June 4, Indian sports news wrap: Lahiri misses cut at the Memorial Tournament

GOLF

Anirban Lahiri carded a one-over 73 to miss the cut by one shot at the Memorial Tournament. Lahiri finished at three-over 147.

Two missed par putts from inside five feet on fifth and 12th saw Lahiri miss the cut for the second start in a row. He had earlier missed the weekend action at the US PGA Championship at Southern Hills.

Lahiri will most likely next play at the Travelers Championship.

REPORT - ROUND 1

- PTI

Ladies Italian Open: Vani, Amandeep make cut, as Tvesa exits after second round

India's Tvesa Malik went nine shots better than her first round but still missed the cut while her compatriots Vani Kapoor and Amandeep Drall ensured weekend action at the Ladies Italian Open.

Missing the cut alongside Tvesa (80-71) were Ridhima Dilawari (77-73) and Neha Tripathi (80-74). Vani (73-72) and Amandeep (74-71) were the only Indians of the five to make the cut.

Vani had two each of birdies and bogeys and carded 72 to make the cut, while Amandeep had an eventful round with five birdies against four bogeys for 1-under 71. They were both T-29.

-PTI

TENNIS

Asmi, Kriish claim top honours at national under-16 championship

Asmi Adkar and Kriish Tyagi won the girls and boys titles, respectively, in the Ramesh Desai memorial national under-16 tennis championship at the KDLTA Complex on Saturday.

Asmi beat N Harshini 6-1, 7-5 in the final. Kriish had a better fight from Rethin Pranav before he prevailed 7-5, 6-4.

Rethin did have the consolation of the doubles title, as he in partnership with Kandhavel Mahalingam beat Tejas Ahuja and Krish Tyagi in straight sets.

The girls doubles title was bagged by Aishwarya Jadhav and Aakruti Sonkusare. The singles champions collected 200 ranking points and the runners-up, 100 points.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Siddhant advances to second round in Mexico

Siddhant Banthia beat Osgar O’Hoisin of Ireland 6-1, 6-7(4), [10-6] in the first round of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Mexico, which got off to a start on Friday.

The format had to be changed and a match tie-break was played after two sets, to speed up the event, which has been affected by persistent rain.

Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi, competing in the women’s event in Mexico, was scheduled to play her first round of singles and doubles.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

ATHLETICS

Pradeep Senthilkumar breaks Beant Singh’s record

Tamil Nadu’s Pradeep Senthilkumar broke former Asian youth champion Beant Singh’s seven-year-old 800m meet record at the 20th National Federation Cup junior (under-20) athletics at Nadiad, Gujarat, on Saturday.

The top three in the event achieved the qualification time for the coming under-20 Worlds in Colombia.

Another Tamil Nadu youngster, Selva Prabhu, just had one legal triple jump (15.84m) but that was enough to bring him the gold and the under-20 Worlds ticket.

Meanwhile, Karnataka’s junior international Priya H. Mohan – who has already booked her under-20 Worlds berths in the 200 and 400m – won the 200m comfortably with silver medallist Priyanka Sikarwar of UP also making the cut.

The championship’s last day also saw many others book their berths for Colombia.

- Stan Rayan

Dhanalakshmi clocks PB in Turkey, beats Hima in 100m

Indian sprinter S Dhanalakshmi clocked her personal best time of 11.26 seconds to win the 100m race at the Erzurum Sprint International Cup in Turkey while Hima Das was second with a timing of 11.59s.

Dhanalakshmi's effort was better than the standard prescribed by Athletics Federation of India for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

In the 200m also, Dhanalakshmi won with a time of 23.26 while Hima clocked 23.51 to finish second.

The Indians were in a training-cum-competition tour of Turkey and they are set to return home to take part in the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai from June 10-14.

- PTI

E-Sports

ESFI seeks Anurag Thakur's intervention after Rajasthan Govt. clubs Esports along with fantasy games in new bill

Esports Federation of India (ESFI) has raised questions on Rajasthan government's move to include Esports in fantasy gaming category in the recently announced Virtual Online Sports (Regulation) Bill 2022 released by the Revenue Department of the state.

ESFI has termed the bill as "detrimental to the growth of Esports in India".

In the upcoming Asian Games, India will be sending teams in five Esports games.

The ESFI has also requested Sports Minister Anurag Thakur for his immediate intervention in the matter.

"It's important to understand that not all games played electronically are Esports. The outcome of any Esports match is solely and purely dependent/based on the skills (physical & mental), and performances of the Esports athletes are just like cricket, badminton etc," ESFI President Vinod Tiwari said in a release.

"It's absolutely wrong to club esports (a sport) with fantasy gaming or anything other than sports," he added.

ESFI has been sending Indian teams to Asian Indoor & Martial Arts Games since 2007. In the last Asian Games in 2018, wherein Esports was played as a demonstration event, India's Tirth Mehta had won bronze medal in Hearthstone title.

-PTI