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| Sunday, August 27, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Sunita Rani named in squad for
Olympics Snooker title for Fisher Tiger races ahead Johnson ready to make history
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Taliban unhappy Sumit, Prateek in last 8 Chopra’s residence raided Manipur & Nagaland sector in
semis Chandigarh rout Gujarat
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Sunita Rani named in squad for Olympics NEW DELHI, Aug 26 (UNI) — Middle distance runner Sunita Rani, who is recovering from injury,has found a place in the 33 member Indian Athletic-squad for the Sydney Olympic Games. With nine officials accompanying the athletes, it is the biggest component of the 116 member contingent,followed by the 20 member hockey team which includes four officials. The squad which includes 16 women athletes will mainly be seen in action in the relay events. It is also the biggest ever athletics team to represent the country in the Olympics. Interestingly the four member boxing team will have an equal number of officials with it, while the three member weightlifting team will be guided by four officials. Asked how an injured athlete-Sunita Rani has been included in the squad, Chef de Mission of the contingent Ashok Mattoo said the Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) had recommended her name. The AAFI is hopeful that Sunita will be fully fit by the time athletic events start in the Olympics. Veteran weightlifter, Kunjarani Devi does not figure in the list approved by the government. The following is
the Indian contingent: Women: 4 x 100 m: relay: Rachita Mistry, Vinita Tripathi, Anuradha Biswal, V. Jayalakshmi, V. Pandeshwar, Saraswati Dey. 4 x 400 m: Paramjit Kaur, Jincy Philip, Manjuma Kuriakose, Rosa Kutty, K.M. Beena Mol, Soma Biswas. 1500 m: Sunita Rani. Discus: Neelam J. Singh, Javelin: Gurmeet Kaur. Heptathlon: G.C. Pramila and Soma Biswas. Coaches: Bahadur Singh, Harbans Singh, Andriy Shurepov, Yuriy Ogorodnik. Managers: M.L. Jadam, A.K. Banerjee. Doctors: R. Kaushal, Yuriy Boyko. Masseuse: Ms Inna Zveryeva. Badminton: Pullela Gopi Chand, Aparna Popat. Coach: Syed Mohd Arif. Boxing: Soubarn Suresh Singh (48 kg), Ngangom Dingko Singh (56 kg), Jitender Kumar (75 kg) and Gurcharan Singh (81 kg). Coaches: Blas Jose Iglesias Fernandez, Gurbaksh Singh Sandhu. Manager: Rajesh Bhandari, Doctor: Ashok Ahuja. Hockey: Goalkeepers: Jude Menezes, Deveshish Chauhan, Defenders: Dilip Kumar Tirkey, Dinesh Lakra, Lajrus Barla. Midfielders: Baljit Singh, Sukhbir Gill, Mohd Riaz Nabi, Selvaraj, Thirumal Valavan, Ramandeep Grewal (capt); Forwards: Mukesh Kumar, Dhanraj Pillay, Baljit Singh, Sameer Dad, Deepak Thakur Solanki and Gagan Ajit Singh. Coaches: Vasudevan Baskran, Harendra Singh, Manager: Jothikumaran. Doctor: P.K. Ramesh. Judo: Laurembam Brojeshwari Devi (52 kg). Coach: Narender Singh. Rowing: Inderpal Singh, Kasam Khan (coxless pair): Coach: Theodore Joseph Bonanno. Manager: C.P. Singh Deo. Shooting: (men) Anwar Sultan (trap), Abhinav Bindra (10 m air rifle) (women): Anjali Ved Pathak (air rifle). Coaches: Marcello Dradi, Laszlo Szucsuk. Armourer: Dhiren Bhatia. Swimming: (man) Hakimuddin Shabbir Habibulla (200 m free style) (woman) Nisha Millet (200 m free style). Coach: Kanti Vardhan Sharma. Table Tennis: men: Raman Subramaniam, Chetan Baboor woman: Poulomi Ghatak. Coach: Samal Villivalam Sunder. Tennis: Leander Adrian Paes. Mahesh Bhupathi. Coach: Ramesh Krishnan, Doctor: Vace Paes. Weightlifting Man: Thandava Murthy Muthu. Women: T. Baijan Sanamacha Chanu, Karnam Malleswari. Coaches: Pal Singh Sandhu, Leonid Taranenka. Manager Balbir Singh Doctor: Andrei Semenikov. Wrestling: Gurbinder Singh (63 kg) coach: Randhir Singh. IOA officials: Chef de Mission: Mr Ashok Kumar Mattoo. Deputy Chef de Mission: Mr V.M. Dutta. Treasurer: Mrs Amrit Bose. Support staff: Brig (Rtd) N.B. Singh, Mr A.S.V. Prasad, Mr M.S. Bains, Mr Virender Baloni, Mr Sandeep Mehta, Ms Sunita Garware, Mr Bruce Baird and Mr Vijay Kumar. The last three are based
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BANGALORE, Aug 26 (PTI) — England’s Luke Fisher lifted the world under-21 snooker title, thrashing Scotland’s Steven Bennie 11-5 in a one-sided final here today. The Nottinghamshire-based cueist was never challenged as he waltzed past his opponent with ease in the best of 21 frames title round, winning 83-22 74-36 64-38 70-60 90-35 68-0 15-83 71-41 75-0 29-70 21-71 72-19 08-74 67-22 0-92 47-35. The 20-year-old Fisher, who kept constant pressure on top seeded Bennie from the start, pocketed the winner’s cheque of £ 2,000 in the 12th edition of the championship, sponsored by kheladi.Com. Bennie received £ 1000. The first session, comprising nine frames, was completely dominated by Fisher, who led 8-1. Though Bennie managed to win four frames in the second session, it was too late. Bennie fell short of eight points to crack a century in the 15th frame but won it 92-0. But he was off-colour and seemed in all sorts of trouble, despite recording seven century breaks in the championship earlier. The most interesting frame was the 14th which saw some good potting by both cueists. Fisher started the 14th frame with a 27 break, followed by Bennie’s 17 but things started hotting up then. Fisher opted to play difficult shots and was lucky to get away with them. After Bennie missed the yellow to the left black pocket, with a cluster of reds in a tricky position, Fisher was in two minds whether to use ‘half butt’ to clear the red or to settle for a ‘snook,’ and finally opted for the latter. Bennie gifted seven points to see his opponent lead by 55-20. Then, luck smiled on Fisher, who sent the brown and blue to the right top to win the frame and make it 10-4. Though Bennie took the 15th 92-0, Fisher took the 16th and deciding frame 47-35 to emerge winner. Bennie’s statement yesterday that his opponent tended to play better under pressure turned out to be right, as Fisher was unruffled even in tricky situations. The Scott, who had a good run in the championship not having lost three frames in any match, found Fisher a tough nut to crack. Most of the time Bennie was trailing. Fisher had a good start with a break of 60 in his 12th visit winning the first frame 83-22. He had breaks of 47 and 44 in the second and third enjoyed a cushion lead of 3-0. Bennie’s homework
of going into the final with “safe play” worked
against him. He tactfully opened out the cluster of
‘reds’ in the beginning only to end up losing
the frames. |
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AKRON, Aug 26 (AFP) — Tiger Woods again gave a gentle reminder to his competitors in the $ five million World Golf Championship Invitational here that he is the best and then there is the rest. Just five days after defending his PGA Championship, Woods matched the course record at the Firestone Country Club with a 9-under-par 61 that opened a seven-stroke lead halfway the tournament. The world’s best
golfer navigated one of the PGA Tour’s more
challenging courses with an eagle, eight birdies and a
bogey to push his 36-hole total to a mind boggling
15-under 125, another record, which he downplayed. |
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BRUSSELS, Aug 26 (Reuters) — Michael Johnson, who earned a special place in the Olympics with his 200 and 400 metres double at the 1996 Atlanta games, returned to the track with an impressive one-lap victory on Friday which suggested he was ready to make more sporting history next month. Back in action after hurting a hamstring in the US trials last month, Johnson cruised home in the 400 metres at the Brussels Golden League meeting in 44.07 seconds, the third fastest time in the world this year. No other runner has gone faster in the build-up to the Sydney Olympics which start on September 15. Johnson, who pulled up lame in the 200 metres at the US trials, looked sharp and in control, cruising through the first 200 metres before stepping up a gear in the second half of the race to finish ahead of Britain’s Mark Richardson, who clocked 44.72. The performance of Richardson, who may be ruled out of the games if an international athletics arbitration panel decide to ban him for a positive drug test, was impressive after a week when his case involving the controversial steroid nandrolone has been in the news again following a ban on compatriot Linford Christie. But Johnson received the biggest cheer from the Brussels crowd as he prepares to try to become the first men’s 400 metres runner to retain the Olympic title. He said he had run cautiously in the early part of the race when he usually sets a fierce pace. “Today I had a totally different strategy because it was my first race back. The race gave me confidence to go back to my normal strategy and run the times I want to run. I felt I had the race under control all the time.” American world sprint champions Maurice Greene and Marion Jones also proved they are hitting their best form at the right time with impressive 100 metres victories. Greene cruised away from a quality field in the men’s race to win in 9.88. The time would have been the fastest in the world this year if the wind at his back had not been above the permitted limit of two metres per second — 2.1. Compatriot Bernard Williams was second in 10.01 with Trinidad’s Ato Boldon third in 10.02. But Greene knows he still has a way to go before he can talk of perfection and plans to work on his reaction time at the gun. “I ran a very good race and I won,” he said. But people are not going to hand me the gold medal. I have to go and run the race and get the gold. The jackpot is paid to athletes who win their events at five out of the seven meetings. After victories in Brussels, US hurdler Gail Devers, Russian long jumper Tatyana Kotova, Norwegian javelin thrower Trine Hattestad and Morocco’s middle-distancer runner Hicham El Guerrouj are also still in the running. Jones, who went close to a rare defeat in Zurich two weeks ago, produced an almost perfect start in the women’s 100 metres and romped away to finish several strides ahead in 10.83 seconds. Savatheda Fynes of the Bahamas was second in 11.08 and her compatriot Debbie Ferguson third in 11.11. Jones is the only sprinter to have gone faster when she clocked 10.78 in London earlier this month. The time was even more impressive since the sprinters faced a headwind of 1.3 metres per second. “I am very pleased with the victory. The most important thing is that I feel good, no hindering forces, just smooth sprinting,” she said. Kenya’s Olympic silver medallist Paul Tergat ran the fastest 10,000 metres in the world this year — 27 minutes 3.87 seconds — to the sound of beating African drums. Brussels, which has a drum band in place to help the rhythm of the racers, has often provided a perfect stage for the distance runners and Tergat set a world record over 10,000 in the stadium three years ago. The five times cross-country world champion needed a fast time to try to persuade the Kenyan Olympic selectors to pick him for Sydney after he ran only the 5,000 metres at the national trials. Tergat produced a brave
run, racing through the last nine laps on his own after
the rest of the field failed to keep pace. |
Real story
behind first drug scandal of Sydney Olympic Games The athletes are still arriving, but the Sydney Olympic Games has already been hit by its first drug scandal. It’s three weeks from the games and it seems that drug stories may dominate the games. One foreign team has been embarrassed at the Perth International Airport, but until now there has not been any headlines in the media. On Wednesday, one of the senior swimming coaches for the South African team, who arrived at the airport, was found to be in possession of a drug which is banned in Olympic competition. Australian customs calls it a controlled substance and under section 8 of the Customs Act, unless the passenger has a medical prescription, they are not permitted to bring it into the country. The Australian Sport Drug agency has confirmed that the substance is banned in competition because it as considered a performance-enhancing stimulant. Wally Forman, Director of the West Australian Institute of Sport told this correspondent that the drug bust was “absolutely scandalous:” Understandably, the Customs officials here do not want to talk about the incident publicly, which probably explains the hush up in the media. But it has been disclosed that the swimming coach was questioned about the substance but failed to produce any medical authority for it. After consultation with their Canberra colleagues the Customs officials here in Perth confiscated the 500 tablets of the substance and allowed him to continue his Olympic journey to Sydney. The substance is something called Mah Whang, a Chinese herbal substance described in certain documents as a natural ephedrine substitute. The fact that the news was not made public but instead sneaked out in an exclusive story for an ABC morning talkback program on Friday morning in Perth, seems strange especially when world and Olympic sporting bodies claim they are headhunting drug cheats. Kerry Bone, Director of Research and Development with Mediherb a company which supplies herbs to naturopaths and doctors right across Australia, told the ABC programme the substance was a herbal product. “It contains the active product ephedrine, which is kind of substance very similar to amphetamines drug speed.” The substance in question is described in the USA as one of the most controversial herbs even though it is available over the counter. “In other words any American Olympic athlete or coach who picks up something over the counter in the USA will face the same problem when they enter Australia,” Mr Bone said. “The reason why it is so controversial in the USA is because it is sold as a weight loss agent because it suppresses appetite, and in excessive doses it is a heart stimulator and has caused heart attacks in people.” At present it is probably causing heart attacks among Sydney Games organisers. Well-known sports administrator Mr Forman said: “Since it is on the IOC banned substance list, then I think it is scandalous because the IOC banned list is well documented and provided to all countries,” he said. “For a country which has a reasonably sophisticated sports system such as South Africa, I’m absolutely staggered to hear this news,” he told this correspondent. “The onus is on Olympic team medical staff and coaches to make themselves fully aware of where banned substances appear. “With all the controversy over drug use in sport over the last few months leading up to the Sydney Games, you would have thought that international teams such as South Africa would be super cautious. “I would have thought that they had a drug education programme in place that ensured that all of their athletes, coaches and medical staff were aware of what substances were legal and what substances were illegal. “And we all know that it can be very very difficult because a lot of medicines, which are freely available over a counter, such as cough medicine and sinus tablets, actually contain banned substances. “What shouldn’t happen is that through ignorance a senior coach of an Olympic team turns up at an airport with an amount of a drug which contains a banned substance. “I would have thought international coaches are better educated than that. He said it wouldn’t be the last of the drugs because “we can’t expect every country in the world and every National Olympic Committee to have the same sophisticated drug detection and drug education programme that countries like Australia or the USA can afford.” “There are going to be some mistakes made that are honest mistakes. We can’t accept them and they have to learn from those mistakes so you’ve go to expect that these things are going to happen. “But I can’t accept it from a country like South Africa who in a sporting sense is certainly not a Third World country. “They have been back in international competition long enough and they have been under the spotlight themselves. “It has been pretty well documented that during the long period when they were ostracised from world sport, a lot of athletes went to South Africa under the guise of competing but were actually taking drugs while there. “There have been some German sprinters that have been banned for those activities. “So the South Africa sports programme was being heavily scrutinised at the time they came back into international competition. So for them to be making mistakes like, this you will have to really question whether or not it was actually a mistake. “This is big.bigger than we are making out to be. It’s really no different to the drug scandal which hit the 1999 World Swimming Championships in Perth when the Chinese swimming team was caught at Sydney airport with a quality of a banned substance “This is just not good enough from a country like South Africa,” he said. Nor from any other for that matter, we may add. The fact that there is covering up still going on only reconfirms that there is a lot at stake for all parties involved. Olympic torch
does the Bhangra Also on Thursday, a teenager tried to douse the Olympic flame with a fire extinguisher when it passed through a northern NSW town. The police say the 17-year-old left the crowd and moved onto the road taking out a 0.9-kg extinguisher from under his coat. Only a few weeks ago a young lad on roller skates hijacked the flame but didn’t get too far. In the more recent incident, the young man aimed the fire extinguisher at the torch, but it was the torchbearer who got hit by the white powder. The youth was arrested and taken to the local police station. Rumour has it, the youngster was probably jealous of an old flame! Hockey
sidelights In fact, when India faced Australia in the semifinals of the 1960 Olympics in Rome, it was a unique occasion. The captains who came face to face were both Anglo-Indians: Claudius and Kevin Carton. Australia’s current first choice centre half Paul Gaudion is continuing that Anglo-Indian contribution to Australian hockey. The 25-year-old Western Australian schoolteacher was born in Australia but has an Anglo-Indian father (originally from Madras) and a British mother. ‘Gooders,’ as he is nicknamed by his team-mates, has a natural talent for hockey, which, together with his sensational skills, he says he probably got from his Indian heritage, like his love for curries and Indian food. Many of his team-mates tease him that he has got his flexible wrists from his Indian heritage. Gaudion is one of the senior most members of the Australian team and much of Australia’s chances to break the bogey of Olympic gold will depend on his performance in the pivotal centre half position. He was first selected to play for Australia in 1994 at the age of 18 and has since represented Australia in over 150 international games. With many years of top class hockey still ahead of him, there is more than a good chance that Gaudion will go on to break all Australian appearance records and play more international hockey than any other Australian before him. One of Gaudion’s career highlights was when he visited the city his father was born in and grew up in — Madras — to represent Australia in the 1997 Champions Trophy. Unfortunately, hockey wise it was not a good experience with Australia finishing in their worst ever position at the Champions Trophy. What does Gaudion think of Indian hockey? Well he feels that the Indian team has to back up their ball skills with improvements in areas such as penalty corners, trapping, possession and converting opportunities. “Their performance here when they last came to Australia in April -May must do their confidence a great deal of good, especially their win here in the Perth Four Nation.” Who is he backing in the Olympic tournament? “We have to back ourselves. And I’ll be happy for the Indian team to win the silver, as long as we win the gold,” he says with a laugh. In fact, the whole Gaudion family has made a great contribution to hockey in Western Australia with the three sons playing top-level hockey and their father a renowned coach. Ironically the
family’s connection with hockey began with them
joining the Harlequins Hockey Club, Perth’s version
of the Calcutta Rangers Club for which Claudius and
others played. The majority of members of the Harlequin
club are Anglo-Indian and the club team plays in the
competitive Western Australian Premier Division. Among
the current players is Mark Patterson, former Indian
goalkeeper (1988 Seoul Olympics) who now lives and works
in Perth. — PMG |
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KABUL, Aug 26 (AFP) — The Afghan Taliban today slammed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for rescinding a decision to invite two observers from Afghanistan to the Sydney Games. The IOC acted under pressure from some anti-Taliban countries, Sports Minister Abdul Shokour Mutmaen said in a veiled reference to the USA. The irate minister said the IOC’s prestige would be damaged unless Afghan athletes were immediately invited. “The IOC’s decision that Afghanistan National Olympic Committee should send two representatives as observers to Sydney was unfair and unacceptable to us,” Mutmaen said. He said Afghanistan’s Olympic committee was a full member of the IOC and that Afghan athletes deserved to take part in the Sydney Games like competitors form other countries. The minister said Afghan
wrestling, boxing and athletics teams were on stand-by to
rush to Sydney, if invited.
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Sumit,
Prateek in last 8 CHANDIGARH, Aug 26 — Sumit Dahiya of Bhiwani and Prateek Sharma of Panchkula made it to the last eight of the boys under 16 section of the Haryana State Sub-Junior Badminton Championships which entered the penultimate day here today. The four-day meet is being organised by District Badminton Association, Panchkula. The results under-16: boys- PQF — Sumit Dahiya b Arun 15-0, 15-1; Prateek Sharma b Atul Jain 15-1,15-3; Gaurav Kapoor b Naresh; Ashish Girdhar b Bharat Mittal 11-15, 15-6, 15-11; Piyush Aggarwal b Vikas 15-4, 15-3; Mandeep b Manoj 15-6, 17-15; Sachin Garg b Parvesh 17-15, 15-4; Rohit Bhakar b Rohit Joon 15-12, 15-13 Girls (under-10): PQF— Pallavi b Anupama 11-2, 11-4; Surbhi b Swati 11-3, 11-1; Titiksha b Divya Sood 11-3, 11-1; Akanksha b Amodita 13-11, 11-3, 11-1; Ankita b Swati Zoon 11-7, 11-1; Lehar b Maoni 11-6, 11-4; Muskan b Sukriti 9-11, 11-2, 11-3; Deepali b Jyoti 11-2, 11-1. Girls (under-13): Amita b Anaksha 11-0, 11-1; Shruti b Shubhangi 11-0, 11-0; Manju b Pallavi 13-11, 11-5; Akanksha b Lehar 11-1, 11-1; Partistha b Neha 13-10, 13-11; Kannu b Sheetal 11-9, 11-7; Meenu b Ahi 11-0, 11-0. Under-10 boys: PQF — Deepak b Vivek 15-9, 15-7; Abhishek b Prerak 15-10, 9-15, 15-12; Nitin b Puneet 15-7, 15-10; Dhruv b Deepak 15-4, 15-4; Davinder b Tapan 15-0, 13-15, 15-9; Gaurav b Ashish 15-6, 15-13; Sunny b Karan 15-6, 15-1.
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NEW DELHI, Aug 26 (PTI) — Income Tax authorities have conducted a raid on cricketer Nikhil Chopra’s posh South Delhi residence in connection with the probe into match-fixing allegations. Chopra, who was present during the search at his residence yesterday in Defence Colony was also searched by the IT personnel at the airport when he returned from London on Thursday night, IT sources said. The raids were in continuation of the process started by IT Department on July 20 when they swooped on the premises of cricketers, board officials and bookies. Chopra was among three
cricket players who were not present during the raids as
they were away in London to play in a benefit match on
July 29. |
Manipur
& Nagaland sector in semis JALANDHAR, Aug 26 — After days of lop-sided matches the decks are clear for the semifinals of the Xth Inter-Sector CRPF hockey tournament at Sports Complex of Group Centre here. Manipur & Nagaland Sector will square off with Bihar Sector in the first semifinal and former runners-up North West Zone Sector will cross swords with Eastern Sector in the second semifinal. In pool ‘A’ Manipur & Nagaland earned six points from their all two outings. In pool-B North West Zone Sector proved their supremacy in league phase by earning six points from two outings. In pool-C Bihar Sector topped the table with 4 points from their two league matches. In Pool-D Eastern Sector have six points in the pool and qualified for the semifinals. In the first match of the sixth day Bihar Sector defeated Central Sector by 3-0. The second tie of the pool ‘C’ was a lacklustre affair in the first half. The Bihar Centre had an upper hand and remained in the rivals territory throughout the game. On the other hand Central Sector boys lacked proper planning and never rose beyond mediocrity, except in the patches. The Bihar Sector’s boys missed two golden chances in first half. On all these occasions, their forwards were the culprits. In last league match of the tournament from pool ‘D’ eastern sector defeated Jammu & Kashmir sector by 3-1 and entered in the semifinal of the tournament. Both teams displayed
brilliant game. Tanvir opened the account of Bihar Sector
in the 28th minute with brilliant field goal. After
trailing by one goal in first half, Southern Sector
restored parity in the 45th minute and goal scorer from
their side was T. Kujur. At the end of the regular time
of 70 minutes both the teams were level at 1-1.
Chandigarh rout Gujarat CHENNAI, Aug 26 (UNI) — Thanks to a superb hat-trick by forward Susan Abraham, Kerala crushed Bhopal 4-0 to make the quarterfinal grade form group “H” in the 32nd Junior National Women’s Hockey Championship here today. Earlier in other matches, Chandigarh humbled a lowly Gujarat 15-0, with Prakash Chowdhry scoring eight goals, including five in a row, in group “E”, while Manipur and Himachal Pradesh played to a 1-1 draw in group “G”. |
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BRUSSELS: Maurice Greene of the USA, left, bolts ahead of Trinidad's Ato Bolden
toward the finish line in the men's 100 metres during the
Memorial Van Damme track meet at King Baudouin stadium in Brussels on
Friday. Greene went on to be placed first in the event. 
