Indian sports news wrap, December 2: Rethin, Aishi win ITF junior titles; Elavenil clinches shooting nationals gold

Here are all the major updates, results and developments from the world of Indian sports on Saturday, December 2.

HOCKEY

SAI (Sonipat) and Railways win Nehru women’s tournament semis

Ravina slotted two goals for Sports Authority of India (SAI), Sonipat, in its 2-1 victory through the sudden death tie-break against Hockey Odisha in the semifinals of the SNBP 2nd Nehru women’s hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday.

The teams were locked goalless in the regulation period. Ravina alone was successful with conversion among five in the tie-break for the Sonipat team. Jiwan Kishori had converted for the Odisha team.

In the sudden-death phase, Ravina converted after three missed chances by her teammates. The Odisha team missed all the four chances and bowed out.

In the other semifinal, Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) outplayed SAI, Bhopal, 5-0.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Jeevan and Vijay lose semifinals

Second seeds Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth were pipped 6-2, 6-7 (2), [11-9] by Scott Duncan and Marcus Willis of Britain in the doubles semifinals of the €73,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Maspalomas, Spain, on Saturday.

Jeevan and Vijay collected 30 ATP points and €1,480.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

Rethin wins third singles title of season

Fifth seed Rethin Pranav played a fluent all-round game to beat Hiromasa Koyama of Japan 6-3, 6-3 in the final of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex in New Delhi on Saturday.

Serving strong and stroking with purpose, the 16-year-old Rethin gave little room for the Japanese to execute his counter-punching style of play. The Japanese had beaten a string of quality players including the top seed Kriish Tyagi, but was unable to match up to Rethin this day.

It was the third singles title of the season and fourth of his career for Rethin, who aspires to rise in the rankings in time to make the cut for the Australian Open junior event.

Rethin had earlier won the doubles title in partnership with Moise Kouame of France.

In the girls section, the California-based Aishi Bisht proved too much of a competitor for the comfort of Laxmisiri Dandu in eking out a 7-5, 7-5 victory.

It was a maiden singles title in the ITF junior circuit for the 14-year-old Aishi, ranked a modest 2,612 in the world. She stayed calm right through the match and played to the best of her abilities. She did not drop a set on her way to the singles title, after having gained a wild card entry.

Aishi had made the doubles final as well, in partnership with Aradhyaa Verma.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

Shrivalli & Vaidehi win ITF doubles title

Antonia Schmidt of Germany worked her way past Tanisha Kashyap 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-4 in the semifinals of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Ahmedabad City Foundation courts on Saturday.

Tanisha did lead 3-1 in the decider, in a battle of wits that lasted two hours and 25 minutes, but was unable to match the German at the crunch.

In the other semifinal, Anastasia Sukhotina proved stronger for the champion of the last tournament, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty, as she sailed to a 6-3, 6-2 victory.

Shrivalli did win the doubles title in partnership with Vaidehi Chaudhari, outplaying Akanksha Nitture and Soha Sadiq for the loss of three games.

It was the second title as a pair for Shrivalli and Vaidehi in the professional circuit, following the one in Thailand. Shrivalli has won four doubles titles so far, and Vaidehi three, in their professional career.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

SHOOTING

Elavenil wins in Nationals

Former world No.1 Elavenil Valarivan shot close to her best both in qualification and final to clinch the women’s air rifle gold in the 66th National shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, in New Delhi on Saturday.

The 24-year-old Elavenil shot 253.4 in the final to beat Asian Games medallist Ramita Jindal by 0.9 point for the gold. Elavenil had qualified with the second best score of 632.9 in an exceptionally strong field of 722 shooters.

Nancy won the bronze ahead of World Championship bronze medallist Mehuli Ghosh.

Qualification topper, the 16-year-old Isha Taksale (633.3) finished eighth, both in the women’s and junior finals.

Sanjeeta Das, Disha Dhankhar and Ayushi Podder were the others to make the women’s final.

Ramita won the junior gold, beating Disha by 2.2 points. Gautami Bhanot won the bronze ahead of the Olympic quota winner Tilottama Sen. Gautami won the youth gold, beating Ramita by 0.9.

Isha won the sub-youth gold, on the basis of her qualification score, as the event does not feature a final.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

BASKETBALL

Punjab men, Railways women begin quest to defend National titles

Punjab men and Railways women will try to defend their titles in the 73rd National basketball championship being hosted at the Guru Nanak Indoor Stadium in Ludhiana from Sunday.

It will be a strong field of 33 teams in the men’s event and 30 in the women’s event.

The top-10 teams in both the men’s and women’s sections will compete on a league basis in two groups. The rest of the teams will compete at the secondary level to try and make it to the knock-out stage.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

TABLE TENNIS

Jennifer-Divyanshi pair in final of World Youth TT C’ship

India’s Jennifer Varghese and Divyanshi Bhowmick produced exceptional teamwork in the U-15 girls’ doubles semifinal to down French-Chinese duo of Leana Hochart and Nina Guo Zheng 3-0 to enter the final of the ITTF World Youth Championships in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.

The Indian pair won 14-12, 11-9, 11-8 on Friday night.

The Indian duo will face Japan’s Yuna Ojio and Mao Takamori in the final later on Saturday night.

The Jennifer and Divyanshi pair struggled to win the extended game 14-12. But soon, they played cleverly against the French-Chinese pair and led 2-0.

After that, the Indians raised their game to outlast their opponents and enter the final, assuring themselves of a silver at least, which would be a first in the World Youth for the junior paddlers.

In the U-15 mixed doubles, Jenifer combined with R. Abhinandan to claim another bronze when the pair beat the Chinese duo, also a first for India.

India had claimed the youth girls under-19 bronze medal in the team events, scoring an upset win over Egypt in the quarterfinals a few days ago.

– PTI

BOXING

Twelve Indian boxers storm into finals at IBA Junior World Boxing C’ships

Junior boxers continued their fine form at the IBA Junior World Boxing Championships as 12 of them entered the finals after a stunning show in Yerevan, Armenia.

Amisha (54kg) and Payal (48kg) started the day on a winning note for India against Trigos Bucur Rocio of Romania and Bibolsynkyzy Sila of Kazakhstan, both winning the bout by a unanimous 5-0 win.

Prachi Tokas (80+kg) put up a dominant show over Osipova Mariia of Russia, forcing the referee to stop the contest in the first round itself to grab the win. Megha (80kg) on the other hand showed a similar display of strength and power to clinch a referee-stopping-the-contest win in round three against Tseng An Chi of Chinese Taipei.

Vini (57kg), Akansha (70kg), and Shrushti (63kg) outperformed their opponents to grab identical 5-0 unanimous decision wins and enter the finals. Vini was up against Kantzari Ouriana of Greece while Akansha and Shrushti faced Mcdonagh Mary of Ireland and K. Alina of Kazakhstan, respectively.

Nisha (52kg) struggled after the initial dominance in round one but soon fought back to grab an impressive 4-1 win over Russia’s Sikstus Diana.

The boys put on a solid outing as four out of five boxers in action got the win. The two heavyweights Hardik Panwar (80kg) and Hemant Sangwan (80+kg) entered the finals with a comfortable 5-0 unanimous decision win against R. Andrei of Belarus and K. Tigran of Armenia, respectively.

Jatin (54kg) took on K. Pavel of Russia, who for a moment looked like a more dominant boxer, but the Indian soon took control of the game and got a 4-1 win in his favour.

Sahil faced a tough challenge against D. Vladimir of Russia as both the boxers were quick in predicting each other’s moves and counter attack. The bout looked like it could go anywhere but ultimately Sahil got the win with a 3-2 split decision verdict.

Neha (46kg), Nidhi (66kg), Pari (50kg), Kritika (75kg) and Sikandar (48kg) ended their campaign with a bronze medal.

The finals will be played on December 3 and December 4.

– Team Sportstar