SHOOTING
Trap teams bag two silver medals at Suhl Junior World Cup
Arya Tyagi, Shardul Vihan and Vivaan Kapoor gave a good account of their ability before the US beat the India team 6-4 in the final of the trap team competition in the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany.
The Indian team had topped qualification with 210, three points ahead of the US, but in the final, the Americans Lance Thompson, Emilio Carvalho and Matthew Kutz prevailed.
The Indian women’s team also won the silver medal, as it was beaten 6-2 by Italy, which had shot 12 points better than India in qualification.
In the mixed team trap event, Bhavya Tripathi and Vivan Kapoor shot 133 for the eighth place, as they missed qualification for the medal round by one point to teams from Britain, Australia and Spain. The other Indian pair of Sabeera Haris and Arya Tyagi placed 11th with 132
India was on top of the table with eight gold and eight silver medals. Australia, US, France, Italy, Poland and Bulgaria were the other teams that managed to win a gold medal each.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
TENNIS
Asian U-14 tournament
Levin Safoor Mydeen and Prachi Malik won the boys and girls titles, respectively, with an identical fare, in the Asian under-14 tennis tournament at the Modern School courts, Barakhamba Road, on Saturday.
Levin handled the challenge from the big-built Vaibhav with a touch of assurance, throwing himself at every ball and stroking it with craft and courage.
Midway through the match, Levin suffered a blow on his left eye, as a shot from his own racquet caught him napping. He overcame the setback calmly and sustained his good game to tame the powerful opponent.
In the girls' final, Prachi packed a punch against the small-built left-hander Aleena, who gutsily coped with the power play. Prachi was serving for the match at 5-0 in the second set, but Aleena pulled off a face-saving game.
Coach Gaurav Sharma, who has recently extended his service to the tennis academy at the Modern School, presented the trophies.
From Monday, the Asian under-16 tournament, first of its kind for the higher age group in the continent, will also be held here.
- Kamesh Srinivasan
GOLF
Ajeetesh Sandhu shoots solid 69 and rises to 11th in Japan
India's Ajeetesh Sandhu played a second straight 69 to get to 2-under 208 for a tied 11th place at the Asia Pacific Open Golf Championship Diamond Cup here.
Sandhu, who has to his credit a win on the Japan Challenge Tour, was steady as he found 12 of the 18 greens and nine of the 14 fairways, but needed 29 putts to go through the round.
After a bogey on fifth, he birdied 11th and 15th and parred the rest for a solid round.
Japan's Kaito Onishi stayed on top of the leader board but was joined by countrymen Yuto Katsuragawa (67) and Ryuko Tokimatsu (66) and New Zealander Ben Campbell (66).
Onishi, the leader after the first two rounds, carded a one-over-par 71 to finish the day on seven under at Oarai Golf Club, while Tokimatsu, who had a hole in one, and Campbell both returned 66s and Katsuragawa came in with a 67.
Japan's Shugo Imahira (69) and Yuki Inamori (70) were one stroke further back, in the Asian Tour Japan Golf Tour Organisation (JGTO) jointly-sanctioned event.
Onishi has only been a professional for a year and yet he is on the threshold of his first JGTO victory.
Campbell's joint lowest round of the day, made up of six birdies and two bogeys, has put him is position to claim a second pro win, to go alongside his 2018 New Zealand PGA Championship success.
One player to watch will be Katsuragawa, who currently leads the JGTO Money List with first and second place finishes to his name this season.
Tokimatsu is the most experienced of the front runners, winning three times on the JGTO from 2016 to 2018, and his attempt to add a fourth was helped considerably by an ace on the par-three fourth, where he hit an eight irons from 160 yards.
-PTI
HOCKEY
Jharkhand, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha enter semifinals of Senior National Women's hockey
Jharkhand defeated Maharashtra 5-4 in a shootout after both teams failed to score in the regulation time to qualify for the semifinals of the 12th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship here on Friday.
Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha also made it to the last four after winning their respective quarterfinal matches.
While Haryana beat Uttar Pradesh 3-2 in the shootout, Karnataka saw off Punjab 5-4 in the shootout after ending 1-1 in regulation time.
Odisha notched up a 2-0 win over Madhya Pradesh.
-PTI
ATHLETICS
Ravikumar, Dhivya scorch the track; Giridharini emerges fastest
Coimbatore: M. Ravikumar of Prime Sports Academy raced to the men's 1500m gold with record time of 3:52.21s on the penultimate day of the 94th Tamil Nadu State senior athletics championship at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.
In the women's section, Indian Bank seems to have finally found its magic touch with J. Dhivya shattering the 400m hurdles mark and R. Giridharini emerging the fastest athlete of the meet. The former timed 1:00.50s for the new record and, the latter stunned a rather strong field clocking 12.00s.
- Rayan Rozario
GOLF
Aditi Ashok makes cut at Founders Cup
Clifton (New Jersey): Aditi Ashok just about made the cut with an even par with one birdie and one bogey on either side of the turn at the Founders Cup Golf Championship.
Aditi birdied fourth and 12th and bogeyed seventh and 16th as he had a round of 72 after finishing 1-under on the opening day of the USD 30 million LPGA tour event at the MontClair Country Club on Friday.
Till information wa available, Aditi is having a rough time as he is tied 80th in the ongoing third round on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Minjee Lee, who is yet to win this year, had the best round on tour this season before settling for a 9-under 63. She now holds a three-shot lead at the halfway point of the event. The Australian had a 14-under 130 total after first two rounds.
Eighty players in the field of 144 made the cut at 1-under.
- PTI
Tvesa Malik finishes 26th in Aramco Series Bangkok
Bangkok: India's Tvesa Malik saved her best for the last as a brilliant bogey-free four-under par 68 -- she found all 18 greens in regulation -- helped her get inside the top-30 of the USD 1 million Aramco Team Series Bangkok.
At the historic Thai Country Club, the putts finally dropped for the 27-year-old from Delhi after she had put together a solid round.
The 68 was the lowest score of her 2022 season in 20 rounds, indicating that the swing changes she made at the start of the year is getting in the groove, and moved her up to tied 26th place at one-under par 215 total.
Tvesa birdied the fourth and then had a hat-trick of birdies from 13th to 15th for four birdies in a bogey-free round.
The tournament was won by Belgium's Manon de Roey, who matched the lowest round of the tournament – a six-under par 66 – to finish on 13-under par.
Malik, who was 19th in the Ladies European Tour Order of Merit last season, could have done even better, but for at least three missed birdie attempts from inside eight feet.
However, she was delighted with her ball-striking and said it will give her a lot of confidence going forward.
"It was good. I was hitting it a lot better on the course. I felt the contact was a lot better today. I've been hitting it well at the range the whole week, and to be able to take it to the golf course was good," said Malik, ranked 334th in the world.
"So, I wasn’t worried about missing the greens, because chipping on this golf course is a little bit tricky. So many more birdies fell today, and so many more could have, but I will take it for now.
"I think the most important part is just to see that I am on the right track, that I can hit it the way I want to. I think this round will be very important for the next few weeks." Malik started the day tied for 39th place at three-over par. Her first birdie of the day came on the par-5 fourth hole, and just like Friday's second round, she made three birdies in a row on the back nine, which came on the 13th, 14th and 15th holes.
Malik now flies off to France for the Jabra Ladies Open, to be played at the stunning Evian Resort Golf Club.
The next Aramco Team Series is scheduled to be held at Centurion Golf Club in London, from June 16-18.
- PTI
Kartik Sharma moves to second in Phuket
India's Kartik Sharma, a left-hander with a lot of promise and a bunch of top-10 finishes on his domestic Tour, on Saturday shot a sizzling 67 to give himself a shot at his first pro title at the Blue Canyon Classic on the Asian Development Tour.
At nine-under, Sharma, who had carded 66 in the first round, is now T-2 with three others and is just one shot behind the leader, a Thai teenager Denwit Boriboonsub (66).
Kartik is tied second with Shahriffuddin Ariffin (69-64), Witchyapat SInsrang (67-66) and Swede Filip Lundell (66-67), who had a scary scooter accident on the eve of the tournament.
First round leader Udayan Mane, after a brilliant 63 on first day, shot even par 71 with three birdies and three bogeys. At a total of 8-under, he is Tied-sixth alongside three other players.
Five of the eight Indians who teed up this week made the cut. M Dharma (66-71) at T-28, Yuvraj Sandhu (70-68) at T-37 and Yashas Chandra (68-71) at T-46 were the others to make the cut in Beautiful Thailand Swing event.
The cut fell at 3-under.
Indians missing the cut were Divyanshu Bajaj (71-73), Karan Vasudeva (77-70) and Chiragh Kumar, who withdrew due to injury.
Denwit Boriboonsub, the 18-year-old from Pattaya, has carded successive 66s on the stunning Lakes layout at the famous Phuket club to sit alone atop the Blue Canyon Classic leaderboard at 10-under.
It will be a tight final round with as many as 35 players within five strokes of Boriboonsub, who finished Tied-second behind compatriot Phachara Khongwatmai at the Laguna Phuket Championship on the Asian Tour in December.
It propelled Boriboonsub inside the world’s top 500 for the first time.
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