Indian sports wrap, January 8: Simranjeet maintains top spot in women’s recurve at archery selection trials

ARCHERY

Simranjeet maintains top spot in women’s recurve

Simranjeet Kaur won nine out of 11 matches to maintain her top spot in the recurve women’s category after the round robin stage of the first archery selection trials at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) ground in Kolkata on Thursday.

Simranjeet gathered 12 points from the qualification and round robin stages to stay 1.5 points clear of her closest competitor, 16-year-old Kumkum Mohod, who won seven round robin matches, involving top-12 archers.

Deepika Kumari, with six wins and 9.5 points, was third. The top eight will feature in the elimination stage on Friday.

According to the unratified results available so far, Atanu Das (12), Ojas Deotale (11), and V. Jyothi Surekha (12.25) held the number one positions in the recurve men’s, compound men’s, and women’s sections, respectively.

-Team Sportstar

MOTORSPORT

Indian rally driver Sanjay Takale has withdrawn from the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia after a major mechanical issue forced an early halt.

The 57-year-old, competing alongside Maxime Raud of France, retired following an engine-related failure encountered upon arrival at the bivouac after Stage 3. The issue could not be resolved, bringing their run in the Dakar Classic category to a close.

The rally got underway from Yanbu, Saudi Arabia on January 3.

The withdrawal came at a particularly unfortunate stage, as Takale was leading the H3 class at the time. He had delivered an exceptional performance in the opening stages, topping the Prologue and maintaining class leadership through Stages 1, 2, and 3.

“This is a very tough way to end our Dakar. We were in a strong position and leading the H3 class, but unfortunately, the engine issue meant we could not continue. That’s the nature of Dakar, sometimes it tests the machine more than the driver,” said Takale in a release.

The Dakar, one of the world’s most demanding motorsport events, covers stages across sand dunes, rocks and varied terrain over two weeks. The rally will conclude on January 17.

-PTI

TENNIS

ITF M25 International Tennis Tournament to begin on January 12

The latest edition of the ITF M25 International Tennis Tournament is scheduled to be held at the SDAT Tennis Stadium, Nungambakkam, Chennai, from January 12-18.

Players from 14 countries – Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Japan, Finland, Tunisia, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia, France, Kazakhstan, Romania, Uzbekistan and India are participating in the event.

As per the acceptance list, Max Houkes from Netherlands, ranked 247, will lead the foreign challenge in the main draw of 32 and Ilia Samakin of Russia will be the second seed.

The Indian challenge will be led by Karan Singh, seeded 5, while others in the draw will be former national champion Manish Suresh Kumar, Manas Dhamne, Prajwal Dev and Sidharth Rawat.

-Team Sportstar

Published on Jan 08, 2026