HEALTH

No medicines for eye flu in Dadri hospital
Our Correspondent

Noida, August 20
Hundreds of people have become victims to conjunctivitis and fever in Dadri town as well as in rural areas, as no medicines to treat these ailments are available in the Government Hospital, Dadri.

In Adarsh Nagar Colony alone hundreds of people are down with eye flu and viral fever. In Mohalla Brahmpur, Gautampuri, Bisahara Road, Railway Road, Ayodya Ganj, Nai, Abadi Nagar and many other localities and dozens of villages around people are reeling under the impact of eye flue and fever.

Neither worthwhile facilities nor medicines are available in the hospital, say the patients. Most of the doctors, including the head of the government hospital, Dr O. P. Agarwal, other doctors and staff, who live either in Ghaziabad or Noida, are seldom to be seen in the Dadri hospital, patients say.

SPORTS

Kalmadi adds another plume to his cap
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, August 20
Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president Suresh Kalmadi has added another plume to his cap with his re-election as a Council Member of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), election to which was held in Paris on Tuesday.

That Mr Kalmadi succeeded in beating his only rival, Prince Nawaf Bin Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, by an impressive margin of 29-8 votes, is an achievement in itself as the Saudi prince not only enjoys financial might but also political clout.

Mr Kalmadi, who rose to prominence as a sports administrator when he was elevated to the post of president of the Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI) in the late seventies following the demise of then AAFI president Jaideep Singh Baria, has not only consolidated his position in the AAFI but has also spread his wings to become the president of the IOA, and the president of the Asian Athletic Association.

Though Indian athletes, of late, have been mired in doping controversies, this is one sport discipline in which India have been achieving commendable success at the Asian and Commonwealth levels. India have produced some world class athletes like Milkha Singh, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, P.T. Usha, T C Yohannan etc in the days of yore, but unfortunately the system has been such that they got very little institutional support to realise their full potential. As a result, many of them finished just short of being the best in the world, though they were the best in Asia in their times.

Mr Kalmadi’s entry into the world athletics body is a welcome development, though it is to been whether he would succeed in actualising his ambitions plans.

According to AAA secretary-general Maurice Nicholas, “Kalmadi’s accessibility and dedication for development of athletics has made him a popular leader of Asian athletics, and this was one of the reasons that out of the 43 Asian countries, a total of 29 countries proposed his name (for the IAAF council membership).”

Mr Nicholas said Kalmadi’s thumping victory “is acknowledgement of his hard work, futuristic vision and dedication to the cause of sports”.

Mr Kalmadi, meanwhile, has promised to “provide more affordable opportunity for competing in top class events without travelling long distances, provision of synthetic tracks in countries where they do not exist, more financial support for competitions and making athletics global in true sense”.

He said he would also strive to ensure holding of world events by rotation in all the continents, more sponsorship for developing countries, establishment of one more High Performance Training Centre in Asia and adequate funds for women development plans”.

Mr Kalmadi said he would also strive for the conduct of an All-Star Athletic Championship, the first Indoor Asian Championship and more competitions for juniors”. 

Karun Chandhok drives to third place
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, August 20
Karun Chandhok scored a pair of third places in rounds 17 and 18 of the British Formula 3 Championship (Scholarship Class). The races over the weekend were held at the Thruxton circuit in Hampshire, where average speeds over a single lap exceed 195 kmph. This result puts Karun in second place of the driver’s championship standings, with another six races to go. The super fast nature of the Thruxton circuit lays greater importance on car set-up than at most other venues on the calendar.

Karun and the T-Sport team came to Thruxton on a high, having won five out of the last eight races and were looking forward to extending their championship lead. Test sessions though showed that the team and driver were in for a tough weekend when various problems and mishaps meant that they never were able to quite get a good indication as to how competitive the package was.

At the end of the two qualifying sessions, the JK Tyre-sponsored, Chennai-born Karun secured a third and second starting position respectively for the two races on Sunday, just two tenths of a second away from pole in both sessions.

Karun clarified that “in the first session, I got caught out with the traffic and was not too happy because I felt we should have been quicker. The second session though was not too bad, but certainly it looks like Viso has a bit of an edge on us this weekend. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make full use of the test day and it’s hurting us a bit now”.

At the start of Race 1, Karun made a good move into the inside of the complex of corners after turn one but his luck was about to turn when he was shoved wide onto the grass, rejoining down the order in third place. He then made a bold move around the outside of Can Artam into the chicane but lost out to Ernesto Viso a lap later.

Thereafter, the top three contenders, Steven Kane, Viso and Karun himself ran close together, keeping each other under pressure so that at the flag, just 1.3 seconds covered all three of them.

Race 2 promised to be better. Chandhok again made a good start and was running just behind Viso at the front with Kane a few seconds behind.

The leading two were setting an impressive pace for the opening few laps but slowly, the T-Sport driver started dropping back.

Karun has his next two races at the Spa circuit in Belgium in two weeks’ time.

Achrekar Foundation to coach cricketers
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, August 20
Dronacharya cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar and some of his famous trainees will impart training at the Ramakant Achrekar Cricket Foundation, Sector 3, Rohini. The foundation will start its coaching programme from September 1 at the DDA Sports Complex, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi and at the Central School ground, Rohini 3. Besides Achrekar, well-known names like Eknath Solkar and Ravi Churi will train the trainees.

Trials to select trainees will be held at the Central School ground, Sector 3, Rohini, from September 25 to 30 between 4 and 7 pm. Entries close on August 24.

Ganga School lift TT title
Our Sports Reporter

New Delhi, August 20
Ganga School defeated Bosco Public School, Paschim Vihar 3-0 to bag the Senior Boys Zonal Table Tennis Tournament at the Bosco School. But in the sub-junior basketball tournament, Saviour Convent defeated Ganga School 19-17 to annex the title. Parteek scored 15 points for the winners.

Table tennis results: Madhurjai beat Sanjay 11-5, 8-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-4; Anuj Tyagi b Sachin 11-4, 11-3, 11-8, 11-5, 11-6; Akash b Parteek 11-2, 11-3, 11-5, 11-3.

Sports Day on Aug 29

Sonepat: The District Sports and Yuva Welfare Department has decided to observe the birthday of hockey legend Dhayan Chand on August 29 as Sports Day. According to a report, several sports competitions will be@ organised on that day.