Indian sports News- November 28th
November 28, 2019
Bytes: Sania Mirza in Hobart International, Asian Archery Championship, ISL-Northeast United FCvsMumbai City FC, Golden Boy-Jao Felix, U17 Women’s World Cup, Syed Modi International 300, Hockey World Cup 2023- Bubhaneshwar, National Shotgun Championship, Sports code review committee, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy
YoGems makes sure that you won’t miss a thing in the field of sports, so here is a quick recap to all the happenings from the last 24 hours:
Tennis:
Sania Mirza return- Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza on Thursday confirmed that she will be back to competitive tennis at Hobart International in January 2020, two years after taking a maternity break. The 33-year-old, who last played at the China Open in October 2017, will team up with Ukraine’s Nadiia Kichenok, the current world number 38. Sania, married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, gave birth to their first son, Izhaan, in October last year. Sania, winner of six Grand Slam titles, said she is back to her best shape. Sania will partner American Rajeev Ram for the mixed doubles at the Australian Open. She was speaking after inaugurating the newly re-laid tennis courts at the iconic Khar Gymkhana here in presence of Mahesh Bhupathi, Gymkhana’s President Vivek Devnani and secretary Gaurav Kapadia.
Archery:
Asian Archery Championship- Indian archers Deepika Kumari and Ankita Bhakat produced a 1-2 finish, clinching gold and silver medals respectively in the women’s recurve event at the Asian Championships in Bangkok on Thursday. The duo had earlier reached the semi-finals of the women’s recurve event, in the process earning an Olympic quota spot. Indian archers Deepika Kumari and Ankita Bhakat produced a 1-2 finish, clinching gold and silver medals respectively in the women’s recurve event at the Asian Championships in Bangkok on Thursday.
The duo had earlier reached the semi-finals of the women’s recurve event, in the process earning an Olympic quota spot. Bhakat took on Karma from Bhutan in the semi-final and won 6-2 while Kumari defeated Nguyet Do Thi Anh from Vietnam by the same scoreline in four sets. In the final, top seed Kumari led from start to finish to clinch the gold in straight sets (6-0) with scores of 27-24, 27-26, 27-26. Competing under a neutral flag with the Indian federation being suspended, the archers had entered the final four after impressive wins in the quarter-final rounds. Kumari defeated Narisara Khunhiranchayo from Thailand (6-2) while Bhakat overcame Anastassiy Bannova from Ukraine (6-4). Kumari has already won a medal at the event. She had clinched the bronze medal in the recurve mixed pair event, partnering Atanu Das, where the duo defeated Yichai Zheng and Shaoxuan Wei of China 6-2 without breaking a sweat.
Football:
ISL- A goal-fest in Guwahati saw NorthEast United FC and Mumbai City FC share the spoils in a 2-2 draw in an Indian Super League (ISL) clash at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati on Wednesday. Panagiotis Triadis (‘9) opened the scoring for the home side before Mumbai City fought back with two goals from Amine Chermiti (23’, 32’). Asamoah Gyan (42’) then restored parity for the Highlanders before the break as both teams settled for a point. NorthEast United started the game on a positive note and got off the mark as early as the ninth minute. Sauvik Chakrabarti failed to clear the ball from a Rakesh Pradhan throw-in and gifted the ball to Triadis, who unleashed a stunning strike from the edge of the box which left Amrinder Singh with no chance. With the draw, NorthEast United moved into the top four at the expense of FC Goa while Mumbai jumped to the seventh spot in the standings.
U-17 Women’s WC- An eight-member Fifa inspection team on Wednesday expressed happiness at the state of infrastructure at the Salt Lake Stadium, one of the venues for the 2020 U-17 Women’s World Cup. “The stadium has already hosted a Fifa World Cup (U-17) so the core infrastructure is in place. It is great to see that the legacy from 2017 – the infrastructure is in good shape, and that the same operational plan is being used,” Local Organising Committee of U-17 Women’s World Cup said in a statement. The Fifa and LOC delegation, led by project head Oliver Vogt, will next inspect the venue in Guwahati on Thursday. The Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup India 2020 will be held in India from November 2 to 21.
Golden Boy 2019- Atletico Madrid’s Portuguese international Joao Felix was named the winner of the ‘Golden Boy’ trophy on Wednesday, awarded by Italian newspaper Tuttosport to the best under-21 footballer in Europe. The 20-year-old forward took the prize ahead of Borussia Dortmund’s English winger Jadon Sancho and Bayer Leverkusen’s German midfielder Kai Havertz. He succeeds Dutch defender Matthijs De Ligt, who won last year while playing for Ajax before moving to Juventus. Felix moved from Benfica this season to Atletico Madrid on a transfer worth around 120 million euros ($131 million). He scored 15 goals for Benfica last season, and this season has scored three goals for Atletico.
Badminton:
Syed Modi International- Top Indian male shuttlers Srikanth Kidambi, B Sai Praneeth and HS Prannoy advanced to the second round of the men’s singles event at the Syed Modi International Badminton tournament in Lucknow on Wednesday while Ajay Jayaram produced a significant upset by ousting Sameer Verma. Third seed Srikanth sailed past Russia’s Vladimir Malkov in straight games to set up a second-round clash with compatriot Parupalli Kashyap. Srikanth prevailed 21-12, 21-11 in his 36-minute opening round clash, while Kashyap got a walkover from Frenchman Lucas Corvee in the BWF World Tour Super 300 level tournament.
With top seed Shi Yuqi ousted in the opening round (25-23 21-17 by Malaysia’s Soo Teck Zhi), this tournament presents a great chance for Srikanth to end his two-year wait for a title. Fourth seed Sai Praneeth also moved into the next round, defeating Malaysia’s Iskandar Zulkarnain 21-16, 22-20 in 47 minutes. The 2019 world championship bronze medalist will face multiple-time junior world champion Kunlavut Vitidsarn next. In what was another significant upset in the men’s singles draw, Ajay Jayaram, ranked 72 in the world, knocked out fifth seed Sameer Verma (ranked 23 in the world) in an all-Indian encounter. That was quite the result for Ajay who bounced back from a game down to win 15-21, 21-18, 21-13 in 62 minutes. Sameer’s elder brother Sourabh, however, progressed by beating Xiaodong Sheng in straight games.
Hockey:
World Cup 2023- In a move that should come as no surprise, Odisha was on Wednesday named the host state for the next edition of Men’s Hockey World Cup, to be played in 2023 in India. In addition to Bhubaneshwar, however, Rourkela will also be hosting matches this time around. Bhubaneshwar hosted the 2018 edition of the men’s marquee tournament where Belgium were crowned champions. Biju Patnaik Hockey Stadium in Rourkela is the other venue where matches will be played in 2023 as India becomes the first country to host successive editions of the tournament. The state continues to be the go-to location for hockey in the country with Bhubaneswar confirmed as host venus for India’s home matches during the 2020 Hockey Pro League, the sport’s governing body announced recently. The second edition of the Hockey Pro League will be played between January 11 and June 28. The state continues to be the go-to location for hockey in the country with Bhubaneswar confirmed as host venus for India’s home matches during the 2020 Hockey Pro League, the sport’s governing body announced recently. The second edition of the Hockey Pro League will be played between January 11 and June 28. On the occasion of its last meeting of the year in Lausanne, the Executive Board of the International Hockey Federation had selected India to host the 2023 FIH Hockey Men’s World Cup (13-29 January 2023) and Spain and the Netherlands to co-host the 2022 FIH Hockey Women’s World Cup (1-17 July 2022).
Cricket:
Syed Mushtaq Ali- Suryakumar Yadav (80), Shreyas Iyer (80*) and Prithvi Shaw’s (53) efforts were in vain as Shubman Gill’s 38-ball 78 knocked Mumbai out of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in Surat. Punjab fell short of Mumbai’s mammoth 244 run target by 22 runs in a high-scoring thriller but not without giving their opponents a serious scare. Mumbai were looking good to sneak into the semi-finals after hammering 243/3.
Suryakumar’s side, though, needed to restrict Punjab to 150 or less to qualify for the last four. Gill and fellow opener Abhishek Sharma (29-ball 47) dashed Mumbai’s hopes with a timely assault in the first ten overs.
Gurkeerat Mann (21-ball 40) also played an important hand but his wicket signalled a mini-collapse, which, all but sealed Punjab’s hopes of pulling off a miraculous win. Gill’s innings, was a treat to watch as he displayed his exquisite range of strokes on both sides of the wickets. At the end of the innings he got a pat on the back from his U-19 captain Shaw while the Punjab batsman himself was disappointed for not carrying on and reaching the three-figure mark and take his side home. Brief scores: Mumbai 243/3 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 80, Shreyas Iyer 80*, Prithvi Shaw 53; Harpreet Brar 2/44) beat Punjab 221/6 in 20 overs (Shubman Gill 78, Abhishek Sharma 47, Gurkeerat Mann 40; Tushar Deshpande 2/35) by 22 runs.
Shooting:
National Shotgun Championships- Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan of Uttar Pradesh, India international Smit Singh of ONGC and Gurjot Singh of Punjab shot three perfect rounds on day one of skeet shooting qualifiers of the National Shotgun Championships in New Delhi on Wednesday. Mairaj, Smit and Gurjot shot 25 out of 25 targets across the first two rounds of qualifying in the men’s skeet category to lead the field of 110 shooters. Gurnihal Singh Garcha of Punjab led the junior men’s category after his two rounds fetched him a score of 49. Ganemat Shekhon, also of Punjab, led both the senior women and junior women categories with a score of 48, missing two targets in her second round after a perfect 25 in the first. Thursday will see two more rounds of qualifying while the fifth and final qualifying round is scheduled for Friday, followed by the finals, where the top six go through.
Sports code review:
World Championships bronze-medallist long jumper Anju Bobby George, Olympic bronze-medallist shooter Gagan Narang, former football captain Bhaichung Bhutia and national badminton coach Pulella Gopichand have been named in a 13-member expert committee formed by the Sports Ministry to review the controversial Draft National Sports Code 2017. The expert committee will be headed by Supreme Court judge Justice (Retd) Mukundakam Sharma as its chairman. The panel will also feature a representative from the Indian Olympic Association, which has rejected the document in current form as it seeks to put an age and tenure cap on sports administrators. The NSFs will be represented by Boxing Federation of India president Ajay Singh, Sudhanshu Mittal (Kho Kho Federation of India), Adille Sumariwala (Athletics Federation of India) and BP Baishya (Weightlifting Federation of India). The Sports Authority of India or a representative, Joint Secretary (Sports) and Dr A Jayathilak (Principal Secretary, Sports, Government of Kerala) will be the other members of the panel. The committee has been formed to suggest measures to make the Sports Code acceptable to all the stakeholders as the IOA maintains that the code will put India at risk for a suspension from the International Olympic Committee. The draft proposes drastic changes in the 2011 Code, including barring of ministers, members of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies and government servants from holding office in the IOA and NSFs, tenure restrictions and age cap of 70 years. The draft also widens its scope to all office-bearers and board members of the IOA and NSFs. It also calls on the NSFs to appoint CEOs, Nominee Directors and an Ombudsman.
