June 21: Indian sports news wrap

June 21 sports wrap: Here are all the major developments in Indian sports today.

Published : Jun 21, 2022 10:43 IST

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Indian junior women's hockey team holds Netherlands 2-2 in U-23 tournament.
REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Indian junior women's hockey team holds Netherlands 2-2 in U-23 tournament.
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REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Indian junior women's hockey team holds Netherlands 2-2 in U-23 tournament.

HOCKEY:

Indian junior women's hockey team holds Netherlands 2-2 in U-23 tournament

The Indian junior women's hockey team came from behind to hold the Netherlands to a 2-2 draw at the U-23 five-nation tournament.

Annu (19th minute) and Beauty Dungdung (37th) scored one goal apiece for India while Brouwer Amber (13th) and Van Der Broek Belen (17th) were on target for the gritty Dutch side on Monday night.

The Indians were under immense pressure from the very onset as the Netherlands earned back-to-back penalty corners in the opening five minutes.

However, the Dutch women's side drew first blood in the 13th minute, courtesy Amber's goal.

The Indian women's side found themselves in more trouble when Van Der Broek Belen doubled the lead for the Netherlands in the 17th minute.

But all hopes were not lost as India, thanks to their counter-attacks, scored one goal through Annu's penalty corner in the 19th minute.

Still trailing by a goal in the third quarter, the Indians upped their ante and it was vice-captain Beauty Dungdung who scored the equaliser in the 37th minute to make it 2-2.

The fourth and final quarter saw both the teams trying to edge out each other and score the all-important goal.

Both the teams had ample opportunities to take the lead, but as they missed out on the opportunities, the game ended in a draw.

The Indian women's side will lock horns against Ukraine in their third match of the tournament on Wednesday.

-PTI

PARA-POWERLIFTING

Indian powerlifters shine in Asia-Oceania Open Championships; Ashok, Sudhir qualify for Para Asiad

Powerlifters Ashok and Sudhir booked their tickets for the Hangzhou Asian Para Games as India finished with a rich haul of 22 medals, including six gold, at the Asia-Oceania Open Championships in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.

Ashok bagged two gold in men's up to 65kg (total score) in Asia and Open events while Joby Mathew took four yellow metals in men's under 59kg (best lift and total score) in Master's Asia and Open events.

On the final day of individual events on Monday, Sudhir claimed a bronze medal in men's upto 88kg with a best lift of 214kg in the second round to finish behind Paralympic and world champion Abdelkareem Khattab of Jordan (241kg) and China's Jixiong Ye (233kg).

Overall, the Indian team claimed six gold, four silver and 12 bronze medals. China finished on top with 29 medals, including 21 gold.

Ashok and Sudhir will now join Parmjeet Kumar (men's under 49kg) and Sakina Khatun (women's under 45kg) in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games, which has been postponed due to COVID-19 situation in China, and are likely to make the cut for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games owing to their improvement in world rankings.

"This has been the best performance by our powerlifters in an international championship. We not only won several medals; 2 powerlifters made the cut for Hangzhou 2022 Asian Para Games and are expected to make the cut for Paris 2024. It was a very satisfying performance from the team," national coach JP Singh said in a release.

He informed that the para powerlifters are now focused on doing well at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

"The aim will be to win at least 2-3 medals at the CWG." Parmjeet, Khatun, Sudhir, Geeta and Manpreet Kaur will represent India in the Para Powerlifting events at the Birmingham event, starting July 28.

-PTI

CYCLING - Asian Track Cycling

India's Ronaldo Singh created a national record in 200m Flying timetrial by breaching the 10 seconds barrier on way to the semifinals of men's Elite sprint race event on the fourth day of the Asian Track Cycling Championship here on Tuesday.

World junior champion and Asian record holder Ronaldo, who had bagged the country's first-ever international medal in the 1km time trial event by claiming a bronze on Monday, clocked 9.946 seconds to create the national record.

His earlier national record was 10.168 seconds, which he had set in UCI Track Cycling Nation Cup at St Petersburg, Russia in July last year.

"Tomorrow is a big day for me as I will perform in one of my favourite events, I'm ready to give my personal best to earn the medal for India. This will also show me my preparedness for the upcoming Commonwealth Games," said Ronaldo, who will challenge Andrey Chugay of Kazakhstan in the semifinals.

However, none of the Indian cyclists could reach the podium in six finals on day four of the competition.

Indian rider Esow once again failed to win his quarterfinal event of men's sprint, losing to Andrey Chugay of Kazakhstan to finish empty-handed in this tournament.

Harashveer Singh Sekhon gave a good fight to Korean opponent Euro Kim and Japan's Naoki Kojima in 30,000m points race before finishing fourth with 43 points.

Hammadi Al Mirza secured gold in this event with 69 points, followed by Korea (61 points) and Japan (60 points) riders in this power event, where peddlers have to go for sprints after every 10 laps of 120 laps race.

The day did not start on a good note for the Indian team.

Junior cyclist Himanshi Singh earned second place in the 7.5km scratch race but was later disqualified on grounds of dangerous driving. She was blocked behind the Malaysian rider and in an attempt to go ahead of the Malaysian and Japanese rider, she made a technical fault and was disqualified by the Commissionaire.

The gold was won by Ci Hui Nyo of Malaysia ahead of Japan's Mizuki Ikeda and Sofiya Karimova of Uzbekistan.

Overall, India is at 5th place with two gold, five silver and 13 bronze medals. Japan leads the medal tally with 11 golds, six silver and two bronze, while the Koreans are in second position with 10 gold, nine silver, two bronze ahead of Kazakhstan, who have four gold, three silver and a bronze in their kitty.

- PTI

TENNIS

Sania loses early in Eastbourne

Sania Mirza, seeded fourth in partnership with Lucie Hradecka, was beaten 7-5, 6-7(3), [10-7] by Shuko Aoyama and Hao-Ching Chan in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the $757,900 WTA tennis tournament in Eastbourne.

The results:

 

- Kamesh Srinivasan

Sundar qualifies for main draw at the National Junior and Youth Table Tennis Championships

Tamil Nadu's Sundar Manikantan upset higher ranked players Anish Sontakke (Maharashtra) and Abhinav Chaudhary (Uttarakhand) to qualify for the main draw in the Youth Boys (under-17) category in the 83rd National Junior and Youth Table Tennis Championships at the N.C.John memorial YMCA TT Arena in Alappuzha on Tuesday.

Sundar came back from two sets down to beat the 24th ranked and group favourite Anish Sontakke 6-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-9 to register his first win.

He then easily beat Abhinav Chaudhary 11-5, 11-6, 11-8 to qualify.Unfancied Maharashtra's Kushal Chopda beat 21st ranked Divyaj Roy Rajkhowa of Assam 9-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-9 and later disposed Chirayu Chaitanya (Bihar) 11-2, 11-4, 11-3 to qualify for the main draw.

Shrirsha Patwani Roy of Bengal got better of his higher ranked team-mate Emon Adhikhary 11-8, 11-7, 9-11, 15-13 and then beat Siddhant Desphande (Maharashtra) 14-12, 8-11, 11-5, 11-9 to qualify.

However, in the under-19 section there was hardly any surprise on the opening day as the group favourites warmed up for tougher matches with easy wins over their lower ranked opponents.

The ninth ranked Aniket Sen of Bengal Choudhary beat team-mate Sayan Dutta of Bengal 11-4, 11-7, 11-3.

The 11th ranked Soumyadeep Sarkar (Bengal),had it easy over Arush (Punjab) 11-5, 11-8, 11-6 while the 13th ranked Jash Modi (Maharashtra) whipped Malligarjunan (Pondicherry) 11-5, 11-2, 11-8. Sarath Mishra (UP), ranked 14, and Ansh Goyal (MP), ranked 15th, also started off with easy wins.

-Praveen Chandran

ITF Women's Tennis

Karman Kaur Thandi overcame a spirited challenge from Sahaja Yamalapalli for a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory in the first round of the USD 25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the Tennis Project in Baliawas, Gurugram, on Tuesday.

Karman-Kaur-Thandi
 

On a day when rain came down heavily in the morning at the start, but improved dramatically for a blazing spell of sunshine, tennis battles were intense.

The wiry Karman inspired her opponent so much with her power game that
Sahaja latched on to provide a lively fare, thriving on the pace, moving briskly and stroking confidently. Karman also faced the problem of strings breaking in her racquet, and one coming lose after being freshly strung.

Amidst all the turmoil, Karman retained her concentration to put
herself in the second round.

In another match, Humera Baharmus bounced back from being down 2-6,
1-5 to beat Mihika Yadav in three sets, in a battle of wits that was interrupted by the weather.

In doubles, top seeds, Ankita Raina in partnership with Ekaterina Yashina, got beaten 6-1, 2-6, [10-7] by Sofia Costoulas and Elena Pridankina.

Elena has been playing the qualifying event in singles and thus was quite fluent with her game in supporting her Belgian partner.

- Kamesh Srinivasan

ARCHERY

Archery World Cup Stage-3: India's Jyothi takes second spot

World championships silver medallist V.Jyothi Surekha gave a dazzling performance on her return to the Indian side as she aggregated 705 points to take the second spot in the compound women’s individual rankings at the Archery World Cup Stage-3 in Paris on Tuesday.

Priya Gurjar (689), Mukan Kirar (689) and Avneet Kaur (686) bagged 20th, 21st and 24th places respectively.

Abhishek Verma, who was sixth with 711 points, was the top-ranked Indian archer in the compound men’s individual rankings.

Mohan Bhardwaj (703), Aman Saini (701) and Sangampreet Bisla (698) were 26th, 33rd and 42nd respectively.

While the Indian men’s team was fourth with a tally of 2115 points, the women’s team placed third with 2083 points.

The Indian mixed team, which tied on 1416 points with top-ranked Great Britain and second-placed Korea, was third.

-Y.B.Sarangi

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