Bhubaneswar: Indian women’s hockey team player Lilima Minz was selected Sunday to be conferred with the prestigious Ekalabya Awards for the year 2018 for her outstanding performances thoughout the year in the international level, the organisers announced. Lilima will be presented a cash award of five lakh rupees along with a citation in a special function here–the dates of which will be announced later.
The 24-year-old defender from Sundargarh made her senior national team debut in 2011 and she has already played more than 100 games for the country. Lilima was also the part of the Indian team that took part in the 2016 Rio Olympics and she also represented India in their Asia Cup triumph in 2017.
Besides Lilima, weightlifter Jhili Dalabehera and badminton player Rutuparna Panda will also be felicitated for their remarkable performances at various international and national level tournaments. Both the players will be presented a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each along with citations.
Ashish, Ameek triumph
Top seed Ashish Kumar Parida and Ameek Kiran Batth both from Odisha won the Gurukul AITA-OTA Championship series U-18 singles boy’s and girl’s titles respectively, which concluded here, Sunday.
In the boy’s final Ashish defeated compatriot Rahul Behera 6-2, 6-3 quite easily. In the girl’s final, Ameek outclassed Tamil Nadu’s Lavanyaa Sreekirishnan 6-2, 6-2. Both Ameek and Ashish will get 15 AITA points each.
Khurda emerge champs
Khurda emerged champions of the State Women’s Hockey Championships after scraping past Rourkela 2-1 in the final in Dhenkanal, Sunday.
Mariana Kujur (27th) and Bharati Ekka (57th) struck for the winning team. Manisha Oram (31st) got one back for Rourkela.