Indian sports news wrap, August 20
Here are all the major updates and results from Indian sports on August 20.
Published : Aug 20, 2023 16:38 IST - 10 MINS READ
Finalists at the Tamil Nadu International Surf Open QS 3000: [L-Ri] Tenshi Iwami (JPN), Kian Martin (SWE), Sara Wakita (JPN) and Shino Matsuda (JPN). | Photo Credit: World Surf League
SURFING
Sara Wakita and Tenshi Iwami claim victories at Tamil Nadu International Surf Open QS 3000
The Japanese duo of Sara Wakita (JPN) and Tenshi Iwami claimed victories at the inaugural Tamil Nadu International Surf Open World Surf League (WSL) Qualifying Series (QS) 3,000 event. The pair overcame a huge international field to win the first-ever WSL event in India as Mahabalipuram Beach turned on pumping three-foot surf for Finals Day.
Iwami looked to be in good form all event but needed to overcome an impressive Kian Martin (SWE) in the Final. Martin got busy early, posting a number of mid-range scores while Iwami seemed out of rhythm, taking bad waves and falling. The final seemed to be going Martin’s way until in the dying seconds, Iwami found a set wave with priority, smashing multiple frontside turns to earn an 8.75 (out of a possible 10), and took the lead, winning the heat with a two-wave total of 16.30 (out of a possible 20).
“Even though I was behind and needed that big score of 8.00, I knew if I got the wave I could do it,” Iwami said. “Waiting on the inside, I was so excited when I heard that I got the score. This is my first QS win, so I’ll always remember this. I love being here in India, the waves, the people, the food and the culture, it has been really great.”
Meanwhile, Wakita had her work cut out for her in the women’s Final as she took on one of the form surfers of the event, Shino Matsuda, who had been impressing the judges all week with her super quick back-hand attack. Both women went wave for wave, each posting mid-range scores but it was Wakita and her stylish frontside technique that found a rhythm, posting a 13.50 two-wave total to take the lead.
“That was a really tough final, but I was expecting it with Shino, as we’ve been rivals since we started surfing,” Wakita said. “We’re the same age and I’m stoked to have a final with her. We were trading waves and both got good scores, all during the final. To be here and come away with a win here in India is awesome as it’s a historical first-ever WSL to be held here. It’s been great being here and having a new experience, thanks India.”
- Team Sportstar
BRIDGE
Four Indian teams to participate in World Bridge Teams Championship in Morocco
Four Indian teams will participate in the World Bridge Teams Championship which began on Sunday in Marrakesh, Morocco, with each category featuring 24 countries.
The competition, beginning with 23 matches in the round robin format, will run until September 2.
The Bermuda Bowl for Open Team category is the most coveted of all bridge trophies at the world level, while the Venice Cup is exclusively for women’s teams.
The mixed teams will fight for the Wuhan Cup, whereas the seniors — aged 65 and above — will compete for the D’orsi Trophy.
The top eight teams in each category will play the knockouts.
The World Bridge Federation has seven zones. Each conducts its selection trials to select teams as per the quota allotted.
India, in zone 4, qualified for each of the four events after winning the trials held in Lahore in May.
Indian Teams
- PTI
SQUASH
Tanvi Khanna wins PSA Challenger title in Australia
Sixth seed Tanvi Khanna beat third seed Chan Yiwen of Malaysia 7-11, 12-10, 12-10, 11-8 to clinch the women’s title in the PSA Challenger squash tournament in Coffs Harbour, Australia, on Sunday.
It was the third PSA title for the 27-year-old Tanvi who had beaten compatriot and former top-10 star Joshna Chinappa in five games in the quarterfinals.
In the men’s final, Adden Idrakie of Malaysia proved strong for Velavan Senthilkumar as he raced to a 11-8, 11-2, 11-9 victory, for his eighth title.
“Extremely pleased with the way this week turned out for me. Every match was hard, but I was able to dig deep and find a way to win. Am really proud of my performance. The quarterfinal against Joshna was exciting. I had not played her in a few years. So, it was a good opportunity for me. Am happy that I was able to play my game for most part of that match and win in five games”, said Tanvi.
Quite prompt in giving credit to coaches Dhruv Dhawan, Lalit Varma and Saatvik Joshi apart from trainer Naveen Panwar, Tanvi said that she had prepared well with them back home in Delhi, for the current cycle of tournaments.
“I put in a lot of work in the past two months with my coaches and physical trainer to build my game and fitness. The efforts in the off-season training sessions are showing now”, said Tanvi.
Happy to get back to her best friend Collette Sultana of Malta, a fellow squash pro from the Columbia University who lives in Australia, Tanvi was pleased with the support.
She will be competing in two more tournaments in Australia over the next fortnight.
The results:
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Ashray wins men’s Delhi State squash championship title
Ashray Ohri beat Junaid Muzaffar Thoker 11-6, 11-7, 7-11, 11-9 for the men’s title in the Delhi State squash championship at the Delhi Gymkhana Club on Sunday.
In the girls under-13 final, Anya Sood beat Maira Ghosh 11-9, 11-9, 10-12, 6-11, 11-3 in a battle of wits.
The results (finals):
- Kamesh Srinivasan
GOLF
Lahiri in sixth place at Newcastle
Indian golfing ace Anirban Lahiri added a second straight 69 on a moving day and was tied sixth with one more round to go in the International Series England in Newcastle on Sunday.
Lahiri, who was second in the Liv Series event in New York last week, was three shots behind the leader Andy Ogletree (67) who was on nine-under.
Among the other Indians, Ajeetesh Sandhu (71) was tied 26th, Gaganjeet Bhullar (75) was tied 57th, while veteran Jyoti Randhawa (81) was 75th.
Lahiri’s round was a strange one. Over the first 10 holes he had two double bogeys on the second and the 10th with one birdie in between on fourth. He moved into an overdrive in the last eighth as he birdied four in a row from 11th to 14th and picked one more on 16th to get to 1-under 69.
Lahiri had one double on the first day and two on the third. He is now looking to challenge for his first win in eight years with the last one having come at the Indian Open in 2015.
On a day when the sun came out for the first time this week, although a strong wind accompanied it, unheralded South African Neil Schietekat carded a 66 at Close House, near Newcastle, to sit one back, while Australian Matt Jones (67), Abraham Ancer (69) from Mexico and Spaniard David Puig (70) were a further stroke adrift.
Ogletree, who heads both the Asian Tour and International Series Order of Merits, finished strongly with an eagle on the par-five 16th, followed by a birdie to edge ahead of a stacked leader board.
Schietekat was overjoyed to be among the front runners, having nearly not started this week following a nasty fall off a golf buggy.
- PTI
Diksha, Gandas make second cut, aim for top-10 finish at World Invitational
Diksha Dagar stayed focussed to compile a steady even par round of 72 but slipped to tied-11th place after the third day of the ISPS HANDA World Invitational tournament on Sunday.
However, Diksha made the second cut as the third round cut fell at 4-over with 38 players making it through to the final day.
In the men’s segment of the tournament, Manu Gandas was tied-10th after a round of 70 on the third day and he also made the third round cut which fell at 2-over.
Among the women, Gabriella Cowley fired a round of 67 (-5) to hold a one-shot lead while Dan Brown retained his six-stroke lead among men.
Diksha, coming off a T-21 finish in the AIG Women’s Open, had two birdies on the first and the ninth holes of the front nine after which she seemed set to be comfortably in the Top-10.
Then she dropped bogeys on the 10th and 16th hole to drop back to even and slipped just out of the Top-10.
In the men’s section, Gandas, after a birdie on the second, had four bogeys in the next seven holes.
However, he recovered well for three birdies and no bogeys on the back nine to finish at even par. He was still in the top-10.
- PTI
TENNIS
Double crown for Tavish Pahwa
Tavish Pahwa won a double crown in the Asian under-14 grade-A tennis tournament in Selangor, Malaysia, on Sunday.
Tavish beat second seed Alex Lap Hang Hui of Hong Kong 6-4, 6-4 in the final. In five rounds, he dropped only 19 games in all.
In partnership with Alex Lap, Tavish won the doubles title, beating Akmal Abdullaev and Zachary Sng 7-6(2), 6-3 in the final.
The results:
- Kamesh Srinivasan
CHESS
National chess championship: Puranik ends Sayantan’s resistance
Decisive results on the top nine boards left Grandmasters Abhimanyu Puranik, S. P. Sethuraman, Mithrabha Guha and Deep Sengupta with a perfect score after five rounds of the National chess championship here on Sunday.
Unlike Saturday, results followed an expected course with most favourites playing to their rating strength. Interestingly, three of the four leaders won with black pieces while the next nine winners emerged from the white side.
Puranik ended the resistance of Sayantan Das in 56 moves, much after Sethuraman, playing white, stopped his Tamil Nadu mate N. R. Vignesh in 43 moves. Sethuraman’s rook for knight proved decisive.
Mitrabha punished C. Praveen Kumar for an error of judgement made on the 30th move and won in 53 moves. Deep gained an edge after P. Iniyan’s 17th move and kept enlarging his advantage to emerge stronger in 58 moves.
The results:
-Rakesh Rao
WRESTLING
World U20 wrestling championship: Sumit takes silver
Sumit (60kg) settled for the silver medal on the concluding day of the World under-20 wrestling championships in Amman, Jordan, on Sunday.
Sumit was beaten 13-4 by Armenia’s Suren Aghajanyan in the title clash. The Indian gave his best but could not get past Aghajanyan, who sealed the fate of the final with a throw about a minute left in the second period and won by technical superiority.
Ankit Gulia (72kg), who made it to the repechage round, suffered a 5-3 loss to Iran’s Syedmohammadmahdi Miri and got out of the race for a bronze medal.
-Y.B. Sarangi
CRICKET
A first-rate chase from Mysore Warriors ended Hubli Tigers’ winning streak, as the latter lost its first match of the Maharaja Trophy KSCA T20 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Sunday.
The Warriors’ six-wicket win was courtesy a fine half-century from R. Samarth (73, 42b, 6x4, 3x6), with able assistance from C.A. Karthik (29, 18b, 2x4, 2x6) and skipper Karun Nair (41, 25b, 1x4, 3x6).
Asked to bat first, the Tigers’ innings was propped up by a blistering century from opener Luvnith Sisodia (105, 62b, 7x4, 7x6). But his effort went in vain as apart from Manish Pandey (33, 21b, 3x4, 1x6) he didn’t receive much support, and the Hubballi side couldn’t cross the magic mark of 200.
In the day’s second contest, Mangalore Dragons was handsomely beaten by defending champion Gulbarga Mystics. The five-wicket triumph was made possible by V. Vyshak’s early blows (2/31) – for which he earned the player-of-the-match award – and middle-order batter R. Smaran’s unbeaten half-century (62 n.o., 42b, 3x4, 4x6).
Brief scores:
Monday’s matches:
- Team Sportstar