Indian sports wrap, February 25
TENNIS
ITF Women’s Open: Harshini, Sharmada through to second round of qualifying
Harshini Viswanadh and Sharmada Balu entered the second and final round of qualifying at the Federal Bank ITF Women’s Open Gurugram W35 in contrasting styles.
In the opening round of qualifiers played at The Tennis Project on Sunday, the 17-year-old Harshini who is ranked 37 th on the AITA rankings was stretched by Abhaya Vemuri, ranked 13 ranks below her before eking out a 7-5, 3-6, 10-8 victory in the only match of the day that went to the decider.
Sharmada who is trying to make a comeback in the ITF circuit, upset a better ranked opponent than her – Snigdha Patibandla in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.
Meanwhile, the highest seeded Indian in the qualifying draw 4 th seed Vaishnavi Adkar, 6 th seed Sowjanya Bavisetti and 8 th seed Madhurima Sawant were amongst the 16 players who didn’t have to break a sweat to advance the final round earning byes.
Results
Singles Qualifying 1 st Round (all Indians except where mentioned)
Siri Patil bt Mahi Trivedi 6-4, 6-4; Riya Sachdeva bt Suhani Gaur 7-5, 6-2; Richa Dadasaheb Chougule bt Ananya Yadav 6-0, 6-4; Divya Harindra Bhardwaj bt Rachita Talwar 6-2, 6-3; Samaira Malik bt Omna Yadav Davunaboina 6-2, 6-1; Shria Atturu (USA) bt Gayathri Sivakumar 6-2, 6-1; Apurva Vemuri bt Saily Prashantkumar Thakkar 6-2, 6-0; Ishwari Matere bt Ritu Rai 6-1, 6-2; Yubrani Banerjee bt Vanshika Choudhary 6-2, 6-3; Harshini Viswanadh bt Abhaya Vemuri 7-5, 3-6, 10-8; Himaanshika Singh bt Sanya Yadav 6-2, 6-2; Sharmada Balu bt Snigdha Patibandla 6-1, 6-3; Sahira Singh bt Arthi Muniyan 6-2, 6-2; Diva Bhatia bt Vidhi Jani 6-3, 7-5; Sachi Sharma bt Jigyasa Narsinghani 6-0, 6-2; Shefali Arora bt Esha Singh 6-2, 6-2.
-Team Sportstar
Indian Masters team for World Championship announced
Vibha Chaudhary will lead the Indian women’s over-55 team in the ITF World Masters tennis team championship to be held i Mexico from April 29 to May 3.
Making the announcement, the All India Tennis Association (AITA) stated that the players would take care of all the expenses for competing in the championship, including the team entry fee.
The team:
Men: Over-50: Jagdish Tanwar (captain), Ajit Maruti Sail, Nitten Kirrtane, Narendra Kankaria.
Over-55: Pawan Kapoor, George Varghese, Alok Bhatnagar, Nishit Pandey (captain).
Over-60: Nagaraj Revanasiddaiah, Chandra Bhushan (captain), Bhushan Akur, Pawan Jain.
Women: Over-55: Vibha Chaudhary (captain), Sohini Kumari, Sonia Milkha Singh, Chetana Arjun.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
SHOOTING
Mehuli, Anish, Ganga win in national selection trials
India’s Paris Olympic quota holders enjoyed a favourable outing in the first finals of the national rifle-pistol selection trials 3 and 4, with West Bengal’s Mehuli Ghosh and Haryana’s Anish Bhanwala ending up winners here on Sunday.
Army marksman Ganga Singh bucked the trend in the day’s final competition, winning the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event with plenty to spare.
Mehuli qualified for the top eights with a characteristically solid 631.5 in the first 60-shot round. Tamil Nadu’s R. Narmada Nithin topped with 632.5.
In the final, Mehuli was joint third behind Punjab’s Jasmeen Kaur and local favourite Ashi Chouksey after the first five-shot series, and slipped to fourth in the middle before getting back to that position after the 16th single shot with Jasmeen and Ashi still 1-2.
Thereafter she shot 10.7 or above in five of her last eight shots, the 17th being a perfect 10.9, to pip Ashi by 0.1 and finish with 251.6. Jasmeen settled for third position with 229.9.
The men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event reinforced Bhanwala’s stature as India’s number one RFP shooter as he cantered home with a 32-hits in the six-man 40-shot final. Army marksman Gurmeet was some distance behind with 29-hits while Rajasthan’s Bhavesh Shekhwat was third with 22.
Anish had earlier topped the qualification over two days with a total of 589 with Gurmeet again way behind on second with 583. Ankur Goel who was the final qualifier was a dozen points behind Anish.
No stopping Ganga Singh
In the final event of the day, the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions, Ganga Singh of the Army Marksmanship Unit stunned the field with a sumptuous display. His final score of 458.5 was a huge 4.1 ahead of Goldie Gurjar, another local hope who came second best.
The Navy’s Lagad Saurav Gorakh was third in a final that had all shooters from the Services besides Goldie.
Ganga had earlier qualified third with a score of 581.
-PTI
ATHLETICS
Gurindervir, Sudheshna fastest athletes
Chandigarh University’s former National champion Gurindervir Singh and Shivaji’s Sudeshna Shivankar won the men’s and women’s 100m and emerged as the fastest athletes of the Khelo India University Games athletics which began here on Sunday.
The men’s 100m final had just three athletes and Gurindervir, who did not run the final in last month’s National varsities championships in Chennai, emerged as an easy winner. The women’s winner Sudheshna had taken the title at the varsities Nationals too.
The top eight finishers of the varsities Nationals automatically qualify for the Khelo India University Games but many events saw only five athletes in action today.
The results (winners only):
Men: 100m: Gurindervir Singh (Chandigarh) 10.54s. 1500M: Vikash (Chandigarh) 3:50.70s MR, OR 3:51.61. 10,000m: Rathod Arun Dhansing (Punyashlok Ahilyadev) 31:11.41s. 400M hurdles: Ruchit Mori (Swarnim Gujarat) 51.82s. Javelin throw: Yashvir Singh (Chandigarh) 75.66m.
Women: 100m: Sudeshna Hanmant Shivankar (Shivaji) 12.01s. 1500M: Amandeep Kaur (Panjab) 4:23.72s. 400M hurdles: Delna Philip (Kannur) 59.11s. Triple jump: Deepanshi Singh (Lovely Professional) 12.63m. Discus throw: A. Anisha (Lovely Professional) 48.69m.
Mixed: 4x400m relay: Chandigarh Uni. (3:29.50s).
-Stan Rayan
ARCHERY
Deepika secured two golds on return to international competition at Asia Cup Stage-1
Deepika Kumari returned to international competition by securing two gold medals as Indian archers made a clean sweep of titles on the final day of the Asia Cup Stage-1 in Baghdad on Sunday.
Deepika defeated compatriot Simranjeet Kaur 6-2 in the women’s individual final and was part of the Indian team that claimed the team gold.
B.Dhiraj beat Tarundeep Rai 7-3 in the men’s title clash.
Indian recurve archers bagged all five gold medals while the country’s compound archers secured both the individual crowns in a depleted field. Three of the four individual finals were all-Indian affairs.
The results (Finals):
Recurve: Individual: Men: B. Dhiraj bt Tarundeep Rai 7-3 [28-27, 29-28, 28-28, 25-26, 30-25]; Women: Deepika Kumari bt Simranjeet Kaur 6-2 [24-26, 27-26, 29-27, 29-24]; Team: Men: India (B. Dhiraj, Pravin Jadhav, Tarundeep Rai) bt Bangladesh (Abdur Rahman Alif, Mohd. Sagor Islam, Mohd. Hakim Ahmed Rubel) 6-2 [54-55, 55-49, 57-53, 56-53]; Women: India (Simranjeet Kaur, Bhajan Kaur, Deepika Kumari) bt Uzbekistan (Ziyodakhon Abdusattorova, Nilufar Hamroeva, Jasmina Nurmanov) 5-4 [55-49, 46-52, 50-52, 55-49, T-24*-24 (shot closer to centre)]; Mixed: India (Simranjeet Kaur, B. Dhiraj) bt Bangladesh (Diya Siddique, Mohd. Sagor Islam) 6-0 [37-32, 38-35, 37-32].
Compound: Individual: Men: Prathamesh Jawkar bt Kushal Dalal 146-144; Women: Parneet Kaur bt Fatemeh Hemmati (Iri) 138-135.
-Y.B Sarangi