Ferdinand retires
london: Former England and Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand announced his retirement on Saturday, ending a 20-year professional career in which the ball-playing center back established himself as one of the top English players of his generation. “This season, I really found out that it was time to hang the boots up and get back in the house and watch other people play the game,” the 36-year-old Ferdinand said in announcing his decision on British broadcaster BT Sport.
Mo Farah wins
Eugene, (Ore): British Olympic champion Mo Farah surged down the final stretch to win the 10,000 meters at the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday night. Kenyan Paul Tanui led going into the last lap at Hayward Field but Farah overtook him and pulled well ahead to finish in 26 minutes, 50.97 seconds. Ethiopian teenager Yomif Kejelcha sprinted the final lap to overtake Oregon native Galen Rupp and win the 5,000 meters in 13:10.54. Rupp finished third in 13:12.36.
‘Kolkata was like oven’
Christchurch: Former New Zealand fast bowler and bowling coach of Mumbai Indians Shane Bond says he feels nice to be back in his country amidst favourable weather after spending a lot of time in the sweltering heat in India during the Indian Premier league (IPl). “In Kolkata it was like 42-43 degrees leading in the days into the final and 90 per cent humidity, so it was like an oven and then you return home to a frost. It is nice to have a sweatshirt on because I haven’t had one on for two months,” Bond was quoted as saying by stuff.co.nz on Saturday.
Gurpreet misses
Munich: Indian Army marksman Gurpreet Singh on Saturday finished fourth in the Men’s 25-metre Rapid Fire Pistol event at the World Cup shooting competition to miss a berth for the 2016 Rio Olympics here. The 28-year-old Gurpreet looked in good shape at one stage to take the silver before slipping to the fourth post a three-way tie and a shoot-off in the second stage of the final. American Keith Sanderson and Alexi Klimov of Russia bagged the silver and bronze medal respectively. Two quota places were up for grabs in the event as German gold medal winner Christian Reitz had already sealed his quota earlier and Gurpreet had to finish among the top-3 to bag the quota but he let it slip out of his hand.
Odafe saves Sporting
Margao: Odafe Okalie scored a hat-trick to guide Sporting Clube de Goa to a comprehensive 4-0 win over Pune FC and save relegation in the final round of the Hero I-league, played at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Saturday. Sporting Clube de Goa, who were in the relegation from the start, came strongly in the latter part of the second leg after recruiting Odafe Okalie — on loan from Churchill Brothers — and Brandon Fernandes. Sporting scored through Odafe Okolie (27th, 68th and 92+2) and Sandesh Jhingan(41st) to earn themselves the top-flight status for another year.
PIO faces fixing charge
Singapore: A 55-year-old Indian-origin Singaporean was among four men charged on Saturday in a court here over his alleged role in conspiring to fix a football match at the South East Asia Games which begins here next week. Rajendran R Kurusamy was accused of corruptly agreeing to give 15,000 Singapore dollars to Orlando Marques Henriques Mendes — the Technical Director of the Football Federation of Timor leste — as a reward, in exchange for arranging for his football team to lose their SEA Games match against Malaysia.
Mumbai down Bharat
Mumbai: Creative midfielder Taisuke Matsugae scored a brilliant goal in stoppage time to help Mumbai FC beat a fighting Bharat FC 2-1 and finish the I-league Football in sixth position with 24 points at the Cooperage ground here on Saturday. While Mumbai had taken an early lead in the game, played in hot and humid conditions, Bharat FC’s Palestine import Omar Jaarun came off the bench and scored. The game seemed to be drifting to a draw when Mumbai’s Japanese import Taisuke, who missed quite a few games in the middle of the season due to an injury, scored with a running header off an inch-perfect goalmouth right cross from Mohammed Rafi, who had been fed by Climax lawrence.
TT: India’s campaign ends
Subic Bay (Philippines): India’s campaign at the ITTF World Tour Philippines Open Table Tennis championship ended on Saturday after top paddlers Soumyajit Ghosh and Harmeet Desai lost their respective men’s singles second round matches. However, both Soumyajit and Harmeet put up a better show in the doubles by reaching the semifinals, but failed to advance beyond that. Soumyajit went down fighting to Koriyama Hokuto of Japan, 11-7, 11-2, 9-11, 11-9, 9-11, 14-12, while Wn Chih Chi of Chinese Taipei beat Harmeet 11-6 8-11 11-6 11-4 12-10 in the pre-quarterfinals.
