Saina Salonika gets a rousing welcome after her arrival in Odisha
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Bhubaneswar: Saina Salonika gets a rousing welcome here on Monday, on her arrival after bagging World Youth Chess Championship under-10 title held at UAE on December 28. CM Naveen Patnaik congratulate Saina and wished her a bright future.
Saina’s achievement has made the State proud and she represents a new generation of Odia’s who strive hard to prove themselves in different fields, said Governor SC Jamir in his congratulatory massage and wished her a bright future.
It should be noted that in the 11th round, Saina forced to shear the points with WFM Asadi Motahara of IRI and scored nine points and topped the point table. Saina started the meet with 14th rank, she registered seven win, four draw and finished the meet at top. Altogether 140 players including nine girls from India participated in the ten-day-long meet which inaugurated on December 18.
In the international matches players are having equal potential. It is easy to make draw in the top boards, but if you want to win you have to things differently. I fought with all determination to convert the draw matches to win, said Saina Salonika. She is the second Odisha girls claimed this title. Earlier in 2008, WGM Padmini Rout bagged world championship title in U-14 category. Earlier, Saina bagged champion trophies in Asian School Chess Championship held at Colombo, Sri-lanka from 6th to 12th December 2010, Commonwealth Chess Championship 2012 in the Under-10 Girl category held at Chennai from 22nd November to 1st December.
In U-9 categories, she grabbed gold medals in Asian School Chess Championship 2012 and Asian School Blitz Chess Championship at Delhi. In the U-8 category she received bronze medal in the World Youth Chess Championship at Caldas Novas, Brazil from 17th to 27th November 2011. Among others her father Ganeswar Jena, coach SR Patnaik, Manoj Panigrahi, Subhasis Patnaik, assistant director of Sports and Youth Services Department Akhila Das and OSD Gyana Ranjan Parida were present.
Source: http://orissadiary.com
This is great.