SPORTS

Portuguese coach for roller hockey team likely
Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, April 17
India may engage a world-class roller hockey coach from Portugal to train Indian men and women skaters for the 10th Asian Roller Skating meet to be held in Akita, Japan from June 12. This was stated by Mr Pradeep Ganeriwal, president of the Roller Skating Federation of India (RSFI), over phone from Kolkata.

He said earlier the RSFI was trying to engage a coach from Spain but since that could not be worked out, a deal with the Portuguese coach was initiated and it was in its final stages. Mr Ganeriwal said in the past they used to avail of the services of Italian coach Baraldi Aldo. Since they wanted to enhance the talent of Indian skaters more, they decided to engage an expensive but more experienced coach. He said the Indian team would also take part in the World Women Roller Hockey Championship to be held in Germany and the World Men Roller Hockey Meet at Macau.

In the last Asian Skating Meet, Indian women finished third, while men secured fourth place.

He expressed satisfaction at the arrangements being made for the training of Indian men and women probables at KB DAV Centenary School skating rink. He was all praise for the Chairperson of the RSFI, Ms Madhu Bahl, for making the city a hub of roller hockey activity in the region.

When asked about the exact duration of the camp, Ganeriwal said it could be extended for more period if the foreign coach arrived.

Meanwhile, hectic activity is on at the camp where both boys and girls are undergoing training in two sessions — morning and late evening. The probables attending the camp are women: Renuka, Chandita Kamboj, Suruchi, Megha, Smriti, Gurpreet Kaur, Yashdeep Kaur, Ritu and Priyanka (all Haryana), Rekha (Punjab), Japneet, Shakun, Manisha, Jasmine and Kriti Puri (all Chandigarh), N. Asrita (AP).

Men: Rajesh, Girish, Vinod and Dhruv (both Haryana), Amber Gill (Chandigarh), Mandeep, Vikram Singh and Harkerat Singh (all Punjab), Rajesh Anand, Joshpal singh and Jograj Singh (all J&K).

Gurkeerat’s ton fashions Chandigarh win
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, April 17
Chandigarh outplayed Minor District team by eight wickets in the Punjab District Under 15 Sushil Bali Trophy Cricket Tournament match played here at the MCA grounds, Mohali, today. Batting first, Minor District XI were bowled out for 216 runs with Simran scoring unbeaten 47 runs followed by Abhinav who scored 25 runs. In reply, Chandigarh reached the target losing two wickets in 46 overs. Gurkeerat Singh scored an unbeaten knock of 105 runs, while Vaibhav made 59 runs.

Cricket meet: High Court XI got the better of Inde-Dutch Systems XI by eight wickets in the league match of division ‘A’ tie of the VIIIth UT League-cum-Knockout Cricket Tournament being played here at the PEC grounds here today.

IDS skipper Jagjit Saini won the toss and opted to bat first. They made 152 runs in 31.2 overs. Dharamveer remained unbeaten at 55 runs, while Bhavneet Singh hammered 34 runs.

Brief scores: IDS XI:152 runs all out in 31.2 overs (Dharamveer 55 n.o., Bhavneet Singh 34, Lakhay Sharma 21, Rajinder Kohli 5 for 27, Vikram Sharma 4 for 25). High Court XI: 155 runs for two in 22.2 overs (Rajinder Kohli 71 n,.o., Gurdeep Rana 31 n.o.,).

In another tie, Stadium XI outplayed Prudential XI by 10 wickets. Also, Bombay XI beat Uttrakhand XI by seven wickets and Chandigarh Cricket Academy ‘A’ beat Vivek High School by six wickets.

Elected: Raghumit Singh Sodhi and PS Brar were unanimously elected president and secretary, respectively, of the Adventure Sports Association of Chandigarh at its election meeting held today.

Kanwar Dhillon was elected senior vice-president. Other office-bearers are: vice-president — Dr Manjit Kalra, Dr R.S. Brar and Mr Atul Khanna; joint secretaries — Mr Harbir Anand, Mr Gurpeeet Sidhu, Mr Kamaljit Saini and Mr Balkar Virk; — treasurer — Balbir Singh; executive members — Dr Satya Bhalla, Ms Jatinder Pal Kaur, Ms Nirmaljit Kaur, Mr Bhalinder Singh, Mr T.S. Badwal, Ms M.S. Malhan, Ms Jagdish Bains, Ms Kamalpreet Gill and Mr Onkar Singh; Technical adviser: Mr G.S. Bhango.