July 18, Indian sports news wrap

July 18, sports wrap: Here are all the major developments in Indian sports today.

File Photo of Jeev Milkha Singh.

GOLF

Jeev warms up for Senior Open with third place finish in Germany

India’s Jeev Milkha Singh, playing his first year on the Legends Tour (for over 50), secured his first top-3 result at the Winstongolf Senior Open here.

Jeev, who will feature in his first Senior Open next week at Gleneagles, finished the final round with a superb 5-under 67 for a total of 6-under 210. His first two rounds were 70-73 at the 54-hole tournament.

Jeev, who started the week with a terrible run of a bogey and a double bogey in his first nine, improved thereafter with five birdies on his second nine which was the front side of the Winstongolf Championship course.

He carded 70 on first day and then added 73 on the second day, when his card included a double bogey.

On the final day, he played seven pars for a start and then birdied eighth and ninth. On the back nine, he birdied 14th and 15th but dropped a shot on 16th and the closed birdie-birdie for 67.

“I have been playing well. I was a bit underweather the previous week when I finished T-56 (in Switzerland) but my game had started turning after the first two rounds. I shot 69 in the final round,” said Jeev.

“Today I was quite close to getting into a play-off, where Richard Green beat Philip Archer.

“The is my best result and best performance since becoming a Senior rookie golfer after turning 50 at the end of last year. I am very proud of my performance this week.” Jeev said he has been putting well and recently got a tip from an old friend, Michael Campbell from New Zealand.

“He told me a couple of things and it helped. He is a former US Open champion.” This week’s tied-third finish performance earned Jeev €21,000 and carried him up to 35th place in the 2022 Legends Tour Order of Merit. He was 84th at the start of the week, so it was an upward move of 49 places.

- PTI

Vani Kapoor finishes career-best tied 3rd in Netherlands

Indian golfer Vani Kapoor recorded a career-best result on the Ladies European Tour, finishing tied third in the 2022 Big Green Egg Open here.

Kapoor, whose lone Top-10 finish was a tied-sixth spot at the Hero Women’s Indian Open in 2017, lost her form and status on the LET, but has worked hard to get back into the tour.

Kapoor, who shot 69-70-71 in the first three rounds, added 73 in the final round to total five-under, just two shots shy of Anna Nordqvist, a three-time Major winner.

Diksha Dagar, who was also in the running after the first two rounds, dropped to T-17 with a final round of 77, that included four bogeys between sixth and 12th and then a double on Par-5 17th.

Amandeep Drall (76) finished T-48 while Ridhima Dilawari (74) was T-57.

Kapoor had a bogey on the second, before she earned a shot back with a birdie on the eighth. Another dropped shot on the 14th saw her fall a shot back behind the leading pair once again.

She eventually recorded the best finish of her career, just as it was for Witt, who shot five-under for the week

- PTI

SWIMMING

Dhinidhi adds to Karnataka’s gold rush

Karnataka’s Dhinidhi Desinghu clocked 1:04.01 seconds to create a new national record in the 100m butterfly for group II girls in 48th Junior National Aquatic Championships here on Monday.

It was a closely-fought race as the youngster from Bengaluru narrowly beat state-mate Hashika Ramachandra, who incidentally held the previous national record created last year.

Hashika too swam within the previous record time of 1:05.51 seconds by clocking 1:04.10 seconds. Assam’s Subhranshini Priyadarshini took home the bronze medal with a time of 1:07.02 at the Biju Patnaik Swimming Pool inside Kalinga Stadium.

Haryana’s Krish Jain swam a sensational sprint in the 50m backstroke event for group II boys to sink his own national record of 28.31 seconds created in the heats. He clocked 28.06 to win the gold and beat Telangana’s Suhas Preetham M (28.51) and Karnataka’s Ishaan Mehra (28.90).

Maharashtra’s Apeksha Fernandes, on the other hand, continued to have an impressive outing in the prestigious event as she created yet another national record en route to a gold medal in the 100m butterfly for group I girls.

She clocked 1:01.94 seconds to better the previous record of 1:02.71 held by Astha Choudhary. Finishing second in this race was Bengal’s Nilabjaa Gosh who clocked 1:03.68 secs and the third place went to Karnataka’s Nina Venkatesh who timed 1:03.93.

Adding to Maharashtra’s medal tally was Vedaant Madhavan, who won his second gold medal at the Championships. He won the 100m freestyle for group I boys with a time of 52.12 secs to beat Karnataka’s Karthikeyan Nair (53.39) and Tamil Nadu’s Jashua Thomas (53.58).

For Karnataka, Ridhima Veerendra Kumar added another gold medal in the 50m backstroke for group I girls. She clocked 30.25 seconds while her state-mate R Navaneeth Gowda won the gold in 400m medley for group II boys.

-PTI

WEIGHTLIFTING

Gold medals for Akanksha, Harshada

World junior champion Harshada Garud and Akanksha Vyavhare won gold medals in the Asian youth and junior weightlifting championships in Tashkent on Monday.

Harshada recorded 69kg in snatch and 88kg in clean and jerk to aggregate 157kg and win the junior women’s 45kg title. She lifted four kg more than her Worlds showing.

Akanksha, a World youth silver medallist, lifted 55kg in snatch and 70kg in clean and jerk to total 125kg and get the gold medal in the youth girls’ 40kg category. She bettered her own clean and jerk National mark by one kg even though her aggregate was two kg less than her Worlds performance.

Soumya Dalvi (63kg, 82kg, 145kg), a World youth bronze medallist, got the bronze medal in the youth girls’ 45kg category. She had lifted 148kg in the World youth championships.

S. Gurunaidu, the World youth champion in 55kg, performed below his best (104kg, 123kg, 227kg) to finish fourth in the youth boys’ competition and seventh in the junior men’s section. He had totalled 230kg in the World youth event.

-Y. B. Sarangi

WRESTLING

Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series: Sujeet wins India’s lone men’s freestyle gold medal on final day

Sujeet fetched India’s lone men’s freestyle gold medal on the final day of the Zouhaier Sghaier Ranking Series wrestling tournament in Tunis, Tunisia on Sunday.

Sujeet, who had claimed gold medals in Asian under-23 and Asian under-20 championships, secured his third successive title as he defeated 2021 Asian silver medallist and Matteo Pellicone gold medallist Adian Askarov of Kazakhstan 14-4, 2021 Poland Open champion John Diakomihalis of USA 8-2 and Argentine Olympian Agustin Destribats 15-4 in the 65kg weight class.

Udit (57kg) lost to World champion and Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Thomas Gilman of the USA 9-8 in the final to take the silver.

Aman Sehrawat (61kg), Sagar Jaglan (74kg) and Viky Chahar (92kg) also performed well to bag silver medals. Karan Mor (70kg) and Gourav Baliyan (79kg) pocketed bronze medals.

-Y. B. Sarangi