Indian sports News- September 14th
September 14, 2019
Bytes: U-17 Women’s World Cup, Davis Cup-INDvsPAK, Chess WC-Round 2, Junior women’s Nationals-Boxing, Ashes 5th Test, Tri Nation T20Is, Formula 1, Vietnam Open, K. Srikanth, Shooting- Nationals Trials, Rugby World Cup, Billiards- World Championship, Heptathlon-Olympics…
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:
Chess:
Chess WC- Fifteen-year-old Nihal Sarin and the experienced P Harikrishna continued their strong run in the Fide Chess World Cup in Khanti-Mansiysk on Friday by winning their respective opening games in round two. Nihal, playing white, defeated GM Eltaj Safarli in just 37 moves while Harikrishna got the better of GM Vladimir Fedoseev in 54 moves in a king-pawn endgame. On the other boards, Vidit Gujrathi was held to a draw by Aleksandr Rakhmanov while B Adhibhan signed peace with GM Yangyi Yu after 55 moves. The only Indian to suffer a loss in the first game of the second round was Aravindh Chithambaram, who was outsmarted by GM Evgeny Tomashevsky in 37 moves. The second game will be played on Saturday with all Indian players playing black.
Boxing:
Junior Women’s Nationals- Haryana topped the medal tally in the third junior women’s National Boxing Championships at Rohtak on Friday with 12 medals, including seven gold. Haryana, who also bagged one silver and four bronze, collected 63 points to top the leaderboard. Manipur finished second with 33 points while Maharashtra stood third with 31 points. Leading the charge for Haryana was tournament favorite Tamanna, who crushed her opponent Tingmila Doungel 5-0 in the 48 kg category. This is Tamanna’s third gold after Black Forest Cup and Nation’s Cup in Serbia. Besides Tamanna, Priti Dahiya (60kg) also dominated in her 5-0 win against Chandigarh’s Diya Negi to register her gold medal hat-trick. Kalpana (46kg), Rinku (50kg), Tannu (52kg), Neha (54kg) and Khushi (63kg) were other gold medallists for the home state. Manipur’s second position was courtesy of one gold, three silver and four bronze medals. Huidrom Ambeshori Devi blanked Rajasthan’s Isha Gurjar 5-0 to give Manipur their sole gold in the 57kg category. The three silvers were earned by Oinam Pinky Chanu (46kg), Tingmila Doungel (48kg) and Shagolsem Bijeta Chanu (52kg).
Cricket:
Ashes- Jofra Archer took six wickets as England bowled Australia out for 225 to gain the upper hand on the second day of the fifth Ashes Test on Friday despite another Steve Smith masterclass. Joe Root’s team are desperate to level the series at 2-2 to end their historic World Cup-winning season on a high but have been consistently dogged by the peerless Smith. The former Australian skipper has now amassed 751 runs in just six innings – more than double the tally of the next highest run scorer on either side. But he was forced to settle for his lowest score of the series – 80 – when Chris Woakes trapped him lbw in the evening session, leaving the sun-drenched Oval crowd dumbfounded. Australia won at Old Trafford last week to take a 2-1 lead in the series, meaning they will retain the Ashes urn regardless of the result at the Oval.
Tri-Nation T20Is- Youngster Afif Hossain struck 52 off 26 balls as Bangladesh survived a scare to beat Zimbabwe by three wickets in the opening match of the tri-nation T20 international tournament in Dhaka on Friday. Afif, batting at number eight, hit eight fours and a six in his first international fifty that guided Bangladesh to 148/7 in 17.4 overs after the hosts restricted Zimbabwe to 144/5 in the rain-hit 18-overs-per-side match. Zimbabwe will face Afghanistan in their next match of the tournament at the same venue on Saturday.
Motorsports:
Formula One- Mercedes-Benz has extended its contract with British Formula One outfit Williams until the end of 2025, the two firms announced on Friday. Williams, who finished bottom of the championship last season after some of Force-India’s points were voided, announced poor financial results for the first quarter of 2019 on Tuesday with a drop of almost 24 percent in turnover compared to the same period last year. “The financial results of Formula One reflect principally our last position in the constructors’ championship last year and the reduction of bonuses linked to it,” Williams chief executive Mike O’Driscoll said.
Badminton:
Vietnam Open- Indian shuttler Sourabh Verma stormed into the men’s singles semifinals of the Vietnam Open BWF Tour Super 100 after beating local hero Tien Minh Nguyen in straight games in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday. Second seed Sourabh, who had won the Hyderabad Open last month, defeated Tien Minh 21-13, 21-18 in a 43-minute clash. The reigning national champion will face Japan’s Minoru Koga who upset Thailand’s sixth seed Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk 13-21, 24-22, 21-16 in a 72-minute marathon encounter. The 26-year-old Indian had lost in the round of 16 at the Chinese Taipei Open earlier this month. In the third meeting between the two, the Indian national champion emerged triumphant for the first time. Tien Minh, former world No 5, had defeated Sourabh at Singapore Open earlier this year.
K. Srikanth- Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth on Friday pulled out of the upcoming tournaments in China and Korea, owing to a knee injury that flared up after the World Championship last month. The China Open World Tour Super 1000 is scheduled to be held at Changzhou from September 17 to 22, followed by Korea Open World Tour Super 500 (September 24 to 29) at Incheon City. “Tough times. Will not be playing in the upcoming #ChinaOpen and #KoreaOpen due to knee injury. Hope to recover quickly and get back in action soon!,” he wrote on his twitter handle. The 26-year-old from Guntur had lost to lower-ranked Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand in the round of 16 at the World Championships in Basel, Switzerland last month.
Shooting:
National Trials- Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat, World Championship silver medalist Anjum Moudgil and Youth Olympics champion Saurabh Chaudhary won their respective National Shooting Trial events at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi on Friday. Rahi won the women’s 25m Pistol T7 trial while Anjum emerged victorious in the women’s 50m Rifle Prone and Saurabh quite unsurprisingly won the men’s 10m Air Pistol T6 trials to extend their good forms. Rahi was unstoppable on Friday, first shooting a classy 586 in qualification to top it and then demolished the finals field with a 39, falling just one short of Hungarian Veronika Major’s finals world record score of 40. World number two women’s 10m Air Rifle exponent Anjum Moudgil notched up a second victory in two days, winning the women’s 50m Rifle Prone T7 trials after winning the T6 on Thursday. He shot 621.3 to emerge on top.
Rugby:
World Cup- New Zealand will be made to fight all the way for a third consecutive title as a ground-breaking Rugby World Cup gets under way in Japan next week with half a dozen teams confident of jockeying for the William Webb Ellis trophy. While the bookmakers have the All Blacks as clear favourites, they will not be the number one-ranked team at the September 20-November 2 tournament, Ireland having taken that mantle after two warm-up wins over Six Nations Grand Slam champions Wales. But there is no doubt about the strength in depth of Steve Hansen’s New Zealand, a side that features three former World Rugby Players of the Year in skipper Kieran Read, influential lock Brodie Retallick and playmaker Beauden Barrett.
Athletics:
Heptathlon- Asian Games gold medallist heptathlete Swapna Barman on Friday said she will leave no stone unturned to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but achieving the qualification standard will be a tough ask. Barman, who has six toes on each foot, became the first Indian to win a heptathlon gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games. “Like every athlete, I also dream of participating in the Olympics,” Barman was quoted as saying by PTI. “I am not sure if I’ll be able to do it but I will do everything possible, I will try my best. I have to improve a little in all the [seven] events and then I qualify.”
Billiards:
IBSF World Championship- Defending champion Pankaj Advani received top billing in the knockout stage of the IBSF World Billiards Championship beginning in Mandalay on Monday. After achieving a clean sweep in the group stage without dropping a frame, the 21-time world champion stormed into the elimination rounds. Some of the other Indians who are seeded are Dhvaj Haria, Siddharth Parikh and Sourav Kothari.
Tennis:
Davis Cup Tie- The rescheduled Davis Cup tie between India and Pakistan will be tentatively held on November 29 or 30 in Islamabad subject to another security review, the All India Tennis Association said on Friday. The tie was earlier scheduled to be held in Islamabad on September 14-15 but was postponed to November after an in-depth security review by the International Tennis Federation last month. The AITA said in a press release on Friday that a security review on November 4 will decide whether the tie can be held in Islamabad or be shifted to a neutral venue. “The India vs Pakistan Davis Cup tie will take place in Islamabad either on 29 and 30th November or 30th November/1st December,” the AITA said.
Football:
U-17 WWC- The Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup, to be hosted by India, will be held between November 2 to 21 next year. The age-group showpiece event will be held in four cities across the country. Last month, the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar was provisionally confirmed as a venue, pending a Fifa approval. Kolkata, Navi Mumbai, Goa and Ahmedabad are in the running for the other three host cities. India was announced as the host country in March this year. Spain are the defending champions, having won the title of the biennial tournament in 2018. As India has got automatic qualification as hosts, they are not entering the Asian qualification campaign in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship which will be held in Thailand from September 15 to 28.
