Indian sports News- September 10th
September 10, 2019
Bytes: Tennis rankings, Boxing World Championships, Athletics World Championships, Knighthood, Gaurav age fraud, Pankaj Advani, HS Pranoy gets Dengue, SAvsIND unofficial Test, Schumacher in Paris, Pay hike to Shastri, Pro Kabaddi League, Olympic Qualifiers-Hockey, Nationals Trials of Shooting
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:
Boxing:
World Championships- With no competitive action in store for them on the opening day, it was sparring with Argentine boxers that kept Team India busy in the men’s World Championships at Ekaterinburg in Russia. India will open the campaign on Tuesday with Brijesh Yadav (81kg) taking on Poland’s Maleusz Goinski. Asian Championships and Asian Games gold medallist Amit Panghal (52kg), who has been seeded second and given a first-round bye, was among the three boxers who sparred with the Argentines in the morning. Monday’s sparring sessions with the Argentines also featured Kavinder Singh Bisht (57kg) and Duryodhan Singh Negi (69kg). Bisht has been seeded fifth and also got a first-round bye.
BFI- Boxing Federation of India’s Executive Director RK Sacheti was on Monday invited by the International Olympic Committee to “advise” on the formulation of rules for next year’s Olympic Qualifiers. Sacheti has been invited by the IOC’s Experts Group Committee, the BFI stated. The IOC took control of the conduct of the Olympic Qualifiers owing to a long-standing administrative mess in the International Boxing Association (AIBA). The IOC’s Experts Group will be meeting for the first time in Lausanne, Switzerland on Wednesday.
Cricket:
SAvsIND- Young Shubman Gill was back in form with an unbeaten 66 after bowlers set the platform, dismissing South Africa A for 164 on the first day of the Unofficial Test in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. Gill, who has been an opener for Punjab in the longer format, played out Lungi Ngidi’s (1/18 in 6 overs) first spell as he faced 108 balls, hitting nine fours and a six as India A were in command reaching 129 for 2 at stumps.
Pay hike- Ravi Shastri’s latest stint as the head coach of the Indian cricket team will fetch him a salary of close to Rs 10 crore a year, according to a report in Mumbai Mirror. The former India cricketer, who has been retained in his position till the T20 World Cup in 2021, has received a 20% increase in remuneration. Not just Shastri, even the rest of the coaching staff of India’s senior men’s cricket team will get a significant increase in their salaries.
Knighthood- England cricket greats Geoffrey Boycott and Andrew Strauss have been given knighthoods by Theresa May in her resignation honours list. Boycott and Strauss both received the honour for their services to sport after outstanding careers for England. Boycott was one of May’s sporting heroes and the former British Prime Minister spoke of her admiration for his bloody-minded style of play on several occasions.
Motorsports:
Schumacher- The stricken seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher is in Paris’ Georges-Pompidou hospital for cell therapy surgery, according to French daily Le Parisien. The Paris hospitals department, contacted by AFP, refused to confirm or deny the news citing medical privacy laws.
Tennis:
AITA- The allegations of manipulation in rankings to favour a specific player has forced AITA to admit an inordinate delay in updation of their system. However, the All India Tennis Association has firmly refuted the charges of favouritism. The AITA recently received a complaint from a parent of an under-14 player that his daughter has been denied the top spot in the rankings because penalty points were not imposed on a specific player for no-show and late withdrawal on many occasions. In addition to that, the AITA, in an unusual manner, made an early addition of points to the tally of the players for the week of August 19.
Rankings- Daniil Medvedev climbed to a career high of fourth in the ATP rankings on Monday after a remarkable six-week hardcourt run in North America that culminated with an agonising five-set loss to Rafael Nadal in the US Open final. Medvedev, who won his first Masters title last month in Cincinnati, became just the third man to reach finals there, at Washington, Canada and the US Open in the same summer. US Open winner Bianca Andreescu, 200th in the world rankings a year ago, leapt into the top five on Monday, while Ashleigh Barty knocked Naomi Osaka off top spot.
Kabaddi:
PKL- Pardeep Narwal became the first player to cross 1000 raid points in Pro Kabaddi League history as his 26 points on the night helped Patna Pirates side thrash Tamil Thalaivas 51-25 at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Monday. Narwal’s 26 points exposed the problems in the Tamil Thalaivas side who looked clueless, especially in defence, against a bottom-placed Patna unit. Ajith Kumar, with a Super 10, was the only positive for the Thalaivas in what was otherwise a horrible day on the mat for the star-studded team.
Badminton:
HS Prannoy- Star shuttler HS Prannoy will miss at least two tournaments on the circuit after being diagnosed with dengue. Prannoy will first miss the China Open, which will be held at Changzhou, from September 17 to 22 and then the Korea Open, scheduled to be held at Incheon, from September 24 to 29. Prannoy took to twitter to inform his fans about his health condition.
Athletics:
World Championship- World junior champion Hima Das was on Monday named as 4x400m relay runner in India’s 25-member squad for the World Athletics Championships to be held in Doha from September 27. The number of athletes announced after a meeting of AFI selection committee will, however, increase after the international body (IAAF) gives confirmation of the likes of World University 100m champion Dutee Chand, who did not meet the qualification mark but is within the required number of competitors for the event. The name of star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, who is undergoing rehabilitation after elbow surgery, was also discussed but was not named in the team.
Shooting:
National Trials- World Cup silver medallist Sanjeev Rajput shot a steady 1172 in the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event in the qualification round of the national shooting trials, in New Delhi on Monday. The seasoned Haryana shooter will go into Tuesday’s finals high on confidence as the second-placed Parul Kumar of the Indian Air Force was way behind with 1164. Thomas George of Kerala topped the men’s 25m Rapid Fire trials with a score of 580.
Football:
Age fraud- The All Indian Football Federation (AIFF) Disciplinary Committee on Monday cleared Indian forward Gourav Mukhi for fresh registration after he completed a six-month suspension for a discrepancy in his registered age. Confirming this, AIFF Disciplinary Committee chairman Usha Nath Banerjee told PTI: “He had applied for fresh registration after complying with the six-month ban providing a correct birth certificate. After verification, the committee cleared him for fresh registration today. He’s now eligible to play.” The Jharkhand player was announced as the youngest ever goal-scorer (16-year-old) in the Indian Super League history after he scored in Jamshedpur FC’s 2-2 draw with Bengaluru FC last season. But soon he was found guilty of age fraud on the basis of evidence presented by the player himself along with an admission as the Disciplinary Committee handed the suspension on November 25 last year.
Chess:
Western Asia Youth Championship- Mumbai’s Aryaveer Agarwal clinched the bronze medal at Western Asian Youth Chess championships underway in the national capital. He won the bronze despite starting the campaign as 17th seed. Though Aryaveer lost his first round against ultimate champion Vaz Ethan, he held three-higher rated players in successive rounds and finished his campaign with an impressive 5.5 points out of the possible 7 games, a media statement issued here on Monday said. Aryaveer, who trains at South Mumbai Chess Academy, created a flutter by beating top seed Ubaydullaev Mukhammadiso of Uzbekistan.
Hockey:
Olympic Qualifiers- Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams have been handed fairly easy draws in FIH Olympic Qualifiers after the draw involved 14 teams was held at the headquarters of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) in Lausanne, Switzerland on Monday. The men’s team will be up against Russia, ranked 22nd in the world, while the women’s team will face the United States of America who have an FIH ranking of 13. The men’s team had registered a 10-0 win over Russia when they last played against them during the FIH Series Final in Bhubaneswar earlier this year. The Russian team, on the other hand, had won 12-1 against Uzbekistan, 3-2 against Poland and lost a close 1-2 match against South Africa in the knockout stage.
Billiards:
Advani- India’s 21-time World Champion Pankaj Advani will kick-start the business end of the cue sport season with the Myanmar Open, beginning in Mandalay, Myanmar on Monday. The three-day tournament is a prelude to the main event, the IBSF World Billiards Championship, both of which will be held in Mandalay. Pankaj will be on a mission to retain his billiards world title he won last year. Both the tournaments will be played in the short format of 150-up.
