SHOOTING
Olympian Manu Bhaker rose to the challenge in the medal round as she won the gold in both the women’s and junior events in the 25-metre sports pistol in the 65th National shooting championship at the Madhya Pradesh Academy in Bhopal on Thursday.
Qualifying with a modest score of 577, Manu prevailed over Pushpanjali Rana 33-27 for the women’s gold. In the junior event, Manu overwhelmed Vibhuti Bhatia 32-24 for the gold. Vibhuti incidentally had won the bronze in the women’s event ahead of Olympian Annu Raj Singh.
Rhythm Sangwan who top scored in qualification with 588, along with Esha Singh (585), Abhidnya Patil (578) and Palak Ghulia (577) failed to cross the semifinals.
Meanwhile, in the mixed trap competition in Delhi, Anwer Hasan Khan and Manisha Keer won the gold for Madhya Pradesh by beating Tamil Nadu’s Prithviraj Tondaiman and Nivetha Nethirasigamani 6-4.
Vivaan Kapoor and Manvi won the junior mixed team gold for Rajasthan by beating Preeti Rajak and Divyansh of Madhya Pradesh 6-2.
The results:
-Kamesh Srinivasan
FOOTBALL
Sreenidhi Deccan FC fought back from a two goal-deficit to score a surprising 4-3 win over Mohammedan Sporting Club in the Hero I-League football championship at Deccan Arena (Sreenidhi School campus) on Thursday.
The match began on an even note before the visitors took the lead through a long-range strike from midfielder Nikola Stojanovic in the 25th minute.
A few minutes later, Faslurahman doubled their advantage with a rebound header from close range. Faysal Shayesteh gave Sreenidhi FC hope with a free kick just before half-time to make it 1-2.
Mohammedan Sporting restored their two-goal advantage when S.K. Faiaz scored from another long-range effort in the 66th minute and it looked like the points were sealed.
However, Sreenidhi Deccan head coach Carlos Vaz Pinto’s substitutions proved to be very effective. Captain David Castaneda and winger Rosenberg Gabriel came on and made their presence felt. But, it was defender Awal Mohammed who got the home team back into the game as he thumped in a volley in the 69th minute. Barely two minutes later, Castaneda headed in Faysal’s free-kick to equalise and in the 81st minute, scored another header to clinch the issue for Sreenidhi FC. Sreenidi Deccan FC will travel to Srinagar to face Real Kashmir next on 6 December.
The result: Sreenidhi Deccan FC 4 (Faysal, Awal, Castaneda 2) bt Mohammedan Sporting Club 3 (Nikola Stojanovic, Faslurahman, S.K. Faiaz).
-Team Sportstar
GOLF
Indonesia Masters: Ahlawat lying third on weather hit 1st day
India’s Veer Ahlawat continued his fine form as he put himself in tied 3rd place after a round of 5-under 67 that included seven birdies in the first round of the BNI Indonesian Masters on Thursday.
When inclement weather cut short play on the first day, Thailand’s Kosuke Hamamoto and Neil Schietekat from South Africa led the field with six-under-par 66 each to take the clubhouse lead.
Ahlawat, who finished 8th in Bangladesh Open, last week has been in fine form on the Asian Tour.
Anirban Lahiri, the 2014 winner here, was making a return to Asian Tour after a long gap. He was 4-under through eight holes and he had two birdies and an eagle, as half the field were unable to complete their rounds as play was stopped for the day at 4.45pm local time.
Gaganjeet Bhullar carded 3-under 69 with three birdies on front nine and no bogeys and was tied 11th.
Among other Indians, Karandeep Kochhar, who had a superb Top-10 last week in Bangladesh, and Rashid Khan were 2-under through eight holes, SSP Chawrasia (71) was tied 30th.
Honey Baisoya and M Dharma were 1-under through eight and seven holes and Udayan Mane was even through 13 at tied 55 while Aman Raj (73) was a poor tied 79th.
Ajeetesh Sandhu and S Chikkarangappa were 1-over 11 and 8 eighth holes, Viraj Madappa was 2-over through 11 and Khalin Joshi shot 3-over 75.
Hamamoto, second in Bangladesh on last Sunday, was bogey free at Royale Jakarta Golf Club, with four birdies on the front and two on the back. Schietekat, battling to keep his Tour card, had seven birdies and one dropped shot.
Lying tied for third with Ahlawat were Korea’s Bongsub Kim, Pawin Ingkhaprait from Thailand, Canadian Richard T. Lee and Filipino Miguel Tabuena all came in with 68s.
Hamamoto lost by one shot to compatriot Danthai Boonma last week but rather than being disappointed about not being able to win his first Asian Tour event, he has taken the positives from the experience and is philosophical about it.
-PTI
TENNIS
ITF juniors
Margot Phanthala of France beat the top seed Suhitha Maruri 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-4 in the girls quarterfinals of the Gadre Marine ITF grade-3 junior tennis tournament organised by the MSLTA at the Deccan Gymkhana Club on Thursday.
In the semifinals, Margot , who had won the title in Delhi, will play Tejasvi Dabas. The other semifinal will be between Madhurima Sawant and Aishwarya Jadhav.
In the boys section, Hitesh Chauhan set up a semifinal against Adhirit Awal.
The results (quarterfinals):
-Kamesh Srinivasan
AITA women’s tournament
Sandeepti Singh Rao beat Rachita Talwar 6-0, 1-6, 6-1 to set up a title clash against second seed Riya Uboveja in the Rs.100,000 AITA women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy on Thursday.
The results (semifinals): Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Rachita Talwar 6-0, 1-6, 6-1; Riya Uboveja bt Shruti Gupta 6-2, 6-1.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
BASKETBALL
National championship
Amritpal Singh top scored with 32 points as Punjab beat Services 105-97 in the men’s second stage of the 72nd National basketball championship at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indoor Hall on Thursday.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala also recorded wins in the men’s event, as they nbeat Telangana and Railways respectively.
Tamil Nadu confirmed its quarterfinal match up against Telangana.
In the women’s event, the quarterfinals will be between, Railways-Maharashtra, Kerala-West Bengal, Karnataka-Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu-Delhi.
The teams that had made the second league stage had already confirmed the quarterfinal spots, and were competing to decide their opponents.
The results:
-Kamesh Srinivasan
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