Indian sports News- September 12th
September 12, 2019, Delhi
Bytes: India A vs South Africa A, Pro Kabaddi League, Ronaldo Singh bags 4th Gold, Siril cruises in Vietnam Open, Padma Vibhushan for Mary Kom, Mary Kom in TOPS Scheme, Mehuli swipe National Trials, Boxing Junior Nationals, U17 WWC, Meghan claimed 2nd Hattrick, Dutte Chand in squad, Wrestling World Championship schedule released
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:
Cycling:
Track Asia Cup- Ronaldo Laitonjam won his fourth gold of the meet as India picked up three medals on the concluding day to emerge overall champions in the Track Asia Cup cycling competition in New Delhi on Wednesday. India topped the medal tally with 10 gold, 8 silver, and 7 bronze medals as the tournament came to an end at the IGI sports complex in New Delhi. The home team clinched 2 gold and 1 bronze on the final day on Wednesday. Uzbekistan finished overall second with 4 gold and 3 silver while Malaysia secured third place with 4 gold and 1 silver. Ronaldo once again hogged the limelight by winning gold in junior men’s Keirin event, his fourth of the meet. The junior world champion team member Ronaldo had earlier collected a gold each in a sprint, 1km time trial and team sprint junior events.
Badminton:
Vietnam Open- India’s Siril Verma stunned top seed Darren Liew of Malaysia in a hard-fought three-game contest to enter the men’s singles third round of the Vietnam Open badminton tournament in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday. Siril, who is ranked 97th in the world, battled hard for 52 minutes to get past world No 22 Liew 17-21, 21-19, 21-12 in a second round duel. Siril will next face Chinese qualifier Lei Lan Xi for a place in the quarterfinals of the BWF Tour Super 100 tournament. Another Indian to make it to the men’s singles third round is second seed Sourabh Verma. Sourabh had to dig deep to get the better of Japan’s Kodai Naraoka 22-20, 22-20 in a match that lasted 54 minutes.
Olympics:
TOPS- Six-time boxing world champion Mary Kom, upcoming shooter Yashaswini Singh Deswal and shuttler Sai Praneeth were among 12 top sportspersons who were included in the Target Olympic Podium Scheme on Wednesday. Mary Kom was among ten boxers who were brought into the TOPS scheme for 2020 Olympics by the Sports Authority of India’s Mission Olympic Cell. Amit Panghal (men’s 52 kg), Sonia Chahal (women’s 57 kg), Neeraj (women’s 57 kg), Nikhat Zareen (women’s 51 kg), Kavinder Singh Bisht (men’s 57 kg), Lovlina Borgohain (women’s 69 kg), Vikas Krishan (men’s 75 kg), Shiva Thapa (men’s 63 kg) and Manish Kaushik (men’s 63 kg) were the other nine boxers added to the TOPS list. The committee also included 22-year-old Deswal, who won a gold medal in the women’s 10m air pistol event in the ISSF World Cup in Rio de Janeiro earlier this month. Her gold earned India an Olympic quota as well. She had also won a silver in the mixed team event.
Shooting:
Nationals Trials- Mehuli Ghosh won both the senior and junior women’s 10m air rifle trials on Tuesday. It was the sixth (T6) national shooting trial. A day later on Wednesday at New Delhi’s Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, she repeated the double, this time sweeping trial seven (T7). The diminutive teenager from West Bengal, who already has seven international medals to her name over the last two years, continued her stellar showing through the week, besting a quality finals field consisting of the world’s three best women 10m air rifle shooters, to win the senior final with a score of 251.9. She then went on to win the junior final with an even better 252.7, just 0.2 off teammate and world number one Apurvi Chandela’s finals world record score of 252.9.
Football:
U-17 WWC- FIFA, the world governing body for football, has inspected five cities which are likely to host matches of the U-17 Women’s World Cup, to be held in India next year. In March, Fifa President Gianni Infantino had announced that India would host the U-17 Women’s World Cup in 2020. “As of now we have visited and inspected five host cities that include Kolkata, Bhuvaneshwar, Ahmedabad, Goa and Navi Mumbai. These were the cities that we had inspected (however) there is a lot of interest from other cities as well,” tournament director Roma Khanna told reporters in Mumbai. According to Khanna, the tournament window for the global event would be known within the coming months.
Iran- Fifa said on Wednesday it will send officials to Iran “shortly” to look at the possibility of allowing female spectators into football games in the country. The announcement comes a week after an Iranian football fan set herself on fire outside a court and died after being told she would be jailed for six months for trying to enter a stadium in Tehran dressed as a man. The global governing body added no details regarding the date of the visit but Iran, who featured at the 2018 World Cup, host Cambodia, ranked 170th in the world, on October 10.
Chess:
WC- P Harikrishna and Nihal Sarin registered their second consecutive wins while Vidit Gujrathi made the most of the white pieces to advance to the second round of the Fide World Cup 2019 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia on Wednesday. Harikrishna, playing white in the second game of round 1, got the better of Yuri Gonzalez Vidal of Cuba in 42 moves while Sarin upset the much higher ranked Jorge Cori for the second successive game in just 29 moves to reach the second round. The other Indians to advance to the next round included Gujrathi, who had struggled to find a way past Alan Pichot of Argentina in the opening game. But on Wednesday, the Indian made a strong start and forced his opponent into surrender after 43 moves. B Adhiban played it safe with white pieces against Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli of Venezuela to sign a peace treaty in 36 moves to advance to the next round. It was overall a fruitful day for Indian chess players in the tournament with only one, M Karthikeyan, of the 10 participants being knocked out of the tournament.
Boxing:
Padma Vibhushan- An Indian woman athlete has been recommended for the Padma Vibhushan award, the country’s second-highest civilian honour, for the first time. The Sports Ministry named has named six-time world champion MC Mary Kom for the honour. Badminton world champion PV Sindhu been nominated for the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, according to a report in The Times of India. The Sports Ministry’s other recommendations include seven women athletes: wrestler Vinesh Phogat, table tennis player Manika Batra, Twenty20 International cricket captain Harmanpreet Kaur, hockey captain Rani Rampal, former shooter Suma Shirur and mountaineers Tashi and Nungshi Malik, the report continued. Archer Tarundeep Rai and hockey Olympian MP Ganesh were also late additions to the list, which is yet to be approved by Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, according to PTI.
Junior Nationals- Manipur’s Ambeshori Devi (57kg) and Haryana’s Tamanna (48kg) entered the semi-finals to be assured of medals at the third junior women’s national boxing championships at Rohtak on Wednesday. Both Tamanna and Ambeshori Devi had won medals at the Black Forest Cup in June and they continued their fine form in the domestic circuit as well. Ambeshori dominated her quarter-final bout against Mizoram’s Naom Chingsannuami en route to her 5-0 win while Tamanna prevailed over Delhi’s Anjali by an identical scoreline. Also progressing into the last-four stage from Haryana were Tannu (52kg), Kirti (57kg) and Khushi (63kg). While Kirti and Khushi blanked Andhra Pradesh’s Peddada Kavya and Punjab’s Vishakha respectively 5-0, Tannu advanced by dint of getting an RSC verdict in round one over Goa’s Neha Kadam.
Cricket:
INDvsSA- India A edged closer to a resounding victory over South Africa A in the first unofficial Test despite a rain-hit day three in which only 20 overs could be bowled. India captured four wickets to reduce South Africa A to 179/9, who go into day four with a paltry lead of 40 runs in the second innings. Majority of overs were lost at the Greenfield stadium in Thiruvananthapuram due to overnight rain and a wet outfield. India A had made 303 in reply to South Africa A’s first innings score of 164. The hosts made most of the play possible as spinners Shahbaz Nadeem (3/17) and Jalaj Saxena (2/22) came to the party.
Meghan Schutt- Australia fast bowler Megan Schutt scripted history by becoming the first woman to claim two hat-tricks in white-ball cricket after she cleaned up the West Indies tail in the third ODI here. Schutt (3/24), thus, became the first Australian woman to claim a hat-trick in ODIs. Her feat enabled Australia women to bowl out West Indies women for a paltry 180. Later chasing 181, half centuries by opener Alyssa Healy (61) and captain Meg Lanning (58) helped Australia beat the hosts by eight wickets in the third game of the five-match series on Wednesday. The visitors have now taken an unassailable 3-0 lead.
SLvs PAK- Sri Lanka’s cricket board said Wednesday it had received warnings its national team could be the target of a terror attack during an upcoming tour of Pakistan. Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s Office had received “reliable information of a possible terrorist threat” against the national squad ahead of the six-match limited overs tour, the board said. Sri Lanka Cricket stopped short of calling off the tour, but said a reassessment of the security situation would be sought from Sri Lankan government authorities.
Wrestling:
Schedule WC- Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat will spearhead India’s quest for gold at the UWW Wrestling World Championships that is all set to kick off in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan from September 14. Other star names to watch out for include Sushil Kumar (returning to the event after eight years), Sakshi Malik, Deepak Punia and Divya Kakran. The 2019 Wrestling World Championships, which will be held from September 14 to 22, will begin with the Greco-Roman competition. Around 1,000 wrestlers from 101 nations will be vying for medals across Greco-Roman, freestyle and women’s wrestling categories for nine days.
Athletics:
World Championships- Athletics Federation of India have confirmed that sprinter Dutee Chand will be a part of the Indian team for the upcoming IAAF World Championships. The Indian sprinter had announced on Twitter on Tuesday that she was going to the worlds, which will be held in Doha from September 27 to October 6. The Indian sprinter had announced on Twitter on Tuesday that she was going to the worlds, which will be held in Doha from September 27 to October 6.
Kabaddi:
PKL- Deepak Niwas Hooda led by example as Jaipur Pink Panthers held the in-form Haryana Steelers to a 32-all tie in their Pro-Kabaddi fixture at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on Wednesday. Eyeing a sixth successive win, Haryana Steelers got off to a solid start and led by four points at half time, but Hooda came up with 14 raid points from 22 attempts to help the Jaipur outfit salvage a draw. In fact, Jaipur will rue their missed chances as they held a one-point lead with less than a minute left on the clock. But a final minute blunder by Jaipur’s Sachin Narwal helped Steelers draw level as they squandered a great opportunity move to the fifth spot.
