SHOOTING
National selection trials
Divya TS beat Rhythm Sangwan 16-12 to emerge on top in women’s air pistol as the sixth National shooting trials concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Tuesday.
After trailing 8-10 in the climax, Divya pulled through, winning four of the next five shots, winding up with a 10.3, in the new format which features single shot duel between the two best shooters to decide the gold medal.
Anurdaha Devi climbed to the third spot, comfortably ahead of Asian Games medallist Shweta Singh. Qualification topper Neha Tomar (582) placed fifth as she pipped Harnavdeep Kaur by 0.4 point.
Rhythm kept getting better with every final, and finished on top in both the junior and youth events, to wind up a consistently strong performance in multiple events in the trials spanning a fortnight.
‘’I like competing in all the events’’, said Rhythm, quite pleased with her overall performance in the 10 and 25-metre events. The 18-year-old Rhythm, who has already established herself in the international junior circuit, beat Devanshi Dhama 16-8 to emerge on top in the junior event. She outclassed a nervous Mansi Anand 16-2 in the youth event.
Esha Singh (574) who made all the three finals, opted to skip the second stage of competition.
Olympian Manu Bhaker competed hard in the junior final and ended up third, missing the chance to fight for the title by 1.1 point to Devanshi. Not being at her competitive best, Manu may focus on the junior events in the World Championship.
In the Youth event, Rhythm raced to a 14-0 lead before Mansi won her first two points, as a face saving exercise against an opponent who was firing 10.9 and 10.8 towards the finish.
In the 25-metre centre fire pistol, Pradhyumn Singh topped with an impressive score of 587, four points ahead of Ankur Goel who had a memorable performance earlier in topping the rapid fire pistol events.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
GOLF
Lahiri becomes first Indian to sign up with rebel Liv Golf Tour
Anirban Lahiri has become the first Indian to join the LIV Golf Tour and is set to make his debut on the rebel tour with the event in Boston this week.
Lahiri becomes the first Indian and the first Asian to sign up with Liv Golf. Viraj Madappa played in the opening event after qualifying through an International Series event in Asia. | Photo Credit: AFP
Lahiri could not be contacted on his big switch to Liv from PGA Tour but is said to be in the field of 48 players to be announced late on Tuesday evening here.
Lahiri becomes the first Indian and the first Asian to sign up with Liv Golf. Viraj Madappa played in the opening event after qualifying through an International Series event in Asia.
The latest list of joinees on Liv Tour include The Open champion Cameron Smith of Australia, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann and Americans Harold Varner and Cameron Tringale.
The financial details of Lahiri’s Liv contract are not known yet. However, the figure being floated around in Smith's case is around USD 140m.
Almost all the 48 players are expected to tee up at this week’s LIV Golf event here.
The PGA Tour is expected to take action against them, which would bar them from playing its events. Lahiri has been playing on the PGA Tour since 2015-16. He has however not won on the PGA Tour, but finished second at the Players Championships behind Smith.
Though Smith is the biggest catch for Liv, the signing up of Lahiri according to sources in Boston, seems to have been done with eye on the growing Asian golf market. Liv is also backing Asian Tour, which is where Lahiri came from and is a former Asian Tour No. 1.
World number two Smith has been the most talked about inductee into the Liv Golf. He won the Open in July and also played the PGA FedEx Cup playoffs. Niemann also played at the FedEx Cup playoffs.
Only Tringale has issued a letter on social media, while Smith has remained tight-lipped as have the others including Lahiri.
LIV Golf Series has been putting up record USD 25 million purses with a 54-hole format and no cut. The purse includes USD 5 million set aside for a team event within the format.
Some big names part of the series include Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter.
Others include South African Branden Grace, who won the Liv Golf Invitational in Portland, Charl Schwartzel, also a winner on Liv Golf, Louis Oosthuizen and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz.
-PTI
ATHLETICS
Sarita Singh crosses 60m, wins hammer throw gold at all-India inter-Railway athletics championships
Sarita Singh, the women’s hammer throw national record holder (65.25m), could only manage her poorest performance of the year (57.48m) at the recent Birmingham Commonwealth Games but she was back in the 60m zone while winning the gold at the 87th all-India inter-Railway athletics championships in Rae Bareli on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old national champion was an easy winner with 60.59m.
Meanwhile Gailey Venister was close to his season best while taking the men’s triple jump gold with 16.10m while former Asian champion Ajay Kumar Saroj and National champion K.M. Chanda won the men’s and women’s 800m respectively to complete a middle distance double. The two had won the 1500m golds on Monday.
- Stan Rayan
TENNIS
Vaidekhi knocks out Ekaterina in Almaty; Prajnesh loses to Jasika in Thailand
Vaidehi Chaudhari knocked out third seed Ekaterina Yashina 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday.
In the $37,520 Challenger in Thailand, Prajnesh Gunneswaran was beaten 7-5, 6-3 by Omar Jasika of Australa in the first round.
SWIMMING
India’s Aneesh S Gowda registered a personal best time of 3:57.99 to win his heats in the men’s 400m Freestyle in the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Lima, Peru. His previous best was 3:59.66.
However, having the 11 fastest heats time he was not able it to the eight-man final. In the same event, his compatriot Aryan Nehra finished sixth in his heats clocking 3:59.36.
Ridhima Veerendrakumar clocked 1:07.71 to place last in her 100m backstroke heats and was 25th overall.
