Indian Sports News- September 21st
September 21, 2019
Bytes: Boxing World Championship, Wrestling World Championship, Amit Panghal creates history, Disability World Series, TriNation T20, TNCA- monarchy, Asian TT Championship, AFC U-16, Pro Kabaddi League, Judo, Athletics World Championship, Diamond League, Wentworth PGA Tour
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 Championship- Amit Panghal became the first Indian man to reach the final of the AIBA Boxing World Championships after edging out Kazakhstan’s Saken Bibossinov 3:2 in the semi-finals at Ekaterinburg, Russia on Friday. After starting cautiously, Panghal got into the bout by going close to his opponent and unleashing quick 1-2 punches. The Indian was also equally adept in attack and managed to evade whatever Bibossinov had to throw at him. There were very few decisive punches from the Kazakh in the early exchanges. Indian pugilists have won four bronze medals in the history of the tournament, but for the first time, Panghal has ensured there will be a gold or silver added to that tally. The Asian Games gold medallist will now face Uzbekistan’s Rio Olympic champion Shakhobidin Zoirov in the final.
There was no luck for the India’s other semi-finallist Manish Kaushik, though, as he was defeated by reigning world champion Andy Cruz of Cuba. Kaushik, who is guaranteed of a bronze medal, lost 0:5 by a unanimous decision in a bout that was fairly one-sided. Cruz worked out his opponent early and was in a dominant mood in the second and third rounds. The Cuban will now have a chance to defend his title.
Wrestling:
World Championship- All in all, a good session for the Indian wrestlers. While Deepak Punia booked his Tokyo Olympic berth in 86 kg weight category, Rahul Aware is also in the semi-final of the 61 kg category. Jitender narrowly lost his 79kg quarterfinal but can get into medal contention if Taimuraz Salkazanov manages to reach the final later in the day.
57Kg Update: Ravi Dahiya clinched the bronze medal in the men’s 57kg category by defeating Reza Ahmadali Atrinagharchi of Iran by a scoreline of 6-3 at the Wrestling World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on Friday. Dahiya took a 2-0 lead with a superb reversal to get the takedown and kept that lead into the break. But with the Iranian threatening to comeback with the score at 3-4, Dahiya had produce another attacking move in the end to prevail in a tight bronze medal bout. It was Dahiya’s first appearance at the senior World Championships. He had won silver previously at the 2015 junior worlds followed by another silver at the 2018 cadet worlds.
86kg update: Deepak Punia is a cadet world champ, a junior world champ and now he will travel to Tokyo for the Olympics after qualifying from the World Championships, his first.
97kg update: Mausam Khatri’s chances of making it to the repechage round stay alive after Kyle Snyder, who defeated him, storms into the semi-final with a 13-3 technical superiority win over Magomed Ibragimov of Uzbekistan. He now needs to reach the final for Khatri to get entry into the repechage rounds.
61kg, quarterfinals: Rahul Aware is in the SEMIFINALS. The bout was quite a close contest till Aware managed to explode and score four quick points with a throw. Kaliyev tried to fight back but it was too late. Aware won 10-7.
79kg quarterfinals: Jitender is probably trailing in a bout for the first time today. But its just one take down behind at the halfway mark against Taimuraz Salkazanov of Slovakia. All to play for in the second period.
Tennis:
Guangzhou Open- Moscow-born American Sofia Kenin won her third title of a breakthrough year with a hard-fought victory over Sam Stosur in the final of the Guangzhou Open on Saturday. The 20-year-old prevailed 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2 in southern China over the Australian former Grand Slam winner, now aged 35. Stosur, the 2011 US Open champion, was two games from victory in the second set, before her younger opponent roared back with seven games in a row to turn the match in her favour.
Judo:
Rafaela Silva- Brazil’s Olympic judo champion Rafaela Silva on Friday admitted testing positive for the banned substance fenoterol, which is used to treat asthma, but insisted she was innocent. “I tested positive for fenoterol … but I did not use this substance, I am not asthmatic.” Fenoterol is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of banned substances. Silva, who won Brazil’s first gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, tested positive on August 9 during the Pan American Games where she won the 57-kilogram category.
Cricket:
IndvsSA women: The performance of pacers Pooja Vastrakar and Mansi Joshi will be watched keenly when the South Africa women take on Board President’s XI in their second warm-up match in Surat on Sunday. The first warm-up match, which was scheduled on Friday, was abandoned due to inclement weather. Joshi and Pooja Vastrakar have been named in the T20 squad and a good show on Sunday at the Lalbhai Contractor Stadium would give them the much needed momentum before the five-match T20 tournament begins on Tuesday. Eyes will also be on 15-year-old opener Shafali Verma, who has been picked in India’s T20 squad.
TNCA- Former BCCI president N Srinivasan’s daughter Rupa Gurunath is set to become the first woman to head a state cricket body as the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association members are keen to continue the legacy of her father, The Times of India reported on Saturday. The newspaper reported that a decision to propose Rupa’s name was floated during an informal meeting of TNCA club representatives and her nomination is likely to be announced during the Executive Committee meeting on Monday. “Even though she is a newcomer to cricket politics, Rupa is extremely hands-on when it comes to the cement business. She is a chip off the old block and we believe she will be up for the challenge,” the paper quotes a source as saying.
Disability World Series- The Board of Control for Cricket in India is set to honour the players with cash awards for their title triumph in the inaugural T20 Physical Disability World Cricket Series, Committee of Administrator member Diana Edujli said in Mumbai on Friday. Title favourites India lifted the inaugural tournament after beating hosts England by 36 runs at New Road Stadium in Worcester in August this year. Edulji, though, did not reveal the exact amount approved by the CoA in its last meeting in New Delhi to honour the disabled cricketers.
Tri Nation T20- Hamilton Masakadza struck a blazing half-century in his farewell match to lead Zimbabwe to a seven-wicket win over Afghanistan in their last match of the Twenty20 tri-series in Chittagong on Friday. Captain Masakadza hit 71 off 42 balls with four fours and five sixes as Zimbabwe reached a target of 156 with three balls to spare after Chris Mpofu’s career-best 4-30 helped the side restrict Afghanistan to 155-8 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium. “Fantastic feeling to finish off like that. I always knew the boys had a performance in them,” Masakadza said after the match. “It is good to get a send-off like this. It was fantastic to be with the boys today.”
Athletics:
Diamond league- The IAAF has decided to remove Stockholm from the Diamond League calendar next year, the meeting’s organisers said on Friday. The International Association of Athletics Federations will also cut the amount of events from 32 to 24 in an attempt to make it easier to understand. The 5,000 metres has already been removed, and the Stockholm organisers said on Friday that the IAAF is also considering dropping the discus. “We can now freely decide how to use our finances and we are no longer bound by the rules of the Diamond League,” said the Stockholm meeting director Jan Kowalski.
World Championship- National Inter-State Championships 200m gold winner Archana Suseendran has been cleared to participate in the World Championships starting in Doha next week after the Athletics Federation of India accepted a late invite from the International Association of Athletics Federations. After a review of the final entries, the world body, IAAF found that some of the qualified athletes would not be able to take part in the September 27 to October 6 showpiece event and sent out late invites. The deadline for the submission of final entries was on September 16 but the IAAF opened a small window after maximum target of entries was not reached.
Golf:
Wentworth PGA- Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma fired a bogey-free five-under 67 in the second round to be placed tied ninth with a total of six-under at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on Friday. Sharma wore a big smile as he walked off the Wentworth Golf Club. Still smarting under the triple bogey he suffered on the first day and ended with 71, Sharma is now six-under and was happy with his play as he was bogey free. Sharma was in the top-10 at tied ninth though there were many players yet to finish. Jon Rahm (66-67) and Danny Willett (68-65) were the co-leaders at 11-under, while Christiaan Bezuidenhout (68-67) and Justin Rose (67-68) were nine-under and were tied third.
Kabaddi:
PKL- Telugu Titans played out a highly entertaining 42-42 tie against Patna Pirates in their Pro Kabaddi match in Pune on Friday. Pardeep Narwal, with 17 raid points, was once again the star for Patna as they came back from being six points down to nearly winning the match. Telugu Titans will consider themselves unlucky to come away with a tie despite two raiders – Siddharth Desai and Rajnish – clinching Super 10s. The first half saw fortunes change for both the teams. Titans started on the front foot with their defence managing to control Patna’s Narwal while Rajnish and Siddharth picked up raid points for the men in yellow.
Football:
AFC U-16- India continud its impressive show in the AFC U-16 Championship Qualifiers by thrashing Bahrain 5-0 to notch up its second big win in the tournament in Tashkent on Friday. Striker Sridarth and winger Shubho Paul were the star performers of the Indian team as they scored a brace each, while Bahrain keeper Mohamed Hasan Jaafar conceded an own goal in the first half. The India U-16 boys had beaten Turkmenistan 5-0 in their opening match on Wednesday. The Indians got the early goal they were looking for through striker Sridarth in the fourth minute when he beat the offside trap and was played through by Yoihenba.
Table Tennis:
Asian TT Championship- G Sathiyan on Friday became only the second Indian man to reach the men’s singles quarter-finals at the Asian Table Tennis Championships when he defeated An-ji Song of North Korea at Yogyakarta in Indonesia but his run ended in the last eight stage. In a tough match-up against the world No 4 Lin Gaoyuan, Sathiyan battled hard but lost by a 1-3 scoreline. The Indian lost the first two games 7-11, 5-11 but he fought back in the third to stay alive by clinching it 11-8. The fourth game was neck-to-neck with the players level at 7-7 but the Chinese paddler finished well to take it 11-8.
Earlier, Sathiyan, currently the top-ranked Indian in the world, hardly broke a sweat as he notched up a 11-7, 11-8, 11-6 win against his North Korean opponent in the pre-quarterfinal match that lasted 22 minutes.
