Indian sports news wrap, August 18

Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on August 18.

Anirban Lahiri carded a hat-trick of birdies on the back-nine to be placed tied 16th at the International Series England on Friday. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

MOTORSPORT

JK Tyre TSD event for women to be flagged off on August 20 in Kolkata

The JK Tyre Ladies Power Drive 2023 – a navigational TSD (Time, Speed, Distance) event – was announced in Kolkata on Friday.

The event, to be held on August 20, will be organised under the aegis of FMSCI (Federation of Motor Sport Clubs of India).

Over 40 all-women teams will participate in the event. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

A TSD rally tests the driver’s and navigator’s skills of maintaining the right speed and timing while following a designated route using a tulip. TSD rallies are not only about speed, as timing and strategy play a key role in achieving the best results.

Over 40 all-women teams will participate in the event, which will be flagged off from Hotel Westin.  

“Embracing the thrilling world of motorsport, we at JK Tyre are steadfastly committed to propelling women into the fast lane of this dynamic realm. Over the years, our journey in Motorsport has been marked by a relentless pursuit of providing opportunities and igniting the racing spirit among women, who now makes almost half of the population of our nation.  As we accelerate ahead, we’re remain resolute in our mission to drive gender equality within every thrilling twist and turn of the track. For our upcoming JK Tyre Ladies Power Drive in Kolkata, we intend to give each participant a memorable experience,” Sanjay Sharma, Head-Motorsport, JK Tyre, said.

- Team Sportstar

TENNIS

Havisha to face Manshi in U-16 girls final

Havisha Chaudhary beat top seed Vennela Reddy 6-3, 6-3 in the under-16 girls semifinals of the AITA National series junior tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Friday.

In the final, Havisha will face Manshi Singh. The boys final will be between Vishvajeet Sanas and Aaditya Sansanval.

THE RESULTS

Under-16 boys (semifinals)

Vishvajeet Sanas bt Prateek Sheoran 6-4, 2-6, 6-3; Aaditya Sansanval bt Uttam Karthik 7-6(3), 6-3.

Doubles (final)

Anuj Tashildar & Paramveer Singh bt Aditya Acharya & Kanishk Kathuria 6-4, 7-6(1).

Under-16 girls (semifinals)

Havisha Chaudhary bt Venela Reddy 6-3, 6-3; Manshi Singh bt Anandita Upadhyay 6-2 (conceded).

Doubles (final)

Ridhima Singh & Avika Yadav bt Hirva Rangnani & Rishita Bokka 6-4, 7-6(5).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Bopanna/Ebden out of Cincinnati Masters

The fourth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden were beaten 7-6(4), 2-6, [10-7] by Americans Christopher Eubanks and Ben Shelton in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $7,665,215 ATP Masters tennis tournament in Cincinnati, USA.

While the Indo-Aussie pair had a bye in the first round, Eubanks and Shelton had beaten Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium in their first round.

Bopanna and Ebden collected 90 ATP points and $28,310.

THE RESULTS

$7,665,215 ATP, Cincinnati, USA

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals): Christopher Eubanks & Ben Shelton (USA) bt Rohan Bopanna & Matthew Ebden (Aus) 7-6(4), 2-6, [10-7].

€118,000 Challenger, Grodzisk Mazowiecki, Poland

Doubles (semifinals): Anirudh Chandrasekar & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Luke Johnson (GBR) & Skander Mansouri (Tun) 7-6(2), 6-2; Quarterfinals: Divij Sharan & Igor Zelenay (Svk) bt Ariell Behar (Uru) & Adam Pavlasek (Cze) 7-6(1), 3-6, [10-4]; Anirudh & Vijay bt Akira Santillan (Aus) & Rubin Statham (Nzl) 7-5, 6-2.

$25,000 ITF men, Tainan, Chinese Taipei

Doubles (semifinals): Sai Karteek Reddy & Tsung-Hao Huang (Tpe) bt Makoto Ochi & Takeru Yuzuki (Jpn) 2-6, 6-3, [10-8].

$25,000 ITF men, Jakarta, Indonesia

Singles (quarterfinals): Leo Borg (Swe) bt SD Prajwal Dev 6-2, 6-4.

Doubles (semifinals): Palaphoom Kovapitukted (Tha) & Manish Sureshkumar bt Siddhant Banthia & Sora Fukuda (Jpn) 7-6(3), 6-2.

$25,000 ITF women, Bistrita, Romania

Doubles (semifinals): Linda Sevcikova (Cze) & Ilay Yoruk (Tur) bt Sharmada Balu & Vasanti Shinde 6-7(5), 6-4, [10-8].

- Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

Lahiri best among Indians at Newcastle

Fresh from his second-place finish at the Liv Series event in Bedminster, ace Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri carded a hat-trick of birdies on the back-nine to be placed tied 16th, the best among his compatriots, at the International Series England at Close House near Newcastle on Friday.

Lahiri was at one-under 70 that included a hat-trick of birdies from 14th to the 16th, as Thailand’s Sarit Suwannarut fired an opening round of five-under-par 66 to take the lead in conditions that were cold and wintry.

There are as many as 15 Indians in the field and the next best Indian after Lahiri, was Ajeetesh Sandhu (71) at T-40.

The rest of the Indian contingent had a tough time with Rashid Khan (73) lying at T-71, veterans Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa shooting 74, as did Khalin Joshi to be placed T-86th and in danger of missing the cut.

Further down were SSP Chawrasia and Shiv Kapur with 75 each and were T-103rd, S Chikkarangappa, Gaganjeet Bhullar and Kartik Sharma carded 76 each to be T-114 and Rahil Gangjee and Karandeep Kochhar scored 77 each to be T-128th.

Honey Baisoya (78) was T-138, as was Veer Ahlawat and Viraj Madappa (79) at T-148th spot.

Lahiri’s card had five birdies against an early double on second and two other bogeys.

Thailand’s Sarit fired six birdies and one bogey in cold conditions on the Colt Course to finish the day in front of American Jason Kokrak and Jaewoong Eom from Korea, who carded 67s each.

- PTI

Solid start for Manu Gandas and Diksha Dagar in World Invitational

Indian golfer Diksha Dagar in the women’s section and Manu Gandas in the men’s category were off to fine starts in the first round of the ISPS HANDA World Invitational Presented by AVIV Clinics.

The left-handed Diksha shot 1-under 71 to be tied-13th on a crowded leaderboard, while Gandas carded a brilliant 5-under 67 and was tied second with three others.

The event is tri-sanctioned by the DP World Tour (DPWT), Ladies European Tour (LET) and LPGA Tour, with the men’s and women’s tournaments being played on the same course at the same time and having equal prize funds of $1.5m.

Dan Brown took advantage of favourable weather conditions to post an opening seven-under-par round of 64 at Castlerock Golf Club to lead the field.

In the women’s section, four players -- Switzerland’s Kim Metraux, England’s Gabriella Cowley, Sweden’s Ellinor Sudow and Australia’s Karis Davidson -- fired rounds of 69 (-4) to be out in the front.

- PTI

CHESS

Praggnanandhaa to feature in Tata Stell Chess India event

FIDE World Cup semifinalist R. Praggnanandhaa will be one of the leading Indian names in the fifth edition of Tata Steel Chess India (TSCI) event to be held at the National Library here from August 31 to September 9.

Besides, Gukesh D, Vidit Gujrathi and Arjun Erigaisi, the other Indians who made it to the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup in Baku recently, will also be seen in action.

Current women’s world champion Ju Wenjun will make her debut in the event.

Both open and women’s categories will have equal prize money ($41,500). Competitions will be held in rapid and blitz format.

PARTICIPANTS

Open: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, World blitz champion 2021), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Teymour Radjabov (Azerbaijan, FIDE World Cup Winner 2019), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan, World rapid champion 2021), Vincent Keymer (Germany, runner-up in World rapid championship), Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh D, R. Praggnanandhaa and Pentala Harikrishna

Women: Ju Wenjun (China, World women’s champion),  Tingjie Lei (China, runner-up in World championships), Nino Batsiashvili (Georgia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine, winner of TSCI rapid 2022),  Irina Krush (USA), Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, R. Vaishali, Savitha Shri, Vantika Agarwal.

- Y.B. Sarangi

ARCHERY

Disappointing day for India at Archery World Cup in Paris

India’s recurve and compound archers exited before reaching the medal rounds in the Archery World Cup Stage-4 in Paris on Friday.

Meanwhile, four compound archers, World champion Aditi Swami, V. Jyothi Surekha, Prathamesh Jawkar and Abhishek Verma qualified for the World Cup Finals to be held in Hermosillo, Mexico, on September 9 and 10.

THE RESULTS

Recurve: Individual: Men: B. Dhiraj bt Imadeddine Bakri (Alg) 6-2, bt Alex Wise (Gbr) 7-1, bt Romain Fichet (Fra) 6-5 (10-9), lost to Baptiste Addis (Fra) 4-6 in pre-QF; Atanu Das bt Elian Van Steen (Bel) 6-0, bt Konrad Kupczak (Pol) 6-2, lost to Jean-Charles Valladont (Fra) 1-7; Tushar Shelke lost to Peter Boukouvalas (Aus) 2-6; Mrinal Chauhan lost to Florian Faber (Sui) 3-7; Women: Bhajan Kaur got a bye, bt Fatma Marasli (Tur) 6-2, lost to Tomomi Sugimoto (Jpn) 2-6; Simranjeet Kaur bt Robin Selley 6-2, lost to Fleur van de Ven (Ned) 2-6; Ankita Bhakat bt Beatrice Miklos (Rou) 6-0, bt Gaby Schloesser (Ned) 6-5 (shoot-off: 10-9), lost to Misun Choi (Kor) 5-6 (shoot-off: 9-9*, Choi shot closer to centre); Prachi Singh lost to Aida Roman (Mex) 4-6; Mixed team: India (Bhajan Kaur, B. Dhiraj) got a bye, bt Japan 5-3, lost to Mexico 1-5 in QF.

Compound: Mixed team: India (V.Jyothi Surekha, Ojas Deotale) got a bye, bt El Salvador 158-156, lost to Netherlands 158-158 (20-20*) in QF.

- Y.B. Sarangi

SQUASH

Sanchit Vaid through to semifinals of under-17 Delhi State squash championship

Sanchit Vaid fought his way past Suhaan Jauhar 11-6, 6-11, 12-10 in the under-17 boys quarterfinals of the Delhi State squash championship at the Delhi Gymkhana Club courts on Friday.]

In the men’s pre-quarterfinals, Dharmender Wenwal pipped Prateek Challia 11-5, 7-11, 11-8.

RESULTS

Men (pre-quarterfinals): Ashray Oohri bt Vidur Parashar 11-4, 11-7; Arjun Minocha bt Ashish Puri 11-9, 12-10; Karata Dasmahipatra bt Prabhot Chandhok 11-0, 11-2; Harshit Jain bt Rahul Batra 11-8, 12-10; Dharmender Wenwal bt Prateek Challia 11-5 7-11, 11-8; Mohd. Qurban bt Gitesh Talwar 11-0, 11-1; Aryan Bajaj bt Udit Pat Singhania 14-12, 15-13; Junaid Muzaffar Thoker bt Arihant Jain 11-8, 11-3.

Under-17 boys (quarterfinals): Ishkaran Singh bt Harish Khan 11-3, 11-4; Sanchit Vaid bt Suhaan Jauhar 11-6, 6-11, 12-10; Shaurya Gautam bt vansh Khurana 11-2, 11-3; Sahir Sethi bt Kabir Sahni 11-7, 11-6.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

HOCKEY

Hockey India names 40 players for women’s national sub-junior coaching camp

Hockey India on Friday announced a 40-member women’s Sub-Junior group a national coaching camp. The camp will commence on 21st August 2023 at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela. 

The players have been picked on the basis of their recent performances in the Hockey India Sub-Junior National Championships. The camp will be followed by international matches in Europe. 

India international Rani Rampal will herald the young group of players.

- Team Sportstar