Kudos to Kapurthala lad
Donald Banerjee

Gaganjeet Bhullar has done it. Yes, this 22 year-old Kapurthala golfer has completed a hat-trick of victories in international golf and carved a niche for himself on the European Challenge Tour. Gaganjeet, who turns 23 on April 27, started the three-in-a-row feat with a historic win on the European Challenge Tour, the first by an Indian. He battled his nerves to edge out England's Matt Ford to clinch the Gujarat Kensville Challenge on January 16. A fortnight later, he followed this up with the Bangladesh Open title, again another first by an Indian. And, as if this was not enough, he completed a hat-trick, winning the PGTI Players Championship on the Royal Calcutta Golf Club greens on February 5.

That his nerves are made of steel was amply demonstrated in all three triumphs. The Punjab lad went through some anxious moments on the last day as the English player sank successive birdies. The anxious moments continued into the last two holes with Bhullar conceding a bogey on the 17th. But a par on the 18th saw the Kapurthala boy winning by one shot.

The Kapurthala boy not only became richer by 32,000 euros from this victory but also entered his name in golf history, becoming the first Indian to win on the European Challenge Tour.

Gaganjeet said: "It will take a while for me to digest this victory. It is special moment in my life." The Punjab boy had a comfortable four stroke lead but such was the demanding nature of the course and conditions at the Jeev Milkha Singh-Signature Golf Club that only six players finished under par. England's Jamie Moul finished in third place after he had best-of-the-day round of 69, whilst his compatriot Matthew Baldwin took the fourth place at 2-under 286. First round leader Bangladesh's Siddikur Rahman (73) and Denmark's Mads Vibe-Hastrup (72) shared fifth place at 1-under par 287.

Triumph on Bangladesh soil

Barely two weeks after the Challenge Tour triumph, Bhullar tamed the Kurmitola Golf Club greens in Dhaka, dethroning the defending champion and local favourite, Mohd Siddikur Rehman by two strokes to clinch the American Express Bangladesh Open title. Bhullar's sizzling eight under par 64 in the third round held him in good stead as he went into the final round with a seven-stroke lead. Siddikur Rehman wiped out the margin by five shots in a last round fight-back but fell short of the target by two strokes.

Bhullar admitted that the Bangladesh golfer gave him a real scare. In his words: "It feels great to win my second title of the year. Siddikur had a fabulous round and gave me a real scare but I hung in there till the end and just kept it in play."

Third in a row

Bhullar's third triumph in Kolkata was another display of perfection. Even on the last day, when he posted a modest 72, he made pars from the beginning to the end but never lost control of the situation. He hit almost all the fairways and made the greens in regulation on all the holes except the seventh where he made a goof chip-putt from the edge of the green to save par.

The Kolkata win fetched him a cheque worth Rs 4,84,950 and firmly established him on top of the Rolex Rankings. Bhullar, who took to golf at the age of four under the tutelage of his father, H.S. Bhullar, at the Kapurthala Golf Club, said after the Kolkata win: "It's turning out to be a great season for me. I was in a comfort zone today and did not do anything extraordinary. I just stuck to my gameplan of hitting the greens in regulation and making two-putts for par. It worked out well for me. I was in trouble only on the seventh where I recovered well with a good chip. I drew from all the experiences of my past victories to successfully close the match. "As I am currently on a winning streak there is a lot of positive energy around me and that helps me come through even in tough situations. This is the second hat-trick of titles in my career and it has given me the much-needed momentum ahead of a long and gruelling season."

Woolmer, wags & WC
Sunil Narula

The 10th ICC World Cup kicks off with India taking on Bangladesh in Mirpur today.  It’s a moment to celebrate, as the Cup is once again being hosted in the subcontinent and India is seriously being considered as one of the hot teams. It’s a time to look forward to some high-voltage action, to a deluge of big hits and an avalanche of runs. But at the same time, it’s also a moment to look back and remember some incidents of the last World Cup that was played in the West Indies in 2007. For the Indians, it was a World Cup to forget. The team made its early exit in Trinidad, losing two of their first three matches. Australia went on to win their third consecutive title when Adam Gilchrist smashed the Sri Lankan bowlers in the final at Barbados.

But more than the cricket, the one event that dominated everything else was the mysterious death of Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer.

Woolmer was found dead in room number 374 on the 12th floor of Hotel Pegasus in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 18, 2007.  It’s been almost four years now, but the exact cause of Woolmer’s death is still shrouded in a veil of mystery. At that time, I was in Trinidad, where India had been squarely beaten by Bangladesh, but the TV channel that I was working for did not want to hear anything about that loss. Instead, I had to leave everything else and rush to Kingston. Woolmer had been found dead under suspicious circumstances and the needle of suspicion was pointing in the direction of at least half a dozen theories, all of them plausible. One: It was the handiwork of the betting mafia, which wanted to silence Woolmer, as he was on the verge of disclosing everything murky surrounding the Pakistan cricket team.

Two: He was under severe stress and suffered a heart attack.

Three: It was an accident. He fell in the bathroom.

Four: It was the work of a crazy, disillusioned fan.

Five: He died of food poisoning and so on. The unpredictable Pakistan team had surprisingly lost an important match to minnows Ireland and Woolmer was dejected. He retired to his room early that evening and was found dead by the hotel staff the next morning. Mark Shields, DCP, Jamaica police, told the media in Kingston that some marks of a scuffle were found on Woolmer’s body. He later retracted those remarks as the scrutiny of the world media zeroed in on Kingston. Crews from Sky TV, CNN , BBC had all converged on Pegasus Hotel. Detectives from Scotland Yard were there as well and the hotel lobby resembled some scene straight out of a Sherlock Holmes episode. In the basement of the hotel, the entire Pakistan team was being questioned by the police and their fingerprints were being taken.

Captain Inzamam-ul-Haq was asked why he had changed his room from the 12th to the fifth floor on the previous night. Mustaq Ahmad was asked how he got the fresh bruise on the bridge of his nose (he said a ball struck him there). Woolmer’s wife Gill said that she did not suspect any foul play and her husband had never been threatened. Yes, he was about to finish a book on cricket, the manuscript of which was nowhere to be found. But that did not mean that he had been murdered. After being questioned for a lengthy period, the Pakistan players were allowed to leave Kingston and the final chapter of the story remained unfinished. There was no clear verdict on whether the death was natural or not. To this day, Woolmer’s death remains a mystery. The 58-year-old coach had said he wanted to retire after that World Cup. Woolmer also had an Indian connection. He was born in Kanpur. He played for England. In 1984, Woolmer shifted base to South Africa and became a successful coach. As a new edition of the World Cup begins, the least we can do is remember Bob Woolmer.

Fitness mantra
IN A NUTSHELL
Nancy Sahni

Have you all dieters heard about the coconut oil diet plan? Yes, it’s in, but is it another fad or is there something real in it. Let’s find out. When researchers observed that people living in tropical countries are not overweight, are literally free of heart diseases and have fewer health problems, they also observed that these people literally lived on coconut diet. So, may be this is the reason for their fit body … and thus originated the coconut diet plan. This diet’s basic idea is to make aware it’s users which type of fat to avoid and especially emphasises on refraining from trans fats (found in dalda ghee, junk food) for a healthier digestive system, which might help you to lose more weight.

Coconut oil consists of 66 per cent MCTs (medium chain triglycerides) and is cholesterol-free.

When MCTs are consumed, they are processed by the body in a completely different way. They require less energy and fewer enzymes to break them down for digestion. So they are broken down almost immediately (and NOT stored like other fats), thus it may help in the process of excess calorie burning (energy expenditure) and weight loss.

Coconut oil is also 50-55 per cent lauric acid, a healthy nutrient that supports more burning of calories. Thus energy expenditure is increased, while it helps in lowering the blood cholesterol and also helps in the formation of anti-aging components. These substances are required to help prevent heart disease, obesity, cancer and other chronic degenerative diseases.

There is a greater rise in fat oxidation with MCT consumption leading to greater loss of the deposited fat in our body.

This diet plan has four phases, which last for 21 days-Phase 1 (The 21-Day Weight Loss Kickoff) -It prohibits you to eat grains, sweets and even fruits. It involves three meals and one or two snacks daily that are focused on lean protein and vegetables, but you will be trained to consume a maximum of 3 tablespoon of coconut oil every day.

Phase 2 (Cleansing) - During this period, you will be encouraged to eat different types of vegetables coupled with fibre-based juices.

Phase 3 (Introducing Healthy Carbohydrates) - Allows dieters to reintroduce whole grains, certain fruits and limited amounts of starchy vegetables. Phase 4 (Maintenance)- In this phase, the dieters are simply counselled to avoid some foods like candy, alcohol and a few fruits to help maintain your weight. This phase is designed to maintain weight loss once the goal weight has been achieved.

In each phase of the diet, it is advised to consume two to three tablespoons of pure coconut oil daily. Suggestions are given for ways to incorporate the oil into smoothies, salad dressings and sauces. But, just like any diet programme, it still recommends that exercise be included in your everyday routine. A short 15 minutes of exercise is recommended which may be both aerobic and resistant training.

ADVANTAGES

There are certain things in this diet which can be incorporated, like eating small frequent meals will boost up the metabolism and thus help in weight loss

Eliminating sugary and starchy foods as well as alcohol will definitely result in a fitter you.

Cleansing of the body by just taking vegetables and it’s juices may be done for one day in a week, like every Monday if one tends to party out on weekends. Now, the big question is that whether such an extreme approach is required, and it is for sure that results could be achieved with a variety of other far less extreme dietary approaches .The benefits of incorporating coconut oil in the daily diet are immense, as stated above, so it will be a good idea to replace saturated fat (like ghee and butter) with coconut oil (10 g) in your daily diet consisting of total fat of not more than 30 g/day and follow the pros of this diet plan along with adequate exercise regimen and for sure the indicator is going to tilt to a lower number on the weighing scale.

DISADVANTAGES

Phases 1 and 2 deprive you of your staple food, i.e. grains and even you can’t eat fruits, which are so very essential source of micronutrients. This may lead to general weakness and fatigue of the body and might result in other health problems. Eating a great amount of lean proteins might disturb your renal function tests.

Because MCTs are transported direct to the liver, there may be further risk of gastrointestinal upset if high doses are ingested on an empty stomach. So, caution is needed.

Patients with liver problems should, in any case, check with their doctor before embarking on any self-treatment programme.

The diet is extremely restrictive in nature and thus it necessitates that the majority of meals be prepared at home and the possibilities for eating out are very limited.

Spending such a lot of time in special food preparation and to undergo such uncomfortable cleansing regimes in order to meet the requirements of the diet is a tough call for dieters and might get discontinued due to non-compliance.

Lean proteins are found only in non-veg food, so what about the vegetarians?

People in coastal areas are fish eating so they consume omega-3 fatty acids automatically, but in north Indian diet it is not possible as fish is not available 12 months of the year.

The writer is a dietician with the Department of Dietetics, PGI