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The 21st Ekalabya Award for the year 2013 was conferred on international woman shooter Shriyanka Sadangi in a function here on Sunday. Justice A S Naidu, former judge of Odisha High Court, handed over the prestigious award, which carried a cash prize of Rs 2 lakhs, a statuette and citation.
Parliament Member and IMPaCT trustee Baijayant Panda presented the first and second runner-up awards to international woman sprinter Dutee Chand and weightlifter Achyutananda Sahu, who received a cheque of Rs 50,000 each and citation. In the absence of Sahu, who bagged the overall gold medal in the men`s 62kg category of the Junior National Weightlifting Championship at Guwahati two days ago, his father received award.
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Petite Shriyanka, who hails from Sambalpur but based at Delhi and honing her skill in the Khel Ratna Awardee Gagan Narang’s shooting academy `Gun for Glory` at Pune, has bagged 11 medals so far in her three-year-long international career. Her last medal was a bronze medal, which she claimed in junior women’s 10-metre air-rifle team event in the 6th Asian Air-gun Shooting Championship at Tehran two months ago.
Shriyanka, 18, said the coveted award and it would inspire her to achieve greater laurels for the state and the country.
Dutee Chand has been riding a wave of success, winning 100-and-200 meter sprint double in the 53rd National Open Athletics Championship at Ranchi earlier in September. She earlier 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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TOP: Shriyanka Sadangi receives the Ekalabya Award from Justice A S Naidu in Bhubaneswar on December 29, 2013.
RIGHT: Awardees, guests and hosts at the Ekalabya Award function in Bhubaneswar on December 29, 2013.
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