BHUBANESWAR 15-Sep-2013 331
Young woman shooter Shriyanka Sadangi will receive the 21st Ekalabya Award for the year 2013, Indian Metals Public Charitable Trust (IMPaCT), the charitable wing of IMFA Group, announced today. The prestigious award, carrying a purse of Rs 2 lakhs, will be conferred on the 18-year-old Odia shooter in a function to be held later this year. International woman athlete Dutee Chand and weightlifter Achyutananda Sahu will be felicitated on the occasion with cheques of Rs 50,000 each.
Petite Shriyanka, who belongs to Sambalpur, is now based at Delhi and honing her skill in the Khel Ratna Awardee Gagan Narang’s shooting academy Guf for Glory at Pune. In her three-year-long international career, she has bagged 10 medals so far. Her last medal was a gold, which she claimed in 10m air-rifle team event of the Junior International Shooting Championship at Suhl in Germany on June 7 earlier this year.
Daughter of Army officer Col Sitanshu Charan Sadangi and Sudha Sadangi, Shriyanka is currently studying in the St Stephen’s College, Delhi. In her reaction she said she felt honoured for being chosen for the award and it would inspire her to achieve greater laurels for the state and the country.
``Now I am preparting for the Asian Championship, scheduled to be held next month in Iran. The Ekalabya Award will inspire me to win a medal in this championship,’’ said Shriyanka, who is fondly known as Sakhi.
Woman sprinter Dutee Chand is now riding a wave of success, winning 100-and-200 meter sprint double in the 53rd National Open Athletics Championship at Ranchi earlier this week. Two months ago she made a successful international debut, winning the 200m bronze in the 20th Asian Championship at Pune.
Achyutananda Sahu, 19, has been winning the gold medal in the 62kg category of the Commonwealth Weight Lifting Championship for the past two years.
Instituted in the year 1993 by IMPaCT, Ekalabya Award is given every year to young (under-25) sportspersons of Odisha in recognition of their outstanding performance in the preceding two years.
Past recipients of the award include Rachita Mistry, Anuradha Biswal (both athletics); Dilip Tirkey, Lazrus Barla, Ignace Tirkey, Prabodh Tirkey, William Xalxo, Gloria Dung Dung, Subhadra Pradhan (all hockey); Shiv Sundar Das, Debasis Mohanty, Sanjay Raul, Rashmi Ranjan Parida (all cricket); Padmini Rout, Kiran Manisha Mohanty, Debashis Das (both chess), Pravasini Dwivedi, Mamata Jena, Pratima Puhana (all rowing) and K Ravi Kumar (weightlifting).
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PHOTO: International woman shooter Shriyanka Sadangi
