Sampras, Krajicek, Moya move up

NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) — Pete Sampras solved the mystery of surprising South Korean qualifier Lee Hyung-taik at the US Open to set up a quarter-final clash against his most difficult opponent — Richard Krajicek.

Four-time Open champion Sampras took some time to gauge the game of the gritty, 24-year-old Lee before posting a 7-6 (7-4) 6-2, 6-4 win in their rain-interrupted fourth-round match yesterday.

“He came out here and he was as cool as a cucumber,” Sampras said after facing the little-known Lee for the first time. “He’s a good player.”

The victory by Sampras proceeded according to the form book once the match resumed at 3-1 in the second set following a rain delay of two hours, 25 minutes at a much cooler and windier National Tennis Centre.

“In the first set, it’s always difficult playing someone I’ve never seen play,” said Sampras. “He wasn’t overwhelmed by the situation, playing me on centre court. He came out and held his own. “But after I got the first set, I started to settle down and started playing a little bit better.”

Just beating Sampras into the quarters was former Wimbledon champion Krajicek, who completed a 7-6 (13-11), 6-4, 6-1 win over Dominik Hrbaty of the Slovak Republic over in Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The hard-hitting Dutchman hammered home 15 aces against Hrbaty and will next train his dangerous serve-and-volley game at Sampras, whom he has beaten six times in nine previous career meetings.

Yesterday’s action saw one upset of substance as Spain’s Carlos Moya ousted eighth-seeded compatriot Alex Corretja 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in a third-round match held over from Sunday’s drenching rain.

Moya, who beat Corretja in the 1998 French Open final, had slipped to 55th in the rankings after struggling to find his form because of back problems. The 24-year-old Moya will next meet 1999 Open runner-up Todd Martin, who completed a straight-set victory over 10th seed Cedric Pioline of France.

Advancing to a quarter-final clash were ninth seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and unseeded Arnaud Clement of France — both of whom will be playing in the round-of-eight for the first time in a Grand Slam.

Hewitt crushed seventh-seeded Swede Thomas Enqvist 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 while Clement, who ousted top-seeded 1999 winner Andre Agassi in the second round, overcame Romanian Andrei Pavel 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) in his fourth-round test.

Krajicek said he saw no reason to change his winning strategy against Sampras, winner of a record 13 Grand Slams. Sampras broke a string of four straight defeats to Krajicek by beating him in the 1999 hardcourt quarters in Cincinnati.

“He possesses some heavy heat,” Sampras said of Krajicek. “The biggest thing is whether I can return his serve. It’s not going to be an easy match. He gives me a lot of trouble.”

The relentless Krajicek (28) sets up shop at the net and dares Sampras to beat him. “I don’t show him the respect that he’s so good,” said Krajicek. “And so far it’s proven to be most of the times the way to beat him.” Lee, who has been on an inspired run at the Open despite being ranked 182 in the world, showed no fear against Sampras and was full of fight in their opening set.

There were no service breaks in the opening set, though Sampras had to fend off triple break point in the sixth game. Lee, who became the first South Korean man to win a Grand Slam match at this Open — losing two sets in posting three victories —appeared to have extended Sampras even farther in the first-set tiebreaker.

With Sampras leading 6-4 in the decider, Lee looked to have saved set point with a forehand volley winner, but his forward momentum carried him into net and both feet touched the bottom of net, giving the point to Sampras. He sheepishly looked to the chair umpire, laughing, and point and set were awarded to Sampras.

The South Korean qualifier, who showed great speed on the court and an impressive forehand passing shot, fought fiercely in the second game of second set, which went to eight deuces. Lee survived seven break points, but a double fault gave Sampras his eighth break chance of the game. Sampras cashed in at last as Lee’s backhand down the line went just wide, giving Sampras his first break of match for 2-0.

Sampras was off and running from there. Lee said he would have liked to have seen whether he could have won the first set had he not lost the point by touching the net.

Through an interpreter, Lee said he could imagine telling his grandchildren one day about how he almost took a set from Sampras at the open.

“In fact, I think I would exaggerate a little bit and say I was winning and I touched the net and I happened to lose,” joked Lee.

From a bunch of losers to world beaters

LONDON, Sept 5 (AP) — When captain Nasser Hussain lifted the Wisden Trophy to thunderous applause by 18,500 Londoners thrilled at England’s historic cricket victory over the West Indies, he did so at the very balcony where he was booed and jeered a year ago.

The fickle difference was a matter of a series win and defeat.

Humbled by Stephen Fleming’s New Zealanders last year, Hussain turned from villain to hero after leading England to a series win over the West Indies yesterday after a 31-year drought to the visitors.

“It makes me feel immensely proud, holding that trophy up in front of all those supporters. I’m proud of the team, they can be very proud of the 2000 season they have put in,” Hussain said.

“The wheels might come off in the winter. We might have been poor before, but they can be proud of what they’ve achieved.”

It was one of the most accomplished efforts by an England side in recent memory. And as Jimmy Adams agreed, the 3-1 margin highlighted the gulf between the two sides.

England under Hussain have risen from a bunch of losers to world beaters, harnessing the skills that had remained dormant and untapped in the bygone era.

David Lloyd’s team England concept was dumped in favour of self belief and individuality. Youth and experience were blended in harmony under the skilful guidance of Hussain and coach Duncan Fletcher.

Hussain presented himself as a proud captain and England became a proud team. Every member who contributed to a phenomenal summer of cricket has now earned the right to be so.

In only his second year as captain, Hussain has led England to a series win over Zimbabwe (1-0), won the triangular one-day series and now hammered the West Indies in a display of battle-hardened professionalism.

Hussain’s pride had previously taken a battering after a new low with the bat.

The most astute of recent England captains admitted he had put the team before himself, letting the added responsibility of wresting the Wisden Trophy weigh him down.

“It’s just drained me,” Hussain said. “I felt it would be nice for this team to break that 31-year record and I haven’t thought about anything else for the last couple of months other than how to win this series. I know that sounds pretty sad.”

England’s win avoided an unenviable record — the longest run of failure for a prize between two international teams.

England had not won the trophy since July 1, 1969. The West Indies regained it at Lord’s on August 27, 1973 and retained it for 13 consecutive series.

It matched the USA’s past golfing dominance in the Ryder Cup. After Britain won in 1957, the Americans went unbeaten in 13 contests before finally losing in 1985, by which time the whole of Europe had been brought in to help out.

“When you’ve got players like (David) Gower, (Ian) Botham, (Bob) Willis, (Mike) Gatting, and you see 3-0 5-0 2-1 4-1 to West Indies, it’s turned around and it’s England 3-1. We are all proud to be part of that team,” a proud Darren Gough said.

Gough, whose advance as the country’s premier fast bowler had been hindered by injuries, finished the series with 25 wickets and claimed the Man-of-the Series award from the home side.

“This year I’ve been surprised at the way we’ve gelled together. Everybody who has come in has fitted in well.

“And we’ve got bowlers who can compete with everyone in the world. Obviously we still lack the express pace and the magical spinner, but as a four we’ve bowled excellently all season.”

West Indies skipper Jimmy Adams summed up his team’s apathy with one word: inconsistent.

After winning the first Test by an innings and 93 runs, the visitors threw away the stranglehold they had on the series in just one session at Lord’s in June.

They crashed to 54 all out and ignited an English resurgence that stayed to torment the West Indies for the rest of the summer.

“We’ve been too inconsistent,” Adams lamented. “The scoreline reflects that England played consistently better cricket than we did for the majority of the summer.

“England were mentally tougher than we were,” he added. “To play away from home involves more than technique — it involves more on the mental side.”

Anand settles for a draw

SHENYANG (China), Sept 5 (PTI) — After opening his campaign with two straight victories, Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand finds himself in a slightly tricky situation as he settled for a draw against GM Peter Tregubov of Russia in the fourth round of the first FIDE World Cup chess tournament here.

With this second draw, Anand, who has three points from four rounds, leads Group D by half a point but his moving to the knock-out quarter-final stage is not yet certain.

The Indian needs at least a draw in his final round game against GM Vladimir Tkachiev of France to move ahead. The only silver lining is that the pressure would be on Tkachiev — on the joint second spot in the group with GM Boris Gelfand of Israel — who would be needing a win given that Gelfand has a rather easy opponent in Tissir Mohamed of Morocco.

Tkachiev and Gelfand both won their fourth round matches. Gelfand defeated FIDE world champion Alexander Khalifman, whose bad run continued, while Tkachiev accounted for Tissir Mohamed who has become the whipping boy of the group.

Anand, playing his third game in the tournament with white pieces, could not sustain his momentum when he faced a stunning novelty from Trugabov, the highest rated player in the tournament, on the ninth move in the Accelerated Sicilian Aveshnikov.

Caught in a web, Anand failed to improvise much and went for an exchange of queens. The players agreed for a draw soon after in a dynamically balanced queenless middlegame after just 13 moves.

Gelfand was in his element in his win over Khalifman from the black side of a Sicilian Nazdorf game.

Khalifman went for the kill very early in the game and opted for the piece sacrifice variation. The position became violent as the game entered the middlegame phase but Gelfand was able to romp home with his material superiority.

Tkachiev did not have to labour much against Tissir. In a modern defence game, thematic manouevres proved effective and Tissir was no match once tactical complications occurred.

In group A, none of the games were decisive. Group leaders GMs Gilberto Milos of Brazil and Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia (2.5 points each) drew their game with each other to maintain their half-point lead over their nearest rivals.

GM Alexander Morozevich, who drew his game against Boris Gulko of the USA, is out of contention for a quarter-final berth from Group A having collected just one point.

In group B, GM Ye Jiangchuan of China (2.5) shot into the sole lead with a draw against GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine (1.5) in a Sicilain Taimanov game with white pieces.

Nigel Short of England (2) bounced back with a thumping win over Xu Jun of China (2) in an English defencive game. Short played creatively in the endgame to score his first victory of the tournament.

Group C has three players tied at the top spot with 2.5 points. Group favourite Peter Svidler of Russia defeated Rizouk of Algeria in a one-sided game to join leaders Evgeny Bareev of Russia and Sergei Movsesian of the Czech Republic.

In the women’s section, former world champion GM Maya Chaiburdanidz of Georgia bowed out of the qualifying slots when she was held by Russian A Kostenuk. 

Sydney countdown — 64
The September 15 opening ceremony unveiled
By Andy O’Brien

A LITTLE girl walks to the centre of the Olympic Stadium, spreads out a towel, puts zinc cream on her nose and dreams about Australia. In the course of the next 60 minutes, the world will be taken on a mythical voyage through Australia’s history by the girl and Djakapurra, a traditional Aboriginal dancer.

The Australian has pieced together a blueprint of the September 15 ceremony from documents drafted by the creative team, led by Ric Birch and David Atkins. Remember Birch: As the Atlanta Games drew to a close in 1996, renowned events producer Birch had just seven minutes to showcase the ethos of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games to the world. The brief handover cere-mony he coordinated — where Sydney symbolically took up the mantle for the Games of the new millennium — left one lingering image in the minds of many spectators. Giant inflatable kangaroos on pushbikes.

Rumours are that the cycling roos may make an appearance at the opening ceremony in Sydney. But so far this is what the run down looks like: As the 118,000-strong crowd find their seats before the 7 pm start, 100 Swatch mime characters will run through the audience. Remember Indian standard time is 5 and a half hours behind Sydney time, so the 7 pm start would correspond to 1:30 pm IST. Live vision will be beamed on giant video screens of the athletes boarding their buses at the Olympic village to take part in the parade of nations. A glimpse will be given of the 10,800 ceremony performers and the 5000 crew members as they make last-minute preparations. After a second-by-second countdown beginning 6.59 pm, the ceremony will burst to life when 120 stock riders on horses, including ‘‘Crocodile Dundee’’ Paul Hogan, thunder into the stadium. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra will strike up The Man From Snowy River for the 3½-minute segment.

The riders, aged between 15 and 77, will form into the shape of the Olympic rings with Olympic flags flying. They will break free and ride to the fence, where they will throw their stock hats into the crowd and shout ‘G’Day’. At 7.03 pm, Governor-General William Deane and IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch will arrive and take their seats in the tribune of honour on the western side of the Olympic stadium. Jazzman James Morrison and 20 fellow trumpeters will front a swing band playing Fanfare to welcome the dignitaries. The playing of the Australian national anthem will begin at 7.05pm with vocal group Human Nature singing harmonies. Julie Anthony will sing the anthem backed by the orchestra and a choir.

The creative segment — per-formed on a 23,000sq m ground cloth featuring the world’s largest mural — will begin with the little girl’s Deep Sea Dreaming se-quence. After she dreams of the ocean, jellyfish and stingrays, Djakapurra will take centre stage with Aboriginal dancers selected from tribes across Australia. They will circle around burning eucalyptus leaves and conjure a giant Wandjina, a creation myth spirit symbolising the unity of indigenous people. Firebreathers will ignite the bush, regenerating plants that bloom into a sea of Australian wildflowers, trees and animals. Djakapurra will walk through the garden and find the girl hidden behind a flower.

The Australian understands that at 7.37 pm a three-person bicycle will enter the stadium to begin a journey through early European settlement, before ending with a depiction of the Australian suburban dream. The final stage will focus on the waves of immigration to Australia and feature Sydney’s Anzac Bridge rising in front of 2000 performers. At 8 pm, a 1950-member international marching band will strike up for the parade of athletes. The parade will culminate with the entry of Australia at about 9.30 pm and the performance of John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John singing Dare To Dream.

At 9.38pm, Governor-General William Dean will officially open the Games of the 27th Olympiad. As the Olympic flag is raised, Vanessa Amorosi will sing Heroes Live Forever. Finally, at 10.02pm a torchbearer will enter the arena for the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron. Whether it be Dawn Fraser, Betty Cuthbert or another Olympian who is handed the honour, the moment Australia has dreamt of for seven years will have arrived.

New light to flame

The Flash came home this weekend, flame held high against an early-morning chill that could turn lips blue. But the cold did not stop the little New South Wales town of Lithgow from welcoming back its most famous daughter. Marjorie Jackson-Nelson (known to the Olympic world as the Lithgow Flash) shunned the little golf buggy provided for her and ignored whatever pain her osteoporosis was causing to circumnavigate the track at the local park where she trained her way to two sprint gold medals at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Sharing the torch freely with hundreds of outstretched hands, she acknowledged the adulation with genuine surprise and humility. Jackson-Nelson is immensely popular in her home town, where her sister still lives and every local of a certain age seems to know her personally. ‘‘I can’t believe this crowd — all my relatives must be here,’’ she joked. ‘‘It’s great after 48 years to see so many people.’’

The Lithgow Flash was the fastest woman on earth at the midpoint of the 20th century, breaking world records and collecting Olympic and Empire Games (the former name for the Commonwealth Games) medals. She lives in Adelaide these days, but her legend grows apace in Lithgow, west of Sydney, where they unveiled a bronze statue of their golden girl to commemorate her visit. ‘‘I used to be down here every night of the week, training in the fog for the Olympic Games,’’ said Jackson-Nelson, who at 68 gives the outward appearance of robust health. ‘‘I really do wish this could go on forever.’’ Were she not one of the greatest track athletes the world has seen, Jackson-Nelson would probably have been nominated as a torchbearer anyway — she has been a tireless fundraiser for the fight against leukaemia, which claimed her husband Peter Nelson, a cyclist on the Australian team in Helsinki. The torch reached its home for the night in the hands of Kane Towers, who carried it on behalf of his father Ched, a blind Para-Olympian who died earlier this year while climbing Mount Everest. A touching end to the Flame on what was in Australia Father’s Day weekend.— PMG

Samaranch praises Olympic village

SYDNEY, Sept 5 (AFP) — International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch paid a visit to Sydney’s Olympic village today and pronounced it “very first class.” “I’m very happy,” Mr Samaranch told reporters. “I think it’s a very first class Olympic village.”

He also met former South African president Nelson Mandela for 15 minutes inside the residential quarters of the village. Mr Mandela also entered the village amid tight security, with plain-clothes federal police ordering photographers to not use flashes when taking pictures of him.

The $ 590-million Olympic village was officially opened at the weekend as athletes began to arrive for the Games starting here on September 15. It is the first summer games village with the capacity to accommodate every competitor in one location — all 10,000 athletes and 5,000 officials from 200 countries.

The athletes will scarcely need to venture from the 1,000 brand new houses and apartments, except to compete — and most of the 13 venues hosting 17 sports are virtually next door. An army of 10,000 staff will be on hand to pamper them and tend to their every whim — from massages and body care to gymnasiums, pinball parlours and a disco.

It has shops, a cinema, a video arcade, dance club, supermarket, post office, bank, florist, travel agency and medical centre. On the menu at the 500-seat restaurant is a choice of 70 dishes with cuisine from every competing country. Eight articulated lorry loads of food will nourish the athletes every day.

Romario stars in Brazil’s victory

RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 5 (AFP) — A hat-trick from veteran striker Romario set Brazilian pulses racing as he led the ‘auriverde’ to a 5-0 whitewash of Bolivia here on Sunday to boost his country’s chances of qualifying for the 2002 World Cup. The win took the heat off coach Wanderley Luxemburgo, hit for tax fraud last week and derided for the team’s poor showings in previous qualifiers, which had brought two defeats - including a 3-0 drubbing in their previous outing in Chile.

But rivals Argentina took some of the gloss off the Brazilian success as they moved to the brink of assuring themselves one of the top four automatic qualifying places with a 2-1 win in Peru, with Lazio pair Hernan Crespo and Juan Sebastian Veron both on target.

Third-placed Uruguay kept up their challenge yesterday with a 4-0 hammering of Ecuador in Montevideo with goals from Federico Magallanes, Dario Silva, Nicolas Olivera and Gabriel Cedres.

Despite losing their match in Brazil, Argentina lead the group with 19 points from eight matches, four clear of Colombia, who won 1-0 in Chile in their match Saturday in Santiago.

Uruguay, Brazil and Paraguay are all locked on 14 points.

The Brazilians have a chance to consolidate their position in their next match as they travel to hapless Venezuela, bottom of the group, while Argentina have a tough test at home to Uruguay. 

Carrom: TN prove supremacy 
From Our Correspondent

JALANDHAR, Sept 5 — Tamil Nadu proved their supremacy in carrom when their men and women teams annexed the titles in the XXXth Senior National & Inter-State Carrom Championship held here at Punjab Armed Police Complex. Tamil Nadu (men) defeated Maharashtra in the final at 2-1.

In the first singles of team events R. Kuberan of Tamil Nadu lost the first game against Yogest Pardesh of Maharashtra in 9 boards at 2-25. In the 2nd game Kuberan improved his game and finished earning one point. In the 3rd game, Kuberan with his best skill and technique stopped Pardesh and emerged winner at 2-25, 25-23, 25-18.

In second singles ex-national champion Sanjay Mande of Maharashtra defeated D. Kuberdra Babu ex-junior national champion in straigth set at 25-20, 25-15.

In the third singles K. Radhakrishnan of Tamil Nadu lost against Dilesh Kelkar of Maharashtra at 12-25 but captured second and third games and won at 25-21 and 25-16.

In placing matches for third and fourth places Vidarbha defeated Bihar by 3-0.

Tamil Nadu women crushed Hyderabad at 3-0 and annexed the title. In the first singles D. Swamlatha, TN defeated S. Appoorva Hyderabad at 25-19, 25-8. in the second singles reigning national champion R. Sharmila crushed K. Ratnakumari of Hyderabad at 25-9, 25-6. In the third singles A. Ponnarasi of TN defeated K. Suvarna easily at 25-14, 25-11. In the placings match Maharashtra defeated Andhra at 2-1.

In the men singles second round Punjab No 1 Saurabh Sharma defeated R.P. Thakur of Himachal Pradesh 22-17, 25-4 and entered the third round. India No 2 Narasing Rao of All India Electricity Sports Control Board received a setback when he was defeated by Ramesh Babu of Petroleum Sports Control Board at 24-16, 24-23. B.C. Anand of Karnataka proved his supremacy against LIC player Zaheer Ahmed, an international player, winning 24-18, 19-8.

Other results:
Men’s singles (2nd round): A. Maria (Indian Airlines) Ashok Gaud (UP) 23-14, 25-12. Jagan Bengle )BSB) b M.Ratnaraj 18-25, 25-10, 25-12. Sanjay mande (Mah) b G. Devkumar 25-8, 25-2. K Radhakrishnan (TN) b Pathan (Guj) 25-11, 25-10.

Women’s singles (2nd round): A. Poonarasi (TN) b Nalini (Mah) 25-2, 25-9. Anupama (BSB) b Vaishali (MP) 25-0, 25-0. P. Nirmala (LIC) b Poonam (Vid) 25-0, 17-8. Monaz Tantira (Mah) b Rita Rani (Punjab) 25-0, 25-0.

Shalini, Rushmi advance
From Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, Sept 5 — Fifth-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi shook off her indifferent form to shock Monique Adamczak of Australia, winner of a double crown at Jaipur last week, 6-4, 6-4, and moved into the pre-quarterfinals of the $ 10,000 ITF Women’s Tennis Circuit Tournament at the Delhi Tennis Assocition deco-turf court here today.

Rushmi, who had lost to I-Ting Wang of Chinese Taipei in the quarter-final in the first leg at Jaipur, outsmarted the Australian girl with a tactical approach, which completely flummoxed the visitor.

Though Rushmi was broken in the very first game of the first set, and the Aussie girl held her serve to take a 2-0 lead, the Indian eve regained the initiative by slowing down the pace, which upset the rhythm of Adamczaki. Rushmi broke back in the third game, and gained another break in the seventh, to sew-up the set.

In the second set, Rushmi got off well, breaking Adamczaki in the first game, but dropped her own serve in the fourth with three double faults, though it did not prove costly as she broke back in the seventh game, to lift the set and the match. The contest lasted one hour and six minutes.

Rushmi said she slowed down the game when the Australian was gaining ascendancy, and it had a quick impact on Adamczaki, as she lost her rhythm, and could not settle down to play her normal solid game. Rushmi had been battling with an injury on her right shoulder for the past few weeks, which had prevented her from going flat out, thereby adversely affecting her performances.

She, however, said her game had shown considerable improvement after playing in six tournaments during her European tour in the summer, helping her improve her ranking from 600 plus to 489.

In other matches, top-seeded Manisha Malhotra made light of the challenge of the USA-based Jyotsna Vasisht, posting a 6-1,6-3 victory in one hour and 14 minutes, while eighth-seeded Sonal Pahdke won a battle of attrition against Archana Venkatraman 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 in two hours and 50 minutes. In a match in which no quarter was asked and none given, they fought it out in extreme humid weather in their own pace, to decide the winner. Archana committed more mistakes, and paid the penalty.

Archana’s sister Arthi was, however, easy fodder for third-seeded Orawan Wongkamalas of Thailand, as she caved in straight sets at 0-6, 3-6. Veronika Raimrova of the Czech Republic took just 50 minutes to rush past Indian qualifier Smita Rani 6-1, 6-2 while the fourth-seeded I-Ting Wang crushed Ana Sismundini 6-2, 6-0, also in 50 minutes, to complete the pre-quarterfinal line-ups.

CRPF blank Haryana cops
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Sept 5 — On the inaugural day of the All India 49th B.N. Mullik Memorial Football Championship here only three of the four matches could be played as the Kerala Police team did not report in time.

The championship was declared open by the Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Mr Girish Chandra Saxena at the Bakshi Stadium yesterday.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) defeated Haryana Police in the inaugural match by 4-0. At the the A S College grounds Nagaland thwarted Orissa scoreing being the same (4-0).

The SSB defeated Andhra Pradesh Police team by three goals to nil in the third match played at the Bakshi Stadium in the afternoon.

Bihar team got a walk-over against Kerala which did not report in time for the match.

BSF are the holders of the last year’s championship, while Punjab Police an the runners-up. These two teams are scheduled to join at the quarter-finals.

The teams clashing for the trophy are: Andhra Pradesh, Assam Police, Assam Rifles, Bihar, Chandigarh, CISF, CRPF, Delhi Police, Haryana, J&K, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Nagaland, Orissa, Rajasthan, RPF, SSB, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.

The tournament is being played on league basis in which 33 matches will be played followed by knock-out round in which 14 matches are slated to be played.

The knock-out round will be played on September 11 while quarter-final matches will be played on September 12.

The semi-final fixtures are scheduled for September 14 and the final will be played on September 16.

REGIONAL SPORT BRIEFS

Kabaddi titles for Punjab, Chandigarh
From Our sports Reporter

RAMPURA PHUL (Bathinda), Sept 5 — Punjab and Chandigarh have won the second Circle-Style National Kabaddi Championship in the men’s and women’s section, respectively. The meet concluded here last evening.

The final match in the men’s section was played between Punjab and Haryana. Both the teams played aggressively but Punjab prevailed over Haryana 44-26. Punjab led 21-13 at half time.

Bhinder Bariwala, Sukhwinder Jaito, Kala Sukhana of Punjab played extremely well Kewal Bhao, Inder chipped in with useful performances. Krishan and Gulaga played well for Haryana.

The final match in the women’s section was played between Punjab and Chandigarh. The match was interesting as international players Lali, Bholi, Rozi, Mangi and Pappu were in the Chandigarh team. Chandigarh easily won 53-29.

Haryana athletics championship
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 5 — The 34th senior state athletic championship for men and women will be organised at War Heroes Memorial Stadium, Ambala Cantt, on September 23 and 24 by the Ambala District Amateur Athletic Association.

Stating this here yesterday, president of Haryana State Amateur Athletic Association (HSAAA), Mr Abhey Singh Chautala, said that best eight athletes would be selected during this meet who would participate in the 16th Haryana State Sports Festival being held from October 13 to 16 at Rohtak.

Giving details of various events of this meet, secretary, HSAAA, Mr H.S. Bhadu, said that competitions in 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 400m, hurdles, 4x100 m relay, 4x400 m relay, shot put, discus throw, hammer throw, javeline throw, long jump, high jump and triple jump would be conducted in both men’s and women’s categories while only men would compete in 10,000m race, 110m hurdle race and 20 km walk events.

More than 450 athletes from all the districts of the state and MNSS, Rai, Haryana Police, Vidyut Prasaran Nigam and CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, would participate in the championship.

Five athletes, 14 officials

KATHMANDU, Sept 5 (UNI) —Officials heavily outnumber athletes in the Nepali squad for the 27th summer Olympic Games being held at Sydney from September 15.

There are only five athletes named in the Nepali squad while 14 sports officials will be accompanying them, according to an announcement by the Nepal Sports Council — the country’s apex sports authority.

Nepal’s crown prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev will also attend the Sydney Summer Olympics.

Dist badminton meet 
From Our Sports Reporter

SANGRUR, Sept 4 — Dilpreet Singh of Ludhiana and Shahnaaz of Sangrur have been given top seedings in the boys and girls sections, respectively, in the Panjab State Junior Badminton Championships starting here from September 7. The seedings were released here today by Mr Anirudh Tewari, president, district badminton association and Deputy Commissioner Mr Ranjit Singh Balian, state minister for Housing and Urban Development, will inaugurate the championships.