SPECIAL COVERAGE
CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI


THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS
50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE
TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS
S P O R T S

Kashyap enters knockout stage
London, July 31
Parupalli Kashyap plays a shot during his match against Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam in London on Tuesday. Kashyap won 21-9, 21-14. — AFP Indian male shuttler Parupalli Kashyap today scored a dominating straight games win over Vietnam's Tien Minh Nguyen to join compatriot Saina Nehwal in the knock-out stage of singles competition in the Olympics here today.

Parupalli Kashyap plays a shot during his match against Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam in London on Tuesday. Kashyap won 21-9, 21-14. — AFP 

To scream or not to scream, that is the question d
Stillness of body and mind lies at the centre of a successful shooter's construct. Shooters hate adrenaline highs - they'd rather have ice in their veins instead of blood. So that, when competition reaches a climax, their body and hands wouldn't shake as they press the trigger, which is light as a feather.

Devendro punches his way through
London, July 31
Devendro Singh (R) reacts after defeating Honduras' Bayron Molina Figueroa on Tuesday. — Reuters India's Devendro Singh, his fists and arms all a flurry, entered the pre-quarterfinals of the light-flyweight (49kg) boxing category on Tuesday afternoon. 

Devendro Singh (R) reacts after defeating Honduras' Bayron Molina Figueroa on Tuesday. — Reuters



Pic of the day
A Japanese fan attends the soccer match against South Africa in Cardiff, on Tuesday. — Reuters

A Japanese fan attends the soccer match against South Africa in Cardiff, on Tuesday. — Reuters


EARLIER STORIES

Gagan’s Olympic feat
July 31
, 2012
Boxers break India’s losing streak
July 30
, 2012
Archers bow out
July 29
, 2012
India’s archers off target
July 28
, 2012
STARRY AFFAIR
July 27
, 2012
Who will be fastest man on earth?
July 26
, 2012
Building excellence
July 25
, 2012
Gunning for glory
July 24
, 2012
Tales of Punch-tantra
July 23
, 2012

Torrid day for Indian archers
London, July 31
Tuesday brought no good news from the Lord’s cricket ground where the Indian archers were action. In the team events, they had been below par – the lowered expectations had given the Indian fans an indication of things to come.

Hancock wins 2nd straight men’s skeet gold
London, July 31
USA’s Vincent Hancock competes in the Shooting Skeet men qualification at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London on Tuesday. — AFP Vincent Hancock nearly retired from competition a year ago, then decided to chase another Olympic gold medal. It turned out to be a smart move.




USA’s Vincent Hancock competes in the Shooting Skeet men qualification at the Royal Artillery Barracks in London on Tuesday. — AFP

Venus Williams of the US returns the ball to Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak in Wimbledon on Tuesday. — AFP Venus crushes Wozniak
London, July 31
Venus Williams underlined her desire for a fourth Olympic gold medal as the American raced into the third round with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak at Wimbledon here today.




Venus Williams of the US returns the ball to Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak in Wimbledon on Tuesday. — AFP

Virat Kohli seals series win for India
Colombo, July 31
Virat Kohli celebrates after scoring a century during the fourth ODI between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo on Tuesday. India won by 6 wickets, clinching the five-match series 3-1. — AFP Virat Kohli's dream run in ODIs continued as his brilliant century guided India to a comfortable six-wicket victory in the fourth one-dayer against Sri Lanka, thereby clinching the five-match series 3-1, here today.

Virat Kohli celebrates after scoring a century during the fourth ODI between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo on Tuesday. India won by 6 wickets, clinching the five-match series 3-1. — AFP

interview with 800m world champion
Olympic medal is what I am missing: Rudisha

Having missed Beijing in 2008 through injury, how important is London 2012?





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Kashyap enters knockout stage

London, July 31
Indian male shuttler Parupalli Kashyap today scored a dominating straight games win over Vietnam's Tien Minh Nguyen to join compatriot Saina Nehwal in the knock-out stage of singles competition in the Olympics here today.

The 21st ranked Kashyap outplayed his rival, ranked 11 places above him, 21-9 21-14 in the second and final Group D match of the men's singles event. By virtue of today's win, Kashyap finished on top of Group D, having beaten Belgium's Tan Yuhan in an earlier game.

Saina, ranked fifth in the world, too had little difficulty in disposing off the challenge of Belgium's Lianne Tan 21-4 21-14 in a Group E women's singles match last night.

Against his higher ranked opponent today, Kashyap played aggressively right from the word go and never let the Vietnamese shuttler settle down.

Kashyap set up the points beautifully by opening the court and executed the winners with ease.

In all the Indian took 35 minutes to down his opponent and move to the next stage. The match featured long rallies with both the players playing some fierce flat shots, but it was the Indian who scored points consistently.

Minh tried to claw his way back in the second game but Kasyhap never let the momentum slip and clinched the issue with a cross-court smash to the left of his rival.

As expected Kashyap was delighted with the easy win but rued that his father could not be there to see him dominate the match.

"I expected to win but not that easily. Not that it was an easy game - we had some long rallies and when he gets into his rhythm he can be very dangerous." Kashyap said.

"My dad didn't get a UK visa in time. I don't know what's going on with the British Embassy. I feel really bad. I really wanted him to be here to see me play, especially in a match like this - to see me beat a player like this. I really hope that he'll get here tomorrow."

Talking about his rival Minh today, Kashyap said he was not an easy player to beat. "Once he gets two or three points in a row he's very dangerous, so I really tried to keep it to two points only. If he gets five or six he can run away with the game. I trained really hard for this competition and I think I won because of my fitness levels," he said.

Among other Indian shuttlers in the fray, Commonwealth Games gold medallist pair of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa also set the Wembley Arena ablaze when they stunned world number 10 Yu Chin Chien and Wen Hsing Cheng of Chinese Taipei 25-23 16-21 21-18 in a Group B round-robin match of the women's doubles late last night. However, Jwala and Ashwini had to toil hard to register the win. The Indian pair was pushed to the backfoot after they lost their first group match but the duo then played out of its skin to keep themselves afloat in the competition.

World number 20 Jwala and Ashwini blew an early 11-6 lead to allow the Chinese Taipei pair to claw back and earn a game point at 20-19 in the first game. The Indian combo then saved game point thrice before moving into a game point themselves.

However, they faltered again to allow the rivals to come back into the match before restoring their second game point at 24-23. A Chinese Taipei player found the net after a long rally to hand over the first game advantage to the Indian. In the second game, Jwala and Ashwini tried to vary the pace of the long rallies, but they were erratic as Cheng and Chien lead 11-7 at the break. The Indian pair failed to negotiate the bodyline and angled smashes. The Chinese Taipei soon earned a game point at 20-14 when Ashwini hit the nets. Though the Indians saved a couple of game points, Ashwini hit wide to allow their rivals to come back into the match.

In the decider, Jwala and Ashwini earned a small 11-9 lead early on. After the interval, they extended the lead to 16-12 and cautiously moved to 18-19 when a silly mishit by Cheng gave India the match point. The Indians didn't make any mistake after that and sealed the match with a disguised drop. The 2011 world champion bronze medallist pair of Jwala and Ashwini will take on world number 13 Shinta Mulia Sari and Lei Yao of Singapore in their last group stage match today. — PTI

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To scream or not to scream, that is the question
Rohit Mahajan in London

Stillness of body and mind lies at the centre of a successful shooter's construct. Shooters hate adrenaline highs - they'd rather have ice in their veins instead of blood. So that, when competition reaches a climax, their body and hands wouldn't shake as they press the trigger, which is light as a feather. They don't like it when it becomes noisy inside the shooting hall - each one of them.

But the International Shooting Sport Federation, to liven up a staid sport, wants noise and music at the shooting hall to get the audience involved. They had loud music on before the final began, and they had a young woman exhorting the crowd to be noisy. "A score of 10 is awesome - if it's 10.5, it's fantastic... but if it's 10.9, it's incredible," she said. "At 10.9, you have to go wild!"

The crowd did just that. The Olympics shooters weren't prepared for it. They say they had no clue that they would run into a wall of noise at London 2012, especially in the final round of 10 shots each, when each shot was followed by massive cheers or gasps.

Silver medallist Niccolo Campriani of Italy, the world No. 1, possibly lost out on the gold medal because of the noise. "The federation is changing things, but it may lead to lower scores in competition. It was very challenging here," Campriani told the Tribune. "Each time someone finished a shot, people were clapping. So while aiming, I was really worried that if there was a sudden noise, I could pull the trigger in the wrong moment. So I always tried to pull the trigger as the first or second shooter. There were some dangers in that choice, and I paid for that with a few 9s." Those 9s shook his grip on the gold, allowing Rumania's Alin George Moldoveanu to grab it.

What about the elaborate protection the shooters wear on their ears? With a sad smile, Campriani said: "With this sort of a noise, those ear-muffs are no use."

Some shooters may be affected more than the others - it could be down to many factors, including their concentration. Bindra was affected more than the others because he was among the last of the 48 competitors to finish in qualification. That meant that while he was still in action, all the others were finishing, prompting waves of noise in the stands.

Bindra said later that he was forced to take risks in his sixth series. He had to take risks because he was running out of time - the shooters had 105 minutes to finish their six series of 10 shots each in qualification, ie 60 shots in all.

Bindra was lying in the sixth position when the others began to finish - each finish was met with resounding noise in the packed shooting hall that had only standing room. As the time remaining was announced at intervals, he seemed to be trying to get his wits together, maybe even trying to wait for the noise to end. That would put him under greater time pressure.

Bindra later said that he wasn't at his best yesterday, that the event was coming to an end and the noise in the hall bothered him.

Indian coaches Stanislas Lapidus and Sunny Thomas both agreed. "It's not an excuse, because the noise was there for everyone," Thomas told the Tribune. "But the fact is that the shooters aren't used to noise. It has been allowed in other sports, but not in shooting."

Thomas added that in sports like tennis too, quiet is appreciated. "During serves, people are required to be quiet," he added. "During qualifying too here, there was control on the noise, and there was applause only when each shooter finished. But with 48 shooters in the hall, and all of them finishing one after the other, Bindra had to suffer a lot."

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Devendro punches his way through

London, July 31
India's Devendro Singh, his fists and arms all a flurry, entered the pre-quarterfinals of the light-flyweight (49kg) boxing category on Tuesday afternoon. The referee halted the punishment Singh dealt to his Honduran opponent, Bayron Molina Figueroa, with 36 seconds of the three-minute first round remaining.

The ferocity of the Indian boxer's assault left the Honduran stunned as he went down twice and had to take a standing count. Singh became the third Indian boxer to enter the pre-quarterfinals after Vijender Singh and Jai Bhagwan.

Singh is 20 and Figueroa 19, but youth is the only thing they shared - they live on the opposite sides of the world and as for boxing skills, they were worlds apart. Singh, whose entry into the ring met with a huge roar of welcome, came out with fists flying. He displayed a dazzling quickness of both hands and feet as he went for Figueroa, who was clearly overwhelmed by the attack.

After dealing Figueroa a few punches that shook him, Singh landed a powerful left that made Figueroa weak-kneed; he went down to the canvas to his haunches and had to take a standing count. The fight resumed, and with it Figueroa's punishment. Another flurry of punches left Figueroa trying to protect himself desperately, falling back to the ropes. The referee stopped the punishment and Figueroa took his second standing count.

Then the referee decided that Figueroa had had enough and stopped the fight. Singh later said, "I knew from the start that this was going to be an easy bout," Singh later said.

He said that his coaches had been asking him to go slow, but added with a twinkle in his eye: "Us se kaam nahin hota hai - going easy doesn't make things work." His win should be seen in its proper context - his opponent is as lowly as they go. But the next round is much tougher, against Beijing 2008 silver winner Purevdorjiin Serdamba of Mongolia, who got a bye into the pre-quarterfinals.

"Yes, that's going to be a tough bout... he's won a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics," Singh said. "Me and my coaches will study videos of his bouts to prepare." — Rohit Mahajan

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Torrid day for Indian archers

London, July 31
Tuesday brought no good news from the Lord’s cricket ground where the Indian archers were action. In the team events, they had been below par – the lowered expectations had given the Indian fans an indication of things to come.

So, when Jayanta Talukdar and Chekrovolu Swuro crashed out in the first round, the Indians in the crowd grimaced and bore it. They got a reward for their fortitude when Rahul Banerjee reached the pre-quarterfinals, though he too fell by the wayside in the evening.

In the individual events, matches are played on a best-of-five sets format – winning a set gives you two points, a draw one point to both archers.

Rahul Banerjee scored the lone win of the day for the Indian archers, beating Mongolia’s Janstan Gantugs 6-0. Later in the after, Banerjee too bowed out, losing 3-7 to Poland’s Rafal Dobrowolski in the pre-quarters.

In the round of 32, Talukdar was knocked out by Jacob Wukie of the US, losing 0-6, but Swuro let go of a winning position. Swuro led 5-3 at one stage after winning two sets, losing one and drawing one. She needed only a draw in the last set to take her tally to six, while her opponent would have been stranded on 4. But nerves made her collapse while Nicholas lifted her game, shooting 9, 9 and 10. Swuro hit 9 and 10 and needed a 9 with her last arrow but shot a shocking 6 and exited. — Rohit Mahajan

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Hancock wins 2nd straight men’s skeet gold

London, July 31
Vincent Hancock nearly retired from competition a year ago, then decided to chase another Olympic gold medal. It turned out to be a smart move.

At 23, the American is now a two-time Olympic champion in men's skeet shooting, successfully defending his crown today with a score of 148 to take the top spot at the London Games.

Anders Golding of Denmark finished two targets back to win the silver, and Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiya won a shoot-off over Russia's Valery Shomin for the bronze at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

"Being able to stand back up there again, and listen to the national anthem again, it's got to be better," said Hancock, a US Army sergeant and the first skeet shooter to win consecutive Olympic titles.

"But it hasn't set in fully yet." Hancock's win gave the US a skeet sweep, after Kimberly Rhode won the women's competition earlier this week.

"I firmly believe that I'm shooting better right now than I ever have in my entire career," Hancock said.

After setting an Olympic record with a score of 123 (out of a possible 125) in qualifying Tuesday, Hancock entered the medal round with a one-target lead. And when Golding missed, Hancock's lead was two with seven targets remaining. In skeet, that's massive.

"I had no chance," Golding said. Hancock clinched the gold on his next-to-last shot, made his last for good measure, then spun around and punched the air in celebration. At the Beijing Games, he may have been a bit of a surprise winner, even though he was already a world champion.

In London, he was the favorite, looked the part and made good on a promise uttered at a rally in his native state of Georgia four years ago, telling well-wishers that in 2012, he'd give them reason to celebrate again. Yep, he hit that target as well.

"I told him when I got out there and hugged him, he's the best I've ever seen," US coach Todd Graves said. "And I've seen a lot." — AP 

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Venus crushes Wozniak

London, July 31
Venus Williams underlined her desire for a fourth Olympic gold medal as the American raced into the third round with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak at Wimbledon here today.

Venus hasn't won a Grand Slam since 2008, but the American has always thrived at the All England Club and is clearly determined to emulate her singles success at the 2000 Sydney Games.

The 32-year-old, who has also won two doubles golds with sister Serena, was far too powerful for Wozniak and took just 63 minutes to set up a last 16 clash with German seventh seed Angelique Kerber, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals earlier this month. When Venus, a five-time Wimbledon champion, crashed out against Elena Vesnina in the first round of the grass-court Grand Slam last month, the result was seen as further evidence of the American's struggles with Sjogren's syndrome, an auto-immune disease which leaves her fatigued and with painful joints. But she has looked back to her ferocious best over the last two days in south-west London.

She crushed French Open finalist Sara Errani in the first round and Wozniak, the world number 54 who is actually ranked 15 places about Venus, was clearly out of her depth on Centre Court.

When Wozniak began the match with a double-fault, Venus immediately smelled blood and pressured her opponent into surrendering her serve twice to take the first set. Venus was equally merciless in the second set, breaking three times to secure a smooth passage into the last 16. — AFP

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Virat Kohli seals series win for India
Scores 13th ODI ton as India beat Lanka by six wickets

Colombo, July 31
Virat Kohli's dream run in ODIs continued as his brilliant century guided India to a comfortable six-wicket victory in the fourth one-dayer against Sri Lanka, thereby clinching the five-match series 3-1, here today.

Courtesy's Kohli's 119-ball 128 and his partnership of 146 runs with another in-form batsman Suresh Raina (58), India reached the 252-run target in 42.2 overs at the R Premadasa stadium.

This is Kohli's 13th century in his 89th ODI appearance, a feat still unattained by any other batsman in ODI history.

The Delhi batsman, on his way to another three-digit figure, also completed quickest 1000 runs in a calender year with a whopping average of 77.15. He has now scored his fifth century in last eight matches. It was Raina who scored the winning run with a hit over extra cover off Tillakaratne Dilshan as India reached 255 for four.

Raina's 51-ball 58 was his 24th half century and eighth against Sri Lanka.

Both Kohli and Raina blunted Sri Lanka's spin attack and batted beautifully. Raina may not be as prolific numbers as Kohli but batting at number 5 and 6, he has more than pulled his weight. India were off to a poor start as pacer Lasith Malinga struck in his first over to bowl out Gautam Gambhir (0).

Virender Sehwag along with Kohli put the Indian chase back on track with a 50-run stand for the second wicket but Angelo Mathews got rid of the opener in the 10th over to somewhat derail visitors' chase. 

Mathews got Sehwag caught by substitute Senanayake after his fighting knock of 34. — PTI 

Scoreboard

Sri Lanka innings
Tharanga st Dhoni b Ashwin 51

Dilshan c Dhoni b Dinda 42

Thirimanne b Ashwin 47

Chandimal c Irfan b Tiwary 28

Mahela c Dhoni b Sehwag 3

Mathews c Kohli b Tiwary 14

Jeevan b Tiwary 17

Perera c Raina b Tiwary 2

Herath not out 17

Malinga not out 15

Extras (lb 2, w 13) 15

Total (8 wkts, 50 ovrs) 251

Fall of wickets: 1-91, 2-102, 3-152, 4-155, 5-190, 6-213, 7-218, 8-219.

Bowling: Zaheer 6-0-36-0, Irfan 6-0-27-0, Dinda 6-0-28-1, Kohli 2-0-7-0, Sehwag 8-1-38-1, Ashwin 10-1-46-2, Tiwary 10-1-61-4, Rohit 2-0-6-0.

INDIA innings
Gambhir b Malinga 0

Sehwag c sub b Mathews 34

Kohli not out 128

Rohit lbw b Pradeep 4

Tiwary lbw b Mendis 21

Raina not out 58

Extras (lb 2, w 6, nb 2) 10

Total (4 wkts, 42.2 ovrs) 255

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-52, 3-60, 4-109

Bowling: Malinga 8-1- 41-1, Perera 6-0-51-0, Mathews 6-1-18-1, Pradeep 8-0-52-1, Herath 7-0-44-0, Jeevan 6-0-37-1, Dilshan 1.2-0-10-0. 

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interview with 800m world champion
Olympic medal is what I am missing: Rudisha
Kenya’s David Rudisha is running to make history in London

Having missed Beijing in 2008 through injury, how important is London 2012?

I am desperate to win an Olympic medal. So far that is what I am missing. It is my main focus and priority this year.

What would it mean for your family - especially your father - if you were able to win in London?

Kenya’s David Rudisha
Kenya’s David Rudisha

It would be good for me to win gold, so we can have gold and silver in our family so I can tell him 'I am better than you!

How well prepared are the Kenyan team for the Olympics?

We have gone through a successful training program and now the focus has to be on delivering the medals at the Olympics. Kenya will always be a big country in regards to the Olympics and I hope that in London we will continue to show this development.

Why have Kenyan runners been so successful at long-distance running?

There is no secret as many people believe the only thing that makes Kenyans best is because of their hard work, motivation and inspiration they have around elite athletes.

One of your nicknames is Pride of Africa. What does it mean to you to be so highly regarded in your homeland?

It's such an honour. For those who are not able to come and watch us in Europe, I try to do my best to show them how we perform there live.

What is your priority at this Olympics?

My event 800m comes first and I'm that happy the 4 x 400m will come after my event. This year I have tested a few 400m and I'm in good shape.

That would mean going head-to-head with Usain Bolt in the 4x400m relay?

If the Kenyan team makes the Olympic final then I will be ready to offer help, to be part of it. I think this year I am quite flexible. People are expecting a lot because we hear in the news that Bolt might want to participate in the 4 x 400m relay. Maybe we will do the last leg together. This is a good challenge; it is very rare to find two world record holders from different events competing at the same competition. It's good for us and for the fans.

Who do you think is the fastest of the two of you at 400m?

Bolt is fast, he has speed, that I don't have. But I have the mileage, so we will see how it goes.

What do you think is more important - your world title or world record?

Having the world title is very important to me, more important that the word record. The title will remain with you for the rest of your life but the record can be broken."

What does it take to set world records, as you have done more than once?

To break the world record you need to get everything perfect and in position.

How did it feel to become World Champion when you won in Daegu?

I was so happy for the victory becasue I was under a lot of pressure. I had never run a race under the kind of pressure I felt that day but in the end, I finally made it.

Is it true you changed your tactical approach after being boxed in at the 2009 World Championships?

Yes, after losing the world championships, I decided to run from the front. — PMG

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 BRIEFLY

olympics briefs
Garima blown away in 81 seconds

London: Indian judoka Garima Chaudhary's Olympic debut lasted merely 81 seconds as she was knocked out by Japanese Yoshie Ueno in the first elimination round of the 63kg category, in the London Games here today. Although nothing great was expected from the Meerut girl except a stiff Resistance but she couldn't even do that as she lost by a margin of 100-0 against one of wold's top judokas in this category. The referee stopped the contest in the 81st second as Ueno was awarded an 'Ippon' which according to judo rules means maximum points awarded for pinning an opposition with her back touching the mat for 25 seconds. After Ueno pinned Garima down, the Japanese judoka was straightaway awarded 100 points.

Ravi disappoints, lifting campaign ends

London: India's weightlifting campaign in the London Olympics ended today on a dismal note with Katulu Ravi Kumar coming up with a below-par performance in the men's 69kg category at the ExCel Arena here. Ravi Kumar, who had just recovered in time for the event after a bout of fever, lifted a below par 303kg - 136kg in snatch and 167kg in clean and jerk - to finish sixth in the 10-lifter Group B competition. The Group A competition among 14 top weightlifters of this category will be held later tonight. In major weightlifting events, the top among the participants are placed in Group A so that the performance of the lifters are improved while competing with the best. Those participants who are in the lower rung are placed in Group B. The first position in Group B went to North Korea's Kim Myong Hyok, who lifted a total of 329kg (145+184). The second and third spots went to Junior Antonio Rivero Sanchez of Venezuela and Sardar Hasanov of Azerbaijan, who lifted 328kg (148+180) and 321kg (145+176), respectively. The CWG gold medallist Ravi had lifted a total of 311kg (141+170) to bag sixth spot at the recent Asian Championships, but even that effort would not have given him any chance for a podium finish. — Agencies

Diligent soldier stops Cameron

London: An alert British soldier stopped Prime Minister David Cameron, who did not have valid papers, from entering the high security Olympic Park here. Cameron praised the soldier for being "on his marks" as he walked to Downing Street after using the London Underground to visit the Olympic Park in Stratford. Cameron told ITV London Tonight: "I was stopped going down Whitehall by a soldier. I didn't have my papers."

Agreement on Saudi judoka

London: A female judo athlete from Saudi Arabia will be allowed to compete in the Olympics wearing a form of headscarf after a compromise was reached that respects "cultural sensitivities" in the Muslim kingdom, the IOC said today. Judo officials had previously said they would not let Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani compete in a headscarf because it was against the principles of the sport and raised safety concerns.

Beccu claims robbery

London: French light flyweight Jeremy Beccu blasted judges after losing a controversial decision to Kazakh opponent Brzhan Zhakypov in the first round at the Olympics today. The 21-year-old was beaten 18-17 by an opponent, who looked as if he had accepted defeat as he stood wiping his eyes, awaiting the score. "I knew I had to also fight against the judges," said Beccu, who stood in the middle of the ring with his hands on his hips after the decision.

Michael Jung wins

London: Germany's Michael Jung created equestrian history at the London Games today, winning gold to become the first rider to hold the European, world and Olympic individual eventing titles. It was a red letter day for the record-breaker as he had earlier picked up eventing team gold on his brilliant horse Sam, all of this on the day he celebrated his 30th birthday. - Agencies

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