Bhubaneswar: Hockey Odisha emerged champions of the Junior Men’s National Championship (Division A) as they pipped Uttar Pradesh Hockey 4-3 in a tense shootout in the final in Maharashtra, Thursday. Both the teams were held 1-1 in the regulation time.
It was skillful goalkeeping by Sahil Kumar Nayak and well-prepared strikers Prakash Dhir, Sushil Dhanwar, Laban Lugun and Kirshna Tirkey who scored to ensure their team went home with the title. Earlier, in regulation time, Sushant Toppo had scored in the 30th minute for Hockey Odisha and Shivam Ananad equalised in the 44th minute for Uttar Pradesh Hockey.
Triple delight
Second seed Stevan Ankit Ekka from Odisha hogged the limelight as he won both the U-14 boys’ singles and doubles crown and the U-18 boys’ doubles title at the AITA-OTA CS7 Championship Series tennis tournament here.
Stevan defeated top seed Rohan Pagdala 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) to clinch the U-14 singles title before partnering statemate Debabrata Pradhan to beat Subhranil Barman and Akshant Beuria 6-1, 6-1 in the U-14 doubles. In the U-18 doubles final Stevan partnered with V Siddharth Reddy to beat home pair of Ashish Parida and D Aryan Swamy 7-6(3), 7-6(11).
Meanwhile, in the girls’ U-18 doubles final, top seed Odisha pair of Maitree Rout and Sanya Yadav defeated Sanjana Mula and Sneha Sundaraneedi 6-4, 6-0 to take the title.
Goals galore
Mitali Munda (25th, 76th) scored a brace as Sports Hostel thumped Bidanasi Club 5-0 in a match of FAO Women’s League at Barabati Stadium, Thursday. Sasmita Tanty (24th), Diptirani Kujur (50th) and Sarita Soreng (81st) scored the other goals for Sports Hostel.
Golf sponsorship
In a bid to enhance the sport in the country, Tata Steel has come up with a three-year deal as the umbrella sponsor of the Professional Golf Tour of India (PGTI), the company announced Thursday. According to PGTI’s calendar the country will host between 18-20 tournaments in 2019.