GOLF
Challenging test awaits Indians in windy Melbourne
It is going to be a windy week at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club as 120 amateurs, including seven Indians, tee up for the 14th edition of the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championships on Thursday.
It is one of the most awaited amateur events in this part of the world, and this week it will test the young competitors to the fullest as they go about trying to grab a chance to play at the 2024 Masters at the Augusta National and the Open at the Troon.
“It was quite a task playing in these winds. It was chilly and the green were slick and very, very fast. It will be a challenge and let’s see how it goes,” said Shubham Jaglan, who is very keen on a good finish in challenging conditions.
He admitted, “The field is very strong, but there is no reason for us not to do well. We will give our best. I have one and a half years more in college and then I will have a shot at pro golf.
“The PGA Tour U (University) is an amazing route to the PGA Tour, and I would love to do that.” The seven Indians in the field are Jaglan, Kartik Singh, who is just 13, Krishnav Nikhil Chopra, Shaurya Bhattacharya, Yuvraj Singh, Raghav Chugh and Vedant Sirohi.
Only Jaglan, Krishnav and Shaurya have played an AAC before. Also last week Yuvraj and Shaurya played at the World Amateur Team Championship but finished low down in 33rd place.
The conditions will be windy on the first and third days, and scoring could be tough, but these are also among the best amateurs in the world.
This year marks the second time the Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship is visiting Royal Melbourne.
Quite predictably, when the championship was held here in 2014, it was Australia’s Antonio Murdaca who won by a landslide margin of seven shots, which remains the largest winning margin in the 13 editions held thus far.
India’s best at that AAC at Royal Melbourne was Rigel Fernandes, who finished T-15, as Murdaca of Australia won by seven shots. Fernandes has since turned pro and is giving it a shot on some of the smaller Tours.
The other four Indians that year included Aman Raj, Udayan Mane, Viraj Madappa and Manu Gandas. Aman, Udayan and Viraj play on the Asian Tour while Manu Gandas topped the Indian Tour Order of Merit, and now plays on the DP World Tour, the erstwhile European Tour.
The Australian team, which had Jack Buchanan, finished second at the World Amateur Team Championship in Abu Dhabi last week. Buchanan, who is playing here this week, did well in the event.
The Australians have played this course before, so will have a big advantage as Sandbelt golf at Royal Melbourne is quite different from other courses.
The huge advantage is they know where to miss it, but if you don’t then it could be a bogey or worse. Also Golf Australia conducted a camp for the players at Royal Melbourne a few weeks earlier.
Also the locals have been saying that they will need to use the slopes well and flight the irons shots well.
-PTI
World Amateur Team Championship:India’s Avani Prashanth tied for lead at World Amateur event, team lying third
Indian golfer Avani Prashanth continued her superb form by shooting a bogey-free 4-under 68 to take a share of the early lead in the first round of the individual section of the World Amateur Team Championship for Espirito Santo Trophy here on Wednesday.
Avani, who won the Queen Sirikit Cup and a pro title, while being an amateur at a LET Access Tour event in Europe, started on the 10th tee at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club and had two sets of back-to-back birdies, one on each half of the course.
Avani, who also has Top-10 finishes in two other LET professional events in Kenya Ladies Open and Hero Women’s Indian Open, started with seven pars and then birdied the 17th and 18th.
She added two more birdies on the fifth and sixth and finished with 68. She was tied for the top individual spot with Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio of Spain and Sara Byrne of Ireland.
India’s other women golfers, Mannat Brar (72) at T-35 and Nishna Patel (75) at T-76 had modest opening days.
In the team segment, India was tied third, with Spain in the lead at 7-under as the two best players’ scores are counted from each team.
For Spain, the counting scores came from Cayetana Fernandez Garcia-Poggio and Julia Lopez Ramirez (69).
“The course set-up is such that it is difficult to keep the ball on the fairway for long hitters and then keeping it on the green was a challenge too. This meant my up-and-down game had to be sharp and I made 26 putts,” Avani said.
“I am very happy I was able to keep bogeys off my card and to play bogey free on such a course is always a great feeling.” Of the three co-leaders, only Avani was bogey-free.
After seven pars, Avani’s first birdie came following a superb approach from about 117 yards to four feet with a gap wedge. Immediately after that, she hit her third shot just short of the green on the gettable Par-5 on 18th and then made an up-and-down for a birdie.
Her next birdie came on the fifth, where she hit a sand wedge from 105 yards to six inches for a tap-in birdie. A fourth birdie came on the sixth when she hit her second shot from 201 yards to 17 feet with a 5-Iron and holed it for her fourth birdie.
The second-placed team was Ireland with Sara Byrne (68) and Beth Coulter (71) contributing and for India, the counting scores came from Avani (68) and Mannat (72).
India was tied for third with the star-studded Korean, German and Canadian teams. The highly favoured US and Swedish teams were tied 10th and Australia were tied seventh.
- PTI
Sandhu shoots 66 for first round lead at Haryana Open golf
Jairaj Singh Sandhu shot a first-round six-under 66 to take the lead at the Rs 1 crore Haryana Open 2023 golf tournament at the Panchkula Golf Club in Panchkula on Wednesday.
Rahil Gangjee, Samarth Dwivedi and Abhinav Lohan were tied for second place with matching scores of 67.
Besides Sandhu, the other Tricity golfers in the top 10 were Aadil Bedi, Akshay Sharma and Amandeep Johl, all placed tied fifth at 68.
Southpaw Sandhu made a terrific start with birdies on the 10th and 11th, driving the green on the latter and a 20-feet eagle conversion on the 12th.
The 26-year-old from Chandigarh then went on to add three more birdies and a bogey to his card.
“This course is like a second home course to me because I play here quite often so I’m quite familiar with the conditions here and that helped me in today’s round. The Panchkula Golf Club has done an outstanding job to get the course in great shape for this event despite the damage done by the heavy rains during the monsoon,” Sandhu said.
“The key for me today was being patient and not getting carried away despite the great start I had as I was four-under through the first three holes. It’s easy to get ahead of yourself in such situations but I didn’t let that happen.”
- PTI
MOTORSPORTS
Mumbai’s Aditya wins in Round 4 of National Karting
Rayo Racing ruled the roost in the Meco FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship with Aditya Patnaik, Raiden Samervel and Krish Gupta, making it a clean sweep for the team in the senior category.
Incidentally, all three racers are from Mumbai.
Hamza Balasinorwala also came second in the Micro category to cap off a great fourth round for Rayo Racing.
In the senior final, Bengaluru’s Akshat Mishra (Peregrine Racing) pulled away at the start to build on his pole position. Aditya started fourth and soon made a good move into third.
Up ahead, Bengaluru’s Abhay M (Birel Art), running second, attempted to pass Akshat, giving Aditya an opportunity to take advantage of the melee and slip into the lead.
A few laps later, however, Akshat clawed back and made an attempt for the lead, down the inside of Aditya at corner 4. A mega battle ensued, with the lead changing five times in six corners.
Aditya eventually won the senior final, completing 16 laps with a total time of 16:12.122s, ahead of his teammates Raiden and Krish.
Abhay M received a penalty, which dropped him to fourth. Raaj Bakhru drove well to finish fifth after starting down in the ninth place.
-PTI
POLO
Pataudi Cup polo tournament: Jindal Panther beats Achievers Red
Siddhant Sharma slammed seven goals to guide Jindal Panther to a 9-8 victory over Achievers Red in a league match of the Bhopal Pataudi Cup polo tournament at the Army Equestrian Centre, Delhi Cantonment, on Wednesday.
Simran Shergill and Samir Suhag shot the other goals for the winner. Matthew Perry scored six goals for Achievers Red and Shamsheer Ali chipped in with two.
The results:
-Kamesh Srinivasan
MOTORSPORTS
Asian Mountain Bike championships starting from October 26
The misty hills and picturesque surroundings provide a stunning view of Ponmudi, a hill station, on the outskirts of the city, the venue of the 28th Senior & 14th Junior Asian Mountain Bike Championship, which will begin on Thursday.
However, the newly laid track, which has been set up at a private tea estate. is anything but gruesome and will confound even the best of riders. The bumpy and steep climb on the pebble-strewn track for the uphill cross-country event will be unforgiving and will test the endurance of the riders.
The downhill route, riddled with obstacles and bunkers through narrow alleys, will be challenging for the riders. The event which also serves as the selection for the Paris Olympics has attracted top riders and teams from Asia.
China, Japan, Uzbekistan and South Korea the traditional powerhouse in Asian Cycling have come in full strength. China arrived sufficiently early to acclimatise to the conditions. The 16-member Chinese team has been undergoing rigorous training at the venue for the last five days and will have a little advantage over other teams.
Chinese coach Yi Jian expressed confidence that his team will do well on this track. “The track is a bit tough with long climbs and steep inclines and riders will have to be skilful to manoeuvre the tough terrain. I am confident we will do well,’‘ he said.
The Indian team has been camping and training at the venue for the last month under coach Kiran Raju, the four-time national champion. However, Indian cyclists will face a daunting task as the majority of them will be taking part in an event of this magnitude for the first time.
In all around 250 cyclists from 20 countries will be taking part in the four-day event. Downhill, cross country, cross country eliminator, and cross country team relay are the events which will be held. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan formally inaugurated the tournament on Wednesday evening.
-Praveen Chandran
BASKETBALL
Hansraj Prabhakar tournament: Shiv Nadar beats Delhi Public School
Shiv Nadar School scored a thrilling 64-61 victory over Delhi Public School, Vasant Kunj, in the senior boys section of the 34th Hansraj Prabhakar basketball tournament at the Oxford Senior Secondary School courts, Vikaspuri, on Wednesday.
The results:
-Kamesh Srinivasan
HOCKEY
Nehru junior tournament latest scores and results
Suraj Kumar Sah top scored with seven goals to help Directorate General, National Cadet Corps (NCC), to a 21-0 victory over Government Senior Secondary School, Kalpi, Mandla, in a league match of the Kanwarji 51st Nehru junior hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium on Wednesday.
The results (league):
-Kamesh Srinivasan
TENNIS
Rithvik Bollipalli and Arjun Kadhe were beaten 7-5, 2-6, [10-6] by Andrew Harris and Vasil Kirkov in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the €118,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Brest, France, on Wednesday.
The results:
. - Kamesh Srinivasan
Chappell, Digvijay, Ramanathan lead march of fancied players into pre-quarterfinals
Fancied players such as top seed Nick Chappell, third seed Indian Digvijay Singh and veteran Ramkumar Ramanathan dished out contrasting efforts to reach the singles pre-quarterfinals of the ITF Davangere Open Men’s World Tennis Tour here on Wednesday.
Ramanathan, who won the ITF event at Dharwad last week, was forced to summon all his experience against compatriot Ishaque Eqbal before winning 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-3 in two hours and 32 minutes.
Digvijay, the highest seeded Indian player here, had to dig deep to overcome qualifier Rohan Mehra 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The American Chappell, who was ousted in the semifinals at Dharwad, progressed to the round of 16 with a rather smooth 7-6 (3), 6-0 win over wildcard entrant Ranjeet Virali-Murugesan.
Results (Indians unless mentioned)
- PTI
EQUESTRIAN
Hyderabad to host first-ever Equestrian League from December
Equestrian League, the first of its kind in the country, will be organised during week-ends spanning across three months from this December to next February featuring seven teams in all, according to Mr Suresh Paladugu, CMD of the Horse Power Sports League which will conduct the league in association with the Hyderabad Race Club.
Mr. Suresh informed media at the pre-launch event here on Thursday that the League would be spread across nine weeks and the second season should be roughly between June and August next year.
“Essentially, we plan to have two seasons every year and it will be a brand-based model with a unique format,” the HPSL official said.
“The complete schedule and the list of teams and players will be formally announced in the major launch event in Mumbai in November,” he said.
“We promise that our Equestrian League will be different and so will be our approach compared to the other sporting leagues in the country,” Mr. Suresh said. “We don’t look at the horse as a gambling element. And, we are confident of the League going global in a big way,” he said.
Mr R. Surender Reddy, chairman of Hyderabad Race Club, unveiled the logo of the League in the presence of other members including Mr. Siraj Attari, Judge of the Hyderabad Race Club and former Steward of the Indian Polo Association, Mr. Alejandro James Chiongbian, Director, Triple Crown Media Inc, said the whole concept of the League presented a unique combination of promoting thoroughbred and Indian-bred horses.
“It is a proud moment to start the League,” he said.
“Let us remember that equestrian sport offers five gold in Olympics compared to some disciplines which offer only one gold in their respective events. So, we hope this League will go a long way in promoting equestrian sport,” Mr. Reddy said.
“Unfortunately, heavy taxation by the Government to the tune of 58 per cent (including GST and TDS) has pushed to a stage to stop racing. How can any sport survive with such taxation?” Mr. Reddy said.
“One gets a feeling that this kind of taxation is leading to illegal betting in India,” he said, reflecting on the racing scenario in India.
“Every Race Club has three senior officials as representatives from the Government on the board and so we can’t do anything illegal,” he said. “While all the other countries are promoting racing in a big way, we feel it is the other way round here,” he said.
- V V SUBRAHMANYAM
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