August 21, Indian sports news wrap

Here are all the major developments in Indian sports on August 21, 2022.

FILE PHOTO: Tvesa Malik in action. | Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES

WRESTLING

World U-20 Championships: Sumit, Rohit win bronze in Greco-Roman on final day

Sumit and Rohit Dahiya opened India's Greco Roman account by landing bronze medals on the concluding day of the World under-20 wrestling championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Sunday.

Sumit, a World cadet bronze medal winner who lost to Armenian Suren Aghajanyan ‘by fall’ in the semifinals, rallied to beat World junior bronze medallist Mert llbars of Turkey 6-3 in a 60kg bronze medal contest.

The Indian, trailing 3-0 at one stage, narrowed the deficit to 3-1 by the break time and employed gut wrench in the second period to ensure his victory.

Rohit Dahiya (82kg), an Asian under-20 bronze medal winner, beat Czech Republic’s Marek Vrba 4-2 in the repechage round. In the bronze medal match, Rohit, who was 7-0 behind, banked on some push-outs and three warnings to his rival Ukraine’s Ruslan Abdiiev to post an 8-7 win.

- Y.B. Sarangi

GOLF

Tvesa finishes 51st as Nelly Korda wins in Spain

India’s Tvesa Malik endured a roller-coaster of a final round to finish tied 51st at the Aramco Team Series – Sotogrande golf tournament here.

Tvesa, who had made the cut on the line, had four birdies against five bogeys in her round of 73. She finished four-over 220.

Tvesa was the only Indian in the field and will continue her schedule on the Ladies European Tour next week at Skafto Open in Sweden.

-PTI

Gaganjeet Bhullar finishes fifth in Korea

Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar produced a solid performance as he carded a 4-under-67 to finish fifth at the International Series Korea on Sunday.

The 34-year-old began the week with a modest 1-over 72 but shot a round of excellent shots of 65-69-67 to finish 11-under for the week.

Yet Bhullar played steady and parred the first 10 holes before finding back-to-back birdies on 11th and 12th and added a third on 15th.

He dropped a shot on 17th but birdied the Par-5 18th for a 67 and tied for fifth with Korean Wang Jeunghun (67).

Bhullar has been consistent of late as he won in Indonesia three weeks ago for his 10th Asian Tour win and also finished T-31st in Singapore last week.

However, things did not pan out well for other Indian golfers as Veer Ahlawat, despite a final round of 68 finished T-29th, while SSP Chawrasia (71) was T-51st, Rashid Khan (72) was T-62nd and Shiv Kapur (72) was T-68th.

-PTI

Athletics

Chhagan, Kavitha win Mumbai Half Marathon

Chhagan Bombale of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh’s Kavitha Reddy clinched the men’s and women’s titles in the Mumbai Half Marathon 2022 at the Bandra Kurla Complex on Sunday.

Bombale comfortably won the 21k event that started and ended at the Jio Gardens, in 1 hr 16:11 minutes. He shook off his challengers one by one, leaving second place finisher Bhagatsing Valvi trailing over a minute behind at 1:17:51. Anil Jindal settled for the third place in 1:18:20.

The women’s event was also a one-sided affair as Kavitha Reddy opened up a decent gap against the chasing pack and breasted the tape in 1:37:03, leaving her nearest rival Tanmaya Karmarkar over three minutes behind at 1:40:18.

Ketaki Sathe came in third, a further four minutes down the clock in 1:44:55.

Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar flagged off the races and also felicitated the winners later.

“It has been very challenging for everybody over the last two years because of the pandemic but I am overwhelmed to see so many line up for the city’s first biggest run since then,” Tendulkar said, while interacting with the media.

The men’s 10k saw a neck-and-neck battle all the way between the leading pack of runners before ending in a thrilling climax.

Amit Mali crossed the finish line in 0:33:42, just a couple of seconds ahead of Karan Sharma, who was timed at 0:33:44. Sanjay Zakane claimed the third spot in 0:33:50.

In the keenly contested women’s 10k event, Rohini Maya Patil clocked 0:41:32 to wrest top honours while Priyanka Paikarao took silver in 0:42:26 and Priyanka Kailash the bronze in 0:43.51.

-PTI

Football

Football Delhi launches 3rd season of grassroots level Golden League

Football Delhi on Sunday launched its grassroots level Golden League 2022-23 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.

This will be the third season of the Football Delhi Golden League which is being played in three age categories of U-7, U-9 and U-11. Gurugram based sports management company Bunker Hill is the sponsor of the league.

The league will see more than 2000 youngsters from 325 teams playing over 2700 matches in multiple zones throughout Delhi NCR.

“Football Delhi is creating this beautiful platform for children to be part of this beautiful game which would help them in kicking forward their love and passion for the game,” Football Delhi President Shaji Prabhakaran said in a release.

The league is being held with support from more than 10 associate organisers spread across the National Capital Region.

CHESS

Abu Dhabi Masters: Nihal Sarin joins Arjun, Raunak in second spot; Robson leads

A victorious Nihal Sarin joined compatriots Arjun Erigaisi and Raunak Sadhwani (4 points each) in the joint second spot after USA’s Ray Robson took the lead at 4.5 points from five rounds of the Abu Dhabi Masters chess tournament in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Fourth seed Arjun drew with seventh seed Jordeen van Foreest, Raunak held fifth seed Amin Baseem while B. Adhiban proved equal to a struggling top seed Wang Hao.

In the only decisive game over the top-10 boards, Robson stopped Nisipeanu in 45 moves. Nihal won on the 11th board after facing Armenian Artur Davtyan for 62 moves.

Interestingly, after a day’s rest, Arjun faces Raunak.

The results (Indians unless stated): Fifth round: Arjun Erigaisi (4) drew with Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 4); Ray Robson (USA, 4.5) bt Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Ger, 3.5); Amin Bassem (Egy, 3.5) drew with Raunak Sadhwani (4); B. Adhiban (3.5) drew with Wang Hao (Chn, 3.5); Salem Saleh (UAE, 3.5) drew with Leon Mendonca (3.5); Harsha Bharathakoti (3.5) drew with David Anton (Esp, 3.5); Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 3.5) drew with P. Iniyan (3.5); Nihal Sarin (4) bt Artur Davtyan (Arm, 3); Aryan Chopra (3.5) drew with Sandipan Chanda (3.5); Arjun Kalyan (3.5) drew with S. P. Sethuraman (3.5); Abhijeet Gupta (3) drew with Mukhiddin Madaminov (Uzb, 3); Siddharth Jagadeesh (2.5) lost to M. Karthikeyan (3.5).

VOLLEYBALL

14th Asian Men’s U18 Volleyball Championship: India loses to Iran in semifinals

India was defeated by Iran in straight sets 25-15, 25-19, 25-18 in the semifinals of the 14th Asian Men’s U18 Volleyball Championship in Tehran on Sunday.

Iran set up the showdown with title-holders Japan, while India will face South Korea for the third place spot, after the latter lost to Japan in the first semifinals.

SWIMMING

Kshama Iyer wins three golds on opening day at Khelo India junior women’s swimming challenge

Kshama Iyer dominated the under-15 girls section, winning three of the five gold medals, on the opening day of the Khelo India junior women’s swimming challenge at the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee swimming pool.

Kshama won the 200-metre freestyle, 100-metre butterfly and 200-metre individual medley gold medals. Avni Chhabra won the other two gold in the 100-metre backstroke and 200-metre breaststroke events.

Each of the gold medals fetched a cash prize of Rs.6,000. In fact, there was prize money up to the fifth place, with each event offering a total prize purse of Rs.20,000 to the girls.

In the under-18 section, it was Disha Bhandari who won two gold medals, while Bhavya Sachdeva, Utsav and Vanisha Bashambu shared the other three.

In a bid to encourage women swimmers, Khelo India has set up the swimming challenge series, with a total cost of about one crore rupees. While 36 lakh rupees will be distributed to the winners in five zone, spread over two spells of competition, the rest of the money has been given to the organisers for the conduct of the series.

The results:

Under-18 girls:

200m freestyle: 1. Bhavya Sachdeva 2:11.24; 2. Jasnoor Kaur 2:21.37; 3. Ananya Bist 2:32.91.

100m backstroke: 1. Utsav 1:14.02; 2. Jasnoor Kaur 1:14.30; 3. Hema 1:16.05.

200m breaststroke: 1. Vanisha Bashambu 2:58.32; 2. Trishna Waghmare 3:14.30; 3. Harshita Sharma 3:16.64.

100m butterfly: 1. Disha Bhandari 1:06.68; 2. Hema 1:10.26; 3. Kamya Bhardwaj 1:17.20.

200m individual medley: 1. Disha Bhandari 2:28.99; 2. Bhavya Sachdeva 2:33.75; 3. Hema 2:43.97.

TENNIS

Ankita Raina loses to eight seeded Joanna Garland in the final of$25,000 ITF

Fifth seed Ankita Raina was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by eighth seed Joanna Garland of Chinese Taipei in the final of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Britain on Sunday.

In the women’s event in Serbia, Prarthana Thombare, seeded No.1 with Emily Appleton was beaten in the doubles final by Cristina Dinu and Valeriya Strakhova.

The Japanese stopped two other Indian players from winning the finals in Indonesia and Tunisia.

In the ITF men’s event in Jakarta, top seed Sasikumar Mukund was beaten 6-3, 6-3 by second seed Shintaro Imai in the final.

In the women’s event in Tunisia, Jennifer Luikham was beaten in the final by Saki Imamura.

The results:

$25,000 ITF women, Aldershot, Britain

Singles (final): Joanna Garland (Tpe) bt Ankita Raina 6-2, 6-4.

$25,000 ITF women, Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia

Doubles (final): Cristina Dinu (Rou) & Valeriya Strakhova (Ukr) bt Emily Appleton (GBR) & Prarthana Thombare 6-1, 4-6, [10-8]; Semifinals: Emily & Prarthana bt Mariana Drazic (Cro) & Elena Milovanovic (Srb) 6-2, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia

Singles (final): Saki Imamura (Jpn) bt Jennifer Luikham 6-1, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF men, Jakarta, Indonesia

Singles (final): Shintaro Imai (Jpn) bt Sasikumar Mukund 6-3, 6-3.