All Odisha Utkal Open Tennis begins
Bhubaneswar: Apart from three veteran categories, 230 young talented players of the State are taking part in the three-day 4th All Odisha Utkal Open Tennis Tournament. Which kicks started at Kalinga Stadium here on Friday, being organized by ACE Tennis Club.
Anaam Almas and Ansu Bhuyian are the top seeded in the women and men categories respectively, while Abhisek Mahapatra is the top seeded in the boy’s U-14 singles event. The tournament is featuring total cash award of Rs 1.56 lakhs and the players are participating in the Under-14 boys singles, men’s single, men’s open doubles, women’s single and men’s veteran 40+, 50+, 60+ doubles categories.\
The Champion of men’s and women’s singles will receive the trophy along with cash award of Rs 10,000 and 8,000 respectively. Forest and Environment Principal Secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra was inaugurated the meet in presence of Dr Jaganath Mohapatra and Dr Biswajit Mishra. Among others, President Prakash Chand Bhura, Secretary Navaratan Bothra, joint secretary Dr Gourav Das,treasurer Bibhu Ranajn Nayak, Dr Ritesh Ray, Dr Dhiraj Panda, Bijay Kumar Nayak and Deepak Kumar Nayak were present.
Hockey Odisha eves register back to back win
Bhubaneswar: Hockey Odisha registered back to back wins by winning over Hockey Punjab by 4-2 goals in the 7th Sub-junior Women National Championship 2017 (Div -A) at Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu on Friday. Neha lakra and Bimal Barwa of Hockey Odisha netted a goal each in the 25th and 27th minutes respectively, while after the change of sides, captain Ajmina Kujur and Abinasi Mukti Surin scored a goal each in the 49th and 57th minutes respectively.
Another Odisha team, Hockey Gangpur Odisha suffered defeat the match against Hockey Harayana by 2-4 goals. Haryana got the lead in the 15th minute through a goal by Amandeep Kaur. Gangapur bounced back with a goal Jiwan Kishori Toppo in the 27th minute and she scored another goal in the 32nd minutes and the score card read as 2-1. Captain of Harayan Reet leveled the score board 2-2 in the 41st minute. After the lemon breaks, Amandeep scored her second individual goal in the 61st minute and her team-mate Deepika joined the party nailing the fourth goal for the team in the 67th minute.
We will focus match by match; lancers coach Hager
Bhubaneswar: After becoming the runner up for the last season, the expectation on the team is glomming large. My first and foremost agenda is to make players combination as quick as possible. We are having a target to reach the semifinal. We will focus on winning in match to match basis, said coach Mark Hager. In the last edition we lost few closely contested matches. We will concentrate in the last quarter of the match. Australian striker Glenn Turner always a big assert of our team. He loves to prefer when the team was in pressure. The team most releases his pressure by creating few more players in the frontline. lancers have made some crucial buys three midfielders in their team Odia player Nilam Sanjeep Xess, Australian Tom Caraig and Netherlander Billy Bakker in place of Stalin Victor Minz, Mathew Wills and Netherlander Quirijn Caspers, said coach. local boy Dipsan Tirkey is growing day by day. He was the member of the Junior World Cup Hockey title winner team. He will be a strong pillar of our backline. With a nice blend of youth and experience, the squad will be lead by Moritz Fuerste, with his world-class experience along with the Aussie duo of Aran Zalewski and Glenn Turner, who will lend a fair amount of experience to the team’s forward line”, said coach Mark Hager. Mark Hager head coach of the Black Sticks Women team of New Zealand has been continuing as the coach of the Idco-Mcl Kalinga lancers team for the second term. Australian goalkeeper Andrew Charter and defender Matthew Dawson Williams joined the team and Captain Moritz Fuerste will reach here on Friday.