HEALTH

Anti-polio drive on Sept 29, Nov 17 in 
seven districts
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, September 15
The state Health Department has decided to launch an additional immunisation campaign against polio on September 29 and November 17 in seven districts - Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Gurgaon and Faridabad.

This was stated by Dr Rukmani Garg, Civil Surgeon of Sonepat, while opening the one-day state-level workshop at Kanak Garden on the G. T. road, about 15 km from here, last evening.

All the Civil Surgeons of these districts, additional national coordinator, officials of the National Eradication Programme and the World Health Organisation also took part in this workshop.

Dr Garg said that the officials of the Health Department would set up booths at various points in the urban and rural areas for the immunisation of children between zero and five years during the campaign.

She disclosed that as many as 407 polio cases had been detected all over the country so far during the current year. These included 347, which were detected in Uttar Pradesh alone. Only two cases, she said, had been detected in Sonepat district of Haryana.

The Civil Surgeon also disclosed that the state government had declared the areas of Haryana along the UP border as a `high risk zone' and special attention would be taken by the authorities of the department to check the cases of polio.

Dr Garg further disclosed that the central government planned to launch a special campaign on September 29 and November 17 in UP, Bihar, Delhi in addition to some districts of Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Jharkhand to curb the disease.

According to Dr Garg, as many as 39 cases of polio had been detected in Haryana during the year 1998, 19 in 1999, four in 2000, three in 2001 and two in 2002. She said that two cases of polio were detected in Sonepat this year.

SPORTS

Sameer upsets top seed Rajiv in TT
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 15
Unseeded Sameer Sawhney of Manav Sthali School created a big flutter in the men’s singles when he ousted top seed Rajiv Ghai of Indian Oil Corporation in straight games at 11-5,11-3,11-7 in the Stag 63rd Delhi State Table Tennis Championships on day two at the Talkatora indoor stadium in the Capital.

On a day of mixed results, Ashish Duklan, Nitin Mahajan, Joginder Singh Bisht, Abhished Puri, I M Singh, Ajay Jha and Himanshu P Kala entered the men’s quarter-finals.

Sarthak Gandhi of Apeejay School clinched the Kids (under-10 years) title beating second seed Sajal Khandelwal of G D Goenka School 11-8, 11-6, 16-14. In the semi-finals, Sarthak Gandhi overwhelmed Kunal Kathuria 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6 while Sajal Khandelwal toyed with Tina Khurana 11-7, 11-4, 11-4.

In the women’s singles, Chitra Gupta of Defence Ministry defeated Esha Monga of Manav Sthali.

Results:

Men’s singles: Himanshu P Kala beat Jagat Singh Bisht 11-13, 11-5, 11-5, 11-1; Ajay Jha b Nishank Bajaj 116, 11-5, 12-10; I M Singh b Mrinal Mondal 11-7, 9-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-6; Ashish Duklan b Dhruv Saxena 11-7, 11-4, 11-7; Nitin Mahajan b Rajat Chopra 11-2, 11-8, 11-5; Joginder Bisht b Utsav Mishra 11-2, 12-10, 4-11, 11-5; Abhishek Puri b Amit Jain 11-5, 11-2, 11-9 and Sameer Sawhney b Rajiv Ghai 11-5, 11-3, 11-7.

Cadet boys (fourth round): Kanchan Sethi b Tina Khurana 11-4, 11-9, 11-6; Ritika Dhanda b Vedika Garg 7-11, 15-13, 11-8, 11-13, 13-11; Surbhi Midha b Priyanwada Mehra 11-4, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9; Sanya Sehgal b Pankhuri 11-4, 11-5, 11-7; Nitika Kumar b Sonali Arora 11-4, 11-6, 11-4; Esha Monga b Niharia Tandon 11-1, 11-2, 11-2; Nupur Kumar b Nupur Sharma 11-4, 11-8, 11-9.

Sub-junior boys (fourth round): Kartik Kukreja b Dipesh Teckchandani 11-2, 6-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7; Yakshap Jindal b Ramit Bhatnagar 11-8, 11-7, 11-8; Dhruv Arora b Tanmoy Gupta 11-8, 11-9, 11-7; Samarath Gandhi b Lovekesh Chawla 13-11, 11-1, 11-5; Aklesh Sharma b Piyush Arora 11-6, 11-6, 11-7; Kartik Sharma b Gaurav Budhiraja 4-11, 11-4, 11-7, 12-10; Vishal Aggarwal b Jai Sharma 11-5, 11-4, 11-3; Ketan Jain beat Anugreh 11-6, 11-6, 11-9; Akash Verma b Sidhant Khurana 11-8, 11-4, 12-10; Aman Ahuja b Gyanesh Wahi 11-5, 9-11, 11-2, 11-6; Jasdeep Singh b Ankur 11-4, 11-6, 11-4; Dhruv Saxena b Abhishek Chakraborthy 11-5, 11-7, 11-9;

Bhanu Chaudhary b Roopak Jain 11-5, 11-4, 8-11, 11-5; Tushar Kalra b Rachit Maheshwari 11-7, 11-7, 12-10.

Sub-Junior Girls (second round): Anchal Batra b Mehak Aggarwal 11-8, 1-3, 12-10; Esha Monga b Raveena 11-3, 11-3, 11-5; Sanjay Sehgal b Priyamwada Mehra 3-11, 9-11, 11-8, 16-14, 11-8; Mrinalini Mondal b Vidushi Vats 11-7, 11-9, 11-6; Shikha Sharma b Nupur Sharma 11-4, 11-2, 11-2; Nupur Kumar b Nitika Kumar 11-3, 11-5, 11-7; Neha Aggarwal b Anupriya Gupta 11-4, 11-0, 11-0; Ritika Dhanda b Subhi Midha 11-7, 7-11, 11-6, 11-6.

Kids (boys and girls)-semi-finals: Sarthak Gandhi b Kunal Kathuria 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-6; Sajal Khandelwal b Tina Khurana 11-7, 11-4, 11-4.

Final: Sarthak Gandhi b Sajal Khandelwal 11-8, 11-6, 16-14.

Women’s singles (second round): V Malini b Anjali 11-8, 11-4, 11-6; Shruti Sehgal b Bondana Bora 13-11, 8-11, 7-11, 11-7, 12-10; Pratima Syal b Kalpana Raghav 11-2, 11-3, 11-5; Divya Jayaram b Manya 11-6, 11-9, 11-5; Shikha Sharma b Neha Miglani 11-0, 11-2, 11-5; Khushboo b Ritika Dhanda 11-8, 11-8, 11-7; Chitra Gupta b Esha Monga 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 11-9; Ekta Bhambri b Smriti 11-1, 11-1, 11-2; Esha Bhambri b Sushmita Mukherjee 11-7, 11-1, 11-3; Anjana Bora b Sheetal Garg 11-5, 11-2, 11-3.

Samsung to sponsor eight Indian students for Asiad
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 15
Electronics giants Samsung will sponsor eight Indian University students to witness the forthcoming Asian Games, to be held in Busan (Korea), from September 29 to October 14, as cheer leaders.

The “Power of Asia” supporters programme will recreate the kind of fervour and spectacle seen from fans during the World Cup Football Championship. This time, however, Samsung will bring together fans from all over Asia to celebrate the biggest sports event of the world’s most populous region.

When Korea co-hosted the World Cup early this year, the country’s football fans—the Red Devils—not only put on an awesome display of support for their own team, but earned admiration for their fervent support for visiting nations.s.

Now, as 11,000 athletes and officials from all over Asia prepare for the 14th Busan Asian Games, they can look forward to another extraordinary outpouring of support – not only from Koreans but also from home fans being brought to Korea from other Asian countries.

The supporters programme means that athletes from countries all over the region will hear unexpected but welcome cheers as they compete — both from fans brought in by Samsung and from special cheering squads made up of Korean youth recruited by the firm. The young Korean cheering squads will be drawn from more than 15,000 high school students in Busan and 500 students from nine oriental languages departments at the Busan University of Foreign Studies, to cheer athletes from other countries, including India, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Qatar, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The local Busan schools and students will each be twinned with schools in these countries and will exclusively cheer for athletes visiting from those nations. The student cheering squads will be augmented by thousands of more Busan citizens who will be encouraged by Samsung to voluntarily show their support for visiting athletes. In addition, more than 1,000 Samsung Electronics customers from around the region will be flown in to cheer for their national teams — and 80 University students from ten Asian countries (eight college students from each of the 10 strategic countries for Samsung, including India) will be invited to Korea and have the unique opportunity to experience the Asian Games and support their countries. The company is also sponsoring the Asian Games Torch Relay, which began on September 7, and will end in Busan on September 29. It began with the uniting of flames from North and South Korea.

Stance down Independent
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 15
Stance Club downed Independent Club by three goals to nil in a Super League match of the Delhi State Hockey League at the Shivaji Stadium in the Capital on Sunday.

Rohit hit home the opening goal in the 11th minute. He also added the third goal in the 22nd minute. In between, Rajinder slotted in the second goal, in the 14th minute.

In the second match, Academy Club toyed with Metropolitan Club when they scored a crushing 9-1 victory. The winners led by 3-0 at the interval.

Ravinder Kumar converted a penalty corner in the second minute. Surender added the second goal in the 10th minute.

Surender also contributed the seventh goal in the 40th minute. Sonu accounted for the third and fifth goals in the 16th and 33rd minutes while Naveen scored the fourth goal in the 27th minute when he converted a penalty corner.

Hari Ram added the sixth goal in the 35th minute while Sanjeet struck home the eighth and ninth goals in the 41st and 45th minutes respectively.

In the third match, Azad Club beat Brothers’ Club 2-1. After a goalless first half, Raj Kamal opened the account of Azad Club when he converted a penalty corner in the 30th minute while Rakesh scored off a penalty stroke to get their second goal, in the 33rd minute. Sushil scored the consolation goal for Brothers’ Club.

DDCA invites players 
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, September 15
The Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has invited three registered players from affiliated clubs of the association.

And those who have played a minimum of five matches in the DDCA League in the 2001-2002 season as well as the players who have already represented Delhi State in the Cooch-Behar Trophy during the 2001-2002 season and are eligible for the current season for the Under-19 team, for selection trials. DDCA sports secretary Sunil Dev said in the Capital on Sunday that the clubs who had recommended the names of their players and those who have to be recommended by the clubs should report to coach Gyaneshwar Parshad on September 17 at 2.30 pm at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground in Delhi. He said the cut-off date for age is “on or after 2-9-1983.”