Bhubaneswar: The 27th Indian Association of Kickboxing Organisations’ (IAKO) National Kickboxing Championship-2022 took off in Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) campus in Odisha capital on Thursday.
SOA chancellor Prof Debi Prasad Ray declared the championship open as the audience was treated to some live demonstrations by kickboxing competitors. More than 500 competitors from 15 states are participating in the 4-day championship.
The 26th Junior and Sub-Junior championships are also being held alongside the senior competition. This is the fifth time that the championship is being held in Odisha.
Besides Prof Ray, SOA’s acting Vice-Chancellor Prof Bijay Kumar Sahu, national president of IAKO SS Harichandan, president of All Odisha Kickboxing Association Sivanand Ray, chairman of the Organising Committee Prabodh Mohanty, ITER’s additional dean (Student Affairs) Dr Renu Sharma and SOA’s sports officer Sunita Barma attended the inaugural function.
Among others, Rotary District Governor Prabhudat Subudhi, president of Rotary Club, Bhubaneswar Srichandan Mishra, technical director for the championship Pradyumna Behera and organising secretary Pruthwiraj
Harichandan were present.
The last championship was held in December 2021 at Jodhpur in Rajasthan in which Odisha had claimed the Team runner-up title.
