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| Tuesday, August 22, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Serena retires; title
for Hingis WASHINGTON, Aug 21 — Second-seeded Alex Corretja derailed Andre Agassi’s bid for a third straight final at the men’s Tennis Classic, defeating the defending champion in straight sets 6-2, 6-3.
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| Ravi top
Indian; Gurevich champ AMSTERDAM, Aug 21 — International Master-elect T.S. Ravi took advantage of a misplayed move by compatriot r b Ramesh and crushed him in the final round to emerge as the top Indian at the Lost Boys International Open Chess Tournament here. Shastri deposes
before CBI
MELBOURNE, Aug 21 — The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has finally relented and invited Afghan athletes to participate in the Sydney Olympics which start from September 15, as tight security is enforced for the Games. Malleshwari,
Chanu in Olympic squad Christie banned Medal design kicks up row
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Serena retires; title for Hingis MONTREAL, Aug 21 (Reuters) — Martina Hingis won the Canadian Open after Serena Williams retired with a foot injury in the third set with the score 0-6, 6-3, 3-0. Yesterday, Hingis appeared clueless in the early going, dropping the first seven games of the match as Williams simply overpowered the Swiss player. The first set lasted just 21 minutes. After Williams broke serve in the opening game of the second set, Hingis, who lost to Williams in the semifinals last week in California, finally captured her first game of the match, on a backhand wide by Williams. Hingis raised her arms in the air to an ovation from many in the crowd of about 11,000. Slowly, Hingis seemed to regain her confidence, hitting groundstrokes more forcefully as Williams’ began to make mistakes. A double fault followed by an easy backhand mistake by Williams gave the decisive break to Hingis in the 8th game. After Hingis won the second set 6-3, Williams was given an injury break and received treatment on court. Back on the court, she looked flat. After losing the first three games in 14 minutes, Williams retired. Her injury was diagnosed as an inflammation of the small bone on the base of her left foot. Willliams said she first felt a twinge of pain in the foot while winning a tournament in Los Angeles last week, where she beat Hingis in the semifinals. It came back in her semifinal win on Saturday night over Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain. “I felt it overnight while I was sleeping and it hurts now just sitting here,’’ said Williams, who added that she tried to hit winners quickly to get the match over with. “I had to go for my shots,’’ she said. “I didn’t want to run too much. “Having her move me around more was not what I wanted to do today. Any other day, great. But not today. “I didn’t want to put pressure on the foot. That’s the way I think I should play from now on as if I’ve been injured so I can keep playing like that.’’ “I don’t think the injury will keep me from the US Open. I really don’t, but you never know’’ Williams said. Williams will be defending her US Open title starting on August 28. Hingis admitted to her bewilderment at the beginning of the match. “It was like formula 1. All the shots were zooming by me. I was just trying to hang in there. Then I started reading her serve better and I guess that was the key in the second set.’’ |
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Corretja defeats Agassi WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) — Second-seeded Alex Corretja derailed Andre Agassi’s bid for a third straight final at the men’s Tennis Classic, defeating the defending champion in straight sets 6-2, 6-3. The Spaniard fired nine aces yesterday to upset a frustrated Agassi, who snapped his racket against his left shoe after hitting a forehand shot into the net early in the second set. He later apologised to the crowd. “I was just really upset because I wasn’t executing the shot that was there. I was making bad judgment calls and shot selection,’’ said Agassi, who was chasing his sixth championship. “It was pretty disappointing.’’ Corretja broke Agassi’s serve in the sixth game of the first set to go up 4-2. Twice, Agassi double faulted to lose the game, including one that handed Corretja the first set. “I was serving pretty well, my second serve was pretty deep so it was difficult to attack,’’ the 23-year-old from Barcelona told reporters. The victory in the warm-up tournament for the US Open later this month, was the third straight win against Agassi for Corretja, considered a clay court specialist. Agassi has beaten him four times. “It’s a great moment in my career,’’ said Corretja after the 71-minute match, which earned him $ 115,000. “Last year was not too good for me. I’m coming back strong.’’ Correjta, the centre of recent controversy after he skipped Wimbledon because he believed the seeding system puts clay court specialists at a disadvantage, said he is staying focused on the US Open which he has never won. He said he’s been focusing on improving several areas of his game on hard courts, including being more aggressive with serves and returns. “I want to use the power from the other guy’s serve,’’ he said. “The main thing is...You have to be more aggressive because if you just return the ball it will be matched by the other guys.’’ Agassi said he had ‘’no complaints’’ about his back, which sustained an injury after his car was rear-ended earlier this month in Las Vegas. He hinted that he may not be prepared enough for the US Open as a result of the playing very few matches this summer due to his injury, which forced him to pull out of tournaments in Cincinnati and Los Angeles. “I have no complaints...except that I haven’t played a lot this summer, and...this week has helped a lot,’’ he said. |
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Woods beats May in playoff LOUISVILLE (Kentucky), Aug 21 (Reuters) — Tiger Woods waged the toughest fight of his professional life but came out a winner once again as he beat Bob May in a three-hole playoff by one stroke to win the 82nd
PGA championship. Woods, a runaway winner of the previous two Majors, had all he could handle in the unheralded May, who matched the world No 1 shot for shot in a dramatic head-to-head duel of the highest order at Valhalla Golf Club yesterday. “That was one heck of a battle on the back nine,” said the 24-year-old Woods, unaccustomed to such tight competition in the Majors. “It doesn’t get any better than that.” A curling 20-foot putt for birdie on the first hole of the playoff, the 16th, produced a roar from Tiger, who pranced to the cup to pluck out his ball as he took a one-shot advantage over May, who parred. The two then matched scrambling pars on 17 and 18, with May unable to make-up the stroke. Woods sealed his win by blasting out of the front bunker at 18 to a foot for a tap-in par. With his triumph, Woods wrote some more golf history as he matched Ben Hogan’s 1953 feat of winning three Majors in one season and became the first player to repeat as
PGA champion since Denny Shute in 1937. The victory was worth $ 900,000 to Woods. The 31-year-old May, who has played mainly on the European Tour in recent years, collected $ 540,000. May grew up in the same Southern California area as Woods and the two played some local junior golf together. “We never backed off one another, birdie for birdie, shot for shot,” Woods said about the Valhalla battle. “I enjoyed it and I’m sure Bob did, too. It was a very special day.” Woods, who won the
US Open by a staggering 15 strokes and the British Open by eight this season, trailed May by one stroke through most of Sunday’s tense back nine until he birdied the 17th after sticking his approach shot within 4 ft. Woods and May both birdied the 18th hole with dramatic, downhill putts to finish the regulation 72 holes with 270 totals, a
PGA record 18 under par. Woods shot a five-under 67, while May did him one better, matching him shot for shot under intense pressure to post his third successive 66. Alone in second place was Thomas Bjorn of Denmark at 13 under par, with Jose Maria Olazabal of Spain and Australians Stuart Appleby and Greg Chalmers another shot back at 12-under. |
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Ravi top Indian; Gurevich champ AMSTERDAM, Aug 21 (PTI) — International Master-elect T.S. Ravi took advantage of a misplayed move by compatriot r b Ramesh and crushed him in the final round to emerge as the top Indian at the Lost Boys International Open Chess Tournament here. Grandmaster Mikhail Gurevich claimed the championship garnering seven points, though two others - Ivan Sokolov and Tregubov - also had same points, they finished behind Gurevich as he had better progressive scores. Former junior national champion Sundararajan Kidambi held GM Van Der Wiel to come in the prize list with 5.5 points. Ravi played the Sicilian Alapin variation with White and Ramesh misplayed in the opening delaying a critical ‘h6’ for long. This allowed Ravi to build a strong pressure on the Queenside with his two Bishops and Knights after the Queens were exchanged early on. Ravi then penetrated Ramesh’s position with his Rook on the 7th rank and won a pawn. In an opposite coloured Bishop ending, Ravi showed excellent technique to win the game in 63 moves. With two consecutive losses in the previous rounds, Ramesh exited from the race with 5 points. Kidambi played a safe game with the White pieces against
Der Wiel and obtained easy equality in the opening. The Queens were exchanged early on and in a double Rook and Bishop versus double Rook and Knight ending, neither player could make any progress and settled for a draw. This creditable draw helped Kidambi finish in the prize list with 5.5 points. IM V.Saravanan faced an irregular form of Kings Indian with the Black pieces and got into a slightly inferior position against J.Jens. Jens sacrificed an exchange and went for an attack and earned a dangerous passed pawn on the ‘A’ file as compensation. Saravanan exchanged the Queens to slow down White’s onslaught and in a difficult ending defended his ground well to draw the game to finish with 5 points. |
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Shastri deposes before CBI NEW DELHI, Aug 21 (PTI) — former Indian skipper Ravi Shastri, who is the lone person to have corroborated Manoj Prabhakar’s charge of offer of bribery against Kapil Dev, has recorded his statement to
CBI in the match-fixing scandal, agency sources said here today.
The sources said Shastri deposed before the agency’s special crime branch and was questioned by them recently for nearly an hour. His deposition was needed as he had given an interview on a website, which was clandestinely shot by former allrounder Manoj Prabhakar. Shastri, had corroborated Prabhakar’s claim that he had been briefed about cricketing icon Kapil Dev’s alleged offer of a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to Prabhakar to underperform in a one-dayer against Pakistan during a 1994 triangular in Sri Lanka. Kapil Dev has denied Prabhakar’s allegations. However, the agency refused to divulge whether the former captain had again corroborated the statement made in London. |
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Focus on making everyone happy with Olympic experience International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice-President Kevan Gosper says Sydney’s games organisers are for all intents and purposes ready for the games to begin. With less than a month to go until the opening ceremony Gosper says organisers have put most problems behind them and are focusing on making everyone happy with their Olympic experience. “With less than a month to go we should be ready and we consider ourselves as being ready, operationally ready but not complacent, I mean there’s not much more that can be done now,” he said. “The next few days before the games start will be very exciting and the backdrop will be that torch running backwards and forwards across New South Wales and finally into Sydney.” Happiness best set in bronze Gold isn’t a guarantee of happiness, researchers say, so the Australian Olympic team is bringing an army of sports psychologists to Sydney to counsel every athlete. “Bronze! bronze! bronze!” could be the new Olympic victory cry, because psychologists say gold and silver medallists are not as happy as bronze winners. Gold medallists sometimes experience the greatest letdown, says the Australian team’s head psychologist, Graham Winters, who will lead 15 colleagues offering athletes debriefings and counselling sessions. “You climb to the top of the mountain and think: ‘Where to from here? What do I do now? Has my life really changed?’ “Dr Winters said yesterday. Studies of Olympic athletes show bronze medallists are happier than silver winners. Bronze winners are delighted to win a medal at all, but silver winners are often devastated that they missed gold by such a narrow margin. “If you win a silver medal and think, ‘that was just my best’, most athletes would be happy. But others will win a silver medal and think: ‘I could have won gold’, “Dr Winters said. Athletes surveyed directly after their events, and again directly after the medal ceremonies at the 1992 Barcelona games, showed greater emotional highs if they won bronze than if they won silver. “The silver medallist compares with what might have been and it’s a close comparison upward. They think: ‘Boy, if I had done better, my face would be on a cereal box now,’ “said researcher Thomas Gilovich, of New York’s Cornell University. Three doctors from Australia’s Olympic psychology team headquarters in Perth are heading to Sydney, along with 12 experts who will accompany individual squads. The Australian swimming team has its own psychologists, as do the rowers and the men’s and women’s hockey teams. Dr Winters said the psychologists would debrief all athletes during the games, and revisit them three months later. “All the excitement is over and they’re wondering where their careers are going,” he said. “Each athlete will be followed up through the individual institutes of sport in each state. A reasonable percentage of the people who say during the games that they feel fine won’t feel fine two or three months later. “We don’t want the whole event to turn sour for anyone.” The US Olympic Committee has lost nearly $860,000 by wrongly predicting the movement of the Australian dollar. The committee bought several million Australian dollars last year in the belief the dollar’s value would increase ahead of the games. That has not happened and the executives of the American Committee were told of the losses at a meeting in Indianapolis. The committee’s executive director, Norm Blake, says in future the organisation will not be repeating the mistake by betting on currency movements without taking out protection against losses. The American team, including coaches and support staff, numbers nearly 1,000. Some athletes have already arrived in Australia for pre-games training. Green games look brown Greenpeace has awarded Sydney’s Olympic organisers a bronze medal for environmental performance. In the final green scorecard before the games, Greenpeace has dropped Sydney’s score from a 7/10 — last September — to a 6/10. The group says key faults include the failure of the New South Wales Government to clear up toxic waste from Homebush Bay and the Rhodes Peninsula next to the Olympic site, plus the use of ozone depleting and greenhouse-polluting air conditioning and refrigeration and petrol-driven cars for VIPs. Greenpeace has also criticised the beach volleyball venue as an “unnecessary failure” and the Olympic co-ordination authority as a “reluctant participant” in the green games. The International Olympic Committee has also been accused of failing to provide environmental leadership. One of the major factors in Sydney winning the right to host the 2000 games was the city’s promise to hold the first green Olympics. With one month to go before the games begin, Greenpeace International’s Olympics campaigner, Ms Blair Palese, said the Olympics would be green but only just. But she praised Sydney for the use of renewables, the construction of the village and for reliance on public transport to move spectators. The aquatic centre was described as “just short of perfect” but the Environment Pavilion was a “shocking failure”. Greenpeace does applaud organisers for using renewable energy and for making the Sydney games the first where private cars cannot be brought to venues. Parking in an Olympic zone will cost you gold Even if you did bring a car to the venues make sure you don’t park illegally. Anyone parking illegally in certain designated Olympic zones will be fined $348 (Rs 8750) under strict traffic rules for the games. They will also pay for having their car towed away. The fines, a fivefold increase on the present penalty for illegal parking in special event zones, are just one element of a package of stringent transport restrictions contained in special legislation. The big fine is to protect local residents from “being parked out by spectators. The most serious penalty is for operating unauthorised car parks within five kilometres of venues, for which individuals can be fined $10,000 and corporations $20,000 . If you thought you’d seen the last of those bike-riding kangaroos, think again. Despite nationwide cringes when they closed the Atlanta Olympics, there are plans to include the pedalling marsupials in the closing ceremony to the 2000 games.
— PMG |
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Afghanistan invited to Olympics MELBOURNE, Aug 21 (IANS) — The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has finally relented and invited Afghan athletes to participate in the Sydney Olympics which start from September 15, as tight security is enforced for the Games.
The IOC had banned Afghanistan from taking part in the Olympics last year saying the country’s ruling Taliban had no jurisdiction on sports in Afghanistan. Since then the supreme Olympic organisation has been under pressure from the Taliban, Afghan athletes and other sports and human rights bodies to lift the ban. The Taliban have welcomed the invitation and are said to be looking forward to the Games. Meanwhile, as a part of security preparations, the Melbourne-based army reservists’ platoon opened a training camp in a soccer stadium here on Sunday. Some 4,000 soldiers will be part of the Olympics security umbrella. The Australians are taking security very seriously. |
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Malleshwari, Chanu in Olympic squad NEW DELHI, Aug 21 (PTI) — Asian champion Karnam Malleshwari and Sanamacha Chanu were today named in the Indian weightlifting team for next month’s Sydney Olympic Games, but the much decorated Kunjarani Devi was left out. T Muthu, 56 kg, is the male lifter who edged out Dalbir Singh and Vadivelu for the lone quota that the country won at the World Championships in Athens, Balbir Singh Bhatia, government nominee on the Weightlifting Federation of India (WFI) selection committee told PTI. National coach Pal Singh Sandhu and foreign coach Leonid Tararnenko of Belarus will accompany the team to Sydney, he said. The team is expected to leave for Down Under sometime after September 6 to be in time for the mandatory dope testing at the Homebush Bay Olympic facility, Mr Bhatia said. All the athletes are required to reach Sydney eight days before the commencement of their events to undergo necessary dope testing. While medal prospect Sanamacha Chanu’s (53 kg) selection was expected, stalwart Malleshwari got the nod ahead of 52 international medals winner Kunjarani. The 21-year-old Chanu, who competed in 48 kg category in the World Championships by reducing her bodyweight, has now moved into 53 kg class with a remarkable performance. Chanu, the youngest lifter in the team, swept all the three gold medals in the last Asian Championship. But Malleshwari finds herself in a difficult situation as she has been forced to compete in the 69 kg class for the first time in her career, instead of the 63 kg section. |
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Christie banned MONACO, Aug 21 (Reuters) — Former Olympic 100 metres champion Linford Christie was banned for two years by the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) today. Fellow British athletes Doug Walker and Gary Cadogan also had two-year bans, following positive dope tests, confirmed. Christie, now retired, tested positive for the anabolic steroid nandrolone but was subsequently cleared by his national governing body UK Athletics. His case was considered by the arbitration panel of the IAAF, the sport’s governing body, last week. The IAAF announced in a statement on Monday that its arbitration panel had decided the suspensions imposed on all three must stand. “The arbitration panel believes UK Athletics misdirected itself and reached an erroneous
conclusion when clearing these athletes. As a result, the panel confirmed that all three committed doping offences,” the IAAF said today. The two-year bans start from the date of the positive tests. Cadogan is banned from November 28, 1998, Walker from December 1, 1998, and Christie from February 13, 1999. The decision of the arbitration panel is final and binding on all parties, the IAAF said. Christie, the 1992 Olympic 100 metre champion, and Cadogan, a 400 metres hurdler, have both retired from competition. |
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Medal design kicks up row SYDNEY, Aug 21 (Reuters) — A row has broken out in Australia over an embarrassing design on the medals for next month’s Sydney Olympics which depict a Roman colosseum rather than a Greek temple. Australia’s Greek language newspaper O Kosmos described the medal design as “the ultimate ignorance” and demanded Athens should not repeat the mistake at the summer Olympics in 2004. “The colosseum is a stadium of blood. It has nothing to do with the Olympic ideals of peace and brotherhood,” O Kosmos Editor George Hadjivassilis told Reuters. “We realise it is too late and too expensive to change the medals now but the mistake must never be repeated.” Greece was the home of the ancient Olympic Games. Sydney Games organisers blamed the International Olympic Committee (IOC), saying it vetoed plans to put the city’s Opera House on the medals and instead ordered a “generic colosseum” as background. They said the IOC advised that the traditional colosseum design they wanted should be derived from a 1928 medal by Italian sculpture Guiseppe Cassioli for the Amsterdam Games. The officials said the design was a generic colosseum, not the famous Roman one. But Mr Wojciech Pietranik, who designed the Sydney medals, told the Australian newspaper he used the Roman colosseum as a model. “It was supposed to show Nike, the Goddess of Victory, visiting Sydney (depicted by the Opera House) .... But there was a change because of the rules,” Mr Pietranik told the newspaper. The newspaper quoted Australian history professors as saying the Sydney medals were clearly of the Roman colosseum. “Just because they made a mistake in 1928 and Greece either didn’t spot it or ignored it then isn’t a reason to keep repeating it,”. |
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Penalties for Gibbs, Williams on Aug 28 DURBAN, Aug 21 (PTI) — South African Cricket Board’s disciplinary committee yesterday confirmed that Herschelle Gibbs and Henry Williams were involved in match-fixing, a day after the two admitted of being guilty of taking money to play below par, and will announce penalties on them on August 28.
The disgraced cricketers appeared before the United Cricket Board of South Africa’s three-man disciplinary committee in Johannesburg and testified that they had agreed to accept a bribe from former captain Hansie Cronje to throw a one-day international match against India in Nagpur on March 19. The third cricketer, Pieter Strydom, however, pleaded innocence. Gibbs is likely to be banned from international cricket for at least a year for his role in the Cronje match-fixing scandal, the UCB sources said. Pace bowler Henry Williams, is likely to be fined, while Strydom is expected to escape with a caution, they said. |
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Kuerten earns 1st hard-court title INDIANAPOLIS, Aug 21 (AFP) — Gustavo Kuerten earned his first ATP hard-court title, outlasting rattled Russian Marat Safin for a 3-6 7-6 (7/2) 7-6 (7/2) victory at the $ 800,000 RCA Championships here yesterday.
After 40 hard-court failures, the top seeded Brazilian came good on number 41 as he worked for two hours, 19 minutes to stage a comeback over the third-seeded 20-year-old. “It was spectacular, I’m so happy I’ve won my first hard-court event,” said the 23-year-old Kuerten, who now stands level with Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Spaniard Alex Corretja on four titles this season. “I don’t realise what I’ve done now. I hope this is not a dream and I’ll wake up in a few hours.” |
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Pandey, Debnathbest gymnasts AMBALA, Aug 21 — While Uttar Pradesh men’s gymnasts stole the show, bagging three positions in the first five, in the women’s category gymnasts from West Bengal dominated cornered three slots in first five in the 41st Senior National Gymnastics Championship here today. Vikas Pandey of UP was the best all round gymnast with 51.50 points closely followed by his UP team-mate Mohit Yadav who got 49.70 points. Kuldeep from Punjab got the third position with 48.90 points. While Gaurav Shah of UP was in fourth position with 48.80 points, Praveen Sharma of Railways was fifth with 48.70 points and in sixth position was Rajiv of Railways with 48.60 points. In the women’s category for best all round gymnast, West Bengal gymnast Tumpa Debnath slots the show. She was followed by Chanchala Chakravarthy of West Bengal and Sundari of Railways. In fourth position was Runa Das of Railways and fifth was West Bengal gymnast Rakhi Debnath. Chetna Chahal of Railways came sixth. The finals of the apparatus championship will take place tomorrow. In apparatus championship (men), the top eight gymnasts for parallel bar are Rajiv Ranjan, SS Rao, Gaurav Shah, Mohit Yadav, Praveen Sharma, M Manmode, Kuldeep and Pradeep. In Horizontal bars, the top eight gymnasts are Mohit Yadav, Vikas Pandey, Sudip Jana, Kuldeep, Mahendra, Naresh Kumar, Ajit Jarande and Satpal. In floor exercise the top eight gymnasts are Awanish, Mahindra, Shyam Sunder, S S Rao, Vikas Pandey, Abhinav Dixit, Gaurav Shah, Vishal Deshpande and Subhra Mitra. In competitions for pommel horse, the top nine gymnasts are Vikas Pandey, Gaurav Shah, Vikram Praveen Sharma, Ravinder Kumar, Vishal Deshpande, R Shrivastava, Awanish and S.S. Rao. In Roman Rings, the top eight gymnasts are Mahendra, Sarafaraz, Ved Prakash, Vishal Deshpande, Vikas Pandey, Mohit Yadav, Kuldeep and L.C. Singh. In vaulting horse, the top ten gymnasts are Vikas Pandey, Rajiv Ranjan, P Kranthi, Praveen Sharma, Abhinav Dixit, Gaurav Shah, S.S. Rao, Pradeep, Subhra Mitra, Partha Bag and SKLP Shastri. In apparatus championship (women), the top ten gymnasts for floor exercise are Tumpa Debnath, Chanchala Chakravarti, Mansi Topkar, Sundra Mandal, Lalita Mehta, Runa Das, Amandeep Kaur, P Saritha, Reema Yadav and Sousheelavavati. In balancing beam, the top ten gymnasts are Chanchala Chakravarti, Tumpa Debnath, Sharvari Kulkarnee, Sundri Mandal, Banasree Debnath, Punam Chabra, Mansi Topkar, P Saritha, Namita Sharma and Jyoti Kaushal. |
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Woods beats May in playoff
