GOLF
Udayan Mane takes joint lead in Indonesia
Udayan Mane, the lone Indian at the Asian Development Tour’s OB Golf Invitational, grabbed a share of the first round lead after a superb finish that saw him birdie the last four holes in a row.
Mane, a former India No. 1 on the domestic tour and an Olympian in Tokyo, shot 7-under 65 and was tied for the lead with Thailand’s Poosit Supupramai.
Mane starting on the tenth birdied 11th and 12th, but gave away a shot on 17th. On his second nine, the front side of the course, he birdied first and fourth and then from fifth ninth.
Supupramai, after teeing off in one of the first groups, posted a bogey-free round with four birdies on the front nine and three on the back.
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Abdul Hadi, with two starts on the Asian Tour already this year, had a more mercurial front nine with six birdies and one bogey, but was unable to maintain momentum and slipped back to third place with a six-under 66.
Thailand’s Sarun Srithon was one of the later finishers who completed their round before play was stopped for a second time due to rain. He carded a 66 to join the group in third spot, together with Malaysia’s Shahriffuddin Ariffin.
Inclement weather stopped play temporarily at 2.05pm, with golfers returning to the course at 3.15pm after a short delay. The USD 70,000 event saw the first round being completed early on Wednesday.
Danny Chia of Malaysia started the day in steady fashion. Teeing off on Hole 10, he maintained par through the first nine holes, then began to gather pace for a strong finish, birdieing six of his last nine holes to score a five-under 67.
-PTI
Tvesa, Diksha and Shubhankar to tee up at Scandinavian Mixed event
The troika of Tvesa Malik, Diksha Dagar and Shubhankar Sharma will once again lead the Indian charge when they tee up at the second edition of the Volvo Scandinavian Mixed golf tournament, starting here on Thursday.
While Tvesa and Diksha are the two Indian women stars, Shubhankar is the lone Indian male player in the field that is made up of DP World Tour and Ladies European Tour members.
The trio had missed the cut in the last edition despite putting up a fine effort at the Vallda Golf Club.
Tvesa will have Swedish company as she plays alongside Rikard Karlberg and Josefine Nyqvist in the first round of the tournament hosted by Henrik Stenson and Annika Sorenstam.
Diksha, who had won gold medal at the Deaflympics last month and is only one of the two Indians to have claimed a title on the LET, will make her first start in mainland Europe this year.
In six starts this season -- three in Africa, one in middle east and two in Asia -- Diksha's best has been T-21 in Kenya Ladies, while for Tvesa, who was 19th in the LET order of Merit last year, this is the 11th start.
Tvesa's best has been T-26th at the Aramco Series in Bangkok, where her team was also T-15. So, she is looking to get some better results.
Interestingly, Tvesa is playing Karlberg, who has twice won in India including the Hero Indian Open in the past.
The Indian male player in this mixed field is Shubhankar, who plays with Sebastian Soderberg and Carmen Alonso, a LET member from Spain.
The co-sanctioned event will feature a field of 78 men and 78 women playing in the same groups for one prize fund and one trophy, the only tournament of its kind on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR.
This year's tournament also has an increased prize fund of USD 2 million, which is up from the EURO 1 million purse for 2021.
Jonathan Caldwell had won the co-sanctioned event last year.
Tournament hosts Henrik Stenson and Annika Sörenstam, who were inducted into the Swedish Golf Hall of Fame on Monday, will be joined by a number of home favourites in the field this week.
Ryder Cup winner Alex Noren, a ten-time DP World Tour winner, returns to Sweden for the first time since 2019 as he bids for a third career victory on home soil after doing so in 2011 and 2015.
Maja Stark is the current leader in the Race to Costa del Sol – the Ladies European Tour's season-long Rankings – after registering a victory at the NSW Open last month and six top-10s in her first seven tournaments of the campaign.
There will also be much attention on Ingrid Lindblad after her six-under 65 in the first round of last week's US Open, the lowest round by an amateur in the 77-year history of the Major Championship.
Meanwhile, Linn Grant, who sits third in the Ladies European Tour rankings, claimed a five-shot victory at the Joburg Ladies Open in just her first start on the LET as a full member in March.
She claimed her second title in five starts at the Mithra Belgian Ladies Open last month.
-PTI
CHESS
Maharashtra Open Chess: Amonatov wins title
Pune, Jun 8 (PTI) Top-seed Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan pipped India's Arjun Kalyan and Belarusian Aleksej Aleksandrov to the post to clinch the inaugural Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster chess tournament here on Wednesday.
Amonatov finished equal on 8.5 points from 11 rounds with Aleksandrov and Kalyan but won the top prize on the basis of a better tie-break score.
Amonatov and Aleksandrov settled for a draw in the final round game. Aleksandrov took the second place while Kalyan finished third.
Indian Grandmaster Kalyan, overnight on 7.5 points, defeated GM Alexei Federov in the last round to catch up with the leaders but missed out on the title owing to an inferior tie-break score.
Another Indian GM Deep Sengupta finished fourth with a tally of eight points while compatriot L R Srihari, with the same number of points, settled for sixth place.
Two other Indians, M R Venkatesh and Neelesh Saha secured 7.5 points each to end ninth and 10th respectively.
- PTI
FOOTBALL
Odisha FC announces Josep Gombau as Head Coach
Odisha FC and Josep Gombau have reached an agreement for the latter to take over as Head Coach of the Men's Senior Team on a 2-year deal. This marks Josep's return to the Juggernauts after a brief spell of two seasons.
The Spanish tactician is all set for a return to Odisha. Josep was in charge of the Juggernauts in the 2019-20 season where he tasted a lot of success and became a fan favorite based on his style of play.
Born in Amposta, Catalonia, Gombau was a goalkeeper but switched to coaching at the age of 16. After coaching youth teams in CF Amposta and RCD Espanyol, he was signed by FC
Barcelona in 2003 as a youth academy coach. In 2008, he became the technical director of FCB Escola, a Barcelona youth football academy opened at the Raffles International School in Jumeirah, Dubai.
Immediate interest in coaching fetched him a UEFA A license by the time he was 19. Having traveled around Spain and other parts of Europe to observe various coaches in action, Gombau
spent six seasons working with youth teams in Barcelona -- that's where Romeu and others like Wolverhampton's Adama Traore, Hector Bellerin of Arsenal, and Monaco's Keita Balde trained under him -- before coming to Kitchee in Hong Kong in 2009.
Kitchee won the league the following two seasons, and in 2011-12 they did the domestic treble of the league, the FA Cup, and the League Cup.
Like anybody with a strong Barcelona influence, Gombau wants to entertain people with his brand of football. "If I tell a young player not to take risks and just play long balls, this is the easier option for him," he says. "You need to measure how you send a message to a young player.
You can say, 'Under pressure, if you need to kick one or two balls [long], do it.'I want them to take responsibility, and sometimes we concede goals because we take a risk. But maybe this will bring you knowledge that you won't make a mistake in the next 10 games.", says Josep.
The Spaniard's way of conducting things earned him great respect from opposition coaches as well. Former Chennaiyin boss and Hero ISL 2017-18-winning head coach John Gregory once opined, "Josep, he produces good footballing teams. His teams play good football. If we give the ball away to them, we know they’ve got the capability of looking after it. We always need to be switched on against them.” India head coach Stimac, too, has praised Gombau’s work with youngsters in the past.
Josep appreciated the support his team received from the home fans since moving to Odisha.
He commented, “We are enjoying it a lot. The fans are treating us very well. I know that for the next season, the facilities will be better. The good thing is the fans. Every game we had a good base of fans coming to support us. As a coach, as a player, you like to play in front of people.”
The balanced conduct, and his reputation for molding young players well, make Gombau one of the standout coaches in the ISL.
This is what Josep had to say on coming back to the Juggernauts, "After 2 years, the team will return to Odisha. We are back home. We have the responsibility to make the fans who come to the Kalinga Stadium enjoy our football. We will need the support of all the fans. Ama Team. Ama Game."
TENNIS
Ramkumar in doubles quarterfinals
Ramkumar Ramanathan and John-Patrick Smith beat Lucas Pouille and Jack Sock 6-7(3), 7-6(4), [10-6] in the doubles pre-quarterfinals of the €134,920 Challenger tennis tournament in Nottingham on Wednesday.
In the quarterfinals, the second seeded Indo-Aussie pair will play British wild cards Arthur Fery and Felix Gill.
In the $25,000 ITF women’s event in Thailand, Rutuja Bhosale beat the fourth seed Peangtarn Plipuech 6-7(8), 6-4, 7-6(4), while qualifier Vaidehi Chaudhari sailed past eighth seed Fang Ying Xun of China 6-2, 6-4.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
SHOOTING
Srinjoy defeats Abhinav for gold in air rifle in the Khelo India Youth Games
Srinjoy Datta was a class act as he beat 14-year-old Abhinav Shaw 16-14 for the gold in air rifle in the Khelo India Youth Games at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Wednesday.
In a gripping climax which had the spectators joyfully expressing their appreciation for every shot, the 19-year-old Srinjoy came up with 10.5 or better shots 11 out of 15 times in the gold match.
Equally, except for his first and last shots, Abhinav hit all 10s, but was beaten by a superior opponent whose eight of last 9 shots were 10.4 or better.
With the scores tied at 14-14, Abhinav, releasing his shots first right through the gold match, stumbled to 9.5, whereas Srinjoy delivered a 10.7, moments later, and punched the air with his fist in celebration.
Qualification topper Ranavir Katkar (630.1) had to settle for the fifth place after losing a tie-shot with Yash Vardhan.
Behind the two Bengal boys, Keval Prajapati won the bronze for Gujarat.
After watching the final, the chief guest at the medal ceremony, Assistant Commissioner of Delhi Police, P Abinandhan commended the shooters on their high degree of accuracy and wished them a smooth transition to Olympic standard.
The results:
Youth men’s air rifle: 1. Srinjoy Datta 16 (260.4) 626.1; 2. Abhinav Shaw 14 (261.5) 628.2; 3. Keval Prajapati 259.8 (621.4).
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