BHUBANESWAR 19-Oct-2012 450
Khordha district reigned supreme in five out of seven disciplines to lift the trophy as overall champions in the State Women Sports Meet, which concluded here at Kalinga Stadium today. Khordha women bagged a total of 18 titles in the three-day meet. The 18 titles included nine in swimming, five in athletics and one each in badminton, basketball, table tennis and tennis.
Sundargarh finished overall runners-up, bagging seven titles in athletics. Jagatsinghpur won the top honours in handball, defeating Keonjhar in the final, while the third place in the discipline went to Cuttack.
Soumya Gayatri Tripathy emerged champion in table tennis, defeating district-mate Sunita Si in the final 11-9, 11-6, 11-5. Gitanjali Jena claimed the badminton title, getting the better of her Khordha district-mate Itishree Behera in the summit clash. Lipi Khillo of Koraput finished third.
In the basketball final Khorda beat Cuttack 60-49. Khorda made clean sweep of top three positions in tennis with Komal Vishakha emerging champion, will all three of her league matches. Abhilipsa Rath ended runner-up, while Ritee Patnaik finished third.
The four-day meet, featuring competition in seven disciplines was organized by State Sports and Youth Services Department under the Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan (PYKKA) scheme of the Union Governemnt.
State Sports Minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi inaugurated the meet in the presence of international woman hurdler Anuradha Biswal, former India woman football captain Sradhanjali Samantaray, State Sports Director D V Swamy and PYKKA Technical Consultant P K Mohanty.
Altogether 651 sportswomen from 30 districts participated in the meet. State Sports and Youth Services Director D V Swamy and international woman powerlifter Ranu Mohanty handed over the trophies at the closing ceremony.
Top three finishers in each discipline qualified to represent Odisha in the National Women`s Sports Meet to be held at different places of the country next month. Odisha is also set to host a part of the Women Nationals, featuring basketball, swimming and gymnastics from November 27 to 30.
