GOLF
Pranavi Urs finishes T-13th, secures full card to join Aditi and Diksha on LET
Indian golfer Pranavi Urs earned a full card on the Ladies European Tour for 2024 as she finished Tied-31st at the Final Stage of the Qualifying School golf tournament here.
Parnavi played a strong front nine and then survived some tense moments on the back to card a final round of 3-under 70 at the Par-73 Al Maaden Golf Marrakech to finish with a total of 12-under 351.
Pranavi will join compatriots Diksha Dagar and Aditi Ashok, who are already full members of the Tour.
Russia’s Nataliya Guseva produced a final round of 4-under 69 to win the by four shots. Guseva totalled 23-under-par.
The Top-20 and ties secured Category 12 membership for 2024 and there were 22 players getting the status. Thirty players finished between 21st and 50th and ties to clinch Category 16 membership.
India had a total of 12 players in the final stage but Pranavi alone managed a full card. Vani Kapoor (73-70-70-76-72) at 2-under for the 90 holes, finished T-45 and earned a status in Category 16.
Neha Tripathi (75-67-72-73-76) was T-55 and Amandeep Drall (75-70-70-75-76) finished T-65 and the duo earned status in Category 19.
The eight players, who missed the cut were Ridhima Dilawari (74-72-72-77) at T-88, Avani Prashanth (76-71-72-77) and Tvesa Malik (74-70-77-75) at T-92, Jasmine Shekar (75-74-75-75) at T-112, Sneha Singh (83-72-76-76) at T-144, Seher Atwal (77-73-78-81) at 146, Ananya Datar (80-79-76-79) at 148 and Durga Nittur (80-81-76-83) at 150.
Pranavi started the final day at T-11th and her birdies on third, fourth, sixth, eighth and ninth holes saw her turn in 5-under as she rose close to Top-5. She then dropped shots on the 12th and 14th and ended the day with four pars and a round of 70.
Vani had four birdies and three bogeys and was T-45, while Neha had three birdies and six bogeys and failed to make the Top-50.
As Guseva topped the Q-School, South Africa’s Cara Gorlei finished in second place on the leaderboard on 19-under-par after shooting a round of 71.
Thailand’s Aunchisa Utama finished in third place on 18-under-par having carded a round of 3-under 70 on the final day at Al Maaden.
-PTI
BOXING
Punjab’s Anjali beats Rajasthan’s Chandan in national women’s boxing championship
Anjali of Punjab beat Chandan Choudhary of Rajasthan on points 5-0 in the light heavyweight first-round bout of the National women’s boxing championship at the Gautam Buddha University here on Thursday.
The results (first round)
-Kamesh Srinivasan
TENNIS
Sahaja enters pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament
Sahaja Yamalapalli sailed past Madhurima Sawant 6-3, 6-0 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the MSLTA Centre on Thursday.
In the quarterfinals, seventh seed Sahaja will play Hiromi Abe of Japan who ousted the top seed Maria Timofeeva in three sets.
Sahaja also made the doubles semifinals with Vaishnavi Adkar.
Vaidehi Chaudhari was the other Indian player to progress in singles, and set up a quarterfinal against second seed Ekaterina Makarova.
The champion of the recent event in Bengaluru, Shrivalli Bhamidipaty was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Makarova. Fifth seed Rutuja Bhosale went down in the third set tie-break against Daria Kudashova.
The results:
- Kamesh Srinivasan
AITA women’s tournament: Chandana Potugari beats top seed Tanushri Pandey
Chandana Potugari beat top seed Tanushri Pandey 6-4, 6-2 in the semifinals of the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Thursday.
In the final, Chanadana who had won the tournament last week at the same venue, will play second seed Samaira Malik.
The results (semifinals):
- Kamesh Srinivasan
SHOOTING
National selection trials: Abhay Singh Sekhon beats qualification topper Mairaj Ahmad Khan in the men’s skeet final
Abhay Singh Sekhon won the shoot-off 20-19 against Mairaj Ahmad Khan in the skeet final of the National shooting trials in Bhopal on Thursday. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Abhay Singh Sekhon beat qualification topper and World Cup gold medallist Mairaj Ahmad Khan 20-19 after being tied on 59 in the men’s skeet final in the National selection trials at the Madhya Pradesh Academy in Bhopal on Thursday.
Mairaj had shot 122 in qualification along with Mohd. Sheeraz Sheikh, who eventually placed fifth. Man Singh placed third ahead of Asian Games silver medalist Anantjeet Singh Naruka (121).
Munek Battula was the other shooter to make the final. Olympian Angad Vir Singh Bajwa shot 117 and placed ninth, while Gurjoat Singh slipped to the 21st spot with 114.
In women’s skeet, Parinaaz Dhaliwal pipped Areeba Khan 53-52, pushing World Cup medallist Ganemat Sekhon to the third spot. Qualification topper Raiza Dhillon (119) was fourth, while Zahra Mufaddal Desawala and Vanshika Tiwari finished fifth and sixth respectively.
Olympic quota winner Anish Bhanwala was in top form in 25-metre rapid fire pistol winning the final 31-25 over Sameer Ghulia at the Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad. Anish had topped qualification with 592, 12 points ahead of the next best.
Asian Games gold medallist Sift Kaur Samra was equally on top of her game as she won the women’s rifle 3-position event with a 2.4 point margin over Priya, after topping qualification with 593.
Paarth Makhija topped men’s air rifle by 0.4 point over Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar.
The results:
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Sohini Kumari wins ITF Masters tennis tournament
The former national women’s tennis champion Sohini Kumari won the over-35 singles title in the ITF Masters tennis tournament at the Tennis Project in Baliawas on Thursday.
Sohini, who had quit the professional tennis circuit in 1995 after competing in the FedCup. She had drifted into squash, finishing runner-up in national championships twice and representing the country. She was persuaded by her friends to get back into the tennis circuit.
Sohini was quickly in her stride in her first tournament in the Masters circuit, winning the four matches in the league against Nazneen Rahman, Nikunj Kamal, Pinky Sharma and Vijayta Singh, dropping 10 games in all, in eight sets.
“I had started playing at the Gymkhana Club with all my buddies. So, just thought of entering the tournament for fun”, said Sohini, who did enjoy playing all the younger players as there was no event in her age group.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
ITF women’s tennis tournament results
Ashmitha Easwaramurthi in partnership with Hou Yanan of China was beaten 6-4, 6-1 by third seeds Chiraz Bechri and Milana Zhabrailova in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Monastir, Tunisia.
The results:
- Kamesh Srinivasan
CHESS
Kiyana, Harsh win gold in Asian Youth Chess Championships
Two Indian youngsters, Kiyana Parihar (U-8 Girls) and Harsh Suresh (U-16 open) won gold medals in the 25th Asian Youth Chess Championships (Classical), held at Al Ain Convention Centre in UAE.
Kiyana had also bagged the silver medal in the Asian U-8 Girls rapid chess championship held last week.
Three Indians, AS Sharvaanica (U-8 Girls), Aarit Kapil (U-8 Open) and G Tejaswini (U-18 Girls), won silver medals in their respective classical championships, while Aadya Ranganath won a bronze in the U-10 girls category.
AS Sharvaanica, who had bagged two gold medals earlier in the 25th Asian Youth festival in U-8 Girls rapid and U-8 girls blitz categories, became the only player to win medals in all three (blitz, classical and rapid) categories.
The Soviet players, who played under the FIDE flag, reigned supreme by winning four gold, four silver and two bronze medals while China bagged two gold, one silver and one bronze medals.
India had bagged nine medals, including four gold (Bhagyashree Patil U-18 girls, Sapariya Ghosh U-14 girls, A S Sharvaanica U-8 girls and Muhammad Shyan Ibrahim U-8 Open), in the Asian Youth Rapid Chess Championships held December 13.
The Asian Blitz Chess Championships held on December 17 saw three Indian girls -- V C Nivedita (U-12 girls), Pratitee Bordoloi (U-10 girls) and A S Sharvaanica -- win the gold medals for the country.
-PTI
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