August 3, Indian sports news wrap: India wins silver in World U20 C’ships mixed relay

Here are all the major developments in Indian sports from August 3, 2022.

The Indian 4x400m mixed relay team, from left to right, Rupal Chaudhary, Kapil, Priya H. Mohan and Barath Sridhar, which won the silver medal at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships at Cali, Colombia, on August 2, 2022. It was India’s first-ever relay silver medal at a World athletics championship. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Athletics

World Under-20 Championships – silver for India in mixed relay

At a time when the country is finding it difficult to put together relay teams for the majors, the Indian juniors won a historic 4x400m mixed relay silver at the World Athletics Under-20 Championships in Cali, Colombia, on Wednesday evening.

The team, comprising Barath Sridhar, Priya H. Mohan, Kapil and Rupal Chaudhary, put up a fighting display. Rupal, the anchor-leg runner, gave a bit of a scare to the USA before India won the silver in a new under-20 Asian record time of 3:17.76s (old record: 3:19.62 clocked in heats earlier). The USA was seven-hundredths of a second faster (3:17.69) while taking the gold while Jamaica took the bronze in 3:19.98.

It was the fastest time by an Indian team in nearly three years and a lot better than the time clocked by the Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas, V. Revathi, V. Subha and Arokia Rajiv at last year’s Tokyo Olympics (3:19.93).

It was also the country’s first-ever silver medal in the relay at a World championship and three of the runners in Cali – Barath, Priya and Kapil – had been in action in India’s previous best result, a bronze in the same event at last year’s under-20 Worlds in Nairobi.

Incidentally, Rupal (52.50s, first in her heat) and Priya (52.56, second in her heat) also qualified for the women’s 400m semifinals in Cali.

Other Indian results

Women: 100m: Avantika Narale (6th in heat, 11.89s), Sudeshna Shivankar (7th, heat, 12.12). 800m: Ashakiran Barla (5th in semifinal, 15th overall, 2:06.86s).

400m hurdles: Simmy (7th, heat, 1:02.58s).

-Stan Rayan

Tennis

AITA Tennis tournament: Chandana knocks out second seed Sachi

Chandana Potugari knocked out second seed Sachi Sharma 6-1, 0-6, 6-4 in the girls quarterfinals of Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Wednesday.

In the semifinals, Chandana will play Sahira Singh who beat fifth seed Shefali Arora in three sets.

The other semifinal will be between Prathiba Narayan and Paavni Paathak.

The results (quarterfinals):

Prathiba Narayan bt Poorvi Bhatt 6-1, 6-3; Paavni Paathak bt Riya Uboveja 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-2; Sahira Singh bt Shefali Arora 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-1; Chandana Potugari bt Sachi Sharma 6-1, 0-6, 6-4.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

CITI Open: Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop reaches quarters

Rohan Bopanna and Matwe Middelkoop beat Denis Kudla and Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $2,108,110 ATP tennis tournament in Washington.

In the quarterfinals, the Indo-Dutch pair will face Juan Sebastian and Robert Farah who knocked out the second seeds Wesley Koolhov and Neal Skupski.

The results

$2,108,110 ATP, Washington, US Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Matwe Middelkoop (Ned) & Rohan Bopanna bt Denis Kudla (US) & Denis Shapovalov (Can) 6-4, 6-4.

$115,000 WTA, Iasi, Romania Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Beatrice Gumulya (Ina) & Olivia Tjandramulia (Aus) bt Paula Ormaechea (Arg) & Prarthana Thombare 6-1, 7-5.

$100,000 ITF women, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Weronika Falkowska (Pol) & Ankita Raina bt Marcelina Podlinska & Wiktoria Rutkowska (Pol) 6-2, 6-1.

$60,000 ITF women, San Bartolome, Spain Singles (second round): Irene Burillo Escorihuela (Esp) bt Rutuja Bhosale 6-2, 6-4.

$60,000 ITF women, Lexington, US Singles (first round): Karman Kaur Thandi bt Seone Mendez (Aus) 6-2, 7-6(2).

$25,000 ITF women, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Singles (first round): Riya Bhatia bt Heydi Doldan (Par) 6-1, 6-0.

$15,000 ITF women, Kottingbrunn, Austria Singles (first round): Arabellla Koller (Aut) bt Zeel Desai 7-6(6), 6-2.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Angella Okutoyi (Ken) & Akanksha Nitture bt Zuanna Kubacha (Pol) & Magdalena Stoilkovska (Mkd) 6-3, 1-6, [10-5]; Anastasiia Gureva & Michaela Laki (Gre) bt Shrivalli Bhamidipaty & Nidhi Chilumula 6-1, 4-6, [10-5].

$25,000 ITF men, Tbilisi, Georgia Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Yanki Erel (Tur) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(2).

$15,000 ITF men, Monastir, Tunisia Singles (first round): Guillaume Dalmasso (Fra) bt Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta 6-4, 6-4; Niki Poonacha bt Tang Sheng (Chn) 6-3, 7-5.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Rithvik Choudary Bollipalli & Niki Poonacha bt Pierre Delage & Cyril Respaut (Fra) 6-2, 6-3; Mateo Del Pino (Arg) & Sai Karteek Reddy Ganta bt Jakub Kroslak & Samuel Puskar (Svk) 5-7, 6-2, [12-10]; Bader Alabdullah & Essa Qabazard (Kuw) bt Tang Jinpeng (Chn) & Tushar Sharma 6-3, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Kuching, Malaysia Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Darrsshan Suresh (Mas) & Madhwin Kamath bt Muhammad Hamdan & Naufal Kamaruzzaman 7-5, 5-7, [10-7]; Abhinav Shanmugam & Vishnu Vardhan bt Shuannonn Tricerri (Aus) & Bharath Kumaran 6-1, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF men, Kfar Saba, Israel Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Menelaos Efstathiou (Cyp) bt Rohan Mehra 7-6(2), 6-1.

$15,000 ITF men, Xativa, Spain Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Felix Mischker & Raffaello Papajcik (GBR) bt Stefan Cizelj-Zivkovic (Srb) & Gunjan Jadhav 7-6(2), 6-2.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

World Junior U-14 tennis: India loses to Germany 3-0

Germany outplayed India 3-0 in the second league match of the World Junior under-14 tennis finals in Prostejov, Czech Republic.

Sai Janvi and Aishwarya Jadhav managed to eke out seven games between them in the first two singles matches. The Indian team put up a better fare in the doubles. India had lost its opening match to Japan.

‘’The doubles could have gone better. Our girls played their best, but it was not good enough. I am really glad that the girls got to experience the clear difference in all areas of fitness, and not just hear about it’’, said captain Namita Bal.

India will play Egypt in the last league match, and could aspire to record a win.

The results (league):

Group-C: Germany bt India 3-0 (Sonja Zhenikhova bt Sai Janvi 6-2, 6-2; Julia Stusek bt Aishwarya Jadhav 6-1, 6-2; Michelle Khomich & Julia bt Aishwarya & Sohini Mohanty 7-5, 6-2).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

SHOOTING

National Shotgun trials: Kynan, Lakshay, Shapath, Bhwneesh lead after three rounds

Olympian Kynan Chenai, Asian Games silver medallist Lakshay Sheoran, Shapath Bharadwaj and Bhowneesh Mendiratta led with 72 after three rounds in men’s trap in the fifth National shotgun selection trials in Jaipur on Wednesday.

After two perfect rounds, Kynan had 22 in the third. The other three had one perfect round each.

They were followed by Aakash Kushwaha and Tarvez Singh Sandhu on 71. Shardul Vihan, Rayyan Rizvi and Udaivir Singh Jaijee were one point behind on 70.

There will be two more rounds followed by the semifinals and medal round on Thursday.

In the women’s section, Neeru led with 70, following rounds of 24, 22 and 24. Pragati Dubey and Sabeera Haris followed with 67. Ayesha Khan and Kirti Gupta had shot 66, while leading shooters Shreyasi Singh and Rajeshwari Kumar had 65 each, with both recording 19 in their third round.

The champion in the recent Digvijay Singh championship, Preeti Rajak shot 17 in the first round but recovered well to reach 64, with rounds of 24 and 23. Olympian Shagun Chowdhary also shot 64. Manisha Keer could muster only 61. Shapath Bharadwaj (72) and Sabeera Haris (67) led in the junior men’s and women’s events respectively.

-Kamesh Srinivasan