Here are the top developments in Indian sport on Friday, December 2.
GOLF
Lahiri, Ahlawat three shots behind leaders in Indonesia Masters golf
India’s Anirban Lahiri endured a mixed bag outing in the second round, carding 2-under 70 on the weather-hit Friday to be placed tied third at the USD 1.5 million BNI Indonesian Masters golf tournament.
Lahiri is three shots adrift of the clubhouse leaders, Thailand’s Sarit Suwannarut (66-67) and South African Mathiam Keyser, who are at 11-under at Royale Jakarta Golf Club in the Asian Tour season-finale, which is also part of the International Series.
Continuing his fine form, Veer Ahlawat was 3-under through 13 in the second round. He was tied third at 8-under with Lahiri (66-70), Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond (71-65), Kasuke Hamamota (66 and 2-under through 16) and Chan Shi-chang (69 and 5-under through 15) in the second round.
Indian golfers had a fruitful day as Gaganjeet Bhullar (69 and 3-under through 13) was lying T-12 while Ajeetesh Sandhu (7k1-68) and Karandeep Kochhar (69-70) were T-17 at 5-under.
Lahiri, disappointed with his second round, said, “I am quite happy with the way I’ve played so far, but a little disappointed with my scoring in the second round. I feel like I played much better, especially playing with Lee and Jazz today who both shot six and seven under. Seeing them I felt like I shot two three over.
“It’s nice to be back in Indonesia, and the course is playing nice. Obviously 26-27 holes today, so it was a long day. I am looking forward to enjoying myself and finding some rhythm, which is unexpected because I haven’t played much. But I have some good memories, good energy. I kind of know how to manage this golf course.”
Other Indians were Honey Baisoya (70-70) in T-23 at 4-under total, S Chikkarangappa (72-70) was T-34 at 2-under total, Udayan Mane (72-71) and Rashid Khan (72-71) at T-50th. SSP Chawrasia (71 and 1-over through 14) needed a strong finish in his last four holes to make the cut.
M Dharma (73-73) and Viraj Madappa (78-72), Aman Raj (73-78), looked certain to miss the cut, while Khalin Joshi (75 and 2-over through 12) had six holes to get inside the cut line, which seemed likely to fall at one-under or par.
Lahiri, the 2014 winner here and making a return to Asian Tour after a long gap, played 10 holes from his first round on Friday and finished at 6-under for the round. He added a second round of 70 which he started from the 10th and had five birdies against three bogeys.
Ahlawat, whose only blemish in the first round was a double bogey against seven birdies, was bogey free with birdies in 13 holes so far. He was three shots behind the leaders.
- PTI
SHOOTING
Haryana’s Sarabjot Singh won a double gold at the 65th National Shooting Championships, bagging individual 10m air pistol even along with playing his part in the team event at the MP Shooting Academy range in Bhopal on Friday.
Sarabjot defeated Gaurav Rana of the Air Force 16-4 in the gold medal match for the individual crown and also partnered with Sumit Raman and Anmol Jain to pick up the team gold in the event with a combined effort of 1736.
Sarabjot came fifth in the massive 1100 plus qualification round with a 60-shot score of 582, before topping the semifinal with an effort of 252.7, to make the title round. Gaurav came second in qualification with 583 and then qualified for the final with a semifinal score of 250.6, which placed him second behind Sarabjot.
The junior and youth men 10m air pistol event was a straight fight between Haryana’s Shiva Narwal and Army’s Pradhyumn Singh.
While Shiva took the youth title with a 16-8 win over Pradhyumn, the latter won the junior crown with a tight 17-13 win.
- PTI
Rudrankksh Patil wins President’s Cup gold
Reigning World Champion Rudrankksh Patil won the air rifle gold in the President’s Cup shooting in Cairo, Egypt, on Friday.
The 18-year-old Rudrankksh beat Danilo Dennis Sollazzo of Italy 16-8 for the gold. He had earlier beaten Jany Patrik of Slovakia 16-10 in the semifinals, in a tweaked format. Danilo had beaten Istvan Peni of Hungary 16-14 in the other semifinal.
In the competition meant for the season’s best shooters, Rudrankksh was third in the qualification with 632.1, the second best score behind Martin Strempl (632.3) of Austria .
In the second stage, Rudrankksh qualified on top among four, along with Istvan Peni, for the semifinals.
THE RESULTS
- Kamesh Srinivasan
TENNIS
Hitesh reaches Gadre Marine ITF juniors final
Hitesh Chauhan battled his way past Adhirit Awal 5-7, 7-6(4), 7-6(9) in the semifinals off the Gadre Marine ITF grade-3 junior tennis tournament organised by the MSLTA at the Deccan Gymkhana Club on Friday.
In the final, Hitesh will play Aleksandar Daskalovic of Serbia.
In the girls section, Madhurima Sawant set up a title clash against Margot Phanthala of France.
The boys doubles title was bagged by Aman Dahiya and Kriish Tyagi. The girls doubles title was won by Lidia Podgorichani and Kamonwan Yodpetch of Thailand.
THE RESULTS
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Sandeepti wins AITA women’s tournament
Top seed Sandeepti Singh Rao outplayed second seed Riya Uboveja 6-0, 6-2 in the final of the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Friday.
Sandeepti, who trains with coach Ankit Patel, has been in irrepressible form, winning tournaments regularly.
THE RESULTS
- Kamesh Srinivasan
BASKETBALL
Tamil Nadu beats Telangana, to face Railways in semis at National Championship
Tamil Nadu beat Telangana 73-52 after leading 44-29 at half-time in the quarterfinals of the 72nd National basketball championship at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee indoor hall on Friday.
In the semifinals, Tamil Nadu will play Railways, which cruised past Services 98-84.
The other semifinal will be between Punjab and the winner of the match between Rajasthan and Kerala.
In the women’s section, Raspreet Sidhu continued to be in sparkling form as she scored 43 points in Delhi’s 60-49 victory over Tamil Nadu.
In the semifinals, Delhi will challenge Railways, and the other semifinal will be between Kerala and Karnataka.
THE RESULTS (QUARTERFINALS)
- Kamesh Srinivasan
BADMINTON
Indian shuttlers confirm 5 medals at Badminton Asia Junior Championships
Indian shuttlers Unnati Hooda, Gnana Dattu, Anish Thoppani along with a couple of doubles pairs marched into the semifinals to assure the country of five medals at the Badminton Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships 2022 in Nonthaburi, Thailand on Friday.
The doubles pairs of Arsh Mohammad and Sanskar Saraswat, and Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas PV also confirmed medals for India apart from the above mentioned singles trio.
Indian shuttlers had grabbed five medals in 2018 while they won two in the 2019 edition. The prestigious continental event is being conducted after two years following the pandemic.
Junior world No. 4 Unnati continued her sensational run as she outclassed South Korea’s Min Ji Kim in the U-17 women’s singles quarterfinals in straight games 21-15 21-18.
Top-seed Unnati will now face Japan’s Milon Yokouchi in the semifinals.
Dattu and Anish, on the other hand, had to work hard in their U-15 men’s singles last-eight contests against their Indonesian opponents before wrapping up the matches in three sets.
While the seventh seeded Dattu got the better of fourth-seed Radithya Wardhana 21-11, 13-21, 21-11 Anish claimed a 22-20, 19-21, 21-12 win over fifth seeded Glend Rumondor to confirm a last-four berth.
Dattu and Anish will be up against Chinese Taipei’s Chung-Hsiang Yih and Lee Yu-Jui, respectively, in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, in-form U-17 men’s doubles pair of Arsh and Sanskar earned a hard-fought victory against Indonesia’s Nawaf Khoiriyansyah and Adriel Leonardo by 24-22, 20-22, 21-15.
And then, the duo of Bjorn and Aathish added a second doubles medal to India’s tally when they clinched a come-from-behind 16-21, 21-12, 21-17 victory against Chinese Taipei’s Sheng-Ming Lin and Chla-Yu Tsai in the U-15 men’s doubles category.
The U-17 mixed doubles pair of Mayank Rana and Jiya Rawat and U-15 women’s doubles pair of Tanvi Andluri and Durga Kandrapu ended their campaigns with quarterfinal defeats.
The semifinals will take place on Saturday, while finals will be played on Sunday.
- PTI
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