|
|
|
|
|
Shooters trap a silver and a bronze
|
|
|
Rajwinder the David floors Kenyan Goliath
Shah of Pakistan, Japan and United Kingdom
Looking out for suspects
Captain Cook finds form
Ricciardo wins dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix
All-rounder Nibali wins Tour de France
South Africa lose Petersen in stiff run chase vs Lanka
Bindra part of Sports Ministry’s ‘Mission Olympic Scheme’
Shah of Pak, Japan and UK Stokes, Prior testify against Jadeja
|
|
Shooters trap a silver and a bronze
Indeed, a medal seemed an impossibility then, not even the stuff of fantasy. Yet, here she was today, competing and fighting for a medal; the gold slipped away from her grip only on the second-last round — but she won a silver she can be immensely proud of. Shreyasi scored 92 points to finish second behind Charlotte Kerwood of England, who ended up with 94 points. The double trap event is tricky business – participants aim at two moving targets (coloured clay discs), which are released simultaneously. They can take only one shot at each target. They get two points if they hit both targets. It’s equally tricky for all competitors, of course. Shreyasi, however, had had a bad time recently – there was no physiotherapist with the Indian shooting team who could help her recover from pain. She had to seek the help of the organisers. They helped, and the pain reduced, but it didn’t go away completely. “Thanks to them, I have recovered significantly,” she said. “There is pain but I can endure this for the sake of a medal.”The conditions were not easy, either. Though sunny, it was cold and windy, affecting the consistency of the flight of the discs, called ‘pigeons’, after being released. “It was tough but my trap shooting background helped me a lot,” Shreyasi said. “Once I got my rhythm, I was quite confident. But there was pain in my back. My back muscles are weak, for something snapped on July 20.” That was a huge scare. “I thought that was it! I am gone,” she said. “Thanks to the physios, I recovered in time. You need a strong back for shooting, of course, and I just wouldn’t have been able to compete without the help I received.” After winning the medal, her thoughts turned to her late father, Digvijay Singh, former president of the country’s shooting association. “My father dreamt of me winning this medal. He passed away in 2010 and now I have won my first Commonwealth Games medal and he is not here to celebrate,” she said, choking with emotion. “But I have my mother, and she has been an inspiration. Whatever I am right now is because of her.” When the Delhi girl was selected for a sponsorship in 2009, just two years after she took up shooting, there were murmurs of discontent. It was alleged that Shreyasi got the scholarship because she was the daughter of Digvijay Singh. All that is past, happily, and she’s happy that she’s had the support of her team and coaches. “All my seniors were very helpful. Coach Mohinder Lal really helped us here. No problem with ammunition or pigeons,” she said. “I must thank the NRAI as well. They have been very supportive.” Her favourite event is the trap, which will be held tomorrow. “After that I will concentrate on the World Championships,” she said. “Then there will be the Asian Games, and I do want to do well there.” Adding more lustre to her medal, Mohammed Asab trapped a bronze in the double trap. He defeated 17-year-old Nathan Xuereb of Malta in the bronze medal match, shooting 26 against Xuereb’s 24. Another Indian in the fray, Ankur Mittal, missed out on a medal finishing fifth in the semifinal.
|
|
Rajwinder the David floors Kenyan Goliath
Glasgow, July 27 The head constable from Jalandhar tangled with the prison officer form Nairobi here last night. But it seemed to be quite a mismatch when they fought for the bronze in the 78+ kg judo category. Rajwinder is 55 kgs lighter than Esther, and at least four inches shorter. As the two grappled, it seemed to be a case of a kid fighting the dad. Esther towered over Rajwinder, so the crowd in the packed stands started stomping their feet and clapping their hands to encourage the Indian. Rajwinder made most of the aggressive moves in the bout, trying to score with an Ippon Seoinage — a one-armed shoulder throw. But Esther was way too heavy to be thrown over. After each attempt, Rajwinder was left kneeling on the floor, Esther weighing heavy over her. But Rajwinder was scoring points with her attempts against the relatively passive Esther. “It was really very, very tough,” Rajwinder later told this reporter. “She was very heavy, and she was very strong. She was just too heavy to throw. I was able to get a hold on her, but I’m just 80kgs, I just could not throw her!” Rajwinder’s gameplan, when she realised that the opponent in the bronze medal match was the giant Kenyan, was to try and score points with her technical superiority. “My coaches had told me that it would be tough to score with clean throws, and since she is so strong, I had to ensure that I didn’t come too close to her,” Rajwinder said. “I had to score points with my technical ability.” Earlier in the day, Rajwinder had lost her quarterfinal bout to Jodie Myers of England, who later won the silver. Rajwinder said she has had to make sacrifices for her bronze; she’s got a little child, a son two-and-a-half years old, and being away from him wrenches at her heart. “It’s very tough to live away from him when I’m at the national camp, or when I’m training abroad, like when I had to be in Uzbekistan to train,” she said. Rajwinder’s husband, also a judoka and also a Punjab Police cop, looks after the boy when she’s away. “And my mother also looks after him,” said Rajwinder. Rajwinder belongs to a family of farmers. They have farms in Fazilpur and Lucknow, where they acquired land in 2006. “We went there later,” she said. Does that mean that her folks are doing quite well in the farming business? Rajwinder blushes at this question. “It’s not bad, not bad,” she said. That could be said about her bout with Esther too.
|
|
Shah of Pakistan, Japan and United Kingdom
India's Navjot Channa can’t stop gushing about one big Pakistani lad. “This boy Shah Hussain is so good,” says Chana. “He’s so much like the Japanese judokas, he’s very confident and cool and aggressive.” Chana, who had won a silver in the 60kg category, is even more impressed with the humility of Shah. “He’s so quiet and respectful… He says only ‘Haan ji, nahin ji’!” The Indian judokas and officials are supporting the Pakistani lad — it’s a good-neighbourly thing, but it’s also due to the fact that they feel that the referees are biased in favour of the judokas from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A belief that they’re the underdogs contributes to this feeing of brotherhood. Shah Hussain turns out to be a very quiet fellow indeed — he’s a giant of a man but you can’t hope to find a gentler giant. And for a 21-year-old, he holds quite an impressive worldview. “I have no feeling about differences between Indians and Pakistanis,” he says, unprompted, when he realises that he’s talking with an Indian journalist. “Training with an Israeli athlete too is no problem for me — I’m a sportsperson and I don’t think about these things.” He’s a world citizen, indeed. He was born in London and trains in Japan, where his father is a boxing coach. Dad’s quite an achiever, too – Syed Hussain Shah won Pakistan a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. “Abbu was an inspiration, while ammi is an academic, a very learned lady,” quietly says Shah Hussain, who ended up with a silver.
|
|
Looking out for suspects
Dr M Jegathesan, the chairman of the medical commission of the Commonwealth Games Federation, is a very friendly man. On learning that he’s been accosted by an Indian journalist, he even tries a bit of Tamil: “Tamil pesuveergala – do you speak Tamil?” Dr Jegathesan is Malaysian, though he has roots in Jaffna in Sri Lanka. His grandfather went from Jaffna to Malaysia just over a 100 years ago. “You know, the British people needed English-speaking people in the colonies, to run their administration,” he says. “My grandfather went there a long time ago, to work for them. I was born there… So I speak very little Tamil myself.” His visiting card carries the prefix ‘Tan Sri’ with his name. “It’s an honour given to me, for I’ve had a long medical career in Malaysia,” he says. Dr Jegathesan oversees the anti-doping programme at the CWG, along with the organisers. He says that this time around, the programme is “intelligently targeted” rather than done in a mass manner. “We have a sort of intelligence mechanism, so we have specific targets to test for dope use,” he says. “The testing is done after identifying the high, mid and low level sports disciplines. Then, there are also high, mid or low level targets identified among federations of different countries, or identified from the basis of histories of individual athletes.”
|
Manoj punches his way into quarters
Indian boxer Manoj Kumar entered the quarterfinals of the men's 64 kg event at the Commonwealth Games here on Sunday. The 27-year-old defeated Canadian Arthur Biyarslanov 2:1 in the Round of 16 at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre. Manoj won the first two rounds with the exact score line of 29 points to Biyarslanov's 28. Though the Canadian came back to win the third and final round with reversed scores, it was too late for him as the judges ruled in favour of the Indian. In the last eight, Manoj will take on England's Samuel Maxwell Tuesday. Sejwal qualifies for 50m breaststroke semis
Indian eves lose 0-3 to New Zealand
The Indian women's table tennis team, runners-up in Delhi four years ago, failed to win a medal at Glasgow after losing the bronze play-off to Australia at the Scotstoun Sports Campus here today. 23-year-old Ziyu Zhang starred for Australia by winning her two singles, against the experienced Shamini Kumaresan and Madhurika Patkar respectively. Zhang's come from behind victory in the fourth rubber against Patkar helped Australia seal the tie 3-1. Ghosal makes semis, Dipika hits dead end
India's star squash player Saurav Ghosal notched up a hard-fought 3-2 win over New Zealand's Campbell Grayson to enter the semifinals of men's singles but it was curtains for Dipika Pallikal in the women's single event. The fourth seed Ghosal produced a gritty performance as he rallied from two-game down to eke out a difficult 8-11 7-11 11-6 11-8 11-6 win over the 12th seed from New Zealand. Ghosal thus became the first Indian to reach the singles semifinals since the sport was introduced in the Games programme in 1998.However, it was heartbreak for Dipika, who went down to Alison Waters of England in the quarterfinals today. Sixth seed Dipika squanded a one-game advantage to go down 11-8 2-11 9-11 6-11 to fourth seed Alison at the Scotstoun Sports Campus. Shot putter Karhana fails to qualify for finals
Indian shot putter Om Parkash Singh Karhana failed to reach the men's finals after he finished fifth in his Group B qualification at the Commonwealth Games here Sunday. Jamaica's O'Dayne Richards and South Africa's Orazio Cremona qualified from the group for the finals, to be played Monday, with throws of 20.24m and 20.03m at the Hampden Park Stadium. Karhana, who hails from Gurgaon, threw a best of 18.98m on his third and final attempt. His first two throws went for 17.67m and 18.54m, respectively. — Agencies Punam gives India bronze medal in weightlifting
Punam Yadav won bronze in the women's 63 kg weightlifting category to bolster India’s medal tally. Punam finished third with a total lift of 202 kg behind Nigerians Olauwatoyin Adesanmi and Obioma Okoli who took the gold and silver, respectively. Both the Nigerians lifted a total weight of 207 kg but Olauwatoyin clinched the yellow metal because according to the rules the lighter competitor is deemed the winner. Olauwatoyin, at 62 kg, is a kilogram lighter than her compatriot. The Indian had a best lift of 88 kg on her third attempt in snatch and 114 kg on her second attempt in clean and jerk |
|
Captain Cook finds form
Southampton, July 27 Ballance was unbeaten on 104, which included 15 fours, and beleaguered captain Cook silenced his critics for now with a battling innings as England reached an imposing 247-2 at the close. Ian Bell (16) and Ballance safely negotiated the new ball to ensure both will resume on Monday. Cook, in dreadful recent form which has led to calls from former England captains Michael Vaughan, Geoffrey Boycott, Mike Atherton and Kevin Pietersen for him to resign the captaincy, had a huge slice of luck on 15 when he was dropped by Ravindra Jadeja at slip. He survived to add 158 with Ballance, who joined an elite group of players with his third century in five Tests for England.
He did however reach a personal landmark as he overtook David Gower and moved into third place in the list of England’s all-time leading Test run scorers, on 8,257. Graham Gooch leads the list with 8,900 from Alec Stewart on 8,463. Cook made the brave call to bat after winning the toss and despite a hint of movement for the seamers, they lost only Sam Robson for 26 to Mohammed Shami before lunch. The afternoon session belonged to England, although India’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar and debutant Pankaj Singh began to find their length with much greater consistency. Ballance survived a close caught behind call and several deliveries whistled just past the outside edge, before he and Cook reached tea with an unbroken partnership of 131. Ballance had upped the scoring rate and he reached his century with a perfectly-timed boundary. He was well backed by Bell, who himself was fortunate to still be there at the close following a close leg before shout off Singh. India, who lead the five-match series 1-0, made two changes from their victory at Lord’s as Singh replaced the injured Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma came in for Stuart Binny. England themselves opted for three changes as Jos Buttler took the place of Matt Prior, Chris Jordan replaced Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes was preferred to Liam Plunkett. — Reuters
|
|
Ricciardo wins dramatic Hungarian Grand Prix
Budapest, July 27 Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was second and championship leader Nico Rosberg, who started on pole position for Mercedes, finished fourth and saw his lead over Hamilton cut from 14 points to 11. Instead of Rosberg and Mercedes running away with the race, the race ran away from Rosberg with his team beaten for only the second time in 11 grands prix. Ricciardo, a revelation in his first year at Red Bull, emptied his lungs in sheer elation after he took the chequered flag 5.2 seconds ahead of the Spaniard for his second win of the season and of his career. “It feels as good as the first win, it really does,” beamed the Australian, who took his first win in Canada, after a rollercoaster of a race with two safety car periods and plenty of incident. “The safety car at first played to our advantage but the second one didn’t really help us, but we got there in the end and I had to do the overtaking at the end which was fun.” All of the top four had led over the course of a race that started after a brief downpour, was interrupted by two big crashes, continued with the ever-present threat of rain and finished on a knife-edge. Tyre gamble
Ricciardo, who had led earlier in the race and was on fresher tyres, swept past Hamilton three laps from the end and overtook a determined Alonso to regain the lead for good with two laps to go. “We took a gamble to try to get the victory and we got very close,” said Alonso of his second podium finish of the season. “We need some crazy races to get a podium and we took our chances today.” Behind them, Rosberg —who had also made three stops to Alonso and Hamilton’s two — was closing in remorselessly and was all over the back of his team mate’s car as they started the final lap. Hamilton hung on to seize a podium finish that had looked improbable on Saturday. — Reuters
Hungarian GP
|
|
|
All-rounder Nibali wins Tour de France
Paris, July 27 While Italy celebrated its seventh Tour winner, a jubilant France hailed its first double podium finish in 30 years as veteran Jean-Christophe Peraud and youngster Thibaut Pinot took second and third respectively. Nibali beat Peraud by 7:37 and Pinot by 8:15 to become the sixth man to win all three grand tours after Belgian Eddy Merckx, Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault, Italian Felice Gimondi and Spaniard Alberto Contador. The Italian finished safely as the sprinters contested the embers of the three-week Tour around the Champs Elysees, emulating the 1998 feat of Pantani. Germany’s Marcel Kittel produced a burst of speed to claim the final stage, his fourth stage win of the Tour and a repeat of his victory on the iconic Parisian landmark last year. Nibali began the day with a near eight-minute lead and only needed to avoid a last-day crash to complete victory. Nicknamed ‘The Shark of Messina’, Nibali stayed true to his aggressive self by attacking repeatedly on the big climbs, hammering the opposition in the mountains. While the 2012 Tour crowned a ‘rouleur’ in Wiggins and a climber the following year in Froome, this year’s race belonged to a true all-rounder. — Reuters
|
|
|
South Africa lose Petersen in stiff run chase vs Lanka
Colombo, July 27 Petersen was caught at silly point by Kithuruwan Vithanage as he prodded forward to a length ball from Rangana Herath that turned appreciably to take the edge of his bat. On a pitch that was assisting the spinners, South Africa were spared further damage when bad light ended play with 21 overs still remaining to be bowled for the day. Dean Elgar was on 13 and Quinton de Kock, promoted up the order, on 21, as South Africa ended the day on 38 for one wicket. South Africa, who lead the two-Test series 1-0, require a further 331 runs to win on the final day with nine wickets in hand. “Sri Lanka has played most of the cricket in this Test match, more credit to them but we are still in the slot,” South Africa batsman AB de Villiers said. “We have the batters in the whole team and we are not going to give it up. We rate ourselves very high and we like to back ourselves to win and finish on a high.” Earlier, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews completed his second half-century of the match and went past 1,000 runs for the calendar year before declaring at the fall of the eighth wicket on 229. The right-hander followed his first-innings 63 with a similar knock to remain unbeaten on 63 with two sixes and two fours. Kumar Sangakkara and Mathews led Sri Lanka’s hunt for quick runs with a fourth-wicket partnership of 81. Sangakkara registered his 50th Test half century with an aggressive 72 off 90 balls, including eight fours. Brief scores: Sri Lanka: 421 and 229-8 dec (Sangakkara 72, Mathews 63*; Morkel 4-45); SA: 282 and 38-1. — Reuters
|
|
|
Bindra part of Sports Ministry’s ‘Mission Olympic Scheme’
New Delhi, July 27 Worst even, India spent 14 months in exile after the IOC banned the IOA for electing office-bearers, who faced criminal and corruption charges. The country tasted historic success at the 2012 London Olympics, where they won a record six medals, including a couple of silver. With an aim to replicate the success of London Games, the Sports Ministry has launched an ambitious project to increase the country’s medal tally at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. A high-level committee has been constituted, which include decorated sportspersons such as Rahul Dravid, Pullela Gopichand and Bindra, to select potential medal prospects under the “Target Mission Olympic Podium Scheme”. “The eight-member athletes identification committee will be headed by BJP MP and IOA executive committee member Anurag Thakur and will include Dravid, Bindra, Gopichand, SAI DG Jiji Thomson, Joint Secretary sports, MYAS and CEO of Mittal Champions Trust Manisha Malhotra besides Amrit Mathur as convener,” a senior official said. “The project will be funded through National Sports Development Scheme.” The priority disciplines identified by the ministry include badminton, boxing, archery, athletics, shooting and wrestling.
|
|
Chana, who had won a silver in the 60kg category, is even more impressed with the humility of Shah. “He’s so quiet and respectful… He says only ‘Haan ji, nahin ji’!” The Indian judokas and officials are supporting the Pakistani lad — it’s a good-neighbourly thing, but it’s also due to the fact that they feel that the referees are biased in favour of the judokas from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. A belief that they’re the underdogs contributes to this feeing of brotherhood. Shah Hussain turns out to be a very quiet fellow indeed — he’s a giant of a man but you can’t hope to find a gentler giant. And for a 21-year-old, he holds quite an impressive worldview. “I have no feeling about differences between Indians and Pakistanis,” he says, unprompted, when he realises that he’s talking with an Indian journalist. “Training with an Israeli athlete too is no problem for me — I’m a sportsperson and I don’t think about these things.” He’s a world citizen, indeed. He was born in London and trains in Japan, where his father is a boxing coach. Dad’s quite an achiever, too – Syed Hussain Shah won Pakistan a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. “Abbu was an inspiration, while ammi is an academic, a very learned lady,” quietly says Shah Hussain, who ended up with a silver. Watch out! He has his eyes on you His visiting card carries the prefix ‘Tan Sri’ with his name. “It’s an honour given to me, for I’ve had a long medical career in Malaysia,” he says. Dr Jegathesan oversees the anti-doping programme at the CWG, along with the organisers. He says that this time around, the programme is “intelligently targeted” rather than done in a mass manner. “We have a sort of intelligence mechanism, so we have specific targets to test for dope use,” he says. “The testing is done after identifying the high, mid and low level sports disciplines. Then, there are also high, mid or low level targets identified among federations of different countries, or identified from the basis of histories of individual athletes.”— Rohit Mahajan
|
|||||
|
Stokes, Prior testify against Jadeja London, July 27 According to a report in a cricket website, Ben Stokes and Matt Prior, during the hearing against Jadeja, testified that the Indian raised his bat at Anderson during the altercation for which he was fined 50 per cent of his match fee. "...at the hearing England witnesses, Ben Stokes and Matt Prior, suggested to match referee David Boon that Jadeja had turned threateningly towards James Anderson, and the England fast bowler had acted in self defence," the website reported. The hearing on the level 3 charges against Anderson will be conducted on August 1. The entire case is based on testimonies of rival players as there is no video available of the incident. Jadeja's fine has not gone down too well with the Indian team management and an appeal has been filed against the ICC ruling. ICC urges Dhoni, Cook not to undermine judicial process The International Cricket Council today took strong exception to the critical comments made by MS Dhoni and Alastair Cook on the altercation and urged both the captains to respect the judicial process. In a media release issued by ICC, its Chief Executive David Richardson said: “I request all stakeholders to respect the process which remains ongoing and remind them of their duties to the integrity of the process and the sport.” — Agencies
|
|||||
ICC urges Dhoni, Cook not to undermine judicial process Arsenal sign Colombia keeper Ospina Bengaluru rally to defeat Pune in Pro Kabaddi League
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Shreyasi Singh may well feel that the world had conspired against her.When the Delhi girl arrived in Glasgow a week ago, she was hit by a debilitating backache. Pain, the worst enemy of sportspersons, is also their familiar companion.
Shreyasi lay in pain, hoping that it would go away for long enough to enable her to compete in the women’s double trap event.
Glasgow, July 27
Budapest, July 27
Paris, July 27
Colombo, July 27
Shreyasi Singh may well feel that the world had conspired against her.
India eves failed to keep their winning momentum going as they were blanked 0-3 by higher-ranked New Zealand in their second Group match here today. India, ranked 13th, showed glimpses of individual brilliance but the girls failed to combine as team and break the resolute defence of fourth-ranked 'Black Sticks'. For New Zealand Anita Punt scored two goals and Gemma Flynn scored the other. It took New Zealand just three minutes to open the scoring when Flynn utilised their first penalty corner and scored from a goal-mouth scramble.
Cook batted with few alarms and was looking good for his 26th Test century, when he feathered a faint edge down the leg side off Jadeja and was caught by Mahendra Singh Dhoni behind the stumps.
India's Navjot Channa can’t stop gushing about one big Pakistani lad. “This boy Shah Hussain is so good,” says Chana. “He’s so much like the Japanese judokas, he’s very confident and cool and aggressive.”
Dr M Jegathesan, the chairman of the medical commission of the Commonwealth Games Federation, is a very friendly man. On learning that he’s been accosted by an Indian journalist, he even tries a bit of Tamil: “Tamil pesuveergala — do you speak Tamil?” Dr Jegathesan is Malaysian, though he has roots in Jaffna in Sri Lanka. His grandfather went from Jaffna to Malaysia just over a 100 years ago. “You know, the British people needed English-speaking people in the colonies, to run their administration,” he says. “My grandfather went there a long time ago, to work for them. I was born there… So I speak very little Tamil myself.”
