Baby elephant mascot for 73rd All India Railway Atheletic meet

Bhubaneswar, Sep 24 (UNI) Kalinga, the baby elephant, who died in Chandaka Elephant sanctuary forest, will be the mascot of the 73rd All India Railway Athletic Championship to be held at Kalinga stadium here from October 5 to 8.

East Coast Railway General Manager S Khurana told newsmen here that the Railway Sports Promotion Board had allotted this year's Athletic championship to East Coast Railway after it successfully organised the Championship in 2005.

Around 100 International Athletes and Olympians, including Arjun awardees, S S Shobha, Soma Biswas and S Geeta will be seen in action in the meet.

Besides yester-years' stars like sprintqueen P T Usha, Shiney Wilson, Rachita Mistry and Olympian Bhaskaran, Bahadur Prasad, Indian Women Cricket team captain Mithali Raj, Dillip Tirkey and several other popular Indian sports personalities will be the attraction of the championship.

A torch rally will be held from Khandagiri caves to Kalinga stadium on the inaugural day.

East Coast Railway Sports Association president D K Samantaray said 23 teams from different zones and Production Units of Indian Railways will participate in men and woman events.

About 500 athletes, both men and women, including 100 officials would participate in 44 events.

The ECoR, Mr Khurana said, was constructing an international standard cricket stadium in Bhubaneswar. The first phase of work of the stadium had been over and the second phase of the work would start shortly, he said adding within the next two years a full-fledged cricket stadium will be ready.

A women hockey team was being built up in East Coast Railway as a number of national level players were coming up from this part of India, he said.

UNI