The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

SPORTS

Students take to sports during vacation
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, May 23
Various schools in the city and nearby areas have now started making optimum use of summer vacation by providing children of opportunities to remain busy. Earlier, the activities were limited only to cultural, art and craft sections. The latest trend is to throw open sports activities to the children of other schools also and in multi disciplines under the supervision of coaches.

In Panchkula, it is the The Gurukul, located in Sector 20 which began its sports activities today which will continue till June 14. In five disciplines — cricket, basketball, table tennis, table soccer and roller skating — children in the age group 5 to 12 are being provided training by specialised coaches. Mr Sanjay Thareja, Director of the school, said they were providing bus facilities to the children for availing this facility. Mr Thareja said though cultural and other classes are also going on simultaneously it is sports which has attracted more than 70 children who practice for nearly three ehours in the morning hours.

Delhi Public School, Sector 40, Chandigarh, is also having sports activities as part of a summer camp till May 28. This camp includes lawn tennis, swimming, table tennis, karate and host of other sports. The Principal, Ms Sunita Tanwar, said the school emphasised on physical fitness. She said both indoor and outdoor games with the assistance of professional instructors had been provided to make optimum use of the excellent facilities offered by the school. The main attraction this year is the new swimming pool. Ms Tanwar said the participation and enthusiasm were at an all-time high. She said the summer camp would prove to be really beneficial in developing a child’s personality and improving physical fitness.

KB DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 7, Chandigarh, Mount Carmel School, Sector 47, Chandigarh, Doon Public School, Sector 21, Panchkula besides many other schools have also started their sports activities.

Chandigarh restrict Ludhiana
Tribune News Service

Mohali, May 23
With his fine bowling spell (6 for 21) Gaurav Gambhir of Chandigarh District restricted Ludhiana District to 285 runs in the first match of Punjab State Inter-District U-19 Tournament for Dhruv Pandove Trophy at Punjab Cricket Association grounds here today.

After winning the toss, Ludhiana elected to bat first. With the help of fine knocks by Tarun Passi (73) and Chintan Sehgal (61) Ludhiana managed to score 285 runs in 86 overs.

At the end of the day, Chandigarh were batting on 40 for two in 11 overs. Brief scores: Ludhiana 285 all out in 86 overs ( Tarun Passi 73, Chintan Sehgal 61, Yogesh Kumar 47, Gaurav Gambhir 6 for 21, Abhishek 2 for 35) Chandigarh 40 for 2 in 11 overs (Simrat Bawa 19 n o, Karan Sharma 5).

RSFI chief for sports centre in UT
Arvind Katyal

Pradeep Ganeriwal — President RSFI

Chandigarh, May 23
“We are serious to start a sports centre exclusively for roller skating in Chandigarh which will basically be a centre of excellence.” This was revealed by Mr Pradeep Ganeriwal, president of the Roller Skating Federation of India (RSFI) while talking to this reporter yesterday.

Mr Ganeriwal, based in Kolkata was here to study the setting up of a skating centre of excellence and also to plan for the 2007 edition of the Asian Roller Hockey Championship which has been allotted to India. RSFI plans to hold this in Chandigarh and an assurance to this effect was also given by the local administration for the same. Last evening during the felicitation function of the Indian skating team at KB DAV Senior Secondary School rink in Sector 7, the chief guest, Mr Krishan Mohan, Home Secretary, UT, assured of every possible help to popularise skating in the city.

While appreciating the abundant talent and skill prevalent among North Indians, the President of RSFI was happy that skating in India had picked up fast and all the three events speed, artistic and roller hockey were being played in every nook and corner of the country. He said inline hockey was another event which would be introduced from next year.

On the proposed plan to make the city a hub of skating, Mr Ganeriwal said he had discussed the project with many sports personalities and administrators and would like to extract the best of ideas drawn from everyone to make skating one of the most sought after disciplines in the region.

He said the region had witnessed a gradual increase in the number of skating rinks.

Mr Ganeriwal said it was roller hockey which made inroads in the north but now it had spread to other parts also. In the current Indian roller hockey team, there were skaters from other states also.

Similarly he said speed event, once dominated by West Indians was now getting popular in this part of the country also. “The real challenge lies in setting up fast speed tracks,” he said. Ms Madhu Bahl, chairperson, Roller Hockey Committee, who was instrumental in constructing a skating rink at KB DAV Senior Secondary School, has also proposed to lay one such track for speed event. The UT Sports Department has also cleared its proposal to have one such track in Sector 10. But he said to host any international tournament and for conducting regular skating activities they required nearly four acres.

On the acceptance of skating at the international level, Mr Ganeriwal said every year they had separate world championships for roller hockey, speed and artistic events. On the question of training by foreign coaches, Mr Ganeriwal said till last year they had always tried to invite the best of coaches from abroad in each event. But this year, the skaters were trained by Indian coaches and the team got silver and bronze medals in women’s and men’s events.

He also announced that this year the National Roller Skating Championship in all the three events would be held in Chandigarh in December.

Prikshat retains carrom title
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, May 23
Prikshat Vashisht of Bhavan Vidyalya, Sector 15, Panchkula retained the sub-junior boys title in the first RK Babuta Memorial Prize Money Ranking Carrom Tournament yesterday in Saupin’s School, Sector 9, Panchkula.

In the semifinals, Prikshat beat Sahil Sharma while Virat defeated Samrat. In the final, he outplayed Virat Rana at 25-0.

In the girls sub-junior final, Palak Singla of Saupin’s School, Panchkula, downed her school mate, Kriti Wadhawan, 25-7. In the semifinals, Palak got the better of Neha Sharma while Kriti beat Shreshtha Aggarwal.

Karate team
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 23
The Chandigarh karate team has been selected for the ninth National Karate Championship to be held at Chennai from May 26 to 29.

The selected players are:

Boys: Deepak, Rohit, Prince, Sourav, Kuldeep, Ankit Gupta, Ankur Gupta and Rajesh.

Girls: Sandeep Kaur, Muskan Shardha, Sangeeta Rathor, Malika.

Ashwini Kumar and M R Maurya will be the team coach and Referee-cum-team manager, respectively.

ADMINISTRATION

600 cops for sensitive UT spots
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, May 23
The UT police has beefed up security in and around the cinema halls, public places and bus stands after the recent incidents of blasts in Delhi. Talking to Chandigarh Tribune, SSP Gaurav Yadav said as many as 250 under-training recruits would be pressed into service as a security measure.

He said, in all, around 600 cops would be deployed at sensitive areas. Mr Yadav further added that the idea behind the deployment of cops was not to scare public but to sensitise them about the security.

He also added that the police was printing pamphlets to educate the public.