Pabani Sabar

Sabar is from Gajapati district, Odisha. He is the son of late Papeya Sabar and Sambari Sabar. His father died in 2012. He has two brothers and a sister. He started playing kho kho in Class 8. He is doing his graduation in arts at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and is a trainee of the Odisha Kho Kho High Performance Centre at Bhubaneswar.^[2][3]

In January 2025, he was part of the Indian team that won the inaugural Kho Kho World Cup at New Delhi.^[4] The Indian team were placed in Group A and defeated Nepal, Brazil,^[5] Peru and Bhutan in the group stages. In the quarterfinals, India defeated Sri Lanka and beat South Africa 62-42 in the semifinals.^[6][7] In the finals, India defeated Nepal 54-36 to lift their maiden World Cup.^[8]

In June 2022, he participated in the 4th Khelo India Youth Games at Panchakula, Haryana where Odisha team won a silver medal. In February 2025, he participated in the 38th National Games at Haldwani, Uttarakhand and won a silver medal as part of Odisha men’s team.^[2]