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TV rights scam
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England face
an uphill task Gopi has “very good chance to win” Confident Japan take on
Brazil Dutch rally to beat Estonia Punjab and National Games — Four Afro-Asian Games AAFI may ratify only three
records
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Ferrero powers into last eight
Paris, June 3 The 21-year-old Spaniard has this year emerged as the prime contender to top seed and defending champion Gustavo Kuerte’s crown and title of ‘King of clay’ and here he thoroughly lived up to that potential, blasting winners from both flanks but also serving up a neat selection of delicate drop shots. Ferrero reached the semi-finals here last year on his tournament debut but since then he has matured hugely, having not just clinched Spain’s maiden Davis Cup success over Australia last December — at Hewitt’s expense — but also landed his first masters series title in Rome earlier this month. French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten survived a centre court mauling from American qualifier Michael Russell, coming back from two sets and match point down to win 3-6, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-1 and reach the quarterfinals. The Brazilian top seed and World No. 1, champion at Roland Garros in 1997 as well as last year, was caught cold on a bitter morning in the French capital, losing his serve three times in the first set to a player ranked 122nd in the world. The second was closer, but Kuerten could still not find any consistency and lost it when Russell’s disguised backhand down the line wrong-footed him on set point. Russian seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov set up a repeat of last year’s French Open quarterfinal against Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten when he beat Spain’s Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4. The 27-year-old Russian, who lost in five sets to Kuerten 12 months ago, used his experience to overcome the Spanish teenager in the fourth-round match on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Kafelnikov raced into a two-set lead before 19-year-old Robredo, who had never previously won a match at a Grand Slam tournament, raised his game to take the third. Robredo was also a break up in the fourth set before Kafelnikov, the 1996 French Open champion, changed gear to break back twice and seal victory. Yesterday Andre Agassi just beat the darkness and rain to advance to the fourth round. The third-seeded Agassi overcame a second-set hiccup, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, against Brazil’s Fernando Meligeni in a battle of semifinalists from 1999 — when Agassi went on to complete his collection of Grand Slam titles.
Hingis, Capriati, Henin
in quarters
Meanwhile in the women’s section Belgian 14th seed Justine Henin overcame a slow start to beat unseeded Austrian Barbara Schett 6-3, 6-4 on the Suzanne-Lenglen Court to move into the quarterfinals. Henin (19) will now face 17-year-old Lina Krasnoroutskaya in an all-teenage battle after the Russian swept aside Silvia Farina of Italy 6-2, 6-4. Schett flattered to deceive after storming into a 3-0 lead as Henin twice broke back to move 4-3 clear, whereupon the Austrian hammered her racquet down in fury. Top seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland reached the quarter-finals defeating Sandrine Testud of France 6-1 2-6 6-2. It was a topsy-turvy match in which Hingis raced out to a 5-0 first set lead and clinched the opener 6-1, only for Testud, with a packed Centre Court crowd roaring her on, to get back into it in the second. The 20-year-old Hingis had nine years on her opponent but she suddenly looked flat as Testud pinned her back with pinpoint accurate baseline shots to take the set. Hingis quietened the patriotic crowd by breaking Testud in the opening game of the decider and then, in what proved to be the fatal blow, she saved three break points on her own serve in the following game to move clear. Hingis has what looks like a comfortable enough quarter-final against Italy’s Francesa Schiavone, who defeated Cara Black in three sets. Fourth seed Jennifer Capriati brushed aside fellow American Meghann Shaughnessy 7-5, 6-1 to move into the quarter-finals. Capriati, who won her maiden Grand Slam title in Australia earlier this year, overcame an edgy start to see off her 16th-seeded opponent with ease. She broke Shaughnessy in the 12th game of the opening set on court Suzanne Lenglen and then stepped on the accelerator, winning six of the next seven games to complete victory. Belgian 12th seed Kim Clijsters battled through to the French Open quarter-finals on Sunday with a 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory over Slovakian Henrieta Nagyova.Clijsters, who will be 18 on Friday, had never previously been beyond the first round at Roland Garros.
Reuters Paes-Bhupathi storm into q-finals
Paris, June 3 Yesterday, they had entered the third round after defeating the American pair of Eric Taino and Jack Waite 7-6 (4), 6-1. In the first round, the former world number one had registered a hard-fought victory over the pair of Jaime Oncins of Brazil and Daniel Orsanic of Argentina, staging a come-from-behind victory to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. The Indians had created a record in 1999 when they reached the finals of all the four Grand Slams, winning French and Wimbledon. However, their success story was interrupted in the subsequent year following a brief separation due to personal problems and injuries.
UNI |
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TV rights scam New Delhi, June 3 Agency sources revealed today that “a high-powered team will leave for London later this week to probe the multi-crore TV scam. It will concentrate on the allegations of bungling in acquisition of TV rights for the 1999 cricket World Cup played England.’’ The agency officials are also likely to talk to ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit chief Paul Condon about his investigation into the allegations of corruption in granting of telecast rights to various companies. The Anti-Corruption Unit had, in its first report on match-fixing, stated that it was forming a group consisting of many investigating agencies including the CBI, to probe match-fixing instances and TV rights violation cases. The ICC promised its assistance to the CBI in probing these cases in India or abroad. The tournaments in which the alleged bungling took place were French Open tennis championship (1997), Wimbledon (1997). Independence Cup cricket tournament (1997), the 1998 ICC Knockout Cricket Tournament and the cricket World Cup last year. A specific brief of the CBI team would be to collect information about the operations and activities of the WorldTel, headed by sports promoter Mark Mascarenhas, who had been in the eye of storm ever since the CBI conducted raids at his residences and business establishments in India in connection with the probe. Mascarenhas was called by the agency for questioning earlier last month about the findings of the raids and the allegations of his involvement in the matter. He is scheduled to be called once again for a detailed interrogation. The sports promoter is likely to be called after the CBI team returns from Kathmandu. WorldTel recently signed Sachin Tendulkar for a 100 crore five-year contract. The investigation into the scam worth crores of rupees had revealed that officials of the ICC, Doordarshan and Mascarenhas worked “closely” to carry out the bungling in granting TV rights to private companies. The investigation began last year after the agency registered five cases, two of them against WorldTel, for alleged bungling in telecast rights for cricket tournaments since 1996, including the World Cup 1999. The charges include inflated production costs and undue benefit of overseas telecast rights to WorldTel amounting to a bungling of Rs 10 crore and a criminal conspiracy to cheat doordarshan by enhancing Doordarshan’s bid for India and overseas rights which led to a loss of more than Rs 21 crore to Prasar Bharati. The CBI on November 13 last year raided the office and residence of Jagmohan Dalmiya and six top serving and retired officials of doordarshan. The premier investigating agency also carried out raids at the residential and official premises of certain private TV business houses. Simultaneous raids, which started in the wee hours of the day, were conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Bangalore and Lucknow. The raids were conducted at the premises of ex-Doordarshan officials Mr K.S. Sarma, Mr K. Kunhikrishnan, Mr Rakesh Bahadur, Mr Sanjeev Datta and Dr P.K. Seth among ohters and Stracon India chief Siddharth Ray, WorldTel Inc, (United Kingdom), WorldTel India, Bangalore, headed by Mascarenhas and United Television, Mumbai. The CBI charged the DD officials with abusing their official position while serving as public servants by entering into a criminal conspiracy with an intention to cheat the department.
UNI |
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Harare, June 3 The Indians added 77 runs to their overnight 370 for three in the 13 overs of the morning session and declared their first innings at 447 for four. Hemang Badani became the third centurion in the innings and remained unbeaten on 112. Captain Saurav Ganguly emulated Shiv Sunder Das and V.V.S. Laxman, the other two centurions, in forfeiting his innings after making 53. The bowlers, led by Harbhajan Singh who took four wickets, then ripped open an inexperienced Academy batting line-up and had them reeling at 100 for eight at tea before Brent, who remained unbeaten on 72, and wicketkeeper Siziba (20) gave some respectability to the score. The Indians chose not to force a follow-on following the 255-run first innings lead and opted for more batting practice ahead of the first Test starting in Bulawayo on June 7. Badani came out to open with Sadgopan Ramesh and the duo put on 15 runs when the day’s play was called off. Badani was batting on six while Ramesh had made nine. SCOREBOARD Indians (1st innings): Das retired out 110 Ramesh ct Siziba b Soma 42 Laxman retired out 100 Badani not out 112 Ganguly retired out 53 Bahutule not out 6 Extras: (b-5, lb-6, nb-4, w-9) 24 Total:
(for 4 wkts, declared in 110 overs) 447 Fall of wickets:
1-86, 2-248, 3-287, 4-414. Bowling: C. McMillan 20-3-64-0, M. Nkala 13-0-67-0, L. Soma 10-0-38-1, G. Brent 20-5-56-0, I. Coulson 13-1-82-0, S. Ervine 20-3-72-0, B. Rogers 14-2-57-0. CFX Academy XI (Ist innings): Abraham c Dighe b Srinath 9 Duffin lbw b Zaheer 7 Croxford lbw b Harbhajan 21 Rogers ct. Dighe b Zaheer 6 Nkala c Ganguly b Harbhajan 23 Ervine b Agarkar 3 Brent not out 72 McMillan c Badani b Harbhajan 0 Soma ct. Dighe b Bahutule 1 Siziba c & b Bahutule 20 Caulson c Das b Harbhajan 17 Extras:
( lb 5, b 3, nb 5) : 13 Total: ( all out in 74.1 overs): 192 FOW:
1-15, 2-35, 3-47, 4-47, 5-65, 6-76, 7-76, 8-78, 9-155, 10-192 Bowling: Javagal Srinath 18-7-31-1, Ajit Agarkar 15-5-32-1, Harbhajan Singh 18.1-7-43-4, Zaheer Khan 13-3-37-2, Sairaj Bahutule 10-3-41-2. India (IInd innings): Badani not out 6 Ramesh not out 7 Extras: (b 1, w 1): 2 Total: (for no loss in 5 overs): 15 Bowling: Mluleki Nkala 3-0-13-0, Campbell McMillan 2-1-1-0.
UNI, PTI |
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Manchester, ENGLAND, June 3 Left-arm pace bowler Wasim Akram unleashed a barrage of bouncers and short-pitched deliveries in an attempt to unsettle Michael Atherton (30 not out) and Marcus Trescothick (48 not out) during the 22 overs they faced in the last session. Pakistan, however, remain well placed to level the two-match series after Inzamam-ul-Haq and Yousuf Youhana shared a 141-run fourth-wicket partnership to help them to amass 323 in their second innings. Pakistan Ist innings: 403 England Ist innings: 357 Pakistan 2nd innings: Anwar c Thorpe b Gough 12 Razaaq c Cork b Hoggard 22 Iqbal c Stewart b Caddick 14 Haq c Trescothick b Hoggard 85 Youhana c Atherton b Caddick 49 Khan lbw b Cork 17 Mahmood b Caddick 14 Latif c Atherton b Hoggard 25 Akarm b Gough 36 Mushtaq c Stewart b Gough 5 Younis not out 14 Extras: (lb-11, nb-19) 30 Total: (98.5 overs) 323 Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-41, 3-63, 4-204, 5-208, 6-232, 7-241, 8-300, 9-306. Bowling: Gough 22.5-2-83-3, Caddick 22-4-92-3, Hoggard 29-4-93-3, Cork 25-9-42-1. England (2nd innings): Atherton batting 30 Trescothick batting 48 Extras: (b-2, lb-2, w-1, nb-2) 7 Total: (for no loss, 22 overs) 85 Bowling: Wasim 6-1-18-0, Waqar 3-0-20-0, Saqlain 8-3-24-0, Razzaq 5-1-19-0.
AFP
 Inzamam is the
key man Manchester |
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‘No hint of
match-fixing’ London, June 3 |
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Gopi has “very good chance to win” Seville (Spain), June 3 Coming into the tournament without playing a single match after his victory in Birmingham in March, Gopichand dusted off his slight rustiness with four successive wins in the mixed team event for Sudirman Cup, and is slowly inching to his top form ahead of the big event. The sixth-seeded Indian is being rated among the favourites to win the championship with many past and present masters saying Gopichand has finally arrived in world circuit. “I think if he can dominate the net like he did at the All-England, he has a very good chance to win here,” said former Olympic champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen who retired from the game recently. “When I saw him at Birmingham, he looked very fast and physically strong and the way he moved from the backcourt to the front was something to behold. He has definitely got the best net game in the world at the moment and that is where he creates his points,” Hoyer said. World number two Peter Gade of Denmark, who became Gopichand’s casualty in the semi-finals of All-England, was equally appreciative of the genial Indian. “Gopi was very good, very strong at the All-England. He is a difficult player to beat and he is in my half of the draw. Hopefully, since I have prepared well for this event, I should be ready this time.” Another big reason why experts rate him high on the potential winner’s list is the heat factor. Seville has been reeling under a severe heat wave with temperatures soaring into the 40s and the arena here is not air-conditioned. The hot conditions are expected to favour the Indian. The soft-spoken Gopichand oozed confidence as he spoke of his chances. “I have come here to win and I think I have as good a chance as anybody. I hope I can get into my stride early, because consistency will be the key here,” he said. His coach Ganguly Prasad agreed that the playing conditions were favourable to his ward but said Gopichand had some very tough matches ahead. “The arena here favours Gopi, because there is very little drift and he can go for his strokes with confidence. But every round is tough and he has to take it step by step.” In fact, the draw seems to have been a bit tough on Gopichand. After an easy opening round against world number 53 Jens Roch of Germany, he faces Indonesian Johan Hadikusuma, the younger brother of 1992 Olympic champion Alan Budi Kusuma. Hadikusuma is ranked 19th in the world and had, in fact, beaten Gopichand when the two last played at the Danish Open in Copenhagen last year. If the Indian manages to make his way past that hurdle, he is likely to face Fung Permadi, runner-up at the last world championship and a player known for his consistency and economy of effort. In the quarter-finals, he is slated to meet the man he beat in the final of the All-England championships - Chen Hong of China. Peter Gade is also in his half of the draw. Gopichand was unperturbed, though. “If I have to win here, I have to beat all-comers. When I came here for this event, I knew I had to play my best in order to win and I am prepared for that. The draw does not really matter,” he said. As a pointer to the shape of things to come, Gopichand looked to get better and better with every match in the Sudirman Cup. Hoyer-Larsen made the final point. “Gopi’s body language is positive and technically he is pushing the game to newer limits. He is definitely looking good and I think you will find that somebody will have to play really out of the ordinary if he is to be stopped from winning here.”
PTI
Seville (Spain), June 3 At the San Pablo Indoor Stadium, the two mixed doubles pairs progressed into the third round of the qualifying draw while the men’s doubles combination of Jaseel Ismail and Markose Bristow made it to the second round. In the first round of the mixed doubles, V. Diju and P.V.V. Lakshmi outclassed Pavlos Charalambidis and Christina Mavromatidou of Greece 15-6 15-1 and then in the second round, they had to struggle a bit before overcoming the Kazakh pair of Anuar Musafirov and Saule Kustavletova 15-11 15-7. The pair of Jaseel Ismail and Madhumita Bisht, who received a bye in the opening round, were stretched all the way by Iceland duo of Helgi Johannesson and Vigdis Asgeirsdottir before scraping through to a 15-13 10-15 15-5 win. In the men’s doubles, Ismail, partnering Markose Bristow had no problems in disposing of the US pair of Bob Malaythong and Trisna Gunadi 15-8 15-9. Meanwhile, in the men’s singles, Sidharth Jain, the highest-ranked player in the qualifying draw at No.78, had an easy opening round victory over Ragnar Rasmussen of the Faroe Islands, winning 15-1 15-2 to enter the third round. The tall Indian, who received a bye in the opening round, was simply too good for the Faroe Islander who was out of his depth in an event of this magnitude. After his match Jain was happy with the victory but was still non-committal about his chances. “I would have preferred a slightly tougher opening match since”.
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Confident Japan take on Brazil Ibaraki (Japan) June 3 The World Cup co-hosts are on the crest of a wave after winning both their games handsomely in the Confederations Cup and now come up against a Brazilian second-string side which has struggled. It used to be said that Brazil could put out a reserve team and still be world beaters, but that no longer appears the case. The Brazilians — lacking most of their best European-based players — were booed off the pitch after the goal-less draw against Canada. The encounter with Japan in Ibaraki will determine who tops group B. Japan (6 points) are already through to the semifinals and Brazil (4) are likely to join them. Canada (1) have only a theoretical chance of going through, but their German coach Holger Osieck will welcome the match in Niigata against African and Olympic champions Cameroon as another important test of his side’s progress. Cameroon, who prop up the group without a point, have been the big failure of a tournament they hoped to win. “We are disappointed but we will be focused for the game against Canada — the players are always proud to wear the Cameroon shirt,’’ said coach Pierre Lechantre. Japan have a poor record against Brazil, losing 0-2 in Tokyo in their last meeting just over two years ago. A friendly in Osaka in August 1997 ended in a 0-3 drubbing. But Japan coach Philippe Troussier believes his side is showing new confidence, determination and maturity to add to their undoubted ball skills. With the fans also behind them, Japan are in the rare position of starting a match against Brazil expecting to get a good result. Goalkeeper Yohikatsu Kawaguchi and two-goal Kashima Antlers striker Takayuki Suzuki — earning his second cap and first full appearance — were singled out by Troussier after the win against Cameroon, but it was the overall performance which impressed. The French coach said he had a sleepless night before the match “fretting about which team to pick”. He only made his mind up shortly before kick-off. Luckily he opted for Suzuki — 25 on Tuesday — who was not in the line-up in the 3-0 win over Canada. “He is new to the team but I felt he was ready”, he said. Meanwhile Japan’s AS Roma midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata is attracting the interest of arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. Wenger is in talks with Roma on signing the player for some $ 22 million, reports said.
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Paris, June 3 The Dutch twice came from behind to beat Estonia 4-2 with three goals in the last seven minutes, Manchester United’s record buy Ruud van Nistelrooy scoring two of them, while Germany drew 2-2 with Finland after trailing 0-2. The Dutch moved into second in group two, a point behind the Republic of Ireland, who they play in Dublin on September 1, and two points ahead of Portugal, who themselves came from a goal down to draw 1-1 with the Irish earlier yesterday. Germany, who went behind to two Mikael Forssell goals before a Michael Ballack penalty and a long-range Carsten Jancker stunner got them the point, hold a six-point lead in group nine over England, who play Greece, 1-0 winners over Albania yesterday — on Wednesday. Elsewhere Italy’s seemingly inevitable march to next year’s finals in Japan and Korea progressed with a hard-fought 2-1 win in Georgia — though Romania’s 2-0 win over Hungary still leaves them with a bit to do to assure themselves of a trip to Asia. The Italians, who secured the three points through goals by AS Roma duo Marco Delvecchio and Francesco Totti, lead the 1994 quarterfinalists by seven points, although the Romanians have a game in hand. Spain, who time after time arrive at the finals heavily favoured but disappoint, struggled for a while to see off Bosnia despite opening the score through veteran defender Fernando Hierro, whose 26th minute goal made him the Spanish national side’s leading all-time scorer with 27. The Bosnians levelled and it took the introduction of AC Milan-bound Javi Moreno in the 75th minute to spark the Spanish into action as they scored three times in the final 15 minutes. Moreno, whose goals inspired unheralded Alaves to their eventual epic 4-5 defeat by Liverpool in the UEFA Cup final, scored almost with his first touch to head home from Pedro Munitis’s cross. Real Madrid hitman Raul added another a minute from time and Diego Tristan celebrated his international debut with the fourth right on the final whistle with a header. The Dutch win, achieved without midfielder Edgar Davids who was banned for failing a drugs test but watched from the stands, was the perfect antidote to the news in the past month that Ronald de Boer had also failed a test for the steroid nandrolone. The Estonians, who host the Irish on Wednesday, twice held the lead first through Anders Oper’s cracking shot after he outpaced Mario Melchiot in the 65th minute. However, Frank de Boer levelled five minutes later with a deflected shot which was then cancelled out when Indek Zelinski volleyed home from close range following Oper’s pinpoint cross. It was then time for the Van Nistelrooy show.
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Punjab and National Games — Four Chandigarh, June 3 Incidentally the June 2000 meeting was the last attended by the Secretary-General of the
POA, Mr Arvind Khanna. He was conspicuous by his absence at the core committee meeting held at Ludhiana and even the games technical conduct committee meeting held last month. The Secretary-General of the POA was also not present when the state honoured outstanding sportsmen and women at Punjab Bhavan some weeks ago. There is a move to hold the general house meeting of the POA to replace the Secretary-General for he and the President are no more on the same wave length. It may be a mere coincidence that by virtue of his being the Secretary-General, he also becomes the organising secretary of the National Games. Imagine the fate of the National Games whose organising secretary stays away from the important meetings of the organising committee or its technical conduct committee. The POA on its part has failed to organise its biannual State Sports Festival for more than a decade now. Holding of the National Games was an ideal time to revive the state games for more than one reasons. The conduct of the state games would have served the useful purpose of reviewing all arrangements, including infrastructure, and served as a dress rehearsal for the bigger show to pinpoint shortcomings and flaws, if any. What to talk of holding the state games, none of the state sports association has even organised a simple preparatory or training camp for the September games ? Some of the state associations have proposed to hold three coaching camps, beginning in July, for their state teams. But none has planned any off season camp to utilise summer vacations. The state, which was once called sports arm of the country, would be hard pressed to live up to is expectations as a host state as far as medals tally is concerned. But medals come with proper planning and training. And in case of Punjab, both have been missing so far. It is not only the POA whose house is in disarray but things are no better elsewhere too. See the Punjab State Sports Council. In more than two years of its constitution, it is yet to hold its first meeting. What would be the more opportune moment for the general house of the state sports council to meet than holding of the National Games in the state. Primarily, the fund starved state sports council has lost its role. Its budget is hardly suffice to meet the establishment expenses , including payment of salaries to its staff. For the past several years , it has been unable to finance training, travel or even participation of a state team in any national championship. Until some years ago, expenses on coaching camps for the state teams, kits of team members and part of the travel expenses of the state teams for participation in national championships were borne by the state sports council. But the sports Budget of the state has been cut drastically. The department unfortunately has no sports equipment which could be used for the training of the state teams for the National Games. Sportsmen and women from Punjab would be either at par or even below par compared to some states for having trained their players on proper equipment prior to their participation in the 2001 National Games. (Concluded) |
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Afro-Asian Games New Delhi, June 3 The first four countries from the All-Africa Games 1999 and the first four countries from the Asian Games ’98 will participate in each event. Hosts India have been permitted to participate in all the events irrespective of whether they had figured among the first four of the Bangkok Asiad in ’98. About 50 countries from Asia and Africa are expected to compete in the Games. The much-awaited organising committee has also been put in place with Ms Bharati as the chairperson and Mr Kalmadi as the working Chairman. The organising committee will also have an executive board which will be “primarily responsible for the conduct of the games”. Ms Bharati also released the schedule of events, which are: acquatics: from November 4 to 10 at the Talkatora swimming pool; athletics: from November 7 to 11 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium; boxing: from November 4 to 10 at the Indira Gandhi indoor stadium; football: from November 2 to 11 at the Nehru Stadium, Chattarsal Stadium and Ambedkar Stadium; hockey: from November 4 to 10 at the National Stadium (men) and Shivaji Stadium (women); shooting (men and women): from Nov. 4 to 10 at the Karni Singh Shooting Ranges; tennis: from Nov. 4 to 10 at the R K Khanna Stadium and Siri Fort Complex; weightlifting: from Nov. 4 to 10 at the Indira Gandhi indoor stadium. Mr Kalmadi said former Indian Davis Cup captain Vijay Amritraj and Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna were trying to get the dates of the World Doubles Tennis Championship, to be held in Bangalore, changed as it was clashing with the Afro-Asiad. Mr Kalmadi said Vijay was in touch with the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in this connection. The South Asian Football Federation Championship has already been postponed to 2002, while the Olympic Council (OCA) of Asia president Sheikh Ahmed has written to the Chief Executive of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, requesting him his good offices in postponing the Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament. Mr Kalmadi also requested Ms Bharati to take up the matter with Gen Musharraf when he holds discussions on the resumption of cricket ties between India and Pakistan with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee when he visits India in the second week of July. The IHF has also been asked to take up with matter at the International Hockey Federation (FIH) meeting in Amsterdam, to get the Champions Trophy postponed, till after the Afro-Asiad. |
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AAFI may ratify only three
records Patiala, June 3 Indian athletes, in their endeavour to attain qualification marks for the Sydney Olympics, had gone on a record breaking spree as a result of which 18 new national records were set. However, out of these just 3 records were set in competitions held abroad while the other 15 were set in domestic meets. The marks which are expected to enter the record books are those of K.M Beenamol who lowered P.T Usha’s 14-year-old 400m record in a IAAF permit meet held at Kiev (Ukraine) and then went on to better her own effort at the Sydney Olympics. Shakti Singh’s effort of throwing the iron ball to a distance of 19.77m in the Asian Track and Field meet held at Jakarta and Anuradha Biswal’s achievement of clocking 13.40 in the 110m hurdles, also at Jakarta, are all set to be ratified. All these athletes had undergone the mandatory dope tests in IOC-accredited labs abroad after setting the marks. |
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