Bhubaneswar: Odisha taekwondo players performed splendidly to win 24 medals including seven gold, an equal number of silver and 10 bronze in the recently-concluded 29th North East Invitational ITF Taekwondo Championships at Chandigarh.
In the girls’ category Ima Pradhan, Ritika Kanhar, Sindhuja Gouda, Manasmita Patnaik, Siparna Parida and Soumya Priyadarshini bagged gold medals. In the individual segment, Sindhuja bagged a gold medal while Ima and Shreyansh Subham bagged silver medals. Kartkeshwar Padhy and Subham Pujhari secured bronze medals.
In the individual sparring event Ima, Om Pradhan, Manasmita and Ritika won silver medals while Sindhuja, Sovan Pujhari, Dinesh Patra and Soumya bagged bronze medals. In the boys’ self defence event Ima, Om and Kartikeshwar Padhy won bronze medals.
Eleven athletes under the guidance of coach Laxmi Prasad Nayak participated in the tournament in which 462 players from 11 states took part.
Laxmi was happy with the show. “A very creditable effort indeed. However at hindsight we could have won couple of more gold medals. We missed them by a whisker,” he stated.
Ball badminton camp
A training camp, organised by Cuttack District Ball Badminton Association (CDBA) concluded at the Bhaktamadhu Vidyapitha ground in Cuttack, Sunday. Seventy players in the boys and the girls categories participated in the camp.