Successful day for Indians at Badminton Worlds
Nanjing (China), July 30: Indian shuttlers enjoyed a comfortable outing on the opening day of the Badminton World Championship on Monday with H.S.Prannoy and Sameer Verma sailing into the second round of the men's singles while the doubles shuttlers also marched to the next round with ease.
Prannoy, seeded 11th in the tournament, hardly broke into a sweat in cruising past unseeded New Zealander Abhinav Manota in straight games 21-12, 21-11 in a match that lasted 28 minutes. He will next take on Brazilian Ygor Coelho in the second round.
Sameer also advanced comfortably to the next round after thrashing France's Lucas Corvee 21-13, 21-10 in a 39-minute affair.
There was good news from the doubles shuttlers too as the men's duo of Manu Attri and B.Sumeeth Reddy and the mixed doubles pairs of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, and Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N.Sikki Reddy also advanced to the second round.
While Manu and Sumeeth defeated Bulgarian pair Daniel Nikolov and Ivan Rusev 21-13, 21-18 in the 26-minute affair, the mixed doubles combo of Pranaav and Sikki comfortably went past the Czech Republic duo of Jakub Bitman and Alzbeta Basova 21-17, 21-15 in a 30-minute tie.
Later in the day, Satwik and Ashwini floored Denmark's Niclas Nohr and Sara Thygesen 21-9, 22-20 in a tie that lasted 36 minutes.
In another mixed doubles tie, Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh beat Nigerians Enejoh Abah and Peace Orji 21-13, 21-12 comprehensively in 26 minutes while Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg defeated Canada's Toby NG and Rachel Honderich 21-19, 21-6 in 28 minutes.
However, it was curtains for the women's doubles pair of Sanyogita Ghorpade and Prajakta Sawant, who lost their opening round clash 20-22, 14-21 to Turkey's Bengisu Ercetin and Nazlican Inci in 34 minutes.
Among others, top seed and defending champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark enjoyed a comfortable 21-8, 21-7 win over Portugal's Duarte Anjo, while third seed and reigning All England Champion Shi Yuqi of China beat Adam Mendrek of the Czech Republic 21-13, 21-11 to proceed to the second round.
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Two women died, 6 taken ill after ‘consuming’ mango kernel gruel in Odisha
Bhubaneswar/Berhampur/Phulbani, Nov 1: At least two tribal women died and six others fell ill after allegedly consuming mango kernel gruel in Odisha's Kandhamal district, police said on Friday.
Consumption of mango kernel, prepared by boiling the seeds in water, was reported from Mandipanka village in the district's Daringbadi block, an officer said.
While one of the two women (Rasmita Pattamajhi aged 22) died on Thursday night at Mohana community health centre in Gajapati district where she was undergoing treatment after "consuming the gruel", another woman (Runu Majhi aged 29) breathed her last while being taken to MKCG Medical College Hospital in Berhampur, Gadapur sarpanch Kumari Mallick said.
Six others, who fell ill after allegedly consuming the gruel, were admitted to a hospital and their condition was critical, said Dr Subrat Das, a medical officer of the health facility.
"All the six have been admitted to the hospital in a serious condition. We suspected that they fell sick due to food poisoning. The exact cause of the illness will be ascertained after completion of the investigation," he added.
The six were identified as Pravati Patmajhi, Dranglu Patmajhi, Tuni Majhi, Susama Patmajhi, Jita Majhi and Jibanti Majhi, Daringbadi BDO Pritiranjan Ratha said.
Meanwhile, the Odisha government has rejected allegations that tribal people have been consuming mango kernel gruel due to a lack of access to rice under the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Rasmita's husband Anil Pattamajhi alleged that they were denied rice under PDS for the last three months because of which his wife consumed mango kernel.
However, Kandhamal district magistrate-cum-collector Amrit Ruturaj dismissed the allegations, saying the family received rice according to PDS norms. "We are awaiting the postmortem report to determine the facts," the collector added.
Deputy chief minister Pravati Parida, who is also in-charge of the women and child development department said, "It is not a case of malnutrition. Mango kernel is part of their (tribal) regular diet. Sometime, the mango kernels get contaminated and lead to such unfortunate incidents. We have been actively spreading awareness about the risks of food contamination."
Health and family welfare minister Mukesh Mahaling, who ordered a departmental inquiry into the death of two tribal women, said a team from the district headquarters hospital and another local team are at the spot to assess the situation and conduct a detailed probe into the incident.
Mahaling said that the government was waiting for the postmortem report for a confirmation on the cause of the deaths. "People in Kandhamal consume mango kernel. It is common in that region and there also have been reports of health complications linked to it in the past," he said.
The Kandhmal incident reminds a similar tragedy involving mango kernel deaths in Kashipur block of Rayagada district, where at least 20 people died in 2001, and two more succumbed to mango kernel consumption in 2016. Additionally, mango kernel has claimed lives in Laxmipur in Koraput district in 2012 and 2013, as well as in Jharigaon in Nabarangpur district in 2018.
