SHOOTING
Olympian Anjum Moudgil won the rifle 3-position silver behind Rikke Maeng Ibsen of Denmark in the shooting World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Friday.
The 29-year-old Anjum had shot 587 in qualification and followed that up with a 406.5 in the second stage that led to the medal round. Anjum was 4.9 point behind the Dane who went on prevail in the gold medal match 16-12.
It was the second individual silver medal in a World Cup in the event for Anjum who had won the silver in the World Championship in air rifle. Anjum’s earlier silver in the rifle 3-position event was won in the World Cup in Guadalajara in 2018.
The Indian men’s rifle 3-position team of Swapnil Kussale, Deepak Kumar and Goldi Gurjar also bagged the silver as it got beaten 17-7 by Croatia, much in contrast to the close duel in the earlier two stages of qualification.
In women’s rifle 3-position team event, Ashi Chouksey, Anjum and Ayushi Podder shot 867 in the second stage, and missed the chance to fight for a medal by one point. It was a disappointing turn as the team had topped the first stage of qualification with 1316.
The Indian tally went up to a gold and three silver medals which helped the team climb to the third spot on the medals table behind Korea and Serbia. Indeed, a commendable fare considering that the Indian team had restricted itself to the rifle events, not fielding any shooter in the pistol and shotgun.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
NRAI announces Kumar Surendra Singh championship to be held in Delhi, Bhopal
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has announced that the 20th all India Kumar Surendra Singh memorial shooting championship will be held in Delhi and Bhopal.
Thanks to the massive response, the national federation has been compelled to segregate the pistol and rifle events recently to different places. The rifle events will be held at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, from June 10 to 22.
It will be just after the Khelo India Youth Games at the same venue.
The pistol events will be held at the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy in Bhopal, from June 10 to 24.
All the Olympic events of pistol will be conducted apart from standard pistol, centre fire pistol and free pistol.
The rifle competition will have all the Olympic events, apart from 50-metre rifle prone events for men and women.
The NRAI has also announced that it would not be able to provide ammunition at the pistol venue in Bhopal, and has asked the shooters and the units to buy their supply, if required, before they arrive for competition.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
GOLF
Lahiri squanders flying start, lies T71 after round one
After getting off to a blazing start with three birdies in his first six holes, Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri gave away the gains to finish two-over 74 in the first round of the Memorial Tournament, here.
Lahiri's 74 put him in the danger zone in terms of the cut as he was placed T-71 and needed a solid second round to ensure weekend action.
As many as six players were tied for the lead at 5-under 67.
The six were Cameron Young, Luke List, Cameron Smith, KH Lee, Mackenzie Hughes and David Riley, who is having a great run in his rookie season.
Lahiri, who hit 11 of 18 greens in regulation start from the tenth, birdied the 11th, 13th and 15th to go three-under. Then he ran out of birdies. He bogeyed the 16th and double bogeyed 18th after taking a penalty as he went into right rough off the tee.
On the second nine, he parred first to the seventh and then dropped shots on eighth and ninth as he missed par putts from 11 and seven feet. He also missed a birdie putt from 10 feet on seventh.
Shubhankar tied 87th in European Open, likely to miss cut
Shubhankar Sharma opened the Porsche European Open with a modest 3-over 75 and is likely to miss the cut as he is currently placed a poor 87th.
Sharma, who had a decent top-15 finish last week, had one birdie and four bogeys leaving a lot of work to do to make the cut.
-PTI
Vani top Indian as Tvesa struggles in first round at Ladies Italian Open
Vani Kapoor was the top Indian golfer after the first round of Ladies Italian Open as she shot one-over 73 to be placed Tied-37.
The next best Indian was Amandeep Drall, who shot 2-over 74 to be T-45th.
The other Indians had a rough time as Ridhima Dilawari returned 5-over 77 to be T-87th while Tvesa Malik and Neha Tripathi struggled to 8-over 80 each and will need very good second rounds to make the cut.
Swiss sisters Kim and Morgane Metraux share the lead with Sofie Bringner of Sweden after shooting five-under-par 67s on a gorgeous opening day.
Morgane, who is two years younger than Kim, closed with four birdies in a row to set the early target at Golf Club Margara before she was tied by her sister two groups later.
Bringner joined them late in the afternoon after a career-low round on the LET, which included an eagle on the par-5 fifth hole, which she played as her 14th.
All three players are looking for their first win on the LET this week. The Metraux sisters’ goal is to get into a play-off together.
The sisters started playing golf together, went to the same US College and turned professional at the same time. Although they are carving their own paths, their careers are inextricably linked.
When Morgane chose to forego last year’s Olympic Games in order to earn her LPGA card via the Epson Tour, Kim went to represent Switzerland in Tokyo.
However, there are three multiple LET champions lurking just two strokes behind with two rounds to play.
They include SA Women's Open champion Lee-Anne Pace from South Africa, the recent Australian Women's Classic – Bonville winner Meghan MacLaren from England and Nuria Iturrioz of Spain.
Alongside them are Italian amateur Carolina Melgrati, 19, from Monza, Lombardia and Tereza Melecka from Czech Republic.
-PTI
TENNIS
Yuki and Saketh win Challenger title
Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni beat second seeds Roman Jebavy and Andrej Martin 6-3, 7-5 in the doubles final of the € 90,280 Challenger tennis tournament in Prostejov, Czech Republic.
The champion team collected 100 ATP points and € 5,500.
It was the fourth doubles title of the season as a pair for Yuki and Saketh, and the second Challenger crown after the one in Ecuador in April.
In the Surbiton Challenger, Divij Sharan had a fine run with Artem Sitak, before being beatenn in the semifinals by Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Divij and Sitak had beaten the top seeds
Jamie Murray and Filip Polasek in the first round.
In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Thailand, Karman Kaur Thandi went down fighting 6-3, 6-7(2), 2-6 to the fourth seed Luksika Kumkhum of Thailand.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Harshini enters final of National U-16 tennis championship
N Harshini stretched her fine run as she beat second seed Aishwarya Jadhav 7-6(5),b3-6, 6-3 to make the girls final of Ramesh Desai memorial National under-16 tennis champonship at the KDLTA Complex on Friday.
In the final, Harshini will play Asmi Adkar who overcame a slow start to outplay Aakruti Sonkusare in three sets.
In the boys section, top seed Kriish Tyagi will play eighth seed Rethin Pranav in the final.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
ATHLETICS
Rupal stuns Priya Mohan to take 400m gold; Shaili takes long jump gold
Rupal, the 17-year-old from Meerut, shocked under-20 Worlds mixed relay bronze medallist Priya Mohan and won the women’s 400m gold at the 20th National Federation Cup under-20 athletics championships at Nadiad, Gujarat, on Friday.
Rupal, the silver medallist behind Priya at the varsities Nationals in Bhubaneswar in February, pipped the junior international by one-hundredth of a second and clocked a personal best 52.48s (previous 53.05). It was Priya’s first loss in the 400m in an Indian competition in nearly three years and Rupal was competing in her first AFI National meet this year.
Meanwhile Shaili Singh, last year’s under-20 Worlds silver medallist, won the women’s long jump with 6.1m. A big bunch of athletes, including three each in men’s 10,000m race walk and 110m hurdles, achieved the qualification standard for the under-20 Worlds to be held in Colombia in August.
- Stan Rayan
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