Sunrise, lalbag win FAO Football league
Bhubaneswar: Sunrise Club emerged champion by defeating East Coast Railway by 1-0 goal in the final of the FAO 1st Division Football league, which concluded at Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Sunday.
After the barren first half, Prasanta Kumar Nayak scored the all important goal in the 66th minutes. The champion Sunrise Club bagged the trophy along with cash award of Rs 1 lakhs and the runners-up team richer by Rs 50,000. In the FAO 2nd Divn league the lalbagh Club bagged the title while the Royal Club was the runners-up. The lalbagh Club was awarded with the champion’s trophy and a cash reward of Rs 25,000 and the Royal Club was awarded with the runners-up trophy and cash reward of Rs 15000. Digjoy Das, Amarendra Singh, Babaji Dalei, Bishnu Charan Bose, Agha Zaheer, Yudhisthir Sethi, Gopal Candra Das, Birbahadur Singh, Narendra Kumar Sahoo and Asit Kumar Patra were the veteran footballers felicitated on the closing ceremony. The officials who conducted the match were PK Pal, Srikant Bohidar, Siba Sankar Panda and Sujit Patra as referees. Sushant Chandra Mohanty was the match commissioner while Jugal Chandra Das was the assistant match commissioner.
Minister of State (I/C) Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan distributed the prizes as the chief guest of the closing ceremony in presence of Sports and Youth Services minister Sudam Marandi, OCA secretary Asirbad Behera, Cuttack District Athletic Association working president Pankaj lochan Mohanty, SK Singh and Debashish Samantary. Among others, FAO secretary Sanjay Behera, Bijoy Das, Bhakta Ballav Das, Dillip Kumar Sahoo, Subrat Kumar Panda (vice presidents FAO), Avijit Paul, Bijoya Kumar Das (Joint secretary FAO) and all other members of Football Association of Odisha were also present.
Ashraf, Rakesh win State Blitz and Rapid Chess
Bhubaneswar: Mohammad Ashraf of KIIT scored eight points and emerged champion of the All Odisha Blitz Chess Championship at Cuttack on Sunday, being organized by Cuttack District Chess Association. Swayams Mishra of KIIT gathered eight points and claimed the runners-up trophy and Rakesh Jena of Jajpur finished third in the blitz event. The champion received trophy along with cash award of Rs 1,500 and the second and third finisher got Rs 1,200 and 1,000 respectively. Earlier on Saturday, Rakesh Kumar Jena of Jajpur bagged the State Rapid Chess Championship title with nine points. Soumyaranjan Mishra of Khurdha and Rabindra Kumar Ojha of Cuttack scored 8.5 and 7.5 points respectively and finished second and third.
The champions bagged the trophy along with cash award of Rs 3,000. The runners-up and third place received Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,600 respectively.