Cuttack: Odisha will look to break their jinx against Manipur when they face their nemesis in the final of the National Sub-Junior Girls’ football championships at the Barabati Stadium here, Thursday.
Odisha eves have progressed smoothly into the final. However Manipur had to fight hard before winning 3-2 against Himachal Pradesh in their semifinal.
According to mentor of the Odisha team, Gitanjali Khuntia this factor may give slight advantage to Manipur. “Sometimes complacency creeps in when you are performing dominantly in a tournament. So we have to guard against complacency in the final,” she warned.
However Gitanjali refused to admit Manipur are invincible. “Manipur are not the only potent force now, other teams including Odisha have also improved. We have beaten them twice in the recent past. So we are pretty confident,” Gitanjali said.
Odisha will once again bank on their strikers Jyoti Kumari, Manisha Nayak who have scored majority of the goals – 12 and 10 respectively. The other player to watch out for is Malati Munda. The defenders have also performed ably with Sangita, Manju and Sumitra Hembram in great form.
Main coach Suraj Thappa is confident about Odisha’s chances. “We will encourage our players to play without pressure. I have asked them to enjoy the game and forget about the result. It is the best way to motivate them,” Thappa stated.
Payal, Valina in fray
Payal Baral and Valena Valentina are taking part in the ongoing Asian Senior Karate Championship in Jordan. Valena will participate in the women’s kata event while Payal will take part in the women’s 68kg fight.
Odisha players shine
Odisha players performed splendidly in quarterfinals of different categories of the AITA OTA TS7 tennis tournament at the Kalinga Stadium here Wednesday.
In the boys’ U-16 category third seed Ashis Parida and Sangram Kumar Patra of Odisha advanced to the semifinals after defeating statemate Rahul Behera and Sarnaav Ghosh of West Bengal in their respective quarterfinal matches. In the boys’ U-14 category fifth seed Yashraj Nayak of Odisha prevailed over Rahul Chatterjee of West Bengal 6-1, 6-1.
In the girls’ U-14 category Archita Sahoo, Sohini Mohanty and Nemha S Kispotta have entered the semifinals. Archita defeated Anisha Pandey of West Bengal 6-4, 6-2, Sohini got the better of Swati Verma of Jharkhand 6-0, 7-5, while Nemha thrashed statemate Alina Sayed 6-1, 6-3