Sandipan solo lead in KIIT Int’l Chess fest
Bhubaneswar: Overnight joint leader Indian GM Sandipan Chanda defeated Georgia GM Pantsulaia levan in the eighth round and scored 6.5 points and stand solo leader in the 8th KIIT International Chess Festival here on Friday. Zubov Alexander, Kravtsiv Martyn, Aleksandrov Aleksej,Mchedlishvili Mikheil, Smirnov Pavel and Karthikeyan Murali were the six GM gathered six points and shared the second place. Odisha IM Swayams Mishra defeated S Harini S of Tamil Nadu and scored 5.5 points and shared the third place along with 13 others. local GM Debashis Das shared points with Indian GM laxman RR and scored five points.
Hockey Odisha enter Nat’l women hockey semis
Bhubaneswar: Showcasing high-level performances in the pool matches, the top teams have now reached the semi-finals of the 5th Hockey India Sub-Junior Women National Championship 2015, being played in Ranchi, Jharkhand. In the first semi-final clash, Hockey Punjab will lock horns with Hockey Odisha while Hockey Jharkhand will clash against Hockey Haryana in the second semi-final, both matches are scheduled for Saturday. In the Pool D match on Friday, Hockey Odisha outplayed Delhi Hockey by 4-0 with the help of Elima Minz’s spectacular hat-trick. Hockey Odisha dominated the match from the first minute and Elima opened the account in the 25th minute when she stormed into the opponent’s half and sent the ball into the net to take the early lead.
Hockey Odisha continued their aggressive attacks, which was led by Elima from the front and she scored two more goals in 43rd and 44thminutes, taking the score-line to 3-0. In the 60th minute, Ashim Kanchan extended the lead when she entered in opponent’s D by out-foxing defenders and hit the ball in the goal-box to score the fourth goal. With the attacking game-plan, Hockey Odisha registered a 4-0 win over Delhi Hockey. Hockey Haryana edged past Hockey Gangpur-Odisha by 2-0 to win the opening game of the day. Both the teams attacked from the first minute and battled against each other with their skills and tactics. However, fate favoured Hockey Haryana when they were awarded a penalty corner in the 6th minute which was successfully converted by skipper Jyoti to take the early lead. In the second half, thwarting all attempts of Hockey Gangpur-Odisha, Hockey Haryana’s Dimple broke through the opposition’s defence-line and smashed a field goal in the 53rd minute to double the lead for Hockey Haryana. By the final whistle, Hockey Haryana won the game 2-0. Results: Pool D Hockey Odisha 4 Elima Minz (25min-FG, 43min-FG, 44min-FG), Ashim Kanchan (60min- FG) vs Delhi Hockey 0. Pool C - Hockey Haryana 2 Jyoti (6 min-PC), Dimple (53 min-FG) vs Hockey Gangpur Odisha 0
Chinmay finishes 2nd in All India Men’s Tennis
Bhubaneswar: Third seed Chinmay Pradhan of Odisha suffered defeat from top seed Vijay Kannan of Tamil Nadu in the final match and claimed the runner up trophy in the CIRCAR AITA All India Nationals Mens Ranking Tennis Championship at literary Association Town Hall Club Kakinada on Friday, being organised by literary Association Town Hall Club Kakinada & Tennis Association East Godavari District Association.
In the final, Vijaya edged out Chinmay by 6-2, 6-0 in the seven day long tournament. The champion got 25 all India points along with cash prize of Rs19,500 whereas runners up get 20 points in all India men’s ranking along with cash prize Rs13,500. The players from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha,Rajasthan, Karnataka, Chattissgarh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujrat, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were participated in the meet. In the closing ceremony, chief guest 4th Additional Junior Judge R l Reddy, Senior Civil Judge G Chakrapani, Fifth Additional Junior Judge R S Naidu, President Town Hall Club Y VeraRaju and Secretary Town Hall Club J Ramu along with the tournament Director Kumar Puppala gave away the prizes to the winners and runners up in the presence of AITA Tournament referee Prabin Kumar Nayak.