Indian sports wrap, June 9: Sharma tied-26th in Sweden

GOLF

India’s Shubhankar Sharma shot a slightly pedestrian one-under 71 in the third round to slip to Tied-26th at the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed golf tournament.

Sharma, who had 69-69 in his first two rounds, was looking good at three-under through the first eight holes with four birdies against one bogey.

He then found the water off the tee on Par-4 13th and he also went into deep rough and finally holed for a triple bogey. A birdie on the next hole, Par-3 14th was a small consolation as he slipped from T20 to T26.

Sweden’s Sebastian Söderberg continued his incredible form firing a round of 6-under 66. He has led from round one, once again picked up where he left off with back-to-back birdies on holes two and three. He birdied the sixth before and the eighth to make the turn in four-under.

Another pair of back-to-back birdies on 12 and 13 was followed by his first bogey of the week on the 14th but he rectified that with a birdie on 15 with applause from the home crowd.

He is 21-under-par and held a eight-shot advantage.

Scotland’s Calum Hill sits in outright second place after producing a round of 5-under 67 to be eight shots behind Söderberg on 13-under-par.

Three players are in a share of third place with Spain’s Santiago Tarrio, England’s Alice Hewson and Sweden’s Alexander Björk on 12-under-par.

The Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed is co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour and Ladies European Tour, with 78 men and 78 women competing on the same course for one prize fund and one trophy.

-PTI

ATHLETICS

Sanjivani bags top spot in 10,000m event in Portland

Asian Championships bronze medallist runner Sanjivani Jadhav won the gruelling women’s 10,000m race at the Portland Track Festival High-Performance Meet, clocking a personal best time of 32:22.77 seconds.

Portland has turned out to be a happy hunting ground for the 27-year-old long-distance runner, who had finished second in the event last year, registering 32:46.88 seconds, her first sub-33 mark.

Another Indian in the fray, Seema finished fifth clocking 32:55.91.

Commonwealth and Asian Games medallist, Avinash Sable clocked 8:21.85 seconds in men’s 3000m steeplechase to finish second, though he was a good 10 seconds adrift of his national record of 8:11.20, set at the 2022 CWG where he had won the silver medal.

American Kenneth Rooks, winner of the 3000m steeplechase national title at the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, took the top spot clocking 8:18.77, and coming close to the meet record of 8:18.55.

Ace Indian women’s long-distance runner Parul Chaudhary, winner of gold (5000m) and silver (3000m steeplechase) at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, finished third in steeplechase, clocking 9:31.38 seconds, which was nearly 16 seconds adrift from the national record of 9:15.31 in her name set in Budapest last year.

Another Indian in the event, Priti, was 20th clocking 10:12.88 seconds.

Several Indian elite middle and long-distance athletes currently training in Colorado are competing in Portland Track Festival.

-PTI