Dutee gets rousing welcome
Bhubaneswar: Sprint queen of the State Duttee Chand got a rousing welcome at Biju Patnaik airport here on Tuesday. Dutee return from Taipei after bagging two gold medals for the country in the 200 meter race and 4X400 relay events in the Asian Junior Athletics Championship, which concluded at Taipei on Sunday.
“I am very happy and anxious for my forthcoming events. My first and foremost priority will be the Common Wealth Games”, said Dutee.
Unfortunately, I was forced to skip my 100m heats on the opening day of the championships due to late arrival of Indian team after a visa mess. In this matter I cannot do anything but it was sure that my country missed another gold medal. My performance in the Inter State meet helped me a lot to snatch medals in the Asian meet, added Dutee. Earlier, Chand outclassed her opponents and won the junior women’s 200m gold with a time of 23.74 secs. Singapore’s Shanti Veronica Pereira (23.99s) and Nigina Sharipova (24.24s) of Uzbekistan were the other medalists.
Dutee clocked a much impressive 23.57 secs while winning her qualifying 200m heats that shattered Pandeswari’s 16-year-old national junior record of 23.95 secs as well as Vinitha Tripathi’s Indian junior best time of 23.59 secs registered during the SAF Games.
Dutee won her second gold as she anchored the Indian 4x400m relay team to victory with a timing of 3:40:53. The quartet of V V Jisha, Jessy Joseph, G K Vijaya Kumari and Dutee romped home, ahead of the Thai and the home team.
Odisha’s Dutee Chand again proves herself that she is the present sprint queen of India by bagging two gold medals in the 200 meter women race and 4X100 relay events of the 54th National Inter State Senior Athletic Championship-2014 at lukhnow in the first week of June 6. Dutee claimed the gold in the 200 meter race by clocking 23.72 seconds.
Odisha girls Dutee Chand, Srabani Nanda, Purnima Hemram and Jauna Murmu bagged gold medal in the 4X100 meter race by clocking 46.26 seconds.
India wipes out Malaysia 5-2
Bhubaneswar: In the last match of the Malaysian Tour 2014, played at Kuala lumpur on Tuesday, India secured a 6-0 whitewash over Malaysia after winning the last match of the series by a margin of 5-2. The six match series against Malaysia was a part of the team’s groundwork for the Commonwealth Games 2014.
Indian Women, displayed a remarkably high level of game and defeated the hosts. The first goal came as early as in the 3rd minute of the match from the stick of Poonam Rani of India. No later, in the 14th minute, Sunita lakra beautifully converted a penalty corner into a brilliant goal. Malaysia tried to reduce the margin in the 21st minute through a field goal. In the 28th minute, Anuradha put the ball in the net closely followed by Ritushah Arya who scored two back to back field goals in the 34th and 35th minute of the match. This gave India a huge lead of 5-1 before the half time. In the second half, Malaysia scored their second goal in the 55th minute. Malaysia managed to create a couple of scoring opportunities in the dying minutes of the match but Indian defence restricted them from doing further damage. The final whistle of the match blew announcing a well deserved triumph for the Indian Women.
Team’s midfielder and Captain Ritu Rani seemed excited on the win. Commenting on the victory she said, “We have outperformed and swept the board against team Malaysia. I am extremely elated with the manner my team has performed all the way through - confident and consistent. The clean sweep has lifted our spirits to a new high. I am delighted we lived up to the expectations of our coaches, selectors and the people of our country.” Congratulating the team on their grand finish, Dr. Narinder Batra, Secretary General, Hockey India said, “A magnificent performance by our Women’s team has made us proud and has lived up to the expectations. With the kind of momentum the team has generated, we are certain that this is a good step forward in preparations for the Commonwealth Games 2014 to be held in Glasgow (Scotland). On behalf of Hockey India, I would like to congratulate the team and the coaches on their splendid performance and a spectacular 6-0 finish in the tournament.”
Results: India –5 Poonam Rani (3 min), Sunita lakra (14 min), Anuradha (28 min), Ritushah Arya (34 min and 35 min) bt Malaysia –2.
Sports dept announces cash incentives for players
Bhubaneswar: To promote sports and motivate the players in the State, Sports and Youth Services Department of the State announced cash incentives of Rs 63.16 lakhs for 120 players on Tuesday.
Earlier in the June 20 in 2013 altogether 113 players got a total cash award of Rs 1.02 crore. But some of the players failed to apply for the incentives. The Department once again gave a chance to them and 66 players got Rs 37.49 lakhs for their achievement in the period between April 2007 to March 2012.
Similarly, 54 players would get Rs 25.67 lakhs cash incentives for the period April 2012- March 2013. The first Grand Master of the State Debasis Das would get highest Rs 6.50 lakhs and shooter Sriyanka Saranghi to get Rs 4.37 lakhs.
Among others Kiran Manisha Mohanty (Rs 3.69 lakhs), Swayams Mishra (both chess, 2.50 lakhs), Aruna santa (weightlifting, 2 lakhs), Utkal Ranjan Sahu (1.92 lakhs), Sunyasakta Satapathy (both chess, 1.55 lakhs), Sunil Pradhan (Athletic, badminton 1.46 lakhs), Rakesh Kumar Jena (1.27 lakhs), Saina Salonika (both chess, 1.15 lakhs), Roshan Minz (hockey, 1.10 lakhs) and Sangita Singh (powerlifting, 1 lakh) are the players to get the incentives.
To expedite the incentives Department has been decided to send the cheques directly to the players through their postal address.