Boxer Jitender brings cheer to Indian camp
From N. Ananthanarayanan

BANGKOK, Dec 8 — Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jitender Kumar gave a flying start to Indian aspirations with a splendid win over 1992 Barcelona Olympics bronze medallist Ri Kum-Chol of North Korea in the first round of middleweight class in the Asian Games boxing competition tonight.

The 22-year-old Jitender Kumar landed solid straight punches on the face of his tricky opponent towards close of the third round to score vital points and opened up a cut under the Korean’s left eye almost on the verge of the gong in the fifth and final round.

Jitender was leading by an overwhelming 16-2 on points but the referee stepped in and stopped the bout after Kum-Chol was examined by the doctor.

The Haryana boxer will now match mitts against the tough Kazakh Vyachesla Burba, who defeated Mooravi of Iran, who retired in the final round after soaking up a fair amount of body blows. The second round is slated for December 10.

Jitender Kumar constantly kept up right punches to slowly open up the water-tight defence of his 24-year-old opponent.

In the keenly fought third round, the Indian connected with three powerful right punches to the face leaving his opponent in a daze and he stumbled down as the bell rang.

The superb display by Jitender came late in the day along with the women’s hockey squad’s 13-0 thumping of hosts Thailand in their league opener to help India end the day on a much brighter note after a string of disappointing results earlier.

Indian men’s tennis players, canoeist Vaga Ram and dinghy sailor Gautam Dutta provided the only bright spots for India before Jitender’s excellent display.

India swamped Qatar 3-0 even without the services of their star Davis Cup duo, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, in the first round of men’s tennis.
Canoeist Vaga Ram finished third in his preliminary heats timing five minutes 24 seconds and then qualified for the final by claiming the second place in the first semifinal by returning 4:25.27.

At distant Pattaya, Dutta took the second and third spots in the ok dinghy class in the first two races of the ten-race sailing regatta where the sailors have the option to discard their worst result.

Otherwise the all-too-familiar scenario of Indians taking up the hind spots was the order of the day as the country drew a blank medalwise for the second day of full competitions in the quadrennial extravaganza.

The Indian women were thrashed 3-0 by Indonesia in tennis and on all other fronts where they were seen in action — in the swimming pool, shooting range, on the judo mat, in the weightlifting arena and in the equestrian arena they performed miserably. — PTI

Tank burst floods athletes’ quarters

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (Reuters) — First there were complaints of too little water at the Asian Games, then of too much, and now umbrellas have been banned.

The latest crisis came when a giant water tank burst near the quarters of the South Korean team in the athletes village inundating ground floor quarters and athletes bedrooms with thousands of cubic metres of water.

The games organisers had apologised for the flood, which was caused by a broken valve in the tank, spokeswoman Valerie Mckenzie said.

Athletes had to be evacuated from their rooms, but the water has now dried up.

National police chief General Pracha Promnok, meanwhile, apologised for having to ban umbrellas from sports venues.

"Umbrellas are prohibited from the venues because we class them as objects that can be used as weapons," he told a news conference.

Rain has not been a problem at the games because they are being held in Thailand’s dry season.

But athletes and spectators have complained about the heat of the tropical sun and have brought along umbrellas as sunshades.

Japan leads fightback against China

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (AFP) — Japan humiliated China’s controversial swimmers at the Asian Games today as the sporting superpower struggled to get the gold medals it has become used to.

Takahiro Mori, Masami Tanaka, Takashi Yamamoto and the men’s freestyle relay team ushered in a defiant new mood as China failed to win any of the five swimming finals.

Taiwan’s Tsai Shu-Min sneaked in ahead of Qin Caini in the women’s 200m freestyle to add to the angry mood in the Chinese camp.

China also faced a new day of toil in shooting where they managed only one gold out of four, but extraordinary performances in diving, weightlifting and gymnastics saw China and Japan left neck-and-neck in the medal rankings.

It has been a long time since Japan have seen such a night of triumph in the Asian Games swimming.

Yamamoto won the men’s 100m butterlfy in a games record of 53.34 sec, Tanaka took the women’s 200m breaststroke, Mori the men’s 400m individual medley and their men took the 4x200m freestyle relay.

"I’m the number one in Asia,’’ shouted Yamamoto, as Japanese celebrations got underway.

China cannot now hope to match the 25 swimming gold they won in Hiroshima four years ago, where their feat was overshadowed by seven drug failures, including two world champions.

China have also been counting on picking off shooting range titles in Bangkok, but have managed only one out of the nine decided in the first two days.

Trainee teacher Dina Aspandiyarova of Kazakhstan claimed a gold in the women’s air pistol final and silver in the team event to grab the glory on the second day. China got only the team air pistol gold.

The games favourites have been struggling all week with poor health and concentration.

It was not all despondency for China, who won 137 gold medals in Hiroshima four years ago.

Yang Xia created a weightlifting sensation by setting two world record on her way to the gold medal in the women’s 53 kg class.

The 21-year-old Beijing student lifted 120kg in the clean and jerk to overtake compatriot Wang Xiufen’s record of 117.5kg set at the world championships in Finland last month and her overall 212.5kg surpassed Wang’s world record of 210kg.

World champions Liu Xuan, Bi Wenjing, Kui Yuanyuan and their young team mates Meng Fei, Xu Jing and Ling Jie also retained the women’s team gymnastics title with 154.174 points. Japan were second and South Korea third.

And while the swimmers are walloping, Chinese divers are hitting new heights of excellence.

World championship silver medallist Guo Jingjing and Tian Liang produced dominant victories. Guo led a Chinese one-two in the women’s three metre springboard ahead of Yang Lan, while Tian won the men’s 10 metre platform in front of team mate Huang Qiang.

China and Japan shared the spoils in the cross-country cycling with Akihito Udagawa winning the men’s race for Japan and Ma Yanping the women’s contest for China.

Indian eves thrash Thailand 13-0
From K. Jagannadha Rao

BANGKOK, Dec 8 — Former champions India began their campaign in great style scoring a "baker’s dozen" and conceding none to hosts Thailand in their opening fixture of the Asian Games women’s hockey tournament at the Kasetsart University complex here tonight.

The 13 goals scored by India, who led 7-0 at half-time, were certainly not a record. They had scored 15 in the inaugural tournament in the New Delhi Asiad 16 years ago. In the other late tie Pakistan thrashed hapless Bangladesh 24-0.

But, today’s tally will stand them in good stead in forthcoming matches of the round robin tournament in which the top two teams will clash once again in the final for the gold.

Earlier in the day, Korea beat Kazakhstan 6-0 (H.T. 4-0) and Japan, after leading 1-0 at the breather, prevailed over Uzbekistan 2-1.

India’s account was opened in the very first minute by Manjinder Kaur. She was followed by skipper and spearhead Pritam Rani Thakran, Sita Gussain and Kamla Dalal to make it 4-0. Jyoti Kullu struck twice and Kamla Dalal was back in the fray once again to make the scoreline read 7-0 by the breather.

Quick to realise the need to score as many goals as possible against the weak Thais, the Indian girls were back in action after the change of ends. — PTI

Indian spikers lose again
From N. Ananthanarayanan

BANGKOK, Dec 8 — Indian spikers failed to counter the class of defending champions Japan to go down meekly in straight sets to suffer their second loss in Group ‘B’ of the Asian Games Men’s Volleyball Championship and virtually go out of semi-final reckoning.

Former champions India, looking to put up a gritty show after their straight-game loss to another world power China in their inaugural clash yesterday, could not even match that display as the Japanese ran out winners at 15-3, 15-4, 15-6 in the match lasting one hour and 20 minutes at the volleyball hall in the Muang Thani Sports Complex.

Indian chief coach Mohd Al-Wassimi had promised a much better showing than yesterday but that simply did not materialise as the Japanese routinely scored points to take the first two sets. There was some fightback as India led 2-0 in the third game, but Japan levelled it at 3-all before racing away to a 11-4 lead and sealing the match.

The first two sets were one-sided. Takashi Narita, the crafty Japanese booster, fed to the lanky Nobutaka Hirano who spiked relentlessly from close to the antenna on either sides while the powerful and tall Katsyuki Minami was unstoppable pounding away from the middle.

The Japanese defence was almost impregnable as the Indian spikers strove hard through Joby Joseph’s steady spiking and Surjit Singh’s smashes.

India play Kazakhstan tomorrow but look well set to fight out for minor placings.

India, hoping to at least take a set off the Japanese to justify their trip to the Asian Games on own cost, failed to put up a combined show and the match revealed that the pace of their game and level of cohesion was simply not enough.

The Indian reception and first passes did not function all the time and only the best ploys enabled them to penetrate the triple blocks put up by the Japanese. — PTI

Indian men ease into q-finals

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (PTI) — Indian men began their title defence with a facile 3-0 victory over lowly Qatar to clinch an interesting second round clash against Pakistan, but their women counterparts could not sustain the fight against a vastly superior Indonesia and went fighting 0-3 in the first round action of the Asian Games tennis team competition today.

The Indian camp could afford to rest their best player and crack doubles star Mahesh Bhupathi as they fluently wrapped up both the singles before clinching the inconsequential doubles also in style, in a windy outside court at the Muong Thong Thani complex.

India will clash with arch-rivals Pakistan in the round of eight after the latter defeated the Philippines 2-0.

Syed Fazaluddin served strongly and played beautiful volleys to wallop Mohammed Ali Saoud of Qatar 6-2 6-1 in just 41 minutes in the first singles between the number two players before Prahlad Srinath subdued a spirited Sultan Khalfan Al-Alawi 6-1 6-2 in a baseline duel lasting just over one hour.
Fazaluddin and left hander Nitin Kirtane then combined to thrash Saoud and Al-Alawi 6-1 6-1 in the dead rubber, played on insistence by Qatar as per the rules here.

Given little chance to topple the powerful Indonesia, both the India number one Nirupma Vaidyanathan and national champion Uzma Khan raised hopes of upsets before losing as the former won the tie 3-0.

Nirupma looked on course of toppling the world number 57 Yayuk Basuki as she led 5-1 and held two set points in the first set before succumbing to her rival’s superior courtcraft and her own unforced errors to lose the second singles 6-7 (1/7) 3-6 after unranked Uzma Khan raised similar hopes of pulling off a win before going down 6-7 (2/7) 0-6 to world number 218 Wynne Prakusya in the opening singles.

India were denied chance of a consolation win when Manisha Malhotra and Sai Jayalakshmi lost the doubles at 3-6 3-6 to Ina Indrayani and Liza Andriyani.

Watched by his father and Indian men’s football coach Syed Nayeemuddin and coaxed by his senior Mahesh Bhupathi, Fazaluddin hardly played a false stroke and showed tremendous confidence in stroke-production gained from his impressive doubles play with Bhupathi in clinching the New Delhi ATF Asia Cup Championship last month.

The well-built Indian clinched the crucial break in the sixth game to go up 4-2 before serving out the set. Sending down four aces in all, Fazal moved up time and again to play neat volleys which gave the 23-year-old Al-Saoud no chance of making a fight of it.

In the second set, Fazaluddin raced to a 5-0 lead before winning 6-1, converting his first match point when the Qatari netted a difficult backhand.

Prahlad Srinath, playing as number one today as Bhupathi who reached here only yesterday decided to rest for bigger battles, kept more to the baseline against the spirited and more powerful Al-Alawai, ranked lowly at 1342 in the ATP computer against Srinath’s 393.

He went up 5-0 in the first set before winning 6-1, but he committed unforced errors to drop serve in the sixth game to help his rival make a mini rally to 2-4, but broke back immediately before serving out for the set and match, clinching it after his opponent who played some fine down the line shots, forced deuce thrice.

"I am much better on confidence. And, Bhupati being there helped me relax," said Fazaluddin after his victory.

Pakistan sealed the clash against India by defeating the Philippines 2-0, Mohammed Khaliq downing Bryan Junio 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 6-4 and Aisam al-Qureshi also making it in three sets against Joseph Lizardo at 6-2 4-6 6-4.

Uzma Khan fired Indian hopes as she fought neck and neck against the strong Wynne Prakusya and went up 5-3, but then ran into trouble against the 218 ranked player who rallied to level at 5-all. Uzma did well to force the tie-break but could not do much and lost it 2-7 to concede the set.

In the second set, she was severely hampered by a stomach muscle strain which hurt when she served as she went down tamely without winning a game.

"There was some pain, but that is no excuse for losing," said the 19-year-old Uzma Khan, who was preferred though strictly going by the ranking Sai Jayalakshmi (640) and Manisha Malhotra (692) are rated higher.
Nirupma Vaidyanathan rattled Yayuk Basuki by racing away to a 5-1 lead and then held two set points, but the Indonesians clawed her way back displaying her class to force errors from the Indian. The world number 57 showed fine temperament by mixing up her shots on the slowish synthetic courts before winning.

The 23-year-old Nirupma broke serve in the third, fifth and 11th games but lost steam as Basuki returned the compliments in the eighth, 10th and 12th to force the tie-breaker which she won 7-1. The second set saw the Indonesian in total command as she won 6-4.

"I never looked at the scores. I knew to respect her. She was too good and once she started moving me around it was very difficult," said Nirupma who also had some soreness in her shoulder.

Hockey: Pak thrash Thailand 8-0

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (UNI) — Pakistan opened their hockey campaign in style thrashing hapless Thailand 8-0 in the Asian Games here today.

Pakistan, the runner-up in the Champions Trophy and winners of the bronze medal in the last edition of the games, dominated the play from the beginning till the end scoring four times in each half.

In the first half, Muhammad Nadeem scored twice while one goal each came off the sticks of Atif Bashir and Tariq Imran who also netted one goal after the breather. Mohammad Anis scored two goals in the second half and Iqbal Naveed sounded the board once.

However, the scoreline could have been much more depressing for the Thais had the Pakistanis converted more than one of the nine penalty corners they were awarded.

Pakistan are up against Japan, Malaysia and Hong Kong in their group while India are placed in a tougher draw including defending champions South Korea, China, Singapore and Bangladesh.

OCA rejects IOC system

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (AFP) — The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) will keep an open door policy for athletes through the next two Asian Games, despite the increased number of participants.

OCA Director General Muttaleb Ahmad said yesterday that Asia would not adopt the Olympic Games qualification system and there were no plans to impose limits.

"We would like to keep to our own policy for the next eight years without prequalifying," Muttaleb said. "This may be considered for the future. But we do not plan any changes for the next two Asian games."

Muttaleb said the Olympic Games universality system which had qualification events while also guaranteeing each country representation was flawed.

"It is not a good system and we don’t want tourist athletes," he said. "We have no ceiling on the number of athletes which encourages sport in Asia."

But he agreed some countries could not host the games because of the high numbers.

"Not so many countries can hold a games of such size. Mostly the problem is with the athletes village accommodation. When Hiroshima held the games in 1994 they only had room for 7,000 but Bangkok said that even with 15,000 they have enough room."

Another problem growth area is the number of sports on the programme - 34 in Bangkok compared to 28 for the Sydney Olympics.

Many of the 43 Asian NOC’s believe the Asian Games should be a mirror image of the Olympics and not a stage for such esoteric sports as sepak takraw, kabaddi, soft tennis and wush just to guarantee certain countries will get medals.

But the item has not been included on the agenda of the OCA General Assembly.

"We only have very routine matters," said Muttaleb indicating any contentious subject might spill over into the games and cause waves.

"Pusan has proposed 32 sports, but we will discuss the Pusan programme at next year’s assembly in Kuwait. I have heard some sports being mentioned among the two which will be dropped. But this is very tricky.

"This concept of many sports has been adopted for a very good reason. Many governments only support sport if there are good results. So we have some regional sports in which certain countries could win a medal which they cannot in other events.

"No success, no support. We only have two or three NOCs which are financially dependent - 90 per cent rely on government funding and if that support is suddenly withdrawn it would be disaster.

"If numbers are a problem, we can reduce the disciplines in some sports and restrict countries to enter only a certain number of categories. However, what we must do is depend on our present system."

India, Pak defuse crisis

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (AFP) — India and Pakistan averted a major clash at the Asian Games here yesterday when snooker officials buried their differences over a controversial match.

Officials from both countries declined to lodge formal protests over Sunday’s match between India’s Yasin Merchant and Mohammed Saleh of Pakistan, saying the issue was now closed.

Merchant protested the referee’s decision at a crucial stage, forcing play to be stopped for 15 minutes. Saleh, who was leading 4-3 at that stage, appeared to lose his concentration and lost the match 4-5.

"We have too strong a feeling for India to make an issue of the incident," Pakistani team manager Shahnaz Khan said.

"If it was any other country we might have gone ahead with the protests. But we genuinely like India and since we enjoy a good relationship we will not do anything to harm our friendship."

Indian manager Michael Ferreira, a former world amateur billiards champion, responded likewise. "It was a misunderstanding. We might have over-reacted in the heat of the moment. But it is not our intention to disrupt the competition or join issues with Pakistan in any way."

"They are our neighbours and we cherish that friendship," he said.

Equestrian: India in 4th place

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (UNI) — India were trailing at the fourth place in the five-team field at the end of the opening day of the three-day equestrian competition in the 13th Asian Games here today.

In the dressage test which was held today, the Indian quartret of Imtiaz Anees, Amolkjit Singh, Rajesh Pattu and Palwinder Singh aggregated 211.60 points for the fourth slot.

The leader in the field was Japan with 149.60 points, followed by host Thailand 171.40 points and Korea with 197.20 points. Malaysia were the last with 218.00 points.

In the individual dressage test, Imtiaz Anees riding ‘Mirza’ collected 67.20 penalty points, Amolkjit Singh astride ‘Samrat’ earned 68.00 points but it was Rajesh Pattu on ‘Ringo’ who gave a rather dismal display and could not control his horse and conceded 88.2 penalty points. Palwinder Singh on ‘Nector’ also fared rather poorly and garnered 76.40 penalty points.

The total individual points are counted and make up for the team’s total tally.

But for the poor showing of Rajesh Pattu and Palwinder Singh, India would have finished third. The best performance of the day came from Japan’s Sachko Kodra who riding on ‘Stars de Riols’ conceding the minimum 45 penalty points.

Tomorrow the Indians will figure in the endurance event and on December 10 show jumping will be held. At the total points of all the three events will be calculated to decide the medal winners.

Lifters put up dismal show

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (PTI) — Indian weightlifters continued to put up a dismal show for the second day in running at the Asian Games with medal hope Sanamacha Chanu finishing an abysmal seventh in the women’s 53 kg class today.

Chanu, the 20-year-old CRPF inspector could achieve only 82.5 kg in snatch, heaved in her second lift, and then could only clear her opening weight of 105 kg in clean and jerk to finish with a total of 187.5 kg to end up in the same position as her 48 kg class countrywomen Kunjarani Devi and men’s 54 kg class lifter Arumugham K Pandyan had achieved yesterday.

Chanu, who moved up from the 48 kg class after weight categories were revised by the International Weightlifting Federation, cleared her opening weight of 80 kg in snatch and next successfully attempted 82.5 kg, but failed with 85 kg.

In clean and jerk, she opened with 105 kg but then went straight for 110 kg where she failed in both her tries.

The Chinese juggernaut continued to roll in the discipline with Yang Xia claiming the gold with world records in clean and jerk and total. Xia snatched 92.5 kg and then hoisted 118 kg in her very first attempt in clean and jerk to erase the old-world record of 117.5 kg which was in the name of her compatriot Wang Xiufen.

She retired without going for her third try. Her total of 212.5 kg was an improvement of the world mark of 210.0 kg held by Xiufen.

Li Feng Ying of Taipei took the silver with a hoist of 202.5 kg (90 + 112.5) while Swe Swe-Win of Myanmar took the bronze totalling 197.5 kg (87.5 + 110 kg).

Oman shock Iran in football

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (Reuters) — World cup veterans Iran crashed to a stunning 4-2 defeat at the hands of tiny Oman in their opening second round group K football match at the Asian Games today.

Hosts Thailand drew with Kazakhastan despite a senior football official’s promise to seal their goal with magic, while Qatar edged Lebanon 1-0 in the other group L match.

Iran, who brought the team which went to the World Cup in France earlier this year, looked comfortably in charge early on and went ahead in the 20th minute through Bayern Munich striker Ali Daei, who burst down the left, cut inside and cracked the ball home.

But just four minutes later, Oman’s Mohammed Zayid equalised against the run of play with a cracking shot from 25 metres (yards).

The Iranians still looked unflustered, but then came a farcical moment just before the end of the first half which put the Omanis ahead.

In the 41st minute, Iranian centre back Nader Mohammadkhani suddenly decided to leave a harmless through ball to goalkeeper Behzad Gholampur, not realising Gholampurthe was standing almost beside him.

The ball rolled into the net despite Gholampur’s frantic scramble to stop it and Mohammadkhani was credited with an own goal.

China, reinforced by four players based in Europe, began their campaign for a quarter-final spot impressively.

It took only eight minutes for the powerful Chinese side, gold medal favourites alongside Iran and Kuwait, to crack the Tajik defence as Zhao Junzhe rounded off a sparkling move.

The Tajik defence was punctured regularly throughout the match and the Chinese were guilty of some bad misses, especially early in the second half.

A 53rd minute equaliser came as a surprise against a defence well run by Fan Zhiyi of Crystal Palace in the English first division as Rustam Zabirov managed to sneak in to head home.

Houghton immediately brought on Li Jinyu of French first division side Nancy and was swiftly rewarded as the striker headed in a cross after the Tajik defence had been ripped apart.

Tajikistan sealed their own fate in the 71st minute when Takhirdjon Muminov diverted a low cross into his own goal.

Houghton played down China’s chances of gold.

Kabaddi team for Asiad cleared

NEW DELHI, Dec 8 (UNI) — Lifting curtains over the suspense shrouding the participation of the Indian kabaddi team in the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok, the Delhi High Court has rejected the plea of some players against their non-inclusion in the squad and paved way for the team’s departure.

The High Court, however, severely criticised the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for moving late in sorting out the internal dispute in the Kabaddi Federation and delaying the selection of the team for the Asiad.

Mr Justice Anil Dev Singh in his order which was passed on December 3, but made available yesterday, said: "I am constrained to observe that the IOA ought to have moved early in the matter of selection of the team so that extensive training could have been imparted to the members."

Commenting on the role of the arbitrator, appointed to ascertain the real federation among the two claimants (one headed by Kuldeep Vats and the other headed by J.S. Gehlot), the Judge said: "The arbitrator also took considerably long time in resolving the disputes between the parties."

Further, it would have been the endeavour of the members of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) to rise above the internal politics in the interest of the country as "rivalry between the members has the potential of destroying the sport," Mr Justice Singh commented.

The Bench dismissed the plea of the 10 players of the Vats’ outfit, who claimed that since they underwent training under the supervision of the Sports Authority of India observers, only they had the right to be the members of the Indian squad and the selection of the members of the Gehlot group was illegal.

The IOA was represented by senior counsel R.K. Anand and the petitioners were represented by advocate R.M. Bagai.

The Judge was of the view that the team selection was done under the IOA norms and the team sponsored by Mr Vats could not claim to be the one selected according to the rules.

"Even the arbitrator had adjudged that Gehlot was the elected president of the AKFI," the order noted.

"There is no reason to doubt the bona fides of the selection committee in selecting the best sportsmen for the Indian side," the Judge observed.

The court also rejected the plea of the petitioners that the players selected from the Gehlot faction should not be allowed to travel to Bangkok as they had been attending to their duties and never underwent any training for the Asiad.

The petitioners had approached the court seeking an early announcement of the team for the Asian Games as the players feared some "foul play" in the selection process by the IOA. The 10 players, who approached the court on November 19, were cleared by the Kuldip Vats led-Amateur Athletics Federation of India (AAFI) after several camps conducted under the supervision of the Sports Authority of India (SAI).

During the pendency of the case, the IOA announced the team incorporating players from both the Vats and the Gehlot factions.

The 12 players, including members of the team which won the gold medal in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, urged the court to direct the respondents to immediately announce the team as the delay was affecting their morale and spirit.

Shooters wide off the mark

BANGKOK, Dec 8 (PTI) — Indian skeet shooters proved woefully off the mark to finish way down the list in the individual standings after failing to qualify and finished a poor tenth in the team event on the second day of the Asian Games shooting competition at the Hua Mark Range today.

The Indian trio of Rao Inderjit Singh, Harinder Singh Bedi and Rahoul Rai, who were lying 21st, 25th and 35th after yesterday’s first round of 75 targets could do precious little to move up the ladder to go well out of reckoning for a place in the top six and a place in the final.

After the second qualification round of 50 targets, Rao Inderjit Singh was tied for the 19th spot with a tally of 112 out of a possible 125 points after a sequence of 24, 21, 21, 23 and 23 while Harinder Singh Bedi slid further from his overnight position to end up joint 30th with 106 points (21,23 21,20, 21), Rahoul Rai, the third member, was 35th out of 36 competitors, logging just 98 points (22, 18, 20, 21, 17)

The efforts helped India finish only 10th in the team standings with an aggregate of 316 points.

India can, however, hope for a vastly better performance tomorrow as Jaspal Rana will compete in the men’s air pistol along with Satendra Kumar and Vivek Singh for both individual and team honours while Roopa Unnikrishnan, fresh from winning a gold in the September Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games like Rana, will compete in the women’s sport rifle prone event.

India try to make amends

NAIPER, Dec 8 (PTI) — Indian batsmen sought to redeem themselves with a confident 54 for no loss in their second knock after conceding a 233-run first innings lead to Central Districts on the second day of their four-day tour opener at the Mclean Park here today.

The tourists appeared to have learnt from their first innings debacle. Improved conditions helped them a lot as openers Ajay Jadeja and Navjot Singh Sidhu notched up 54 runs without being separated in 13 overs after the New Zealand side piled up 336 runs.

The Indians seemed keen to erase the humiliation of being skittled out for 103 in the first innings as both batsmen showed scant respect to their tormentors on that occasion — Andrew Penn and David Blake.

Jadeja (38 n o — 2x6, 4x4), in particular, was in a punishing mood unleashing a few ferocious cover drives and hoisting off-spinner Campbell Furlong for two sixes.

Earlier, resuming at 121 for one, the Kiwis benefited from Jadeja spilling at gully a Craig Spearman (85 — 205m, 167b, 11x4) catch off Venkatesh Prasad.

The Central Districts skipper went on to add 20 more runs to his overnight 65 before the Karnataka medium pacer extracted revenge.

The other overnight batsman Matthew Sinclair (52 - 122m, 120b, 6x4) fell edging a Debashish Mohanty delivery to Nayan Mongia behind the stumps.

Young Jarrod Englefield (63 - 180m, 8x4) and veteran left-hander Mark Douglas (28), with a 65-run fourth wicket stand, continued to torment the Indian bowlers.

Douglas, the senior-most pro in the team, batted in an attacking vein till he was castled by Prasad but Englefield, captain of New Zealand youth team and making a first class debut here, stayed long enough to bring the side close to 300.

The tourists cut through the middle line-up quickly before they were held up by the ninth wicket pair of Martyn Segley (35 n o) and David Blake (11), who realised 40 runs between themselves.

Mohanty emerged the most successful of the Indian bowlers bagging four for 69, while Prasad scalped three wickets giving away 100 runs.

India (Ist innings): 103 Central Districts (Ist innings): G.Milnes b Mohanty 20 C. Spearman b Prasad 85 M. Sinclair c Mongia b Mohanty 52 J. Englefield c Prasad b H.Singh 63 M.Douglas b Prasad 28 J. Oram lbw R. Singh 5 C.Furlong c Mongia b Prasad 3 A.Penn b H.Singh 7 M.Sigley not out 35 D. Blake lbw Mohanty 11 M. Mason lbw Mohanty 1 extras (b-4, lb-5, nb-16, w-1) 26 Total 336.

Fall of wickets 1-61, 2-152, 3-171, 4-236, 5-245, 6-253, 7-281, 8-288, 9-320.

Bowling: V. Prasad 31-6-100-3, D. Mohanty 22.2-9-69-4, R. Singh 19-5-59-1, S. Ganguly 7-1-25-0, H. Singh 37-10-74-2.

India (2nd innings): N. Sidhu not out 15 A. Jadeja not out 38 Extras (lb-1) 1 Total 54.

Bowling: A. Penn 5-2-8-0, D. Blake 3-0-20-0, C. Furlong 3-0-23-0, M. Mason 2-1-2-0.

EME trounce SRC; ITBP win
From Our Sports Reporter

NABHA, (Patiala) Dec 8 — Pace, punch and proficiency were the hallmarks in SAIL, Academy, Rourkela’s play as they never had to strain a muscle in their 8-1 drubbing of Haryana XI on day three of the 23rd All-India Liberals Hockey Tournament played at the Government Ripudaman College grounds here today.

On a day of lopsided encounters when none of the four matches failed to turn into an intense combat, EME Jalandhar trounced SRC, Ramgarh 6-4. Thapar Academy, Sansarpur, toyed with Dogra Regiment Jalandhar 3-1 and ITBP, Jalandhar beat NYC, Bhopal 2-0.

Before any of the Haryana XI players could blink an eyelid, SAIL Academy had already done the damage pumping in goals almost at will. The only moment the Haryana boys could rejoice was when inside-left Sandeep scored the side’s only goal. For Rourkela, Anil scored three, Saroj a brace while outside-right Nageshwar and inside-left Naiman found the back of the netting once.

The second match saw both the Army outfits SRC and EME, scoring two goals each in regulation time. In the tie-breaker while EME converted four strokes, the Ramgarh boys muffed two strokes giving EME a 6-4 verdict.

In another match devoid of thrills Thapar Academy outpaced Dogra Regiment 3-1 to move into the next round. Jaswinder, Kirpal and Satwinder were bang on target for Sansarpur while a last minute effort by Dogra Regiment’s Malkiat Singh reduced the margin. Thapar Academy, turning out to be the giant killers of this edition of the tournament, cruised to a comfortable 3-1 win.

Underdogs NYC, Bhopal who had created a flutter or two by beating their much fancied opponents earlier today found themselves pitched against better opposition. ITBP won 2-0 to set up a clash with Rock Rovers Chandigarh.

Sports Dept to sponsor teams
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 8— With a view to promoting hockey in Punjab the Sports Department has decided to sponsor teams comprising students who clear the plus two examination and those studying in the first year of graduation courses from the next academic session. According to the Director Sports, Punjab, Col Raminder Singh, three of these teams will be placed in Ludhiana colleges.

The Punjab Sports Department has been allotting sports wings (hockey) to various schools and colleges besides running the hockey academy at Surjit Hockey Stadium, Jalandhar. During the recently concluded Pannu Hockey Tournament at Ludhiana, a meeting was held to discuss steps to be taken for promotion and development of hockey in the state. The meeting attended by Col Raminder Singh, Olympians Surinder Singh Sodhi, Pargat Singh and Sukhbir Grewal observed that there was a lot of hockey potential at the plus one and plus two level. Only Ludhiana had 14 such teams, including those from rural areas which needed proper grooming.

After plus two till about four years there is no proper arrangement for looking after players from the training point of view. Col Raminder Singh said from the next academic session teams comprising such players will be placed in different colleges at Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar where Astro turf facilities are available. The Ludhiana Astro turf is expected to be laid by February, 1999 at the PAU grounds.

The selection through open trials will be completed by the end of this month. The expenditure on such teams will be borne by the Sports Department. A meeting is being convened shortly where Principals of the selected institutions, international hockey players and officers or coaches of the Sports Department will discuss the ways and means of making this scheme successful. These teams will be given exposure in higher competitions.

A few other disciplines would also be selected in a phased manner each year and the teams would be placed in different districts depending on the availability of infrastructure and potential.

RCF score big win
From Our Sports Reporter

KAPURTHALA, Dec 8 — Hosts Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala (RCF), defeated Research Design and Standards Organisation, Lucknow, by 7-0 in the opening match of the 59th All India Railway Men's Hockey Championship at the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Stadium, Kapurthala, here yesterday.

RCF outplayed RDSO in all departments. It was in fact a one sided match.

From the very start, RCF had an upper hand. RCF's right-half Jagmohan Singh earned the lead for his side in the 12th minute by converting a penalty corner. Centre forward Anil Ekka of RCF continuously attacked the opponent goal and successfully scored two field goals in the 14th and 15th minutes, making it 3-0 for RCF.

Jagmohan again made full use of the second penalty corner and converted the same by a direct hit in the far corner of the net and the score moved to 4-0 in the 23rd minute. Centre-forward Anil Ekka and inside-right M. Ekka of RCF combined well in the 30th minute and scored the fifth goal from the top of the "D".

Till half-time the score was 5-0 in favour of RCF.

On resumption, RDSO tried to reduce the margin but their confidence and teamwork did not allow them to reduce the margin.

RCF's outside left Walter Lakra increased the lead in the 44th minute by scoring an angular goal and made it 6-0. Centre-forward Anil Ekka made it 7-0 in favour of RCF in the 49th minute.

HP volleyball

SOLAN, Dec 8 (FOC)— AG Himachal Pradesh lifted the men's trophy by beating H.P. State Electricity Board boys 15-10, 15-8, 15-7 in the final of the H.P. State Volleyball Championship here. Earlier the A.G. team had defeated Sirmour 15-10, 15-12, 15-7 in the first semi-final and the board boys had beat Himachal Pradesh University 15-10, 15-7, 12-15, 15-8 in the second semi-final.

Himachal Pradesh University clinched the women's trophy when they got the better of a determined Solan challenge 15-11, 15-13, 13-15, 15-12 in the finals. The university eves had beat Sirmour 15-5, 15-6, 15-3 in the first semi-finals and Solan had trounced Shimla 15-2, 15-5, 15-6 in the other.

The Horticulture Minister, Mr Narinder Bragta, gave away the prizes.

Punjab W'lifting

PATIALA, Dec 8 (FOSR)— The Punjab State Junior Weightlifting Championship for men and women will be held at Rakhbagh Weightlifting Club, Ludhiana, on December 12 and 13, according to Dr D.S. Virk. Secretary, Punjab Weightlifting Association.

UT swimmers win bronze medals

CHANDIGARH, Dec 8 (TNS) — Puneet Rana (100m breast stroke) Harsimran Singh Brar (200 m breast stroke) and Kirandeep Brar (200 m) won bronze medals for Chandigarh in the National School Games (swimming) held at Nasik (Maharastra) from November 26 to 30.

This was stated in a press note issued by Mr Prem Puri, Assistant Education Officer, here today.

Team title for PSEB

PATIALA, Dec 8 (FOSR) — PSEB stood up to its billing as the top team in the tournament as they overcame SBOP 3-2 in the final of the teams event in the State Bank of Patiala 39th Open Punjab and Inter-District Table Tennis Championships which concluded at NIS here today.

Hosts Patiala won the cadet boys and girls events while Ropar stood first in the sub-junior girls (team) event and Jalandhar took the sub-junior girls (teams) event.

Other results:

Final team positions.

Cadet girls team championship: Patiala 1 Faridkot 2 Ropar 3, Cadet boys: Patiala 1, Amritsar 2, Ropar 3.

Sub junior girls team - Ropar 1 Jalandhar 2, Amritsar 3. Sub junior boys team: Jalandhar 1, Patiala 2, Amritsar 3. Junior girls team: Amritsar 1, Jalandhar 2 - Fatehgarh 3. Junior boys team: Jalandhar 1, — Ropar 2, Ludhiana 3. Womens team Amritsar 1, Jalandhar 2, Ropar 3. Men's team PSEB-1, SBOP 2 and Jalandhar 3.

Easy win for Sandeep

CHANDIGARH, Dec 8 (BOSR)— Sandeep Duggal scored an easy 3-0 victory in his first match against Ashok Khanna in snooker on the fifth day of the 16th Chandigarh State Billiards and Snooker Championship at the Sector 22 centre here today. Sandeep won in three frames at 60-7, 76-22, 48-20.

In other snooker matches Sameer Bhalla had a comfortable 3-0 win over Rakesh Duggal, the scores being, 62-27, 56-42, 69-18. Manish Shrivastava had a tough time in controlling the spirited Ajay Chandel who was able to bag the first frame at 47-44 but Manish rectified his mistakes and did not let Ajay to make a comeback and wrapped up the next three frames at 58-37, 76-8 and 109-12.

In billiards, Ajay Chandel was involved in a cliff hanger with Tarun Kumar before the former won by 313-303, while Manish Shrivastava proved too good for GB Singh whom he defeated at 369-290.

Schedule for UT school trials

CHANDIGARH, Dec 8 (BOSR)— Trials to select the Chandigarh school teams in various disciplines for the National School Games to be held in different states will be held as per the following schedule: Wrestling (U-14) 17, 19, Labour Hall, Sector 30 on December 11: Judo - Boys and Girls (U-14, 17-19) Sports Complex, Sector 42 December 11 for boys and December 12 for girls: Vinoo Mankad Cricket (Boys) (U-16) at GMSSS-32 on December 11: Hockey - boys and girls (U-17) at Hockey Stadium, Sector 42, December 11 for boys and December 12 for girls: Cricket (Boys U-19) at GMSSS-23 on December 15: Softball - boys and girls (U-19) at GHX-11 on December 18 for boys and December 19 for girls: Handball - boys and girls (U-14) at GMSSS-23, on December 18 for boys and December 19 for girls: Hockey - boys (U-14) at hockey stadium on December 21: Football (Boys U-14) at Football Stadium, Sector 17, on December 23: Volleyball (boys and girls) Sports Complex, Sector 7, Boys (U-14) on December 18, U-17 on December 19, U-19 on December 21, Girls - U - 14 on December 22, U-17 on December 23 and U-19 on December 24.

All the trials will begin at 2.30 p.m., according to Mr Brahmjit Kalia, District Education Officer, Chandigarh Administration.

Trials

CHANDIGARH (BOSR): The Chandigarh Amateur Bodybuilding Association will hold trials to select the UT team for 20th Mr North India Bodybuilding Championship to be held on December 20 at Saharanpur, at SCO 62-63, Sector 17-A (basement), Chandigarh on December 10 at 4 p.m., according to a press note of the association.