Bhubaneswar: Top seeds Archita Sahoo and Simram Neha Ekka of Odisha started their U-16 girls’ singles campaign of the AITA-OTA Talent series tennis tournament on a winning note as they defeated their respective opponents here at the Kalinga Stadium tennis complex, Tuesday. Archita defeated Rishika Sarkar of West Bengal 6-1, 6-0 while Simran defeated compatriot Riya Mardaraj 6-3, 6-2.
In other matches of the same category, Alina Sayed (Odisha) defeated Alisha Pandey of West Bengal 6-1, 6-2, Aarsha Patel (Odisha) defeated statemate Smruti Rekha Singh 6-0, 6-0 while Henamika Karina Sahoo (Odisha) defeated Gayatri Ghosh of West Bengal 6-0, 6-2.
Other results: (U-16 boys’ singles) Ashish Parida (OD) beat Sagnik Mitra (WB) 6-0, 6-0, Rahul Behera (OD) beat Rahul Chatterjee (WB) 6-1, 6-1, Sangram Kumar Patra (OD) beat Shagnik Bose (WB) 6-1, 6-3, Yashraj Nayak (OD) beat Kaamlesh Rath (OD) 6-4, 6-1; (U-14 girls’ singles) Archita Sahoo (OD) beat Gayatri Ghosh (WB) 6-4, 6-0, Sohini S Mohanty (OD) beat Rajashri Das (WB) 6-0, 6-0, Alina Sayed (OD) beat Aakriti Acharya (OD) 6-0, 6-1, Nemha S Kispotta (OD) beat Shivali Sarkar (WB) 6-2, 6-0.
Gopal appointed
All Odisha Taekwondo Association secretary Gopal Chandra Ray has been appointed as the chairman of the mediators’ board of the International Taekwondo Championships at Gwangju in South Korea, July 15-22. Ray, who is an international class-I referee, will then participate in the World Taekwondo Hanmadang competition for the veteran master degree qualification, at Jeju in South Korea, July 28-31.
Selection trial
The selection-trial-cum-preparatory camp of the Odisha junior girls’ football team will be conducted in Cuttack July 12, Football Association of Odisha (FAO) announced in a press release Tuesday. Players born on or after January 1, 2000 and not later than December 31, 2004 are eligible to attend the camp.
Sunita takes top honour
Odisha hockey star Sunita Lakra was conferred the ‘Sportsperson of the year’ in the VIIth Sportslogon Awards, which was announced, Tuesday. The award ceremony will take place in Bhubaneswar, July 15.
Among others, woman para-athlete Jayanti Behera was chosen the ‘Most promising player’ while young footballers Ranjan Soren and Sunil Soren have been conferred as the joint winners of the ‘Kumidini Mishra Sports talent’ award.