Here are the top developments in Indian sport on Saturday, December 3.
BADMINTON
Rising shuttler Unnati Hooda on Saturday became the first Indian to enter the U-17 women’s singles final of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Nothaburi, Thailand after beating Japan’s Mion Yokouchi in straight games.
Unnati won 21-8, 21-17 over her Japanese rival in the women’s U-17 singles semifinals. She faces Sarunrak Vitidsarn of Thailand in the gold medal match on Sunday.
Under-15 singles player Anish Thoppani and U-17 men’s doubles pair of Arsh Mohammad and Sanskar Saraswat also posted brilliant victories to move into the finals.
Top-seed Unnati once again lived up to the expectations and stamped her authority as she wrapped up the match in straight sets. The Odisha Open champion has not yet dropped a set in her campaign at the prestigious event.
The men’s doubles pairs of Arjun MR-Chirag Shetty (2013) and Krishna Prasad Garaga-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (2015) have won gold medals for India in the U-17 category at the tournament.
The in-form duo of Arsh and Sanskar also showcased a similar dominating display against Chinese Taipei’s Chi-Ruei Chiu and Shao Hua Chiu to ease into the U-17 men’s doubles final with a commanding 21-15, 21-19 win in a lopsided last-four contest.
They will face another Chinese Taipei pair of Lai Po Yu and Yi-Hao Lin in the final.
In the men’s U-15 semifinal, Anish made a sensational comeback after being one game down to stun the second seed Lee Yu-Jui of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 21-12, 21-12.
In the final, Anish will be up against Chung-Hsiang Yih of Chinese Taipei, who beat India’s Gnana Dattu 21-16, 19-21, 21-13 in another semifinal. Dattu signed off with a bronze.
In 2013, Siril Verma had won gold medal in the men’s U-15 singles while Samiya Farooqui and Tasnim Mir clinched the U-15 women’s singles titles in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
The U-15 men’s doubles pair of Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas PV also won a bonze after losing to top-seeded Indonesian duo of Muhammad Mubarrok and Raihan Pramono 18-21, 14-21 in the semifinals.
- PTI
HOCKEY
Nehru women’s tournament
Ritika and Manisha scored a goal each to help Pritam Siwach Academy, Sonipat, to a 2-1 victory over Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy in a league match of the Nehru women’s hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium on Saturday.
Soniya Kumre scored the goal for the Gwalior team.
In another match, Sashastra Seema Bal cruised to a 5-0 victory over Steel Plants Sports Board.
THE RESULTS
- Kamesh Srinivasan
TENNIS
Dhruv, Divya win AITA Championship series junior tournament
Dhruv Kumar and Divya Ungrish won the boys and girls titles in the AITA Championship series junior tennis tournament at the Tennis Gurukul, Khera Khurd.
Dhruv beat Kanishk Yadav 6-3, 7-5 in the final while Divya outplayed Neelakshi Lather 6-0, 6-2 for the girls title.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Madhurima loses girls final at Gadre Marine ITF juniors
Margot Phanthala of France overcame stiff resistance from Madhurima Sawant for a 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 victory in the girls final of the Gadre Marine ITF grade-3 junior tennis tournament organised by the MSLTA at the Deccan Gymkhana Club on Saturday.
In the boys final, Aleksandar Daskalovic of Serbia beat Hitesh Chauhan 7-5, 6-2 in the final.
THE RESULTS (FINALS)
- Kamesh Srinivasan
SHOOTING
Anjum wins silver in President’s Cup
Anjum Moudgil capped a fine season by winning the silver in the women’s rifle 3-position event in the President’s Cup in Cairo, Egypt, on Saturday.
The 28-year-old Anjum was beaten to the gold 16-14 by Anna Janssen of Germany. With the scores tied at 14-14, Anna shot 9.9. Anjum shot 8.8 and missed the gold.
It has been a bright season for Anjum, who had won the World Cup silver in Baku and the bronze in the Changwon World Cups. She had also made the final of the World Championship.
Interestingly, Anjum had shot a record 591 in qualification, a remarkable improvement from scores of 586 and 587 earlier in the season.
In the President’s Cup, which is the season ending competition for the best shooters of the year, World Champion Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil had earlier won the air rifle gold.
THE RESULTS
- Kamesh Srinivasan
BASKETBALL
Defending champion Tamil Nadu marched into the final with a 123-75 victory over Railways in the semifinals of the 72nd national basketball championship at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indoor Hall on Saturday.
A. Aravind top scored for Tamil Nadu with 30 points as the team took a 57-40 lead at half-time, and stepped up its attack for a 66-35 score in the second half.
Tamil Nadu will meet the winner of the other semifinal between Punjab and Rajasthan.
In the women’s section, Railways and Kerala made the finals, beating Delhi and Karnataka respectively.
THE RESULTS (SEMIFINALS)
- Kamesh Srinivasan
ATHLETICS
Tendulkar to flag off Kochi Spice Coast Marathon
Cricket great Sachin Tendulkar will flag off the Ageas Federal Life Insurance Kochi Spice Coast Marathon at the Marine Drive’s helipad here on Sunday.
Competition will be held in the marathon (42.2km, 3.30 AM start), half marathon (21.1km, 4.30 AM start) and 5km fun run (7 AM start) and over 4,500 runners are expected, including around 2000 in the fun run.
Tendulkar will flag off all the three events.
- Stan Rayan
GOLF
Ahlawat moves to tied third in Indonesian Masters
India’s Veer Ahlawat put himself in contention by moving to tied third place despite a late bogey on the third day of the USD 1.5 million BNI Indonesian Masters on Saturday.
Ahlawat, who started the day at 9-under, was 3-under through 12 holes in the third round. At 12-under he was three behind Thailand’s Sarit Suwannarut, who moved to the top of the leader board on 15-under after 14 holes.
Thailand’s Kosuke Hamamoto was two behind with three to play, while Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell was three back with two remaining along with Ahlawat, who has four holes left.
Karandeep Kochhar, 4-under through 17 and Anirban Lahiri 1-under through 16, were at 9-under and tied ninth on a good day.
Gaganjeet Bhullar (70) was 7-under and tied 18th, while Ajeetesh Sandhu, even through 17 holes, was 5-under and tied 24th. Honey Baisoya (72) was tied 30th, while Udayan Mane (72) and S. Chikkarangappa (70) were tied 40th and tied 43rd, respectively.
Rashid Khan (75) had dropped to tied 67th.
SSP Chawrasia, M Dharma, Khalin Joshi and Aman Raj missed the cut.
Ahlawat, who has been doing well on the Asian Tour, was bogey free through 13 holes and with stoppage looking imminent owing to lightning, he had just bogeyed the 14th when play was stopped.
Lahiri, starting his third with eight pars, had three birdies against two bogeys in the next five holes. He parred the 14th and 15th when play was stopped.
- PTI
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