SHOOTING
Niraj Kumar seals gold at the All India Kumar Surendra Singh Championship
Niraj Kumar dominated the rifle 3-position event as he beat Sartaj Singh Tiwana 17-9 for the gold in the 20th Kumar Surendra Singh shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on
Sunday.
With a small bunch of audience, with its impeccable polite behaviour, failing to add to the atmosphere, the Navy marksman Niraj sailed to the gold, almost unchallenged. He led 15-3 before Sartaj came up with
a face saving exercise that partially bridged the gap.
Niraj had earlier topped qualification with 585 ahead of Manjeet Singh (583) and had little difficulty in topping the second stage with 403.8.
In contrast, Sartaj had shot 578 in qualification, but did well in the second stage to make the gold medal match, 0.6 point ahead of another Navy shooter, Kiran Jadhav.
Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu, Manjeet Singh and Shivam Dabas placed fourth to sixth in that order.
However, the Punjab lad Sartaj Tiwana had his say later, in a thriller of a junior final when he beat Surya Pratap Singh 17-15 on the last shot. Quite remarkably, Sartaj’s last shot was only 9.0, but Surya
responded moments later with an 8.7 in letting the gold slip.
The qualification topper in the junior section, Shivam Dabas (581) settled for the bronze.
Kumar Surendra Singh was the president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI). He had played a splendid role in uplifting the standard of Indian shooting by hiring foreign coaches in the early 1990s apart from hosting the first Commonwealth Championship in 1995.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
WEIGHTLIFTING
Two silver medals for Indian lifters in Youth World Championships
India's Akansha Kishor Vyavhare won the silver medal in 40kg category while Vijay Prajapati finished second in 49kg in 2022 IWF Youth World Weightlifting Championships for men and women in Leon, Mexico.
The two silver medals were won on Saturday, the opening day of the event.
Akansha lifted a total of 127kg (59kg + 68kg), while Vijay managed to lift 175kg (78kg + 97kg).
Akansha is a trainee of SAI National Centre of Excellence, Aurangabad and Vijay is a trainee of NCOE Patiala.
"I would like to congratulate all the weightlifters for putting a good show during 2022 IWF Youth World Weightlifting Championships at Leon and laud the efforts of Indian coaches who have trained the athletes in short span of time in the national camps," said Sahdev Yadav, president of Indian Weightlifting Federation.
-PTI
TENNIS
Balaji and Jeevan win Challenger
Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan beat Vladyslav Manafov and Oleg Prihodko of Ukraine 7-6(6), 6-4 in the doubles final of the €67,960 Challenger tennis tournament in Bratislava.
The champion team collected 90 ATP points and €3,950, and the runner-up, 55 points and €2,350.
It was the first Challenger title together as a pair for Balaji and Jeevan. Balaji has eight Challenger doubles titles, while Jeevan has won 10 Challenger titles apart from the tour title with Rohan Bopanna.
In the $15,000 ITF event in San Diego, Siddhant Banthia in partnership with Yuta Kikuchi of Japan lost the doubles final 9-11 in the super tie-break against the fourth seeds Jacob Brumm and Tadeas Paroulek.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
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