Indian sports news wrap, June 6

Catch the major updates and results from Indian sports on June 6.

Photo of Peter Sidi at the Gun For Glory Academy in Pune. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

SHOOTING

Peter Sidi joins Gun for Glory

Former World Champion and three-time Olympic finalist Peter Sidi has been drafted as the rifle coach by Gun for Glory for its Project Leap.

The 44-year-old Hungarian, Sidi has been a phenomenal shooter, winning 26 World Cup medals including nine gold across air rifle, 50m rifle prone and 3-position events. He has eight World Cup Final medals, including two gold. He was also seven-time European champion, and won silver and bronze, four each.

“We are thrilled to welcome Sidi to the GFG family. His expertise and experience will take our High Performance training programme to new heights. We are confident that our association will create an environment of excellence, enabling our athletes to achieve remarkable success at the national and international level”, said the co-founder and CEO of GFG, Pawan Singh.

“Gun for Glory has always been at the forefront of fostering shooting talent. I look forward to working with the passionate athletes and contributing to their growth. Together, we will strive to produce champions who will make their mark on the world stage”, said Sidi, who had competed in five Olympics on the trot from Sydney to Rio.

GFG, a brain child of World and Olympic medallist, Gagan Narang, has 12 academies across the country. It has made a phenomenal contribution to the growth of Indian shooting by nurturing talent and grooming champions.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Manvi Jain clinches gold at Kumar Surendra championship

Manvi Jain won the 25-metre standard pistol gold for junior women with a score of 562 in the 21st Kumar Surendra Singh pistol championship at the Madhya Pradesh Academy in Bhopal on Tuesday.

Manvi had a six-point lead over Tejaswani in the non-Olympic event that does not feature a final.

The results

25m standard pistol: Junior women: 1. Manvi Jain 562; 2. Tejaswani 556; 3. Riya Thatte 555.

India on top with 11 medals at Junior World Cup

Two team gold medals in 10-metre air rifle and 25-metre sports pistol by junior women helped India bolster its tally to five gold medals in the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, on Tuesday.

Megana Sadula, Payal Khatri and Simranpreet Brar won the team gold in sports pistol. Megana and Payal finished fourth and fifth in the individual event.

Gautami Bhanot finished fifth in junior women’s air rifle, but won the gold for the team along with Swati Chowdhury and Sonam Maskar.

India also had a gold in junior men’s sports pistol, a non-Olympic event, through Amanpreet Singh who topped with 586, one point ahead of Korean Jung Yunjong.

India was on top of the medals table with five gold, four silver and two bronze. Korea was second with four gold, three silver and a bronze.

The results

10m air rifle: Junior women: 1. Oceanne Muller (Fra) 250.2 (629.8); 2. Misaki Nobata (Jpn) 249.7 (631.2); 3. Kim Jieun (Kor) 227.5 (630.2); 5. Gautami Bhanot 185.9 (628.7); 10. Swati Chowdhury 627.9; 16. Sonam Maskar 626.9; 20. Isha Taksale 626.5.

Team: 1. India (Gautami Bhanot, Swati Chowdhury, Sonam Maskar) 1883.5; 2. Serbia 1880.3; 3. Norway 1877.2.

25m sports pistol: Junior men: 1. Amanpreet Singh 586; 2. Jung Yunjong (Kor) 585; 3. Wiktor Kopiwoda (Pol) 580; 8. Swaraj Bhondave 574; 9. Meshaak Christopher 574; 13. Abhimanyu Yadav 571; 14. Ankait Tomar 569.

Junior women: 1. Kim Minseo (Kor) 28(3) 574; 2. Chien Chu Sun (Tpe) 28 (2) 579; 3. Cristina Magnani (Ita) 25 (572); 4. Megana Sadula 22 (577); 5. Payal Khatri 18 (572); 7. Divanshi 11 (579); 10. Simranpreet Brar 570.

Team: 1. India (Megana Sadula, Payal Khatri, Simranpreet Brar) 1719; 2. Czech Republic 1690; 3. Germany 1679.

50m rifle 3-position: Junior men: 1. Romain Aufrere (Fra) 458.0 (580); 2. Jesper Johansson (Swe) 456.6 (587); 3. Marko Ivvanovic (Srb) 445.9 (587); 24. Shivam Dabas 574; 28. Avinash Yadav 573; 31. Parikshit Singh 572; 40. Ramanya Tomer 567.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

AITA frames junior selection policy

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) has announced a junior selection policy for the season ahead. The policy, as approved by the Executive Board of the AITA, would be focused on having a camp for selecting the under-14 and under-16 teams.

The top six players on the basis of their rank would be called for the four-day camp, along with the captain, who would be traveling with the team. The camp, planned to be held about six to eight weeks before the competition, would see all the players competing against each other.

Based on the performance of the players and assessment by the coach and captain, a recommendation would be sent to the AITA junior selection committee towards finalising the team.

The ranking of the players in the under-16 section would be on the basis of their AITA and ITF points. For under-14, the ranking would be on the basis of points from domestic tournaments and Asian junior events conducted in the country.

The under-12 team selection would continue to be on the basis of national rank. Players need to have an Indian passport to be eligible for selection.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Prathana advances to quarterfinals of ITF women’s tennis tournament

Prarthana Thombare in partnership with Jessy Rompies of Indonesia beat Anastasia Kovaleva and Ksenia Zaytseva 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $60,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Caserta, Italy, on Tuesday.

The results

$25,000 ITF men, Jakarta, Indonesia

Singles (first round): Yanki Erel (Tur) bt Vishnu Vardhan 7-6(4), 7-5; Lorenzo Lorusso (Ita) bt Nitin Kumar Sinha 6-3, 6-3; Digvijay Pratap Singh bt Francis Casey Alcantara (Phi) 6-3, 6-4.

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

Singles (first round): Siddharth Vishwakarma bt Rishab Agarwal 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Congsup Congcar (Tha) & Bang Shuo Yin (Tpe) bt Abhinav Sanjeev Shanmugam & Siddharth Vishwakarma 6-3, 7-6(3); Shinji Hazawa & Ryotaro Taguchi (Jpn) bt Siddhant Banthia & Finn Reynolds (Nzl) 7-6(4), 6-4; Rishab Agarwal & Manish Sureshkumar bt Yuttana Charoenphon & Kasidit Samrej (Tha) 7-6(0), 3-6, [10-7].

$15,000 ITF men, Tehran, Iran

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Ishaque Eqbal & Hazem Naw (Syr) bt Samyar Elyasi & Sina Moghimi (Iri) 6-1, 6-2.

$60,000 ITF women, Caserta, Italy

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Jessy Rompies (Ina) & Prarthana Thombare bt Anastasia Kovaleva & Ksenia Zaytseva 6-4, 6-4.

$15,000 ITF women, Kashiwa, Japan

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Honori Koyama & Rio Tsuda (Jpn) bt Paavanii Paathak & Priyanka Rodricks 6-2, 6-1.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Soumeya Anane (GBR) & Ashmitha Easwaramurthi bt Clelia Lombardi (Ita) & Aleksandra Pozarenko 6-4, 6-1.

-Kamesh Srinivasan