Indian sports news wrap, January 15

GOLF

WPGT: Amateur Nishna aiming for encore as Vani, Amandeep seek early form

Amateur Nishna, buoyed by a winning start to 2024, will be looking for another good week at the Bombay Presidency Golf Club when the second leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour gets underway on Tuesday.

Nishna produced a sterling finish to beat Sneha Singh and Hitaashee Bakshi in the first leg to give herself a big confidence booster.

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The field includes Vani Kapoor, who will be looking to assess her form before she plays a few events on the Sunshine Tour in South Africa, where she will be joined by Amandeep Drall, among others.

Amandeep is also in the field this week.

Neha Tripathi, Seher Atwal and Ridhima Dilawari will also hope to find form and rhythm early in the season before they play on the international tours.

While Vani and Ridhima did not play last week, Seher was tied fourth, Amandeep was sixth and Neha finished just outside the top-10.

Sneha Singh, the Hero Order of Merit winner in 2023, and Hitaashee Bakshi will continue to be the top contenders this week. The amateurs and seasoned pros apart, there are quite a few upcoming players keen to make an impact.

The field, comprising 33 professionals and six amateurs, will play for a purse of Rs 12 lakh.

Of the four amateurs in the field this week, national champion, Vidhatri Urs, and Mannat Brar are also due to play the Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific early next month, and this should be a good tune-up for them.

Last week, Nishna was the winner while Mannat was tied fourth, indicating that the amateurs have become a force to reckon with on the pro Tour.

-PTI

ATHLETICS

Gurjar, Ankita claim senior cross-country titles

Hemant Gurjar and Ankita of the Railways walked away with the men’s and women’s titles respectively at the one-day 58th National Cross Country Championships held here on Monday.

But overall, Railways (28) finished second behind Services who clinched the title with 20 points in the men’s team event. Haryana with 64 points was third.

Railways on the other hand clinched the top honours in the women’s team event with 16 points. Uttar Pradesh (41 points) were declared second with Maharashtra (77) coming third.

In the men’s 10km run, Hemraj Gurjar of RSPB surged ahead of his rivals in the closing stages to cross the finish line in 29:30.00.

Puneet of Services was close second with a time of 29:35.00, while Sawan Barwal of Himachal Pradesh came third (29:38.00) The women’s 10 km gold as expected went to Ankita, whose winning time was 34:36.00. Anjali Kumai of Bihar and Poonam Sonune (Maharashtra) took the next two places on the podium, clocking 34:47.00 and 34:47.35, respectively.

-PTI

Rally Racing

Noah first Indian to win a stage at Dakar

Indian rider Harith Noah on Monday became the first Indian ever to win a stage at the iconic Dakar Rally.

The Germany-born Kerala rider, who rides for Sherco TVS Rally Factory squad, won Stage 8 in the Rally 2 class.

In Stage 7, Harith finished 16th overall despite suffering from a cold. But on Monday, he posted the best in-class time at the first checkpoint itself.

Harith sits at 13th in the overall standings after Stage 8 and third in Rally 2 class.

“P11 (overall standing) Stage 8, 458km. Felt good on the bike and my sickness is getting better too. I guess everything feels good when you do good. Focused on navigation and pushed when comfortable, lost some time trying to find the way in the second part. Tomorrow is another day and the Dakar is far from over,” Noah posted on social media.

-PTI

SNOOKER

Razmi brothers Shahyan, Rayaan move into last 16

Razmi siblings Shahyan and Rayaan produced some solid performances to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the All India Snooker Open here on Monday.

The 18-year-old Shahyan played fearlessly against India number two and National Games gold medalist Paras Gupta to snatch a tight 5-4 win, after leading 4-1 at the break, in a Round of 32 match at the NSCI billiards hall.

Results – Round-32: Shahyan Razmi bt Paras Gupta 5-4 (66-15, 58-46, 20-77, 68-26, 69-29, 53-66, 46-59, 21-65, 54-29); Rayaan Razmi bt Rajat Kaneja 5-3 (46-59, 68-25, 55-58, 100-59, 40-70, 69-40, 85-22, 69(50)-45); Anurag Giri bt Rahul Sachdev 5-1 (27-62, 74(52)-8, 73-32, 53-45, 70-23, 58-39); Shoaib Khan bt Abhishek Bajaj 5-0 (76(66)-35, 72-49, 107(55)-6, 69-24, 64-48); Md Hussain bt Shahbaaz Adil Khan 73(73)-19, 52-71, 70-35, 72(58)-21, 112(82)-0, 41-95, 73(68)-8); Shivam Arora bt Ranveer Duggal 5-2 (76-48, 68-5, 54-53, 85(58)-27, 41-61, 24-66, 85-57); Ishpreet Singh Chadha bt Mahendra Chouhan 5-0 (75-10, 68-57, 81-14, 85-7, 68-37); Sumer Mago bt Sunny Choudhary 5-0 (44-29, 68(51)-13, 105(60)-4, 73(61)-12, 62-7).

-PTI