Indian sports news wrap, October 23
TABLE TENNIS
Railways pair of Akash Pal and Poymantee Baisya win mixed doubles title
Railways pair of Akash Pal and Poymantee Baisya lifted their game at crucial junctures to beat Railways-West Bengal duo of Ravindra Kotiyan and Prapti Sen 3-2 in the mixed doubles final of the second UTT National Ranking Championships here on Monday.
Nothing separated the two finalists as they kept winning the alternate games until the fourth.
But Akash and Poymantee upped the ante with a better understanding in the decisive fifth game and forced their rivals into committing errors. After that, everything fell into place for the Railway’s pair, which seized a solid lead to finish the match.
The top male players sailed into the singles quarterfinals without a hiccup. But the women’s section saw fourth seed Archana Kamath, sixth seed Reeth Rishya and eighth seed Reeth Rishya biting the dust.
Though Reeth exited in the first round, going down 1-3 to qualifier Priyadarsini Das of RBI, Archana lasted the first two rounds before young Yashaswini Ghorpade beat her in the pre-quarterfinals.
An out-of-form Archana took the first game comfortably, but a confident Yashaswini routed her in the next. In fact, the Karnataka player had a tough second round, which she won 3-2 against Nilishma Sarkar of West Bengal.
Carrying her form into the pre-quarters, Yashaswini steadied herself after the first-game loss and toppled the former national champion from PSPB.
Reeth went 0-2 down quickly against an attacking Priyadarsini before pulling off a win in the third game after a deuce and some struggle. However, she failed to grab the chance and lost to the RBI player.
Top-seeded Sreeja and second-seed Moumita Dutta kept their form intact, as did qualifier Ayhika Mukherjee and fifth-seed Sutirtha. All of them would fancy their chances of a shot at the title.
In men’s singles, Harmeet Desai, despite dropping a game, gathered himself well to beat Aakash from Karnataka 3-1. But second seed Manav, third seed Snehit, and fourth seed Sharath won in straight games against their opponents Raegan Albuquerque, Balamurugan and Abhishek Yadav respectively.
PB Abhinand from Tamil Nadu displayed his skills against Anirban Ghosh, while Yashansh Malik and seventh seed Akash Pal joined the biggies in their quest to win the crown.
– PTI
FOOTBALL
Chandigarh school wins Junior Boys Subroto Cup title
Chandigarh’s Govt. Model Senior Secondary School prevailed over Amenity Public School of Rudrapur on penalties (5-3) to be crowned champions of the Subroto Cup Junior (U 17) Boys Inter School International Football Tournament in New Delhi on Monday.
The final was played at the B.R Ambedkar Stadium an attending the event was Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari along with Anju Bobby George, the first Indian athlete to win a medal at World Championships.
They presented the trophy to the winning team.
The first half saw both teams fighting for possession in the middle of the park with Chandigarh looking to play long balls into the opposition half while Amenity played the ball from the back while trying to create space between the defence.
Chances were at premium for both teams and the best one fell for Chandigarh. Amenity goalkeeper, Kunal spilled the ball inside the six yard box but Thongbam Lalchenba could not put the finishing touches.
Chandigarh did put the ball in the net during the closing stages of the half, but it was ruled off-side.
Amenity Public School could have taken the lead at the start of the second half with Boinao just having to beat the goalkeeper, but he blasted the ball over the post.
At the other end, Chandigarh also missed a chance with Bobby Singh misguiding a free header off a corner kick. The rest of the half was tightly contested and both teams could not find the winning goal, sending the match into extra time.
Chandigarh spurned a golden opportunity in the initial minutes of extra time with Bobby Singh missing a sitter with the goal free in front of him. Both teams could not create any clear cut chances as the match moved into penalties.
Both teams converted their first two kicks but Yumnam missed the third kick for Amenity before Chandigarh converted their third. Bobby Singh converted the decisive kick for Chandigarh to start the celebrations for the winners.
A total of 38 teams participated in the Junior Boys (U 17) category of this edition’s Subroto Cup including teams from Bangladesh and Nepal.
– PTI