Cuttack: Para-badminton World Champion Pramod Bhagat, chess Grand Master Swayams Mishra and eminent athletics coaches Panchanan Gantayat and Arun Kumar Das were conferred with the Annual Awards of Odisha Sports Journalists' Association (OSJA) in a function held at Barabati Stadium on Sunday.
The awards, carrying cheques of Rs 25,000 each and citations were conferred for the years 2019 and 2020.
Pramod and Swayams were felicitated as the OSJA Sportsperson of the Year 2019 and 2020 respectively. Similarly, Panchanan Gantayat and Arun Das bagged the OSJA Lifetime Achievement Awards for the year 2019 and 2020 respectively. In the absence of Gantayat, his brother received the award on his behalf.
Odisha Football Association and Odisha Athletics Association Secretary Asirbad Behera, Olympian Anuradha Biswal and former international footballer Rajendra Prasad Singh graced the function as guests and handed over the awards. Eminent media-persons Hrudayanath Das, Shyamakanta Pattanayak and Pramod’s doubles partner Manoj Sarkar were felicitated on the occasion, which coincided with sixth Foundation Day of OSJA.
Swayams Mishra became the second Grand Master of Odisha and 62nd of the country in May 2020. Before taking to coaching, Arun Kumar Das excelled as a javelin thrower, winning two junior national bronze medals in his heydays. He created a meet record of 57.96m at the Junior National Athletics Championship in Ahmedabad, 50 years ago.
(Edited by Suryakant Jena)