for the loss of three wickets in 17.3 overs. Odisha would meet Kerala in the league round match on Friday.
KV-1 Annual Sports meet held
Bhubaneswar: Kendriya Vidyalaya No.1 hosted its 49th Annual Sports Day with an epitome of displaying values of sports in true sense here. It commenced with over one thousand students participated in march past with full verse and vigor. Dr. S R Parija, Dy. Director, Directorate of Higher Education, Goverment of Odisha graced the occasion as the Chief Guest. Ashok Kumar Mohanty, Retd. Dy. Director, Directorate of Sports, was the Guest of Honour. S K Behura, the Principal presented a welcome address.The sports champions and the prize winners of different sports events were honored by the chief guest.
Odisha eves enter National Games Rugby semis
Bhubaneswar: Odisha women rugby team would meet West Bengal in the semifinals of the 35Th National Games rugby 7 a sides event at Kerala on Friday. Odisha women team defeated Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir by 33-0 and 49-0 points respectively on Thursday. Similarly on Wednesday league round matches, edged out Chhattisgarh and Delhi by 32-5 and 22-5 points respectively. The men team suffered defeat from West Bengal and Maharashtra by 10-27, 5-10 respectively and missed the semifinal race.
Results: 1st match against Chhattisgarh score is we beat by 32 vs 05, scorer is Hupi-1, Sumitra-1, Sanjukta-1 & Mira-3 plus (Mira converted 1), 2nd match against Delhi score is we beat by 22 vs 05, scorer is Hupi-1 , Sumitra-1, laxmipriya-1 & Mira-1 plus (Mira converted 1)