Goa: Swasti Singh’s prowess wins Odisha yet another medal at the ongoing 37th edition of the National Games, with the cyclist earning the premier position on the podium at the 75km Mass Start Road Cycling event.
Elsewhere, Odisha bagged their second consecutive silver medal in Women’s Kho-kho at the National Games while the Men’s Kho-kho team also won a silver medal.
In the newly introduced discipline of SQAY Martial Art, Odisha’s Kundha Maji won silver and Minati Sahoo and Dilafroz both won bronze medals in their categories. Odisha also excelled in Lawn Bowls where the Men’s Fours team and Men’s Singles team won bronze medals as well.
The triumph marks Odisha’s fourth medal in Cycling, adding to their haul of three bronze medals. In Kho-Kho, Odisha’s undefeated streak in the men’s and women’s category came to an end in the finals against reigning champions Maharashtra, they were defeated 26-72 and 40-46 respectively. Kailash Majhi, Sourav Ranjan Maharana, Tarini Prasad Nayak and Narasingha Rana were Odisha’s bronze medal winners in Lawn Bowl Men’s Fours while Lalit Sharma shone in Men’s singles.
Speaking on the Kho-kho teams’ remarkable performance in the competition, Coach Sanjeev Sharma commended the teams for a stellar performance, he further shared insight on the team’s elaborate preparation in Puri, Odisha that began as early as the first week of August.
He said, “As I have said earlier, both the men’s and women’s teams played very well. We have been training very hard since August and broke down our preparation into three phases. In the first phase of the camp, we focused on fitness and stamina, which showed during the competition. The second phase involved a focus on skills and techniques while the third phase was all about strategy and tactics.” He further added, “training in Puri was good as it allowed us to use features of the beaches and the sea for our training.”
While Coach Sanjeev Sharma highlighted the importance of their preparation, he also expressed his gratitude to the Government of Odisha for their elaborate supported, “the Government of Odisha is doing a remarkable job towards the development of sports, we are all very thankful to them. I have been in sports for more than 36 years have never seen a government take as much interest in promoting sports and Kho-kho.”
