GOLF - Vani, Amandeep lie Tied 14th in Switzerland
Vani Kapoor and Amandeep Drall opened their week with steady rounds of one-under 71 each to lie Tied-14th after the first day of the Flumserberg Ladies Open.
The Indian duo, who plans to play as many LET Access events in the weeks they do not get into the main draw of the Ladies European Tour events, had contrasting rounds.
Vani, starting from the 10th, had two birdies against one bogey on the front nine of the GAMS-Werdenberg Golf Club. She then parred all nine holes of the back nine.
Amandeep, on the other hand, had a roller coaster of a round. She birdied 12th, bogeyed 14th and then dropped a double bogey on Par-5 16th before picking a birdie on 18th to turn in one-over.
On the second nine, the front stretch of the course, Amandeep birdied second, fourth, seventh and ninth and dropped shots on third and fifth to take her total to 71.
Three players share the lead after day one with Michelle Forsland, Gemma Clews and Lauren Holmey all shooting opening rounds of four-under 68 in Switzerland.
The trio sit one shot ahead of a group of four players, who are on three-under after the first day of action.
Norwegian Forsland shone in the afternoon with five birdies on her card, with her only dropped shot of the day coming on the third, albeit with a birdie either side.
Further birdies on nine, eleven and 16 put her into a commanding position in the early stages of the competition, and the 25-year-old was pleased with her day’s efforts.
Holmey, 18, is competing in her first LETAS event of 2022 and Clews had a topsy-turvy start.
Zhen Bontan and Anna Magnusson are among the quartet who are one shot behind heading into Friday’s action, with the duo firing rounds of 69 (-3) as they made the most of the early morning conditions.
-PTI
Ajeetesh Sandhu lie 20th at midway stage in Japan, Gangjee misses out
Indian golfer Ajeetesh Sandhu made the cut with a solid one-under 69 but compatriot Rahil Gangjee missed out on weekend action by a stroke at the Asia Pacific Open Golf Championship Diamond Cup on Friday.
Sandhu, winner of a Japan Challenge Tour event in 2017, is now one-under for 36 holes and lies T-20 after two rounds. He had scored even par 70 in the first round.
India's other player in the field, Gangjee, winner of a Panasonic Open Japan in 2018, however, missed the cut by one shot despite a valiant finish with two birdies in last three holes.
Bogeys around the middle of the round on ninth and 10th, cost him heavily. He was T-64th as Top-60 and ties made the cut.
Sandhu had two birdies against one bogey and at T-20 he is well placed to make a bid for a solid Top-10 or better finish.
Japan's young new star Kaito Onishi added a three-under-par 67 to his opening day 65 to take the clubhouse lead at the Oarai Golf Club, near Tokyo.
Onishi, joint overnight leader with countryman Hiroshi Iwata, began on hole 10 and impressively toured the back nine in four-under with birdies on 10, 11, 15 and 18, and then reached 10-under for the tournament with a birdie on the third, before dropping shots on five and nine.
Onishi leads by two as Rikuya Hoshino (67-67), Yuki Inamori (70-64) and Todd Sinnott of Australia (66-68) were tied second at 6-under. Shugo Imahira (66-69) is fifth.
The 23-year-old Onishi, who is from Nagoya, turned professional last year after graduating from the University of Southern California, but he has been quick to adjust to professional golf. Most noticeably he was fourth in the ISPS HANDA Championship last month.
-PTI
BASKETBALL- Elite Pro Basketball to organise India's biggest try outs
Elite pro Basketball is all set to organise the country's biggest basketball try outs on May 12 and 13 at the Sri Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Stadium in Hyderabad.
Over 250 athletes will take part in the try out and includes big names from Indian basketball team like Jagdeep Singh Bains, Pratham Singh, K Ravikumar, Vinay Kaushik, Rachit Singh, Prakash Mishra and Arshdeep Singh.
Organised by Elite Sports India, the try outs are to recruit for India's first 5x5 Pro Basketball League featuring 12 teams.
The first day will focus on skills and drills, while the second day will focus on how the player adapts to playing with different teams and strategy.
The selection committee includes a former Indian selector in Ram Kumar Gahalawat, who is the current Railways coach and Jagat Narayan Nehra, who is the basketball coach at Sports Authority of India. They will shortlist the players to be drafted into the 12 teams.
Talking about the same, CEO of Elite Pro Basketball Pvt, Ltd. Sunny Bhandarkar said, "We wanted to provide a platform to players to showcase their talents and skills. We are extremely pleased with the response we got. The selection try outs has been carried out with expert advice from the best in the sport of basketball.
"We are leaving no stones unturned and I am hopeful this league will in turn help improve the game of Basketball in India." Jagdeep Singh Bains, the Indian professional basketball player, said, "The players who have come here for the try outs are immensely talented and am sure this will give a platform to grow the sport in India which is much required."
-PTI
HOCKEY - Odisha beat Himachal 8-0 to enter Senior National Women's hockey quarterfinals
Odisha eased past Himachal Pradesh 8-0 in their final Pool H match to qualify for the quarterfinals of the 12th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship 2022, here on Friday.
In the other matches of the day, Kerala outplayed Telangana by same 8-0 margin in Pool H, while Delhi defeated Goa 5-1 in a Pool G contest but the wins were not enough for both the sides to make it to the last-eight round.
In the quarterfinals on Saturday, Maharashtra will face Jharkhand, Haryana will be up against Uttar Pradesh, Punjab play Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh will take on Odisha.
-PTI
TENNIS - AITA Championship series juniors
Radha Sadhra beat top seed Riya Kaushik 6-3, 6-3 in the girls final of the AITA Championship series under-18 tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex in Chandigarh on Friday.
The boys title was bagged by Bhicky Sagolshem of Manipur as he beat third seed Anirudh Sangra 6-2, 6-3 in the final.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
ATP Challenger
Anirudh Chandrasekar and Vijay Sundar Prashanth were beaten 2-6, 6-3,
12-10 by Domagoj Biljesko and Andrey Chepelev in the doubles semifinals of the € 45,730 tennis tournament in Zagreb, Croatia.
The Indian pair won 30 ATP points and €930.
In the ITF women’s event in Nottingham, second seeds Rutuja Bhosale
and Ankita Raina were beaten 6-2, 6-4 in the doubles quarterfinals by
Naiktha Bains and Maia Lumsden.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
Asian U-14 tournament
Shaurya Bhardwaj and Om Patel beat the top seeds Rudra Batham and Tavish Pahwa 6-4, 6-1 to clinch the boys doubles title in the Asian under-14 tennis tournament at the Modern School courts, Barakhamba Road, on Friday.
In the girls doubles final, Shaivi Dalal and Divya Ungrish beat the second seeds Prachi Malik and Mehre Sharma 6-4, 7-5.
Prachi will play Aleena Farid in the singles final on Saturday. The boys singles final will be between Levin Safoor Mydeen and Vaibhav Charotia.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
SHOOTING - Junior World Cup
The Indian team was unstoppable as it swept all the four team gold medals in rifle and pistol for men and women, in the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany.
The Indian teams beat Spain, South Korea, Uzbekistan and Georgia in the finals, in a consistently authoritative fashion, to bag the four gold medals.
India was on top of the medals table with eight gold and six silver. Australia, France, Poland and Bulgaria were the other countries that won a gold medal each.
Two more medals were assured as the Indian trap teams made the gold
medal match in both the sections.
However, in individual trap, only Sabeera Haris managed to qualify for the second stage of top eight shooters in junior women’s event. She lost the shoot-off to the eventual fourth placed Marika Patera of Italy after the two tied on 17. Sabeera had shot the third best score of 115 in the qualification stage. It was commendable as she had recovered from a first round score of 20, with 24, 24, 24 and 23.
Preeti Rajak (109) and Aadya Tripathi (105) placed 14th and 22nd respectively.
In junior men’s trap, Arya Tyagi and Vivaan Kapoor shot 118, but missed the chance to fight for medals, even though the score had made the cut for top-eight. Shardul Vihan (117) and Shapath Bhardwaj (115) placed 12th and 17th, respectively.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
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