Indian sports news wrap, July 21

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on Friday, July 21.

FILE PHOTO: Aditi has been having a fine season on the LPGA, where she was a runner-up once, and also on the LET, where she won once.  | Photo Credit: AP

Get all the major updates, scores and results from Indian sports on Friday, July 21.

SHOOTING

India wins team silver at Junior World Championship

The Indian shooters failed to get among the individual medals in rapid fire pistol, but combined to bag the team silver behind China in the Junior World Championship in Changwon, Korea, on Friday.

With six Chinese among the first seven, Mahesh Pasupathy did get a chance to make the individual final with a score of 578, but placed sixth eventually.

The Chinese asserted with the indivdual and team gold. They beat India by 17 points for the gold. It was a good job by Mahesh Pasupathy, Sameer Ghulia and Rakanwar Singh Sandhu to win the silver, 11 points ahead of France.

Sameer Ghulia, Mahesh Pasupathy and Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu with the team silver in rapid fire pistol in the Junior World Championship. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

In trap, Shapath Bharadwaj had shot 47 after two rounds, and was one point behind the leaders. Shardul Vihan, Jaswinder Singh (45), Arya Tyagi, Bakhtyaruddin Malek (44) were also in good position with three more rounds to go before the final for the top six.

In women’s trap, Preeti Rajak and Aashima Ahlawat had shot 44, and were two points behind the leader Ilia Naz Uzun of Turkey. Sabeera Haris and Aadya Tripathi were also close by, on 43.

China kept climbing on top of the table with seven gold, eight silver and four bronze medals. India was in the second spot with four gold, four silver and three bronze.

France, Italy, Norway, Switzerland, Slovakia, Korea, USA, Kazakhstan, Poland were the other teams that had won at least one gold medal.

THE RESULTS

25m rapid fire pistol: Junior men

1. Wang Shiwen (Chn) 29 (582); 2. Theo Moczko (Fra) 26 (577); Yoon Seoyeong (Kor) 22 (581); 6. Mahesh Pasupathy 8 (578); 10. Sameer Ghulia 576; 11. Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu 576; 19. Agneya Kaushik 568; 22. Abhinav Choudhary 565; 34. Jatin 543.

Team

1. China 1747; 2. India 1730 (Mahesh Pasupathy, Sameer Ghulia, Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu) 1730; 3. France 1719.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Nagal enters semifinals at Tampere Challenger

Sumit Nagal was in fine form and beat Aziz Dougaz of Tunisia 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the €73,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Tampere, Finland on Friday.

In the ATP Tour event in Newport, USA, two Indian pairs marched into the doubles semifinals.

In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Roehampton, Britain, Rutuja Bhosale won the doubles title with Sarah Beth Grey of Britain.

RESULTS

$718,245 ATP, Newport, USA

Doubles (quarterfinals): Yuki Bhambri & Saketh Myneni bt Robert Galloway (USA) & John-Patrick Smith (Aus) 2-6, 7-6(5), [10-5]; Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Adrian Mannarino (Fra)& Jordan Thompson (Aus) 6-7(8), 6-4, [13-11].

$130,000 Challenger, Granby, Canada

Doubles (quarterfinals): Justin Boulais (Can) & James Trotter (Jpn) bt Purav Raja & Divij Sharan 4-6, 7-6(5), [10-5].

€73,000 Challenger, Pozoblanco, Spain

Doubles (quarterfinals): Dan Added & Pierre-Hugues Herbert (Fra) bt Rithvik Bollipalli & Arjun Kadhe 7-5, 6-2.

€73,000 Challenger, Tampere, Finland

Singles (quarterfinals): Sumit Nagal bt Aziz Dougaz 6-3, 6-3; Pre-quarterfinals: Sumit bt Joao Silva (Bra) 6-3, 6-7(2), 7-6(4).

$25,000 ITF men, Brazzaville, Congo

Singles (quarterfinals): Mohamed Maamoon (Egy) bt Rishab Agarwal 6-2, 7-6(4).

Doubles (quarterfinals): Rishab Agarwal & Ishaque Eqbal bt Seydina Andre (Sen) & Pierre Delage (Fra) 7-5, 4-6, [10-6]; Tauheed Browning (USA) & Brandon Perez (Ven) bt Christopher Bulus (Ngr) & Chirag Duhan 6-2, 7-5; Guy Ory Iradukunda (Bdi) & Aziz Ouakaa (Tun) bt Jagmeet Singh & Alexander Stater (USA) 6-1, 6-2.

$15,000 ITF men, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

Doubles (semifinals): Han Seon Yong (Kor) & Thantub Suksumarn (Tha) bt Palaphoom Kovapitukted (Tha) & Manish Sureshkumar 7-5, 2-0 (retired).

$100,000 ITF women, Vitoria-Gasteiiz, Spain

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Valeria Savinykh bt Ankita Raina 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.

$60,000 ITF women, Evansville, USA

Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Veronica Miroshnichenko bt Sahaja Yamalapalli 6-1, 6-2; Karman Kaur Thandi bt Maribella Zamarripa (USA) 6-2, 6-4.

$25,000 ITF women, Roehampton, Britain

Doubles (final): Rutuja Bhosale & Sarah Beth Grey (GBR) bt Madeleine Brooks & Holly Hutchinson (GBR) 0-6, 6-4, [10-4]; Semifinals: Rutuja & Sarah bt Brooke Black & Jaquelyn Ogunwale (GBR) 4-6, 6-1, [10-7].

- Kamesh Srinivasan

Rian Sharma enters under-18 boys final

Rian Sharma beat top seed Tanishq Jadhav 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the under-18 boys semifinals of the AITA National series junior tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Friday.

In the final, Rian will play Manish Yadav, who put out the second seed Jason David for the loss of three games.

The girls final will be between top seed Sohini Mohanty and Riya Sachdeva.

THE RESULTS

Under-18 boys (semifinals)

Rian Sharma bt Tanishq Jadhav 3-6, 6-1, 6-2; Manish Yadav bt Jason David 6-1, 6-2.

Under-18 boys doubles (final)

Deepam Malik & Ayush Sharma bt Kanishk Jetley & Kabir Chothani 6-3, 4-6, [11-9].

Under-18 girls (semifinals)

Sohini Mohanty bt Aditi Tyagi 7-5, 6-0; Riya Sachdeva bt Shagun Kumari 7-5, 1-0 (retired).

Under-18 girls doubles (final)

Divya Ungrish & Gia Alana Pereira bt Ishi Maheshwari & Kkaira Chetnani 6-3, 6-3.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

Aditi, Pajaree make cut in Great Lakes Invitational

Aditi Ashok and her playing partner Pajaree Anannarukarn, who came close to winning the Great Lakes Bay Invitational a couple of seasons back, hung in and made the cut this week at LPGA’s only team event.

Aditi and Pajaree, who together carded 70-66, are now in tied-29th place as the top 34 teams and ties made the cut.

Aditi has been having a fine season on the LPGA, where she was a runner-up once, and also on the LET, where she won once. After the Great Lakes Invitational, Aditi will travel across the Atlantic and play in the Majors at Evian Championship and the Women’s Open.

The teams will play alternate shot on Friday and better-ball Saturday, with many of the players then travelling to France for the Evian Championship next week.

- PTI

Diksha lies 10th as Wolf leads in Spain

Diksha Dagar continued her fine run this season with a stunning birdie-birdie finish that saw her card 2-under 70 at the La Sella Open in Spain. The Indian golfer was tied 10th.

Though many players were yet to finish, Diksha, winner of the Czech ladies Open this season, did well to stay in reckoning.

Diksha was three shots behind the sole leader, Christine Wolf of Austria, and two others, including Nuria Iturrioz, were at 4-under 68.

Five players had finished at 3-under 69, as storms and inclement weather meant a lot of players will need to come the next day to finish the round.

Among other Indians, Amandeep Drall (73) was T-64, Vani Kapoor and Ridhima Dilawari with 74 each were T-83.

Diksha, who is having a great season with one win and three other Top-10 finishes, is currently fifth on the Race to Costa Del Sol and due to play two Majors in the next few weeks.

Diksha had an early bogey on third, but made amends with a birdie on Par-4 eighth and added a birdie on 12th, only to give that away on the next hole. She made some steady pars and closed with birdies on 17th and 18th.

Wolf, whose sole win on the Ladies European Tour came in Diksha’s home country at the 2019 Women’s Indian Open, shot a bogey free round with birdies on second, fourth and three more in the last four holes for a superb 67.

Wolf birdied second, fourth, 14th, 17th and 18th.

With play twice coming to a halt during her round, the Austrian kept her composure to roll in five birdies either side of the stoppages and post the number which gave her the lead.

-PTI

World Dwarf Games

Kerala woman to compete in multiple events in World Dwarf Games

Thirty nine-year-old Sinimol K Sebastian who hails from the hilly district of Idukki in Kerala is all set to represent India and compete in the prestigious World Dwarf Games 2023 commencing in Germany next week.

Sinimol will be competing in multiple swimming events including breaststroke and freestyle, as well as shot put, javelin throw, discus throw and boccia.

The Games will be held at the Deutsche Sporthochschule (German Sports University) in Cologne, Germany, from July 28 to August 5, 2023. Around 18 athletes from various states across India will be participating in the world event.

The World Dwarf Games are the largest international sporting event held exclusively for athletes with dwarfism.

Sinimol, who won a silver medal in the National Para Swimming Championship 2022, has said that participating in the event itself is an honour and that she is happy to represent the country.

“I am determined to give it my best and make India proud,” she said.

Muthoot Finance, a Kerala-based gold loan major, has extended support to Sinimol to embark on her journey and is bearing her tour expenses.

George M George, the Deputy Managing Director of Muthoot Finance, said in a release that in recent times, sports has emerged as a vital element in a nation’s socioeconomic progress, and he hoped that Sinimol will be able to “bring glory to our country’s name”.

Sinimol is set to fly to Germany on July 26.

- PTI