 |
|
|
Top seeds roll on
India eye series
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Pargat, KPS Gill nominees for HI polls
HPA to get world class wrestling academy
Gorakhpur Gullies win
They come from Pak to wrestle, not to fight
|
|
The packed centre court was heaving with anticipation when Baghdatis and Hewitt prepared to lock horns. Their last match, two years ago, had been an epic that did not finish 0434, but this one ended in a whimper. Hewitt won the opening set 6-0 and was leading 4-2 in the second when Baghdatis quit, unable to continue because of a shoulder injury. Earlier, Austria's Stefan Koubek retired after one set of his match against Spain's Fernando Verdasco after being drained by the effects of a mystery virus. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Tommy Haas
Federer, his confidence growing with each match, provided a masterful display against Spain's Albert Montanes, winning 6-3 6-4 6-4 to extend his incredible record of making it to the last 16 of every grand slam since the 2004 French Open. Serena Williams also turned in her best performance of the week, trouncing Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0 6-3 to remain on track to defend the title she won for the fourth time last year. Her older sister Venus had a tougher time but still managed to carve out a 6-1 7-6 win over Australia's Casey Dellacqua. Serbia's Novak Djokovic showed he was building the kind of momentum that carried him to the 2008 title, giving up just four games in a 6-1 6-1 6-2 demolition of Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin. Nikolay Davydenko is also impressing those who tipped the Russian as a dark horse for the title after he eased to a routine 6-0 6-3 6-4 victory over Argentina's Juan Monaco. Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki continued to slide quietly through the women's draw, beating Israel's Shahar Peer 6-4 6-0 and will play Li Na, one of two Chinese women through to the last 16. — Reuters |
|
Mirpur, January 23 Asked whether Bangladesh can beat India in second Test, Dhoni said, "That is why they are playing. You should not take any side lightly in international cricket. At the end of the day it was the 10 balls that matters. There is no good reason why they (Bangladesh) should not take 20 wickets." "If any side does not think that they can win, what is the point of playing. We don't think of losing and we always want to win. But we have lost matches against some good sides. So, anything can happen in cricket," he said at the pre-match press conference. We can compete with India: Tamim
Bangladesh are no pushovers and are capable of not only giving India a good fight in the second Test but also beat them and square the series, host opener Tamim Iqbal said here today. "We are not a team just to come and play. We can compete with them (India). If we don't commit the mistakes of the first Test, we can get a positive result either a draw or a win," he said at the pre-match press conference. — PTI |
|
Pargat, KPS Gill nominees for HI polls
New Delhi, January 23 Each State unit has recommended a male and female representative while Karnataka was the only State which did not forward any names. Hockey Chandigarh's representatives Chander Shekhar and Mrs K. Atma Ram have not been accepted by Hockey India as according to Stokes, "it has been observed that there has been mis-representation by Hockey Chandigarh". She said the Chandigarh Olympic Association had sent a letter, saying that it had not recommended any unit from Chandigarh "concerning hockey for affiliation". She has left it to the returning officer "to take a decision" on Chandigarh's status. Following are the final list of representatives of the various State units for the Hockey India elections after the expiry of the nomination date yesterday: Hockey Jammu and Kashmir: Narinder Batra and Mohinder Kaur; Hockey Bihar: Md. Mushtaque Ahmed and Meenakshi Singh; Hockey Haryana: M.L.Tayal and Subhita Dhaka; Maharashtra Hockey Association: Ikram E Khan and Leena Walia; Hockey Nagaland: K Viphrezo and Khruhituonuo; Hockey Tripura: Rupak Debroy and Mahua Kar; Hockey Uttar Pradesh: Andeshwar Pandey and Pushpa Srivastava; Hockey Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma and Kalyani Deka; Hockey Orissa: Pratap Sathpathy and Sanjubala Mohanty; Hockey Andhra Pradesh: V Dinesh Reddy and Sangeetha Rani Gummi; Hockey Mizoram: H Khiangte and Zothankimi; Hockey Gujarat: I.D.Nanavati and Pravina R Shelar; Hockey Chattisgarh: Firoz Ansaari and Neeta Dumre; Hockey Manipur: Thoiba Singh and Nirmalata Devi; Hockey Jharkhand: T.P.Sinha and Savitri Purti; Goans Hockey: Rodento de Souza and Frell Furtado e Gracias; Hockey unit of Tamilnadu: N.R.Radhakrishnan and M Renukalakshmi; Hockey Rajasthan: Arun Saraswat and Shobha Singh; Hockey Punjab: Pargat Singh and Anupam Vashisht; Hockey Delhi: KPS Gill and Sudarshan Pathak; Hockey Arunachal: Gunjum Haider and Kohman Lungphi; Hockey Himachal: Anuraag Thakur and Vidya Stokes; Hockey Meghalaya: Raj Kakati and Sumita Singha; Hockey Andaman and Nicobar: V.A.Shiyad and Lally Joseph; Hockey Uttarkhand: Rajeev Mehta and Neeraj Singh; Bengal Hockey Association: J.B.Roy and Suravi Mitra; Hockey Puducherry: R Ejilane and Asha Gupta; Hockey Kerala: M.M.Abdul Rehman and Mariamma Koshi; SSCB: Capt. U.K.Thapa; RSPB: Rakesh Yadav; IUSBI: Gurdeep Singh; AISD: Dr Ramesh Nambiar. HI election deferred
The Hockey India election scheduled for February 7 and which has already generated a lot of controversies was today deferred yet again because of a stay order from the Rajasthan High Court. The office bearers of Hockey India met today for an emergency meeting and decided to put off the election till a final decision is taken by the Rajasthan High Court. The election was to be held before February 28-March 13 Hockey World Cup. —
PTI |
|
Doping Fiasco
Gurdaspur, January 23 The IWF has now been trapped in a quagmire of its own making and if the Federation is unable to pay the International body the fine, which comes to Rs 2.46 crore going by the current international rate of the dollar, its lifters will surely miss the Commonwealth games bus. If this happens, it will turn out to be a big shock for Indian sports officialdom as after shooting and wrestling the Indians were expecting to win the maximum number of medals from the iron sport in both the men’s and women’s sections. The International body has sent an E-mail to the IWF yesterday conveying its decision to impose the penalty. An IWF official revealed that the Indians were well on their way to be banned for anything between 1 to 4 years by the International body. However they were let of with the ban and imposed a fine due to some hectic lobbying undertaken by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officials with Dr Tamas Alan, the Hungary based President of the International body, which finally paid off. Apart from the fine, the International body has asked for $31,000 more as fines imposed on the six lifters who were found to be using IOC banned drugs in an attempt to enhance their performance in various national and international competitions. The first causality will be the SAF games slated to be held at Dhaka from January 29 to February 8 where the Indian’s were expected to redeem their falling image by winning a clutch of medals. The IWF President B.P Baishya admitted that “The fine amount is our 10 year budget. We will have to see what to do to ensure the participation of our lifters in the Commonwealth games.”
|
|
HPA to get world class wrestling academy
Madhuban (Karnal) January 23 Khullar who was chief guest at the closing ceremony of 58th All India Police Volleyball cluster championships was responding to the request made by Haryana DGP Ranjeev S Dalal in this regard. She said that at present, her ministry was concentrating on preparations for commonwealth and Asian games in which about 1200 sportspersons from the country would participate. Competitions in 17 sports disciplines in Commonwealth games and 29 disciplines in Asian games would be held, she disclosed. She said that the number of sportspersons of international standards in the country was negligible as compared to our population and called upon the players to make Police moto and sports moto as their inspiration and work from this very moment to win highest number of medals in all International sports meets including the Olympics. She congratulated the winning teams and also distributed prizes to winners. Lauding the initiative taken by Ranjeev S Dalal in promotion of sports activities, Khullar said that he was an ace horse rider and sports enthusiast and done commendable would in spotting and encouraging budding sports talents. She said that such sports competitions helped in identifying hidden talents and said that sportspersons should always remain in state of preparedness as national and international events were organised at some place of the other throughout the year.
|
|
Gorakhpur Gullies win
Sirsa, January 23 In reply, Varanasi team could score only 74 runs for the loss of 9 wickets. In the second match played today, Gorakhpur Gullies defeated Ballia Gullies by seven wickets. Batting first, the Balia team scored 75 runs for the loss of 8 wickets with the help of Himanshu Singh’s 32 off 16 balls. Gorakhpur team scored 78 for the loss of three wicket thereby winning the match by 7 wickets. Earlier on Friday, Allahabad defeated Lucknow by 10 wickets.
|
|
They come from Pak to wrestle, not to fight
Jarkhar (Ludhiana), January 23 The wrestler, who participated in the 1988 Olympics held in Seoul, Korea, appeared to be a peeved person. He said cricket was no longer a game, it had become a part of politics for the authorities of both countries. Anwar, who is accompanying the seven-member contingent of wrestlers as their coach visited the Jarkhar Rural Sports Festival here today and said besides concentrating only on cricket, the authorities of both nations should focus on other games. He said players from across the border had always been well received and looked after in India. This time too, they were accorded warm welcome on their arrival today. "People love to see us participating in an event and whenever we visit the state we are overwhelmed by the crowd’s response in the play field. The atmosphere turns electrifying when ever we participate in a bout or in ‘Dangal’ organised during the rural sports festival across the region,” stated Mohd. Usman, a wrestler from Gujjaranwala in Pakistan. “We felt at home during our visit to this part of the country. We speak one language ‘Punjabi’, prefer similar food, same attire and where ever we go, we are given ‘special’ treatment by our brethren here” added Umran Ali, who recently won bronze medal in Commonwealth wrestling championship, held at Jalandhar. These grapplers participate in nearly 50 rural and other wrestling tournaments during their two-months stint in India every year.
Pak wrestlers shine
Pakistan wrestlers proved too good for their opponents to win the overall trophy. Mohd Usman and Mohd. Shoaib came triumphant over Gurbhej Mander and Sukhchain Singh, respectively while Goldy Punjab pipped Farhan Babbar and Roobal beat Wasim Bari. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Melbourne, January 23
Mahendra Singh Dhoni today switched to damage control mode saying they will not take Bangladesh lightly in the second Test, beginning tomorrow.
Former Pakistan Olympian Mohd. Anwar, who along with seven wrestlers are currently visiting Punjab, have slammed the Pakistan interior minister Rehman Malik for his comments on the ongoing IPL controversy and allegedly blamed him for politicising sports.
Melbourne, January 23
6-4 3-6 6-1 7-5 in a fiery encounter and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny withdrew before the start of play because of a wrist problem, handing Poland's Lukasz Kubot a free ride into the next stage.
