Indian sports wrap, March 28: Chacarra close to winning Indian Open

GOLF

Chacarra stays on course to defend Indian Open title

Eugenio Chacarra stayed on course to try and become only the fourth golfer to successfully defend his Hero Indian Open title with a four-stroke lead at the top on the penultimate day at the DLF Golf and Country Club in Gurugram.

A win on Sunday would also make the Spaniard the first to do so on this course that has hosted the event since 2017. SSP Chawrasia was the last golfer to defend his title in 2017 but his 2016 win had come at the Delhi Golf Club. Before that, Jyoti Randhawa too had successive wins at the DGC.

Chacarra, who won last year as one of only three players in the red on what is considered to be one of the toughest venues on the DP World Tour, shot a 70 for a three-day total of 10-under 206. The lowest four-day total belongs to Japan’s Keita Nakajima, who shot a 17-under to win in 2024.

A well-judged putt on the seventh secured the first of three successive birdies. He then made back-to-back bogeys on the 13th and 14th. But Casey Jarvis, his nearest challenger at the time, did worse with a bogey and a double on the same holes to ease pressure on Chacarra.

MJ Daffue and Alex Fitzpatrick were tied second with Freddy Schott and David Law a further shot back. Jack Senior at five-under had the best round for the day to be tied 10th. Experienced Om Prakash Chouhan was the best of the three Indians in the fray – Kshitij Naveed Kaul sinking an eagle on the 8th hole early in the morning en route to completing his overnight second round to sneak past the cut line, at one-over for tied 20th.

– Uthra Ganesan

Khelo India Tribal Games: Nikita wins first gold for host Chhattisgarh, Odisha women dominate last day of swimming

Weightlifter Nikita ended host Chhattisgarh’s wait for a gold medal while Odisha’s women swimmers clinched all the three yellow metals on offer on the fourth day of the Khelo India Tribal Games 2026 in Raipur.

Nikita dominated the women’s 77kg weightlifting event to comfortably win the gold medal in the last event of the day while Odisha won gold through Ritika Minz (100m freestyle), Anjali Munda (50m Backstroke) and 4×100 medley relay team. Anjali finished with five golds, four of them in individual races.

Arunachal Pradesh was the other major movers in the medals table as it won both the men’s weightlifting gold medals to close in on the third spot, which is currently held by Assam with four gold, seven silver and three bronze medals.

Karnataka continues to top the medals tally with 15 gold, six silver, and three bronze while Odisha is second with seven gold, three silver and 10 bronze medals. Host Chhattisgarh is seventh with eight medals (one gold, four silver and three bronze).

Dimpi Sonowal led an Assam 1-2 in women’s 69kg with a total of 155kg with Pallavi Payeng taking the silver with a total of 131kg. Ruba Tadu (men’s 88kg) and Lalu Taku (Men’s 94kg) enhanced Arunachal Pradesh’s chances of breaking into the top three as they clinched the gold medals with relative ease.

Tadu lifted a total of 274kg for gold while Taku aggregated a total of 250kg in the 94kg category.

In the swimming competition, Assam’s Krow siblings Nibir Krow and Violina Krow won a gold and bronze medal, respectively, on the last day of competition at the international pool. Nibir clinched the top spot in 50m backstroke with a time of 31.31 seconds, pushing Karnataka’s Dhoneesh N (31.39s) to second spot.

Earlier, Violina won the bronze medal in 100m freestyle with a time of 1:16.62s with Odisha taking home the gold and silver through Ritika Minz (1:12.93s) and Krushna Priya Nayak (1:15.77s).

Karnataka signed off the swimming competition with 15 gold, five silver and three bronze medals. Karnataka’s Manikanta L topped the chart with eight golds and one silver while Dhoneesh M finished with five golds and one silver medal.

In the women’s section Karnataka’s Meghanjali bagged four golds and two bronze medals.

– PTI

SHOOTING

Skeet shooters struggle in Tangier World Cup

None of the Indian shooters could qualify for the finals of the skeet events at the ISSF World Cup for Shotgun in Tangier.

Olympian Maheshwari Chauhan came close to a top-eight spot after finishing the first day of qualification with a score of 69 out of 75.

She shot 23 and 21 in the fourth and fifth series for a final score of 113, two short of 115 scored by Reem Ghanem Al-Sharshani of Qatar who took the final qualifying spot.

Darshana Rathore who shot a perfect 25 in the final series finished in 19th place, just below Maheshwari, with a score of 112.

Her younger sibling, Yashasvi Rathore, shot 22 and 24 in the final rounds to finish in 23rd place with a score of 110. Areeba Khan and Mansi Raghuwanshi who were competing for ranking points finished the competition after scoring 112 each.

In the men’s category, Parampal Singh Guron ended in 26th place with a score of 117 after finishing the last two series with 23 and 24 hits, respectively.

Jyotiradiya Singh Sisodiya finished 62nd with a score of 108 followed by Man Singh who finished with a score of 105 in 65th place. Sukhbir Singh Harika and Harmehar Singh Lally, competing for ranking points, hit 113 and 102 respectively.

The trap shooters will be in action from Tuesday.

– PTI

Published on Mar 28, 2026