Odisha all set to host the Odisha Open 2022, a BWF Tour Super 100 Tournament, at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack from 25 to 30 January 2022. This is the first international badminton tournament being staged in Odisha. On this occasion we present here some facts on the badminton history of Odisha.
* Badminton has been a popular sport in Odisha since the pre-independence era.
* But organised badminton is believed to have started in the State between late 1950 and early 1960s.
* Cuttack city, particularly Cuttack Club, was the nerve centre of the sport for many decades, grooming talents of national and international repute.
* In recent years, Bhubaneswar has emerged as the new hub of Odisha badminton, possessing around 50 per cent of the total registered players and staging state and national level competitions.
* Sambalpur, Bolangir, Sonepur and Baripada have come up as new badminton centres with indoor courts/halls.
* Late Sanat Mishra, a product of Cuttack Club, is the first international shuttler from the State.
* He won 3 international medals, including a team bronze in 1986 Seoul Asian Games and 10 National medals, including 7 gold in the 1980s.
* Anupam Patra, Sriharsha Routray, Kamal Das and Bibhas Parida are other well-known eminent shuttlers of bygone era.
* Former West Bengal legend and Arjuna Awardee Romen Ghosh represented Odisha in National championships and also imparted coaching in the State towards the fag end of his career, only after joining Rourkela Steel Plant.
* Paralympic and World champion Pramod Bhagat, women internationals Rutaparna Panda, younger sister Swetaparna Panda and Ayush Pattanayak are current generation shuttlers who have excelled at national and international arena.
* Manoj Sabat is known as the only qualified badminton coach of Odisha, now serving at the Department of Sports & Youth Services, Govt of Odisha.
* However, former players, namely, Kamal Das, D Subhakanta Mohanty and K Ravi Babu are grooming talents as freelance coaches.
* Siba Prasad Das is a reputed para-badminton coach, mentoring Pramod Bhagat and many more para-shuttlers.
* Odisha now has two international or national standard badminton venues in Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium, Cuttack and East Coast Railway Indoor Stadium, Bhubaneswar.
* Odisha has hosted two National and many East Zone badminton championships till date.
* Both the National Championships were in Sub-junior category, and took place at Cuttack in 2013 and Bhubaneswar in 2019.
* Odisha State Badminton Association is the apex governing body of the State, headed by Rohit Kumar Pujari and Nileen Kumar as President and Secretary respectively.
ROLL OF HONOUR:
ODISHA STATE MENS SINGLES CHAMPIONS 1985-2018: Sourya Sundar Das (1985); Sanjay Mohanty (1986, 1987, 1988); Sriharsha Routray (1989); Kamal Das (1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997); Bibhas Parida (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001); D Subhakanta Mohanty (2002, 2005); Chitta Ranjan Satapathy (2003, 2004, 2007); Girija Sankar Ray (2006); S Apparao (2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014); Manas Routray (2011); Pramod Rana (2012); Gurbaksh Singh (2015); Parikhit Parmar (2016); Arabinda Sahoo (2017, 2019); Ayush Pattanayak (2018).
ODISHA STATE MENS DOUBLES CHAMPIONS 1985-2018: Anupam Patra-Bibhu Satapathy (1985); Sanjay Mohanty-Sanjeev Mohanty (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989); Kamal Das-Sumit Nayak (1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997); Sanjay Mohanty-Sriharsha Routray (1992); Kamal Das-Sanjay Mohanty (1996); Bibhas Parida-D Subhakanta Mohanty (1998, 1999); Kamal Das-Bibek Kar (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004); Chitta Ranjan Satpathy-Girija Sankar Ray (2005); Chitta Ranjan Satpathy-Rasmikanta Beura (2006, 2007); Final not held (2008); S Apparao-Naka Raju (2009); Kamal Das-Chitta Ranjan Satpathy (2010, 2012); Pramod Rana-K Manoj Kumar (2011); S Apparao-K Ravi Babu (2013); Rasmikanta Beura-C Mouli (2014); Kamal Das-Pramod Rana (2015); Ranjit Bantha-Susanta Rout (2016); Manas Routray-Gyanchand (2017, 2019); Vikrant Jani-Abhisek Patnaik (2018).
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PHOTO: A view of Cuttack Club, the first badminton hub of Odisha.