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Football tourney gets under way

KORAPUT: The 19th Aeronautics Open Football Tournament was inaugurated by Jugal Kishore Mahapatra, General Manager, Engine Division of HAL, at HAL stadium at Sunabeda on Sunday.

The tournament, being organised annually since 1975 by the Hindustan Aeronautics Sports Club, would witness participation of reputed teams from Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Orissa, he said.

Recalling the days when the Aeronautics Sports Club of Sunabeda used to conduct inter-departmental football tournaments, S. Murmu, chairman of the publicity committee, said that it was because of the keen interest of officials like Vijayaraghavan, the then General Manager of the company, national-level tournaments could be organised in the tribal district of Koraput.

After having a stadium of national standards, the HAL management started encouraging local youth to take up football as a career by inducting some of the successful players into the company, R.D. Samal, member of the organising committee, added.

The inaugural match was played between Samaleswari football team of Sambalpur and the Hindustan Aeronautics Sports Club of Sunabeda. The tournament would be on till May 11.

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