Nalinikanta Mohanty Memorial Badminton gets underway

Bhubaneswar: Altogether 402 shuttlers from 27 districts are participating in 10 different categories of the 4th Nalinikanta Mohanty Memorial State Open Ranking Badminton Tournament, which started at East Coast Railway Indoor Stadium here on Thursday.

As the entry is very high, it shows the interest among the players is growing in the state, according to a press release. The qualifying round for U-15, U-17, U-19 and men’s both singles and doubles events got underway.

The highest 94 players are participating in the men’s single’s category. Arabinda Sahu is the top ranking player in the category. Similarly, Krisnika Birak is the top seed among 20 women participants.

Abhijit Maharana, Debesh Kumar Panda and Prajesh Murmu are the top ranking players in the U-15, U-17 and U-19 men’s singles events respectively.

In the age group categories total 164 players are taking part and maximum 67 are in the U-15 boys singles event.

Sports and Youth Services secretary Vishal Kumar Dev inaugurated the meet in presence of Angul Sukinda Railways Private Limited Managing Director Dillip Kumar Samantaray, East Coast Railway deputy general manager Tatwadarsi Sahu, Rajnagar MLA Ansuman Mohanty, ABC President Pruthiv Ballav Pattnaik, working president Bibekananda Mishra, secretary Chandi Prasad Das and vice-president Kamal Lochan Mohanty.