SPORT

100 report for SAI trials
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, April 3 — Nearly 100 boys aged upto 19 participated on the first day of the two-day trials conducted by the Sports Authority of India at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8, here today. The participants had come from various places in the neighbouring states besides Chandigarh. The trials are being held in athletics, volleyball, hockey and football. These centres were shifted this year only from Shivalik Public School, SAS Nagar.

The boys were first told to report at DAV School for registration and for the general physical conditioning tests, they were taken to the Sector 7 Sports complex, where they had to undergo battery of tests like the 30 metre jump, standing broad jump, medicine ball throw upto 2 kg, forward bending and upwards, shuttle run, vertical jumps and 800 m races. The youngest boy at the centre was eight-and-a-half-year-old Kshitij Mohan.He is a student of Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, Panchkula.

When he was asked about his chances of getting selected, he replied “(Why not, I play good football)”. There was also a girl from Shahpur Kandi Township School, in the Gurdaspur district who had come along with her mother to show her potential in hockey, although the trails were meant for boys only. She had missed the girls trials at the Sector 18 SAI centre in February past year, but, said she could be considered for the Jalandhar centre of the SAI, where she had performed well.

Mr Ashok Pathik, Assistant Director of the SAI, who was deputed by the regional centre as an observer, was seen trying to motivate the boys to perform to their optimum level. He said tomorrow, skill test along with personal interview would be conducted. After this, the list of probable would be sent to the corporate office for the final approval. Mr Ravinder Talwar, Principal of the school, said the school would like to provide the right kind of environment and motivation to the new trainees so that they could perfrom to the satisfaction of their coaches.

Sunday cricketAdvisor XI beat Air Force XI by 43 runs in a Sunday Cricket match in Cricket Stadium, in Sector 16, here yesterday. Advisor XI scored 246 runs for two wickets in 25 overs with Dr Raman Abrol scoring unbeaten 85 runs in 50 deliveries. Dr Gurpreet Singh Sandhu scored 20 runs in 18 deliveries while Sanjay Manchanda made 18 runs in 24 deliveries.

Narinder Kwatra scored 74 runs in 51 deliveries and also took five wickets.In reply, Air Force XI were bundled out for 203 runs in 24 overs with Srivastava scoring 29 runs in 35 balls. Flying Officer Bhandari made 30 runs in 21 deliveries.H.S. Sohal was declared the best bowler, Narinder Kwatra the best allrounder, Dr Raman Abrol the best batsman and Bhandari the best fielder of the meet. Air Commodore S.K. Bannerjee gave away the prizes.

Taekwondo is out, Choikwangdo in
By Peeyush Agnihotri
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH April 3 — Taekwondo is passé. Choikwangdo, another evolved self-defence technique, is now becoming a rage with martial art buffs. Started in Panchkula about six years ago, it found few takers initially. Today, more than 4,000 youngsters and not-so-young practice it out in various schools and clubs of Panchkula.

This martial art spread from Atlanta, USA, to over 60 countries and is overseen in India by the Hind Choikwangdo Martial Art Association. The association is headquartered in Mumbai.

Kwang Jo Choi, grandmaster and the founder-president of the game introduced Choikwangdo in India in June 1992. Jo Choi spent most, of his life training and teaching taekwondo. He evolved this style of self- defence after he found that the training regimen was too harsh in taekwondo to be actually practiced by kids and women, the main victims of street violence.

The grading of belt is similar to taekwondo and the age of disciples range from four to 40. Some schools in this township have introduced it in their curriculum.“This is relatively a safe form of art as the body movements are not jerky,” says Mr B.S. Thapa, chief instructor.

Impressed by the response during a district-level competition held in December last, he plans to hold a camp in May. Mr Thapa is a national gold medallist in karate and taekwondo and switched over to this form as he found it “more evolved.” There are no separate gender-based categories in this game.

Another good point is that a child’s growth is not hampered as his or her bones do not get a constant battering. “We use air-cushioned shields and focus pads and do not encourage fancy scoring-style training for we believe that self-defence techniques should be used in emergencies and not for scoring a point over a fellow competitor,” Mr Thapa adds.

Dimple, Kanwar top lifters
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, April 3 — Dimple of Weightlifting Coaching Centre, Sector 30, got the first position in the below-46-kg class, while Kanwar Baljit of Burail village got it in the below-42-kg class in the sub-junior girls' and boys' sections, respectively, of the Chandigarh Wrestling Championship which concluded past evening at the Sector 30 WCC.

The Sector 30 coaching centre also won the overall championship. Raj Singh and Chetna were declared the best wrestlers in the boys' and girls' sections, respectively. The overall championship in the juniors' section was won by SD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh. Mr Ishwar Nath, District Attorney of Panchkula, gave away prizes to the winners.

The other results are as follows: Sub-junior (below 42 kg) — Kanwar Baljit 1, Ashish Saini 2; below 46 kg — Mukesh 1, Dharminder 2; below 50 kg — Munish 1, Manbir 2; below 54 kg — Sajid 1, Sabal 2; below 58 kg — Rohtas 1, Mandeep 2; below 63 kg — Brahmjit 1, Naresh 2; below 69 kg — Umesh 1, Kartar 2; below 76 kg — Jaipal 1, Ramesh 2; below 85 kg — Davinder 1, Ravi 2; above 85 kg — Vinod 1, Baljit 2.Juniors (below 50 kg) — Balkar 1, Jai Singh 2; below 54 kg — Sajid 1, Naun 2; below 58 kg — Kashmir 1, Sunder 2; below 63 kg — Surinder 1, Balbir 2; below 69 kg — Raj Singh 1, Pawan 2; below 76 kg — Anil 1, Onkar 2; below 85 kg — Jai Pal 1, Harish 2; below 97 kg — Baljit 1, Jagir 2; above 97 kg — Mukesh 1, Vinod 2.Sub-junior girls (below 46 kg) — Dimple 1, Ela 2; below 49 kg — Karuna 1, Poonam 2; below 52 kg — Chetna Sharma 1, Manju 2; below 60 kg — Kulwinder 1, Pooja 2; below 65 kg — Balwinder 1, Renu 2.Videocon XI winArun Tuli who scored unbeaten 68 runs in just 47 deliveries along with Ritesh Manchanda who scored 67 runs, besides taking three wickets for 29 runs, helped Videocon Coaching Centre, Sector 19, beat Evergreen XI, Dera Bassi, by 15 runs in the Kelvinator Cup final match played at Government Senior Secondary School, Sector 19, here.Brief scores: Videocon XI — 207 for four in 25 overs (Ritesh Manchanda 67 n.o., Arun Tuli 68 n.o., Vineet Khosla 25). Evergreen XI, Dera Bassi — 192 runs all out in 24.4 overs (Rajesh Vaid 37, Girish Bhanot 33, Rajesh Patha 22, Gurdeep Rana 26, Ritesh Manchanda 3 for 29, Harminder Singh 2 for 32).

Cricket academy: The Mohali Cricket Academy at SAS Nagar which opened in May 16 past year will enter into its second year from April 4. The coaching committee of the association met under the chairmanship of Dr Daljit Singh the head of training and decided to recruit trainees strictly on the merit basis. Former cricketers of Punjab Jasbir Singh, Krishan Mohan, Arun Bedi and Obaid Kamal are already coaching trainees along with Sukhwinder Singh 'Tinku', Coordinator of the training programme. Trainees in the under-16 and under-19 sections also performed well in the Punjab Inter-district Cricket Tournaments.