WRESTLING
Ravi Kumar headed for Russia camp ahead of Worlds
Olympics silver medallist Ravi Kumar Dahiya will train in Russian wrestling hub Vladikavkaz ahead of the World championships scheduled to be held in Belgrade, Serbia, next month.
The 24-year-old will be accompanied by his coach Arun Kumar, sparring partner Sahil and physiotherapist Dr. Munish Kumar during the 29-day camp, entirely funded by the Union Sports Ministry under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS), said a statement on Wednesday.
Ravi, also a Worlds bronze medallist, was sanctioned a special training camp in Bulgaria besides competitive exposure in Bulgaria, Turkey and Mongolia prior to the Commonwealth Games. He landed a gold medal in 57kg at the Games.
- Y. B. Sarangi
World U-20 Wrestling: Indians bag four bronzes
Four Indian wrestlers, Abhishek Dhaka (57kg), Sujeet Kumar (65kg), Mulayam Yadav (70kg) and Niraj (97kg), have bagged bronze medals in men’s freestyle competitions at the World under-20 wrestling championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Mahendra Gaikwad (125kg) has ensured another medal by reaching the title clash. Mohit Kumar (61kg) and Sagar Jaglan (74kg) will fight for bronze medals.
-Y. B. Sarangi
SHOOTING
National selection trials
Indian shooting will get into another spell of hyper activity with two sets of National selection trials scheduled at the Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad, and the Madhya Pradesh Academy in Bhopal, for pistol and rifle events respectively.
The trials scheduled to last till the end of the month will help in the finalisation of the national team for the World Championship to be staged in Cairo, Egypt, from October 12 to 25.
With 32 Olympic quota places on offer for the Paris Games in the World Championship, four each in the eight Olympic events for men and women, Indian shooting will once again sharpen itself in pursuit of its Olympic goals.
Bhopal will have the first set of finals on Thursday in men’s rifle 3-position event. It will be followed by women’s air rifle and the women’s rifle 3-position events. Men’s air rifle trials will be at the end.
In pistol, the first final will be in rapid fire pistol on August 20, to be followed by air pistol finals in the afternoon. After men’s air pistol and rapid fire pistol, it will be women’s sports pistol followed by women’s air pistol.
The centrefire pistol, standard pistol and free pistol, which are non-Olympic events without finals, will also be held concurrently.
The selected shooters will have a preparatory camp for the World Championship to ensure a strong start for India’s campaign in the new Olympic cycle.
The shotgun team has already been selected for the World Championship in Osijek, Crotia, and will have its preparatory camp next month.
GOLF
Tvesa Malik returns to Spain in search of form
Indian golfer Tvesa Malik will be eager to get her form back when tees up at the Aramco Series – Sotogrande in Spain.
Tvesa, who came close to getting her maiden win last year in Finland when she finished second at the Gant Ladies Open, has not had a single Top-10 finish in 2022.
She has made only six cuts in 17 starts. Her best has been T-26 at the individual section of the Aramco Series – Bangkok. She is coming off a series of four missed cuts in last four events, so she would be keen to end that poor run.
World No.3 Nelly Korda and her sister Jessica, currently ranked 14th, will head this elite golf tournament to compete.
Nelly is the current Olympic champion, having triumphed in Japan in 2020 and has since gone on to secure the 2021 Women’s PGA Championship, her first victory in a ‘major’.
Her elder sibling Jessica, on the other hand, has recorded six LPGA Tour victories and finished second in this year’s Chevron Championship.
Other international stars competing at the La Reserva Club Sotogrande include Anna Nordqvist and Sophia Popov, two of the last three winners of the AIG Women’s British Open.
Sweden’s Linnea Strom, who has good memories of the inaugural Aramco Team Series – Sotogrande, where she and teammates finished second after losing a playoff to Team Buhai.
Strom, the two-time Epson Tour winner, picked Italy’s Virginia Elena Carta, whom she has known from her younger days, as her partner. The third professional in the team will be LET rookie Alexandra Swayne, from the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The team competition takes place over the opening 36 holes and sees a captain select a player at a pre-event draft where she’s also allocated another professional and an amateur.
The best two scores per hole count in the race to land the top prize from a total prize fund of USD 500,000.
A further USD 500,000 is up for grabs in the individuals’ tournament, which runs concurrently and concludes on the third and final day.
-PTI
TENNIS
Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan scored a 2-6, 7-6(3), [10-8] victory over Boris Arias and Federico Zeballos in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the €67,960 Challenger tennis tournament in Poland.
In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Aldershot, Britain, Ankita Raina beat Andre Lukosiute 6-4, 6-2 in the first round.
The results:
$159,360 Challenger, Vancouver, Canada
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Yuki Bhambri & Saketh Myneni bt Ruben Bemelmans & Zizou Bergs (Bel) 6-4, 2-6, [10-5].
€ 67,960 Challenger, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt Boris Arias & Federico Zeballos (Bol) 2-6, 7-6(3), [10-8].
$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Riccardo Mascarini (Ita) bt Tushar Madan 6-2, 6-0;
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Maximus Jones (Tha) & Kazuma Kawachi (Jpn) bt Nicolas Alviani (Esp) & Yash Chaurasia 7-5, 6-4; Rithvik Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha bt Mohamed Ali Abibsi (Alg) & Yuichiro Inui (Jpn) 6-4, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF men, Jakarta, Indonesia
Singles (first round): SD Prajwal Dev bt Gunawan Trismuwantara (Ina) 6-0, 6-0; Moerani Bouzige (Aus) bt Lohithaksha Bathrinath 6-1, 1-0 (retired); Manish Sureshkumar bt Krittin Koaykul (Tha) 7-5, 6-0; Mitsuki Leong (Mas) bt Rishi Reddy 6-1, 6-4.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Park Uisung & Son Ji Hoon (Kor) bt Takuya Kumasaka (Jpn) & Shashank Theertha 6-3, 6-2.
$15,000 ITF men, Memphis, US
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Sathi Reddy Chirala & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Roberto Guimaraes & Seth Richey (US) 6-2, 6-3.
$15,000 ITF men, Anseong, Korea
Singles (first round): Adil Kalyanpur bt Kim Hyeong Don (Kor) 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-3;
$25,000 ITF women, Ourense, Spain
Singles (first round): Rutuja Bhosale bt Sowjanya Bavisetti 6-2, 6-2.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Nahia Berecoechea (Fra) & Sowjanya
Bavisetti bt Ofer Kivity & Keren More (Isr) 6-2, 6-2.
$25,000 ITF women, Aldershot, Britain
Singles (first round): Ankita Raina bt Andre Lukosiute (Ltu) 6-4, 6-2; En-Shuo Liang (Tpe) bt Humera Baharmus 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Erika Sema (Jpn) & Ranah Akua Stoiber (GBR) bt Brittany Collens (US) & Humera Baharmus 6-3, 6-0.
$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (first round): Jennifer Luikham bt Feryel Ben Hassen (Tun) 6-3, 6-1; Anastasia Iamachkine (Per) bt Ashmitha Easwaramurthi 2-0 (retired).
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Anastasia Kovaleva & Hanna Vinahradava bt Che Yujiao (Chn) & Tanisha Kashyap 7-5, 6-1.
$15,000 ITF women, Egypt
Singles (first round): Sanjana Sirimalla bt Aglaya Fedorova 0-6, 7-6(5), 7-5.
Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ekaterina Kuznetsova & Kundali Majgaine bt Bianca Barbulescu & Alexandra Iordacha 6-4, 4-6, [10-7].
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