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Pak wear India down
Indian women clinch double trap bronze
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South Korean veterans’ war cry: Chak De! India
Swarn for grit, bronze in sculls
Afghan cricketers seek strategic alliance with India
Indian equestrian team stranded in South Korea
Equestrian team stranded
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Pak wear India down
The Korean cops went on high alert today at the hockey stadium — they sealed off parts of the stands with yellow tape, formed a human wall between sections of supporters, and looked with suspicion at brown faces, as if violence was going to ensue any second. What happened was nothing criminal — it was only India playing Pakistan in a Pool B encounter today. The Korean police, seeing evidence of passion among supporters, didn’t realise that it was quite friendly, harmless. India lost the match 2-1, though it was not a huge loss. The repercussion of the defeat is that India’s likely opponent in the semifinal would be South Korea, and it would be very tough to beat them at their own venue, before overwhelmingly partisan home crowd. India don’t want to play Korea in Korea — they, thus, desperately wanted to win today. “Drawing or losing 1-2 doesn’t make a difference, we had to win this game to finish on top in the pool, so we took some risks,” Roelant Oltmans, India’s high performance director, later told The Tribune. “We lost a game, we didn’t lose the tournament.” Pakistan played a surprisingly tight, efficient game. The plan was to shut out the Indian forwards, blunt the Indian attacks, and then hit them on the counter. They were efficient in their defence and once they had the ball, their forwards managed to create chances. India were favourites, and they wanted the win to top the group — they seemed nervous, under pressure, even jittery. The Indians made basic errors, including mis-passes and failure to trap the ball. India kept the ball more, but the forwards missed chances, while the defence could not cope with pressure and made fatal errors. VR Raghunath, the penalty-corner specialist, failed to fire, missing two chances. The first two quarters didn’t produce a goal; Pakistan scored in the 38th minute when Muhammad Umar Bhutta scored off a rebound, after the goalkeeper Sreejesh had made a clearance saved off a Muhammad Waqas attempt. India attacked more in the fourth quarter, and Danish Mujtaba could have equalised in the 49th minute, but Pakistan goalkeeper Imran Butt made a stunning save. Finally, Nikkin Thimmaiah scored, in the 53rd minute, when a Kothajit cross from the left found him, and he sent the ball in. Pakistan hit back the next minute, when Waqas, chancing upon a loose ball in the D, cleverly lobbed it over the Indians, into the net. “They (Pakistan) played like it was a final,” India coach Terry Welsh later said. “We missed a lot of chances. We did not take our opportunities, and that cost us the match!” “I don’t think there was much of a difference,” Oltmans said. “It was quite a close game. In the first half, India was a bit better but wasn’t able to score off the chances we got. Suddenly, more or less out of the blue,” “We were too eager to win the game, and then opened space for Pakistan, and the goal came,” Oltmans said. India wanted to top the group, but the defeat has opened up a nasty possibility — the next game, on Saturday, is against China. China are no pushovers, as Pakistan coach Shahnaz Sheikh gleefully said. India must play with greater assurance on Saturday.
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Indian women clinch double trap bronze
Incheon, September 25 The men's 25 metre pistol team finished fifth and the men's double trap team was sixth. In women’s double trap, the trio of Shagun Chowdhary, Shreyasi Singh and Varsha Varman shot 279 to claim third place behind China and South Korea, who clinched gold and silver, respectively. Shagun fired 96 with scores of 24, 25, 24, 23 while Shreyasi added 94 points with shots of 24, 22, 22, 26. Varsha contributed 89 points with scores of 23, 21, 24, 21 which helped India finish ahead of Chinese Taipei. The gold went to China, who scored one point more than the South Koreans. However, none of the Indian women managed to finish on the podium in the individual event with Shagun, Shreyasi and Varsha, taking eighth, 10th and 12th positions, respectively. South Korea's Mijin shot a world record score of 110 to win gold while Chinese Yafei and Yiting won silver and bronze. In 50m rifle prone, the men's team could only manage a fourth-place finish. The Indian team of Joydeep Karmakar, Gagan Narang, and Hariom Singh shot 1852.8-98x to take fourth position. However, the Indians failed to qualify for the final in the individual event as Karmakar, Narang and Hariom finished 10th, 14th and 29th, respectively. Karmakar scored 621.2-39x while Narang came up with a score of 618.4-31x. Hariom also struggled to get going as he fired a poor 613.2-27x. The team gold went to China, who broke the world record with a combined score of 1,876-130x, surpassing the previous record of 1873.6 set by France at the European championships in Croatia last year. South Korea won the silver medal with 1869-120x and Kazakhstan picked up the bronze. — Agencies
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South Korean veterans’ war cry: Chak De! India
Incheon, September 25 Sixty-four years on, not too many people remember this. But the memories of the Korean war veterans have not faded. They’ve not forgotten. They remain grateful to India, so they came to support India against Pakistan at the Seonhak Hockey Stadium. India’s expatriate supporters were hugely outnumbered by the Pakistani fans. Pakistan’s expat fans — largely working class — were younger, rowdier, noisier. India’s supporters were older and quieter — more likely to be office-goers. In terms of the decibels raised, it was a huge mismatch. The Indians needed someone to crank up the volume for them. The largest group of India supporters, however, remained quiet. Clad in white T-shirts, waving India flags, they rarely made a noise or raised a cheer — but it was not due to lack of spirit. They’re all in their 80s, and in declining health and very unlikely to jump to their feet and shout. Despite this, they performed what they believe was their duty — India was very good in hockey in their time, and they wanted to show solidarity with India at the hockey stadium. “They wanted to attend India’s match against Pakistan,” said Kil Eun Young, a young group leader at the stadium, there to assist the veterans. The war veterans know only the Korean language, apart from a few English words, but a young volunteer translated for one of them. “We have good memories of the Indian doctors,” said an elderly man who identified himself as only ‘Park’. Help from India
He’s not been able to forget the winter of 1950. That year, 346 men and 17 officers from India landed in Korea with medical supplies. Lt Col AG Rangaraj had six months’ worth of medical supplies, and he desperately needed help from the Americans to transport them on the military train out of Pyongyang. The Americans, claiming that there were no engines available to pull the train, ordered Rangaraj to destroy the medical supplies. Rangaraj didn’t want to destroy a precious commodity — his men found a working engine, and also collected enough wood for fuel to run the train. The Indians drove the train out of Pyongyang, crossing a river just before the last bridge over it was destroyed. This is recorded in the ‘Korean War: An Encyclopaedia’, edited by Stanley Sandler. The Indians went into the combat zone to treat the wounded, they evacuated the casualties, and trained the Koreans to work in hospitals. One of their ambulances was blown up by mines in 1951. The Indians performed about 2,324 operations, treated around 1,95,000 outpatients and 20,000 inpatients. The Indians were respected and revered by the Koreans. Today, as the war veterans sat there quietly, waving the Indian flags, Kil Eun Young tried to raise a cheer. She raised a sign that said “India, Chak De!” in Korean. She shouted “India” and the war veterans shouted “Chak De”. They couldn’t continue for long, though — they soon went silent and preferred to watch the match quietly. |
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Swarn for grit, bronze in sculls
Incheon, September 25 Singh, who belongs to the Dalelwala village in Mansa, finished behind Iran's Mohsen Shadinaghadh and South Korean Kim Dongyong. Singh, 24, finished the 2,000m race in a time of seven minutes, 10.65 seconds; this was over four seconds behind Kim, who himself was less than a second behind Shadinaghadh. Swarn did the first 500m in 1:43.86 (quickest in the field), the second 500m in 1:46.39 (2nd quickest), the third quarter in 1:48.11 (2nd quickest) and the last 500m in 1:52.29 (4th quickest). The extra effort put in towards the end when he tried to ward off the challenge from Dongyong saw him collapse due to exhaustion. He fell off the boat into the water, and had to be taken out by the rescue team.
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Afghan cricketers seek strategic alliance with India
Incheon, September 25 “It was a bumpy, rough pitch in a bumpy, rough ground,” says Abid, 34 years old. “The ball bounced without warning off the pitch and off the field and hit the batsmen and the fielders. We were very surprised that the England cricketers, after being hit on their torsos, seemed to feel no pain — that seemed very brave.” The Afghans bowled out the England amateurs for 79, and then scored the 80 runs needed for a win in just five overs. Only after the match ended that the secret of the England cricketers came out — they had been playing with their bulletproof jackets under their shirts. The Afghans have become weary of the bullets, he says; he’s glad that the times when sport was prohibited in the country by the Taliban are long past. Cricket in Afghanistan has seen very perilous times, and it’s a wonder that the team has become so good. To become better still, they desperately seek support from India. In the Afghan cricket’s field of dreams, a few forlorn players are trying to cling to hope, trying to eke out a living as professional players, trying to enhance their skills even though they get to play only Twenty20 cricket. They look southeast, to India, for help. Little help from
BCCI
“Sadly, we have not been able to get any help from India,” says
Abid, who’s played two One-day International matches, against Scotland and the Netherlands, both in the year 2009. He says that the officials of the Afghanistan Cricket Board have requested the Indian cricket board
(BCCI) to help their cricketers — why not include an Afghan team in India’s domestic competition, or get the top Afghan players into the local teams, he wonders. But the BCCI hasn’t replied to their requests. This is his one complaint with India — the Afghans, he says, are delighted with the gift of $1 million made by the Indian government for the construction of a stadium in Aino Mina, a suburb of
Kandahar. “India has always been a great friend to us, and we hope that the Indian cricket board will, like the Indian government, help us, so that we could become better cricketers,” said Mohammad
Shahzad, their star opener. The Afghans love to talk about their credentials. “We’ve beaten Ireland, Scotland and Kenya, even though they’re much older cricketing nations than us,” says
Abid. He’s delighted when he talks about nearly beating Pakistan on December 8 last year. “We’d made 137 in 20
overs, and Pakistan needed one off the last ball,” he says. “Shahid Afridi was batting, and Dawlat Zadran bowled the second short ball of the over, giving a free run, and Pakistan won.” At the 2012 T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka, Afghanistan gave India a scare. “They made 159/5, after being 79/5,” Karim
Sadiq, who batted at No. 3, chirps in. “We started well and were 52/1 in seven
overs, and we had a chance. But Yuvraj Singh and L Balaji took six wickets and we lost by 23 runs.” Afghanistan’s story is replete with such tough-luck tales, but they’re hopeful that the days ahead would be better. It helps that the Afghan cricketers are professionals, making a tidy salary from the game — this, they say, would help attract youngsters to the sport. “We’d once asked President Karzai for support,” says
Abid. “He’d said that we’d get support when we beat Pakistan. After we beat them in Guangzhou, we’ve got good support from the government, and from local businesses too.” Afghanistan, with funds from the ICC and the government, has been able to provide a salary for some 45-contracted players. The figures are not astronomical — ranging from $800 to $2200 per month — but for a poor, war-ravaged country, these are good numbers. They’re excited by their younger players. “In the Under-19 World Cup, our juniors beat Australia, Sri Lanka and Scotland in Dubai,” says
Abid. “I think if we get some support, some exposure, our next generation of players are going to be very good.” They’re hopeful that the other cricket boards, especially, the
BCCI, would give them a break. They do deserve it. |
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Indian equestrian team stranded in South Korea
Incheon, September 25 The Indians had finished their participation in the competition on Tuesday, when Shruti Vora finished eighth and Nadia Haridass ended up 15th in the Individual Dressage event. Six members of the team were stuck in the city as the payment for the transportation of their horses to Europe had not been cleared by the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI). It is learnt that the horses had to be transported to Germany — a common practice is to use cargo companies, who use specialised stalls suitable for air travel in cargo planes — so that the Indians could resume their training there. The Indian team has been training in Germany in to prepare for the Rio. It is learnt that the team members who are stuck here have written to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) too, informing them that the EFI has not cleared funds for the transportation of the horses; they have also asked the IOA to provide them help. The transportation of horses for international sports competitions seems to be a complex procedure, but there are specialist companies who undertake this, including companies like FedEx. The cost, though, can be very high — it is learnt this could be around 27,000 euros for the passage from Incheon to Germany. One of the affected riders said that the EFI has asked them to arrange for the cost of transportation themselves. An Indian Olympic Association official, on the condition of anonymity, said that the IOA has approached the Sports Ministry to help resolve the matter.
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Incheon, September 25 The Indians had finished their participation in the competition on Tuesday, when Shruti Vora finished eighth and Nadia Haridass ended up 15th in the Individual Dressage event. Six members of the team were stuck in the city as the payment for the transportation of their horses to Europe had not been cleared by the Equestrian Federation of India (EFI). It is learnt that the horses had to be transported to Germany so that the Indians could resume their training there. It is learnt that the team has written to the (IOA) too. — TNS
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Saina in quarters, disappointment for Sindhu
Indian badminton ace Saina Nehwal sailed into the quarterfinals with a comfortable straight-game win after P Kashyap advanced to the pre-quarters, but there was heartbreak for PV Sindhu here today. World No. 7 Saina thrashed Iran's Soraya Aghaeihajiagha 21-7 21-6 in their round of 16 match. Saina would be would up against Wang Yihan of China. However, world No. 10 Sindhu suffered a shocking 22-20 16-21 20-22 defeat to Manuputty Bellaetrix, ranked 34th, despite taking the first game. Earlier, Kashyap made the pre-quarters with a 21-6 21-6 win over Afghanistan's Iqbal Ahmad Shekib. Devendro through to last-16, Manoj loses
Commonwealth Games silver-medallist Devendro Singh (in pic) entered the pre-quarters of the 49kg category after getting a walkover but Manoj Kumar (64kg) bowed out after an opening-round loss on a mixed day for Indian boxers. Devendro, a 2013 Asian Championships silver-medallist, was declared the winner after his opponent — Fahad Albathali of Kuwait — failed to turn up for his bout. Later, Manoj, a 2010 CWG gold-medallist besides being an Asian Championships bronze-medallist, lost 1-2 to Japan's Kawachi Masatsugu. India assured of best-ever showing in squash
The Indian squash contingent today assured its best ever showing at the Asian Games by reaching the men's and women's team semifinals, ensuring it returns home with medals in all four categories on offer. The Indian women's team including Dipika Pallikal and Joshana Chinappa dispatched China 3-0 to top Pool B after the men cruised past Japan with an identical scoreline. While the women face hosts South Korea in the semifinals, the men will take on Kuwait in the last four stage tomorrow. Both men's and women's Indian teams will pocket at least bronze medals for the reaching the semifinals. India are set to surpass their 2010 tally of three bronze, having won a bronze and silver through Pallikal and Saurav Ghosal, respectively. Yuki, Sanam, Ankita enter pre-quarters
Indian tennis players Yuki Bhambri, Sanam Singh and Ankita Raina registered comfortable wins in their respective singles matches to sail into the pre-quarterfinals. Yuki made short work of Jabor Mohammed Al Mutawa, winning 6-1 6-0 in 54 minutes while Sanam took just 48 minutes to get the better of Kuwait's Alshatti Abdulhameed 6-1 6-2. Ankita was at her lethal best as she did not drop a single game en route her 6-0 6-0 win over Gotov Dulguunjargal of Mongolia. — Agencies |
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The Korean cops went on high alert today at the hockey stadium — they sealed off parts of the stands with yellow tape, formed a human wall between sections of supporters, and looked with suspicion at brown faces, as if violence was going to ensue any second.
In 1950, when civil war raged in Korea, India sent the 60th Field Ambulance and Surgical Unit as a humanitarian gesture to relieve the wounded and the dying.
Sixty-four years on, not too many people remember this.
Swarn Singh won bronze in the single sculls rowing final at the Chungju Tangeum Lake International Rowing Center, about 150 km from here, today.
