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Bhullar lifts Asian Tour title
Gaganjeet Bhullar receives the trophy from Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudoyono on Sunday. — AFP
Contador triumphs
Lawrence School win soccer trophy
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India must decide its priorities: Kirsten
Can Brasa inspire India’s hockey revival?
Lewis Hamilton wins Hungarian GP
Massa stable, probe launched
B’desh set 247-run target
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Bhullar lifts Asian Tour title
It was Gaganjeet Bhullar all the way. This 21-year-old Kapurthala lad pocketed a cheque for $63,400 as he clinched his first Asian Tour title edging past 28-year-old Australian Adam Blyth by two strokes in the Indonesia President Invitational in Jakarta today. Continuing with his superb performance Bhullar played a bogey-free card of five under 67 on the final day for a grand 22-under par 266 finish at the Darmai Indah Golf-Burmi Sepong Damai course to avenge the defeat he suffered in the same event two years back. An elated Bhullar said: “I cannot describe it in words. It is a dream come true. A dream I have been waiting for since that 2007 defeat. I played really well.” The Kapurthala boy, who joined a select band of Indians who have won an AsianTour title, dropped only one bogey in the four-day tournament which was plagued by inclement weather. He took a one-shot lead into the last round after the third round was completed this morning. Bhullar continued with his immaculate form, sinking a hat-trick of birdies on the second, third and fourth holes. A par on the fifth and another birdie on the sixth saw him take the turn at four under par 32. Bhullar sank the final day’s fifth birdie on the 13th for a five under par 67 finish. He then waited at the clubhouse as he had done in 2007. But the anxious wait ended on a triumphant note when Adam Blyth fell two strokes behind despite a two-putt birdie on the last hole. Describing those anxious moments at the club house , Bhullar said: “I was sitting in the clubhouse and I knew what happened to me two years back. Adam played really well but it is a relief now. I’ve won three times on the Indian circuit this year and my goal a few months back was to win on the Asian Tour and this will get me into all the co-sanctioned events now and give me a lot of confidence in my coming years. Srirot, winner at the Damai course in 1996, was delighted to finish third in a season which has been topsy turvy with inconsistent play. Filipino Artemio Murakami and Korea’s Bang Sang-moon shared fifth place on 272 while Burhan Bora was Indonesia's best finisher in tied 35th place. Rahil Gangjee fired a five under par 67 card to climb up the ladder to finish tied 25th at nine under 279. Chandigarh’s seasoned Amandeep Johl continued with his steady game repeating two under 70 card for the fourth successive day for a grand eight under par 280 finish and the joint 35th slot in the event. Anirban Lahiri finished tied 47th carding a three under par 69 for a final score of five under 283.
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Contador triumphs
Paris, July 26 “I am really happy. It was an especially difficult Tour for me but that’s why I am enjoying the victory all the more,” Contador said on the podium. Cavendish outsprinted Columbia team mate Mark Renshaw of Australia and American Tyler Farrar to clinch his sixth stage win in this year’s race. “I wanted so bad to reach Paris, my team mates helped me to this,” said Cavendish. “And winning on the Champs-Elysees... All my dreams come true.” Over three weeks, Contador proved the strongest rider in the mountains and in the time trials, beating Luxembourg’s Andy Schleck by four minutes 11 seconds for the overall victory. —
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Lawrence School win soccer trophy
Chandigarh, July 26 In the final match, Sanawar defeated the host (Birla Public School, Pilani) by 5-0. Earlier in the semifinal, Sanawar beat Pinegroove School by 4-0. In the quarterfinal, Sanawar won against BRCM Bahal-Bhiwani by 6-0, while in the first league match it threshed Mann Public School, Delhi, by 10-0. Three students got individual prizes in the championship. Dhanur Sharma (captain) was declared the best mid-fielder of the tournament, Penjo Wangchuk was adjudged best player while Dig Vijay Singh got the title of the best defender of the tournament Col Ratnakar (retd), director of the Birla Education Trust, Pilani, inaugurated the championship on July 22 and Col D Chaudhary (retd), Principal of BPS-Pilani gave away prizes and trophy to the winners at the closing ceremony. |
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India must decide its priorities: Kirsten
Johannesburg, July 26 Kirsten was speaking on Saturday at a gathering here organised by the Indian mission here for local and visiting captains of business and industry who had attended the Doing Business with India Conference. “It’s quite interesting that we’ve got a Twenty20 World Cup in April next year in the West Indies and Team India don’t play one T20 game until that tournament starts. What should be happening is that we should be going on tour and playing six T20 games and one or two 50 over games. I think that’s going to happen - it’s just a matter of time,” he said. Kirsten said he believed that 50-over games were “here to stay”. On test cricket, Kirsten said: “The worrying side that I’m seeing is that a guy like Andrew Flinthoff as a high profile cricketer has now made the decision to leave test cricket because he feels that he can get more longevity out of his body and earn a much more money by moving away from test cricket and playing one day cricket and twenty over cricket.” “He’s perfectly right in his decision. Why not? The one area that is concerning me about where test cricket is going is that if you are going to be paying playing substantially more to play IPL as opposed to playing a test match for their country, it’s a natural progression that the guys are then going to say, I’m not interested in bowling 25 overs in a day when I can bowl four over a six-day period and earn three times as much.” Kirsten said the “bottom line” was that every country needed to look at test cricket and say how important it was to them. — IANS
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Can Brasa inspire India’s hockey revival?
Mumbai, July 26 Brasa advice to Indian hockey to forget about the country’s past glory, signified by its eight Olympic gold medals till 1980, would not have gone down well with the hockey stalwarts of the past. The Spaniard’s pointed reference that hockey in India is content to rest on laurels earned almost three decades ago and that its players have not adapted to the amended international rules are bitter pills to swallow for the hockey fans. “Indian hockey seems to be living in the past. My task is to ensure that they (players) change their pattern of play to produce better results,” were his words before departing for Europe to play 12 Test matches against higher ranked teams England, Belgium, Spain and Netherlands. Brasa has been brought in to pilot Indian hockey back to the pinnacle of glory it enjoyed before the prolonged slump that resulted in the team’s failure to qualify for last year’s Beijing Olympics. The slide down the pecking order for Indian hockey, which has now resulted in the country being ranked outside the top 10 among men, has been gradual but the powers that be were indifferent to what lay in store for too long. The slump started much before the advent of the artificial turf in 1976, but the World Cup triumph of 1975 in Kuala Lumpur made the authorities turn a blind eye to the reality that while the western countries progressed, India remained stagnant. The Olympic gold in the boycott-hit 1980 Moscow Olympic Games also came as a false dawn and the deepening crisis manifested itself when India finished with the wooden spoon by ending up 12th in the 1986 Willesden World Cup. Since then it has been one disaster followed by another and a litany of excuses in the Olympics and World Cups barring the 1998 title triumph after 22 years at the Bangkok Asian Games which was spearheaded by the mercurial Dhanraj Pillai. A largely non-functional federation with the president and secretary clinging to their posts even as the national team continued to plumb the depths was poor advertisement for the game among the masses. The final nail on the coffin came when the team failed to get past Britain and clinch the lone Beijing Games qualifier’s berth at the tournament in Chile in early 2008.— PTI
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Lewis Hamilton wins Hungarian GP
Budapest, July 26
Kimi Raikkonen, driving the only Ferrari in the race after Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa suffered a serious head injury in qualifying, was second but under investigation by stewards for colliding with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel at the start. Australian Mark Webber finished third for Red Bull to go second in the championship, 18.5 points behind Britain’s Jenson Button with seven races remaining. Brawn GP’s Button had a frustrating afternoon in the Hungarian heat, struggling to get performance out of the car’s tyres, and finished seventh after starting eighth. His unhappiness was only relieved by the retirement of Vettel, his previous closest rival, and seeing the top two places filled by drivers whose title dreams had long disappeared. Hamilton’s victory, 11.5 seconds ahead of 2007 champion Raikkonen, was the 24-year-old’s first since China last October, and 10th of his career. It was his Mercedes-powered team’s first podium finish of the year. “Great job guys,” said Hamilton after he took the chequered flag. “This car is so nice to drive. Fantastic. You guys have worked so hard and I’m so glad we could do it.” Spain’s Jaime Alguersuari became the youngest driver to start a Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday at 19 years and 125 days. Meanwhile, Adrian Sutil’s Hungarian Grand Prix lasted just one lap before the German headed for the pit while his Force India teammate Giancarlo Fisichella did slightly better to finish 14th here today. Sutil’s VJM02’s water temperature had rocketed on the formation lap, causing the engine to run very hot and the German retired after the team could not fix the problem. — Agencies
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Budapest, July 26 His most serious head injuries were caused when he was struck by a spring that broke off compatriot Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn GP car. Ferrari said: “After undergoing an operation yesterday afternoon, Felipe Massa’s condition remains stable and there were no further complications through the night.” “He will be given another CT scan today, which will provide more precise information.” Massa, one of the sport’s most popular drivers, was examined first at the circuit medical centre and then airlifted to the AEK Hospital in Budapaest where they carried out surgery and put him into an induced coma. Doctors at the hospital were said to be encouraged by his condition overnight, and reported that he had suffered no further complications. Barrichello, a fellow-native of Sao Paulo and a close friend of Massa, visited Massa at the hospital last evening. Massa’s father, mother and pregnant wife were flying to Hungary from Brazil. Formula One’s commercial ring-master Bernie Ecclestone also visited the hospital to see Massa. Afterwards, he said: “We thought we had gone through all of these kind of problems. I have spoken to Sid Watkins (the sport’s chief safety consultant and former chief medical officer) and he’s looking into it.” The sport’s ruling body, the International Motoring Federation (FIA), confirmed they will launch an investigation into the accident together with the Brawn team. Schumacher ideal replacement Seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher, who retired in 2006, still has to be Ferrari’s first choice to stand in for injured Brazilian Felipe Massa, former champion Niki Lauda said. “Who is available? There is nobody available anywhere near Michael’s performance. I was thinking about it, and there is nobody,” the retired triple champion said before Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Schumacher, 40, Formula One’s most successful driver with 91 wins, hung up his helmet at the end of 2006 and the German has shown no signs of wanting to come back despite the occasional bike race. — Agencies
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B’desh set 247-run target Dominica, July 26 Keen to avenge their defeat in the Test series, West Indies bowlers gave a disciplined performance. Kemar Roach, who was the find of the Tests, impressed again with a five-wicket haul and had decent support from the rest of the bowlers. His spell helped the hosts overcome an attacking stand at the death between Shakib Al Hasan and Mahmudullah, as well as a determined knock from Mohammad Ashraful early on. However, with an inexperienced batting line-up, and the track holding up, the hosts face a stiff task against an opposition packed with spinners. — Agencies Scoreboard Tamim c Fletcher b Roach 0 Junaid c Lewis b Bernard 36 Ashraful run out 57 Raqibul b Roach 12 Shakib c Dowlin b Roach 54 Mushfiqur c Sammy b Lewis 11 Mahmudullah c Bernard b Miller 42 Naeem not out 7 Razzak lbw b Roach 0 Rasel b Roach 7 Rubel not out 1 Extras (b 1, lb 8, w 10) 19 Total: (9 wickets; 50 overs) 246 Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-74, 3-97, 4-128, 5-149, 6-228, 7-230, 8-231, 9-241 Bowling: Roach 10-0-44-5, Pascal 4-0-29-0, Sammy 9-0-48-0, Bernard 10-1-31-1, Miller 9-0-50-1, Lewis 8-0-35-1.
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Sania in final of Lexington Challenger IPL not behind injury: KP Alonso should not quit: Benitez Shuttlers lose in finals Atwal misses cut Sejwal betters national record Paddlers disappoint |
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It was Gaganjeet Bhullar all the way. This 21-year-old Kapurthala lad pocketed a cheque for $63,400 as he clinched his first Asian Tour title edging past 28-year-old Australian Adam Blyth by two strokes in the Indonesia President Invitational in Jakarta today.
Alberto Contador emerged as the new cycling boss on Sunday when the Spaniard wrapped up his second Tour de France title on the Champs-Elysees on Lance Armstrong’s return to the race. The 26-year-old Contador stayed safe in the main bunch as the last stage, over 164 km from Montereau Fault-Yonne, went to Briton Mark Cavendish.
Johannesburg, July 26
Budapest, July 26
Dominica, July 26
