Rajendra Prasad Mohapatra

The 10th edition of the illustrious Odisha Citizens Award (OCA) instituted by Odisha’s no-1 news channel OTV is back this year to honour personalities in recognition of their contribution to society in their respective fields. The selection committee of OCA-2022 has short-listed four nominees in nine different categories.

Instituted by OTV, Odisha Citizens Award is a pioneer recognition conferred on personalities in recognition of their contribution to the society in fields of Agriculture, Art and Culture, Industry, Education, Entertainment, Social Service, Sports, Health Services and Politics. You can participate in online voting.

Vote for OCA 2022

Here goes the list of nominees in the field of sports.

Jayanti Behera

Para-athlete Jayanti Behera has won several medals in various international and national level tournaments. In the World Para Athletics Grand Prix 2022, Jayanti secured a silver medal in 200 metres and bronze medals in 100 metres and 400 metres each. The ace para-athlete stole the show in National Para-Athletics Championship by winning yellow metals in 100, 200 and 400 metres categories each. As the youngest para-athlete in the country, Jayanti represented India in the World Para-Athletics Championship-2017 in London. She secured a gold medal in the 400 metres and finished runner-up in the 200 metres category in the China Open Para-Athletics Championships. She also bagged a silver and bronze in the 400 metres and 200 metres categories in Asian Para Games 2018. Similarly, she won a gold and silver in Youth Asian Para Games. At World Junior Para-Athletics Championships, she has clinched a gold and silver medal in 400 and 200 metres respectively.

Siddharth Routray 

Ace Odia mountaineer Sidharth Routray brought glory to the State and country by scaling the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest. Earlier, Sidharth has climbed Mt Dennali in North America, Mt Aconcagua in South America and Mt Kilimanjaro in Africa. He scaled the highest peak in South American continent, Mount Aconcagua in January this year. He is also recognised as the first Odia Ultraman and Ironman. Sidharth started his Mountaineering journey in 2011 after receiving training from National Defence Academy.

Sneha Soren

Promising weightlifter Sneha from Mayurbhanj has brought laurels for the State and country by winning medals in several national and international level tournaments. Sneha has represented India in Asian Championship-2021. She bagged a gold medal by emerging champion in the Khelo India University Games 2022. The talented weightlifter also clinched gold medals in All India Inter-University Weightlifting Championship 2021 and South Asian Games 2019. She lifted a total of 157 kg including 68 kg in snatch and 89kg in clean and jerk. The 21-year-old weightlifter secured the yellow metal in the U-21 category of Commonwealth Junior Weightlifting Championships 2019. She has also won a bronze medal in the Youth Asia Weightlifting Championship, a gold in the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in 2017 and a yellow metal in the 33rd Women Junior National Weightlifting Championship 2021. She also brought glory to the nation by securing the third position in IWLF Senior Women’s National Weightlifting Championship and emerging runner-up in the fifth Women Inter-State Senior National Weightlifting Championship.

Swetaparna Panda

Emerging badminton player Swetaparna Panda has the distinction of becoming the first Odia girl to win a silver medal in the senior singles doubles event of the BWF International Challenger tournament only at 17 years of age. As the first woman badminton player from Odisha, she also won a bronze medal in the senior mixed doubles event of the BWF Tour Super-100 International tournament. She emerged champion in the U-15 mixed doubles event of the 33rd Yonex-Sunrise National Sub-Junior Badminton Championship 2019. Swetaparna clinched the mixed doubles title of the Yonex-Sunrise All India Sub-Junior Ranking tournament in the same year. She was part of the Indian team in the Asia Junior Badminton Championship in Indonesia.

The jury will finalise one out of four candidates from each category. The final selection of winners will be made after considering the results of online voting.
 

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