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March 3, 2003, Chandigarh, India
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Jyoti, Arjun tune up for big challenge ahead Atwal took a week off and skipped the $200,000 Myanmar Open this week following his huge victory in the European PGA Tour’s Malaysian Open where he held off US Open champion and reigning European Tour No. 1 Retief Goosen with a wire to wire victory in Kuala Lumpur. Jyoti, on the other hand, is wearing his Asian PGA Tour No. 1 crown lightly and working hard after a solid start to the season. Both players are looking to become the only Indians to record two victories in the championship since the purse rose to $300,000. Arjun was victorious the last time the event was played at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club course in 1999 and Jyoti won at the Classic Golf Resort in 2000 in a playoff against South African Sammy Daniels. Ali Sher is the only Indian player to win the title twice, in 1991 and 1993. “It seems like a long time since my first title”, said Arjun, who has recorded four other career international titles which include two on the European PGA Tour, the most European titles ever won by any Asian player — one in the Hong Kong Open and one at the Hero Honda Masters at the DLF Golf Club in 2001. “Last year, after my win in Singapore, I started experimenting with my swing, which caused inconsistency. However, I’ve been playing really solid golf in the past five weeks in Australia and Asia and last week, at the Mines, I hardly hit a bad shot all week. So I’m not going to change anything in my game and trust my swing will hold up at the Royal Challenge” added Arjun, who with a 24-under total over four rounds at The Mines Resort last week, smashed Tiger Woods’ previous record of 20 under par set at the World Cup two years ago. Jyoti, who recovered from a collar bone fracture he suffered the week during the Royal Challenge last March, which kept him out of that tournament and the next five months on tour, made a spectacular comeback where he won close to Rs 2 crores in the space of three months to close out his best ever year. This year, he has finished at the top 15 in each of the first four tournaments he has played and is satisfied with the result. “At the first event in Australia, I played a practice round with the great Australian, former world No. 1 Greg Norman, and that is the most memorable part of my year so far. He came across as a really down to earth person and is a great example of what a champion should be,” said Jyoti as he went through the paces on the practice ground. The two stars left Sunday for the Dubai Desert Classic, another event on the European PGA Tour after which they will join Jeev Milkha Singh in China for the Asia V Japan team matches for the first ever Dynasty Cup. They will return to Delhi the week before the Royal Challenge to tune up for the National Open Championship title. With both players in fine form and full of confidence, the foreign contingent will find it hard to defeat arguably the top two players in Asia. |
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BPCL to meet IOC in hockey final New Delhi, March 2 In the semi-finals on Sunday, BPCL got the better of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) 3-1 while IOC trounced Oil India 3-0. In a fast-paced second match, ONGC muffed umpteen chances to lose out to BPCL, who were packed with a number of India internationals. ONGC showed a lot of thrust and forced as many as 14 penalty corners, but lacked finish while BPCL had fewer number of penalty corners—five in all—but had a better percentage of
scoring. Len Aiyappa put BPCL in the lead when he converted a penalty corner in the 32nd minute. Three minutes after resumption, Deepak enhanced the lead with a fine field goal. Len Aiyappa shot home BPCL’s third goal in the 53rd minute while Vivek pulled off the
equaliser, off a penalty corner, for ONGC at the fag end. In the first semi-final in the morning, Lakhwinder Singh scored two quick goals in the first half to give IOC a 2-0 lead, and it was consolidated by international Deepak Thakur in the 29th minute. After taking a 3-0 lead, IOC played it cool in the second half, and did not strive to get more goals. |
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Sanjeev, Kirpal excel for External Affairs New Delhi, March 2 Scores: Ministry of External Affairs: 267 for 5 in 35 overs (Sanjeev 94, Kirpal Singh 85 n o, Rajesh 30, M S Bisht 25). Doordarshan: 213 in 33.1 overs (Praveen 64, R. Khatri 38, Satinder 30 n o, Manjeet 3 for 36, M S Bisht 2 for 42. Roshanara Cup Cricket Top teams like ONGC, Indian Airlines, Collage Group, Sonnet, Lal Bahadur Shastri and hosts Roshanara, will participate in the fourth Roshanara Cup Cricket Tournament to be held at the Roshanara Club ground from March 4. The tournament will be played on a league-cum-knockout basis. The final is slated to be held on March 23.
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New Delhi, March 2
Both players, however, are looking forward to making their only joint appearance on Indian soil this year at the $300,000 Royal Challenge Indian Open at Delhi Golf Club course from March 27-30, 2003 where they will fight back the 110-man international contingent with players from 24 nationalities when the Asian PGA Tour event returns to the Capital. 