Indian sports wrap, July 12: Aditi, Diksha disappoint on opening day of Amundi Championships
SHOOTING
Shooter Sabeera wins bronze in Shotgun Junior World Cup
Sabeera Haris clinched a bronze medal in women’s trap to open India’s account in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Porpetto, Italy on Friday.
Sabeera shot 29 out of 40 targets in the final to finish behind Sofia Gori of Italy who won silver with 39 hits out of the full quota of 50 targets.
Carey Garrison of the US won gold, shooting down 40 targets.
Sabeera had earlier qualified for the six-shooter final with a score of 113.
In junior women’s trap, Bhavya Tripathi shot 102 for a 26th-place finish, while Rajkuwar Ingle was further down in 33rd position with a score of 100.
In junior men’s trap, Arya Vansh Tyagi missed the title round after going down in a shoot-off for the sixth and last qualifying spot.
He had totalled 119, but missed his second shoot-off target to finish eighth as Eduard Salichs of Spain won the triangular battle and went on to win bronze. Riccardo Mirabile of Italy won gold.
Compatriots Shardul Vihaan and Bakhtyaruddin M Malek shot 115 and 112 to finish 19th and 34th respectively.
– PTI
GOLF
Aditi, Diksha disappoint on opening day of Amundi Championships
India’s Olympic-bound golfers Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar made underwhelming starts at the Amundi Evian Championships, one of the Majors on the women’s circuit.
Aditi shot even par 71 to be T-52, while Diksha carded 5-over 76 to be T-120.
Aditi, who has played over 30 Majors, a record for any Indian, had two birdies and was 2-under through 12 holes, but back-to-back bogeys on 13th and the 14th pulled her back to par and T-52nd place.
Diksha, starting from the tenth, had a birdie, two bogeys and a double in her first nine holes, which played in 2-over after a birdie on the 18th.
On her second nine, she had just one birdie against two birdies and a double bogey. Overall, she had had two birdies, four bogeys and two double bogeys, leaving her dangerously placed.
– PTI
Arjun Atwal 57th at Kaulig Champs
Arjun Atwal was nicely headed to a solid even-par round with five holes to go before he bogeyed four of them in the first round of the Kaulig Companies Golf Championships at Firestone Akron.
The four bogeys saw him drop to T-57 on the leaderboard.
Atwal, who birdied the first and sixth, birdied back-to-back on the 11th and 12th as well to get to even par. However, he bogeyed 14th, 15th, 17th and the 18th.
– PTI
SQUASH
Anahat carries India’s medal hopes in World Junior squash
Talented Anahat Singh will carry India’s medal hopes at the World Junior Squash Championships which begin in Houston (US) later today.
The 16-year-old women’s National champion roared into four finals in as many tournaments in her debut PSA Tour season this year, winning three titles while an injury forced her to miss a final in Japan last month.
Asian Games medallist Anahat spearheads a 12-member strong Indian squad which is divided equally in the boys’ and girls’ categories, while the Delhi girl (5/8) is also the top Indian seed in the 128-player individual girls’ draw.
The other Indians in the fray are:
Boys: Shaurya Bawa (17/32), Yuvraj Wadhwani (17/32), Ayaan Vaziralli, Arihant KS, Avlokit Singh & Tavneet Singh.
Girls: Unnati Tripathi, Nirupama Dubey, Shameena Riaz, Tiana Parasrampuria (17/32) & Sehar Nayar.
The competition begins with the individual events (12-17 July) and concludes with the team events (18-23 July).
– Team Sportstar
TENNIS
AITA National series: Mahika Khanna beats Dhatri Dave in U-18 semifinals
Mahika Khanna survived four match points at 3-5 in the decider to beat Dhatri Dave 2-6, 6-0, 7-5 in the under-18 girls semifinals of the HPCL Mittal AITA National series junior tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex in Chandigarh on Friday.
In the final, Mahika will challenge Sherry Sharma. The boys final will be between Gurbaaz Narang and Aditya Mor.
The results:
Under-18 boys (semifinals): Gurbaaz Narang bt Aarav Chawla 6-4, 6-3; Aditya Mor bt Tarussh Ghildyal 6-4, 6-3.
Doubles (final): Aarav Chawla & Aditya Mor bt Jevin Kanani & Neeraj Ringangaonkar 6-3, 6-2.
Under-18 girls (semifinals): Sherry Sharma bt Satakshi Choudhary 6-1, 6-2; Mahika Khanna bt Dhatri Dave 2-6, 6-0, 7-5.
Doubles (final): Satakshi Choudhary & Snigdha Patibandla bt Sherry Sharma & Tamanna Walia 6-2, 6-0.
– Team Sportstar
ITF tournament: Mukund loses to Bai Yan in quarterfinals
Bai Yan of China beat S Mukund 7-5, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Tianjin, China, on Friday.
In the €148,625 Challenger in Braunschweig, Germany, Sriram Balaji was in the doubles semifinals with Gnzalo Escobar of Ecuador.
The results:
€148,625 Challenger, Braunschweig, Germany
Doubles (quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Gonzalo Escobar (Ecu) bt Marcel Demoliner (Bra) & Guillermo Duran (Arg) 6-4, 6-2.
€120,950 Challenger, Iasi, Romania
Doubles (quarterfinals): Cezar Cretu & Bogdan Pavel (Rou) bt Anirudh Chandrasekar & Arjun Kadhe 7-6(6), 4-6, [10-2].
€120,950 Challenger, Trieste, Italy
Doubles (semifinals): Daniel Dutra Da Silva (Bra) & Courtney Lock (Zim) bt Rithvik Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha 6-4, 3-6, [10-5].
$25,000 ITF men, Tianjin, China
Singles (quarterfinals): Bai Yan (Chn) bt S Mukund 7-5, 6-4.
$15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Si Thammarat
Doubles (quarterfinals): Adil Kalyanpur & Vishnu Vardhan bt Mitsuki Leong (Mas) & Stefanos Sakellaridis (Gre) 6-4, 6-4.
$40,000 ITF women, Corroios-Seixal, Portugal
Doubles (quarterfinals): Matilde Jorge (Por) & Elena Micic (Aus) bt Riya Bhatia & Chiara Girelli (Ita) 6-2, 6-2.
$25,000 ITF women, Aschaffenburg, Germany
Doubles (quarterfinals): Sapfo Sakellaridi (Gre) & Marie Vogt (Ger) bt Stefania Bojica (Rou) & Zeel Desai 6-2, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF women, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand
Doubles (quarterfinals): Monique Barry (Nzl) & Alicia Sith (Aus) bt Humera Baharmus & Akanksha NItture 6-1, 6-3; Pre-quarterfinals: Humera & Akanksha bt Laquisa Khan (Aus) & Sofia Nagornaia (Isr) 3-6, 6-3,[10-4].
$15,000 ITF women, Lakewood, USA
Doubles (quarterfinals): Amelia Honer (USA) & Teja Tirunelveli bt Jane Dunyon & Marika Jones (USA) 6-2, 6-3.
– Team Sportstar
MOTORSPORT
Former rally star George Antony passes away
George Antony, one of India’s leading rally drivers in the late eighties and early nineties, passed away in Kochi on Thursday night. He was 69 and had been battling cancer for the last few months.
George, from Kothamangalam in Ernakulam, won Kerala’s Popular Rally – which was part of the national circuit – twice in the late eighties and was soon included in the star-studded Team MRF for the Indian National Rally Championship. He drove for the team for nearly 10 years and among his wins were the Scissors Action Rally and the South India Rally. He was also in action in some of the country’s biggest motorsport events, including the Himalayan Rally.
He was also a prominent planter in Kothamangalam.
– Stan Rayan