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Athletes honoured with sports awards
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Arjuna Award a great motivator: Rajpal
Maken hopeful of early Sports Bill
Gambhir likely to miss ODI series
Gautam Gambhir
Parthiv, Vinay shine in Indians win
American Jeter wins world women's 100m gold
Hamilton guilty over Kobayashi crash
NADA collects lifters’ samples
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Athletes honoured with sports awards
New Delhi, August 29 The current double world-record holder in the 10-metre air rifle event, Narang had won four gold medals in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, two silver medals in the Asian Games in China and a clutch of other medals in international meets to emerge as the sole candidate for the Khel Ratna Award. The president also presented the Dronacharya, Arjuna, Dhyan Chand and Tenzing Norgay awards. Though the invitation card had mentioned the Maulana Abul Kalam Award (MAKA) Trophy as well, it was not presented this year, though no reason was given for not awarding the trophy to the university with best sporting achievements. A source said the MAKA Trophy was withheld due to the fight between Punjabi University, Patiala and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, and consequently the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) did not go through the process of selecting the best university. Compared to other years, the award function was rather subdued. Barring Sports Minister Ajay Maken and Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, no other union minister was present. There were also four absentees among the Arjuna Award winners — cricketer Zaheer Khan, tennis star Somdev Devvarman, discus thrower Vikas Gowda and gymnast Ashish Kumar. As always, the official souvenir, produced by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, was full of errors — factually and spelling-wise. In the English section of the MAKA Trophy winners, Bombay University has been credited for winning the trophy for the past 12 years consecutively, though Mumbai (or Bombay) had not won the trophy even once during this period. However, the winners have been correctly given in the Hindi version. Following is the full list of the award winners: Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award: Gagan Narang (shooting). Dronacharya Award: Kuntal Kumar Roy (athletics), I. Venkateshwara Rao (boxing), Devender Kumar Rathore (gymnastics), Rajinder Singh (hockey), Ramphal (wrestling). Arjuna Award: Rahul Banerjee (archery), Preeja Sreedharan (athletics), Vikas Gowda (athletics), Jwala Gutta (badminton), M Suranjoy Singh (boxing), Zaheer Khan (cricket), Sunil Chhetri (football), Ashish Kumar (gymnastics), Rajpal Singh (hockey), Rakesh Kumar (kabaddi), Tejeswini Bai (kabaddi), Tejaswini Sawant (shooting) Vikram Khade (swimming), Somdev Devvarman (tennis), Sanjay Kumar (volleyball), Ravinder Singh (wrestling), K. Ravi Kumar (weightlifting), Sandhyarani Devi (wushu), Prasanta Karmakar (physically challenged swimmer). Dhyan Chand Award: Shabbir Ali (football), Sushil Kohli (swimming), Raj Kumar (wrestling). Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award: Reena Dharmshaktu (mountaineering), Mamta Sodha (mountaineering), Dilip Donde (sailing), late Balwant Singh Sandhu (mountaineering). Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar: Petroleum Sports Promotion Board and N. Ramachandran (Sports Academies of Excellence).
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Arjuna Award a great motivator: Rajpal
New Delhi, August 29 Rajpal, who stayed back to receive the award, said the present hockey team were a blend of youth and experience who play as a unit and he was hopeful that the team would do well in the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy, to be held in China next week. The other members of the team left for China on Saturday night and Rajpal will leave tonight. The captain said the team would strive to do their best in the Champions Trophy, though their primary target would be the Olympic qualifier, to be held in February. ”Qualifying for the Olympics is our top-most priority,” he told The Tribune. Rajpal and Sunil Chhetri were involved in a long talk as they dwelt on each other’s sport to catch up with the latest. Chhetri also echoed Rajpal’s view that the Arjuna Award was a “great motivating factor”. “It has always been my dream to receive an award from the President of India. It’s the beginning of an interesting journey,” said Chhetri, whom Baichung Bhutia had described as the fulcrum of the present Indian team. He averred that Indian football was moving in the right direction and had a bright future if all the stakeholders worked in unison with the aim of putting the game on a pedestal. “We are definitely moving into the right direction,” he said. “There should be no criticism, no negativity as the team has been improving. Our aim should be the uplift of soccer in the country,” stated the talented striker. Badminton star Jwala Gutta was also pleased to receive the Arjuna Award from the President. “It’s a great honour — a dream come true,” she said, flashing a bright smile. Jwala said though winning an Olympic gold was her ultimate goal, her immediate focus would be to excel in the two Grand Prix events — the China Open and the Japan Open, in September. Jwala, who paired with Ashwini to lift the women’s doubles gold in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and a bronze in the World Championship a few days ago, felt she could have done still better had she got the services of a personal foreign coach of her choice, either from Indonesia or Malaysia. “We get absolutely zero sponsorship despite our fine showings in the past few months. My game would have improved considerably had I had a foreign coach to polish it,” lamented the player.
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Maken hopeful of early Sports Bill
New Delhi, August 29 “The draft for the Sports Bill has already been placed before Parliament and it will come before the Cabinet tomorrow,” Maken told the media after a function at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here to celebrate the 106th birth anniversary of the hockey wizard. The proposed bill, once cleared by the Cabinet, will then go to the Parliamentary Standing Committee before being tabled in Parliament. “We need reforms in sports, and we hope that the National Sports Bill will bring about these changes. Our idea was to introduce the bill in the Monsoon Session and we have done that. Inter-ministerial consultations are now on and after that, it will go to the Parliament for resolution,” he said. The proposed bill, which has generated protests from the Indian Olympic Association as well as National Sports Federations, has been termed “intrusive” by many. The original proposals of the bill also planned to bring all sports federations, including the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), within the scope of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. However, sources indicate that the objections from the federations have resulted in the ‘toning down’ of some of the proposals, though the exact nature of this change of stance was not clear. Another vexed issue currently gaining momentum is the tiff between Hockey India and the Indian Hockey Federation, which is threatening to scuttle the plans for the Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held here early next year. “We have been able to make HI and IHF come to some sort of understanding to try and make the running of the sport smooth,” Maken said. “But the IOA and the International Hockey Federation has some objections about this and we have also received a letter from FIH about this. The Joint-Secretary, Sports, has already written to FIH regarding this and has met FIH president Leandro Negre. Negre will be in India soon and we will take it up with him.” Earlier, Maken paid glorious tributes to Major Dhyan Chand, saying that he was an inspiration for all athletes in the country. He said that the Sports Ministry was committed to ensuring that sports would become transparent and also that the infrastructure would be used to promote promising athletes and used exclusively for sports.
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Gambhir likely to miss ODI series
Leicester, August 29 In what could be a big blow to the campaign of the world champions in the forthcoming one-day series, Gambhir is likely to suffer the fate of the likes of Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag who came or joined the Indian squad and left without lending significantly to the team's cause. India has been whitewashed 4-0 in the Test series; lost their number one Test rankings and is in danger of suffering a similar debilitating fate in the one-day series, starting with the first game in Chester-le-Street on September 3. Gambhir had backpedalled to catch a pull by Kevin Pietersen at mid-on on the second day of the final Test at the Oval on August 19 but tripped and fell on his head and subsequently suffered from a blurred vision. He didn't open in both innings of the Oval Test and came down late in the order, contributing little by way of runs. Since then, he has visited doctors and got MRI scans done which have shown clean results, yet Gambhir's condition hasn't improved. Gambhir's case could be similar to the one suffered by South African fast bowler Dale Steyn during the Champions League last year when he too had backpedalled to take catch Michael Hussey in a semifinal clash between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore and fell on his head. Steyn's MRI scans too showed little but the paceman took 3-4 weeks to get himself sorted out. By the looks of it, Gambhir could also suffer a similar fate and be out of action for 3-4 weeks, putting in doubt even his participation when England pay a return visit to India for a one-day series in early October. — PTI
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Parthiv, Vinay shine in Indians win
Leicester, August 29 Earlier, Opener Parthiv Patel top-scored with a brilliant 40 as India posted a decent 161 for five against Leicestershire. The visitors were off to a flyer against the domestic Twenty20 champions but soon lost their way in the middle before making a strong finish to reach a satisfactory total in the end. Openers Parthiv Patel (40) and Ajinkaya Rahane (19) made 52 from 5.4 overs before the progress was bogged down. — PTI Scoreboard Indians Parthiv c Jefferson b McDonald 40 Rahane c Naik b Razzaq 19 Dravid c White b Cobb 29 Kohli c sub b Naik 13 Rohit c McDonald b Cobb 29 Raina not out 21 Praveen not out 0 Extras (b 5, lb 3, w 2) 10 Total: (5 wkts; 20 ovrs) 161 Bowling: Hoggard 3-0-31-0, Razzaq 3-0-24-1, McDonald 3-0-15-1, Naik 4-0-20-1, White 4-0-41-0, Cobb 3-0-22-2. Leicestershire Cobb b Praveen 4 McDonald b Vinay 44 Jefferson lbw b Mishra 20 Taylor c Parthiv b Vinay 5 Nixon b Mishra 6 Razzaq c Kohli b Ashwin 37 Toit b Vinay 13 White not out 2 Boyce not out 4 Extras (lb 8, w 3) 11 Total: (7 wkts; 20 ovrs) 146 Bowling: Praveen 4-0-26-1, Aaron 3-0-34-0, Ashwin 4-0-23-1, Mishra 4-0-19-2, Vinay 4-0-29-3, Rohit 1-0-7-0.
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American Jeter wins world women's 100m gold
Daegu, August 29 Jeter, who won bronze at the last two world champs, was locked with defending champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica right through until the line. "It really means a lot," said Jeter. "My coach told me I needed a good start and I did just that." The American eventually prevailed in 10.90sec, but Fraser-Pryce missed out on a podium after being trumped by late showings from Jamaica's 2005 world champion Veronica Campbell-Brown (10.97sec) and Trinidad's Kelly-Ann Baptiste (10.98). (Reuters) - Cuban hurdler Dayron Robles disqualified
Robles was stripped of gold and glory at the world athletics championships in a twist every bit as dramatic as Usain Bolt's disqualification from the blue riband 100 metres sprint the night before. The muscular world record-holder was disqualified after a physical track tussle in the 110 metres hurdles final with China's Liu Xiang. Robles bumped Liu in an epic race between the three fastest hurdlers of all time — America's David Oliver finished fifth — and crossed the line first ahead of Jason Richardson. The Chinese protested, however, and though world athletics governing body the IAAF did not rule out the race being re-run, Richardson has gold as it stands with Liu in silver and Britain's Andy Turner lifted to bronze. "Robles hit me twice, at the ninth hurdle he pulled at me, but it wasn't intentional," former Olympic champion Liu told reporters. "If not for the incident I would be gold medallist." Bolt controversy lingers
The floodlit drama was exactly what the 13th world championships needed to dispel a gloom which, like the ever-present mist on Daegu's mountains, had lingered around the stadium after the shock of Bolt losing his 100 metres crown. A victim of the one-false-start-and-you're-out rule, Bolt was disqualified on Sunday night and his Jamaican understudy Yohan Blake crowned champion in a major anti-climax. The world's fastest man took his time responding to the disqualification which stripped the championships of its biggest name, waiting around 18 hours to make any statement. India’s Gowda qualifies
India's Vikas Gowda qualified for his maiden finals in the World Championships with a creditable 63.99m effort in the men's discus throw qualification round here today. Gowda hurled the disc to 63.99m in his second attempt to qualify for tomorrow's finals as the eighth best out of 12 to made the grade. His effort, though, was below his season's best of 64.91m, which he recorded at Chula Vista in United States in June. — Agencies |
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Hamilton guilty over Kobayashi crash
Spa-Francorchamps, Aug 29 The 26-year-old Briton, whose impetuosity has become a frequent problem over the last two years, said he had made an error of judgement yesterday and not given his Japanese opponent sufficient space. Writing on Twitter, Hamilton said: "After watching the replay, I realise it was my fault 100 per cent. I didn't give Kobayashi enough room though I thought I was past. "Apologies to Kamui and to my team. The team deserves better from me." Hamilton made his spectacular exit from a dramatic race, won by defending champion Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, when he collided with Kobayashi on lap 13. In June, he retired from the Canadian Grand Prix after a collision with his own McLaren team-mate compatriot Jenson Button. Yesterday, Button finished a stirring second behind series leader Vettel and the German's Red Bull team-mate Australian Mark Webber. For Hamilton to change his mind and issue a public apology may be seen as a hint that he is considering his approach to races more carefully. After yesterday's crash had eliminated him from a race where he had a good chance of fighting for a win, he said he did not believe he was to blame. "I'm not really quite sure (what happened) to be honest," he said. "I just remember hitting the wall pretty hard. It's a bit unfortunate for the team, we were in a good position and as far as I was concerned I was ahead of whoever it was I was racing and then I just got hit by them and that was my race over. — AFP
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NADA collects lifters’ samples
Patiala, August 29 A three-member NADA team collected samples of 13 male weightlifters here yesterday and sent them to NADA’s laboratory in New Delhi. Another team collected samples of eight women weightlifters in Bangalore and the samples have been sent to New Delhi. NADA Director-General Rahul Bhatnagar said that the reports of these samples would be out by the middle of September. He said NADA would continue to take samples during various selection trials because it was better that the players who indulged in doping were caught here, than in some international competition. “It would save the country from major embarrassment,” he added.
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Ronaldo’s hat-trick in Madrid win
Madrid, August 29 Real coach Jose Mourinho warned that the opening weekend of fixtures often spring surprises but the game went according to plan for the Portuguese and it will serve as a statement of intent for Barca who are in action Monday away to Villarreal. Ronaldo was the joint highest goal scorer in Spain last season with Lionel Messi on 53 goals and mid-way through the first half he opened up his league account for this campaign after converting a Mesut Ozil pass. Marcelo quickly added a second as Real peppered the Zaragoza goal. The home side were never in the contest and in the second half Real's domination was reflected in the scoring with Xabi Alonso (63) and Kaka (81) finding the back of the net along with two more goals from Ronaldo after 70 and 86 minutes. Earlier, an unfamiliar Real Mallorca side scraped a 1-0 win over Espanyol thanks to a deflected Jonathan De Guzman goal. There were five new faces in the Mallorca starting line-up and it was one of those, Alejandro Alfaro, who had the side's best chance of the first half in the opening minute. Espanyol grew as the game went on and after the break youngster Alvaro Vazquez hit the post and saw another effort well saved. — AFP
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Wrestlers win 9 medals Argentine coach arrives Sania moves up to 63rd Indian Women finish 6th
Former Barbados player dies Ponting backs Clarke
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Ratna, the highest sports award in the country, by President of India Pratibha Patil at an investiture ceremony to honour the National sports award winners at the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan here today.
Indian hockey team captain Rajpal Singh said winning the Arjuna Award was a great motivation for him. “Such awards give a big boost to your morale and motivate you to do better as they are in recognition of your good work on the field,” said Rajpal, after receiving the award from President Pratibha Patil at an investiture ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan here today.
With little improvement in his agonising condition in the last 10 days, India's opener Gautam Gambhir could be packing his bags to return home.
In what could be a big blow to the campaign of the world champions in the forthcoming one-day series, Gambhir is likely to suffer the fate of the likes of Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag who came or joined the Indian squad and left without lending significantly to the team's cause.
Carmelita Jeter of the United States held off a strong field to claim gold in the women's 100m at the world championships on Monday.
Jeter, who won bronze at the last two world champs, was locked with defending champion Shelly-Ann
Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica right through until the line.
Lewis Hamilton today admitted he was at fault and apologised to his McLaren team and to Sauber rival Kamui Kobayashi after reviewing their crash in Belgian Grand Prix.
It is not going to be an easy task in London. I am already feeling the pressure but I am determined to go all the way. I have been unlucky twice, hope I get third time lucky.
— Gagan Narang
Forlan leaves for Milan
Galle: