The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

SPORTS

Special Olympics torch arriving tomorrow
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
“Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.” This oath of Special Olympics sums up the idea behind the sports movement for the mentally challenged. As a part of the National Games 2002 for mentally challenged individuals, the torch will arrive in Chandigarh on October 10.

Chandigarh is hosting the badminton and table tennis events of these special games. Spread over seven cities these games started on September 11 and will culminate in New Delhi. The reception of the torch will be at Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan where Mr Y.S. Ratra, Chief Secretary, Punjab, will be the chief guest. The opening ceremony will be held at hockey stadium, Sector 42.

As many as 11 states will take part in badminton while table tennis well see competitors from five states. Maharashtra, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh will have the maximum number of participants in badminton (12 each), followed by Rajasthan (10), Punjab (8), Madhya Pradesh (7), Gujarat (4) and Haryana, Chandigarh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh (3 each).

In table tennis, the maximum number of participants are again from Maharashtra (12), followed by Gujarat (10), Punjab, Haryana (8 each) and Chandigarh ( 5).

For the smooth conduct of the games, Special Olympics Bharat has trained 1500 volunteers, with the maximum being from the Food Craft Institute, Sector 42, where the closing ceremony will be held on October 12.

Being hosted at Pondicherry, Chennai, Cochin, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh, the games have competitions in 11 disciplines — swimming, athletics, cycling, cricket, basketball, bowling, football, tennis, volleyball, badminton and table tennis.

Addressing a Press conference here, the Special Olympics Bharat North-West Zone chairperson, Ms Promila Chandra Mohan, said 88 outstanding athletes would participate in the Special Olympic Games, scheduled to be held in Dublin, Ireland.

Prior to the games, Special Olympics Bharat had launched a torch run from Delhi on September 3 to create nationwide awareness. Flying Sikh Milkha Singh will receive the torch at the Sector 42 hockey stadium.

The participants looked eager for action to begin and positively hummed with pent-up energy. Paramjeet Kaur of Sector 11, whose 21-year-old son Prabhjot, will be one of the participants, too looked forward to the games to begin while Prabhjot oozed with enthusiasm.

Daljeet Singh, Prabhjot’s uncle feels that these special children should also be offered some cash prizes along with the medals. It will make them feel more competent and enthusiastic. If the government and organisers can give cash awards for other meets, why not these special people. The administration and organisers should look into this matter,” he says.

Puneet Rana powers to two records
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
Puneet Rana of Punjab Engineering College, powered his way to three titles while cratering two new meet records on the second day of the Panjab University Inter-College Swimming and Waterpolo Championship here today.

Madhav Sund of Government College, Ludhiana, and Kirandeep Kaur of Panjab University campus pocketed two titles each.

Rana created a new meet record in 100m freestyle in 1:00:04. The old record was in the name of Jupinderpal Singh of Government College, Ludhiana (1:01:60). In the 200m breaststroke, Rana improved on his own record of 2:42.99. He slashed more than five seconds winning in 2:37:85.

Panjab University campus won the waterpolo title while DAV College, Chandigarh, were second.

The results:

Men: 50m freestyle: Puneet Rana 1, Madhav Sund 2, Harpreet Singh 3; 100m freestyle: Puneet Rana 1, Navneet Singh Mann 2, Madhav Sund 3; 200m butterfly: Madhav Sund 1, Gurinder Pal Singh 2, Jashandeep Singh 3; 1500m freestyle: Madhav Sund 1, Naveen Singh Mann 2, Vivek Kapoor 3; 200m breaststroke: Puneet Rana 1, Naveen Singh Mann 2, Vijay Tank 3; 4x100m freestyle relay: Panjab University campus 1, DAV College, Chandigarh 2, Govt. College, Ludhiana 3; 4x100m medlay relay: Panjab University 1, DAV College, Chandigarh 2, Punjab Engg College, Chandigarh 3.

Women: 50m freestyle: Kirandeep Kaur 1, Gurpreet Kaur 2, Puneet Chechi 3; 200m breaststroke: Gurpreet Kaur 1, Kirandeep Kaur 2, Pooja 3; 800m freestyle: Kirandeep Kaur 1, Gurpreet Kaur 2, Anisha 3.

Waterpolo: Panjab University campus 1, DAV College Chandigarh 2, DAV College, Hoshiarpur 3, Govt College, Ludhiana 4.

City to host national carrom meet
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, October 8
City will add another chapter in the history of carrom, when it will organise 31st Junior National and Inter-State Carrom Championship at St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, from October 14 to 19.

Giving details of this meet, Mr Mahesh Sekhri, general secretary of the Chandigarh Carrom Association, said more than 350 players including officials will converge to the city on this occasion. As many as 27 teams from various affliated units, affiliated to the All-India Carrom Federation (AICF), will take part. Mr Sekhri, also the organising secretary of the meet, said Mr Sarabjit Singh, IPS, and Mr S.K. Sharma, general secretary of the AICF, will be the chairman and tournament director, respectively, of the above championship which will be held for the first time in the city in this age group. The president of the Chandigarh Carrom Association, Mr Harold Carver, will be the chairman of the organising committee.

Mr Sekhri further said that Mr D.G.N. Sharma of Hyderabad has been nominated as chief referee of the championship. The events will be held in below-18 age group in boys and girls team championship, boys and girls singles and doubles and newly introduced event- boys and girls youth singles for below-21 years.

Cricket meet

Yadavindra Public School, SAS Nagar, beat Paragon Senior Secondary School, SAS Nagar, by seven runs in the PCA- Parle G School Cricket Tournament played here today at SAS Nagar. Earlier, YPS won the toss and elected to bat first. YPS were all out for 179.

In reply, Paragon Senior Secondary School, SAS Nagar were bundled out for 173 runs. Gaganpreet and Amarpreet played havoc with Paragon school and claimed three and two wickets, respectively.

Brief scores: YPS: 179 runs all out (Sukhmani 35, Varinder Pal 33, Raghav 23, Sandeep 2 for 21, Jaskirat 3 for 33); Paragon School: 173 runs all out in 35 overs (Harmanjit 58, Sunny Sohal 25, Gaganpreet 21 n.o., Amarpreet 2 for 25, Gaganpreet 3 for 20).

STC-18 win title

Sports Training Centre, Sector 18, of the Sports Authority of India today won the title in the UT Junior Women Hockey Tournament played here today. In the final, SAI eves blanked Coaching Centre-18 by 6-0. Prakash Chaudhary was the star player for her team. The two day meet was organised by the Chandigarh Women Hockey Association.

The UT Inter-School Inter School Cricket Tournament for Shivalik Trophy for below-19 years will be held from October 10 to November 2 at the Sector 16 Cricket Stadium, as well as DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8. There will be 16 team participants and the tournament would be played on league-cum-knockout basis. On the first day, Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, will play Vivek High School while Sanjay Public ‘A’ to vie with Shivalik Public School, Sector 41.

No bidders for fair sites
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 8
Hope of Divali fairs being held in the Circus Ground in Sector 17 and the Nehru Park in Sector 22 were dimmed today when no bidder agreed to participate in the bidding of the two grounds due to a very high reserve price.

However, the Municipal Corporation succeeded in auctioning the Exhibition Ground in Sector 34 at a rate of Rs 3 lakh against a reserve price of Rs 2.43 lakh. Both the grounds had been priced at the lowest of Rs 5.5 lakh.

The corporation is now thinking of again taking the matter of fixation of reserve prices for the two grounds before the Finance and Contract Committee.

The meeting of the committee is likely to be held within a couple of days to revise the price for two grounds.