Indian shooters fail to impress
New Delhi: The Indian shooting team’s campaign in the ISSF Changwon World Cup started on a sour note with all the shooters, including Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, failing to make a mark on the first day of the event in Changwon, Korea on Thursday. Competing in the men’s 10-metre air rifle event, Beijing Games gold medal winner Bindra, london Olympian Sanjeep Rajput and Chain Singh -- all failed to qualify for the finals after finishing 15th, 19th and 25th, respectively. The result in the 50-metre pistol men was slightly better, with Prakash Nanjappa just about managing a top-eight finish with a total score of 71.5. Jitu Rai (ranked 13th) and Om Prakash (27) failed to clear the qualifying hurdle.
Indians out of Australian Open
Sydney: India’s campaign at the Australian Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament ended on Thursday after Gurusaidutt and Anand Pawar lost their respective third round matches of the men’s singles event here. Eleventh seeded Gurusaidutt gave a tough fight to world number one lee Chong Wei of Malaysia before going down 10-21 21-18 15-21 in a match that lasted a little less than an hour. Pawar, seeded 14th, lost to fourth seed Wei Feng Chong of Malaysia 19-21 15-21 in just 41 minutes. The other Indians in both the men’s and women’s categories had already crashed out of the tournament in earlier rounds. Gurusaidutt was hardly a match to the world number one shuttler in the opener. But in the second game, Gurusaidutt got his act together to pose a huge challenge to Chong Wei.
Jharkhand beat Tripura
New Delhi: Jharkhand continued its winning streak, thrashing Tripura 25-0 on the second day of the 3rd Hockey India sub-junior men national championship (East Zone) on Thursday at Nagaon, Assam. In Pool B, Mahendra Topno scored five goals to help Jharkhand beat Tripura. In their earlier match Jharkhand got the better of Manipur 7-0. In another game of Pool B, Manipur got the better of Assam 2-0. Pool A matches saw Odisha beating Bihar 5-0, and Mizoram outplaying Bengal 4-0.
Divij-Purav in leon ATP semis
leon (Mexico): Divij Sharan and Purav Raja made a good start to their campaign at the ATP Challenger event leon, reaching the quarter-finals with a straight-sets win over tricky rivals lee Hsin-Han and Peng Hsein-Yin, here. The fourth seeded Indian team won 6-3 6-3 against Chinese Taipei opponents in the opening round of the $ 35000 hard court event. They will now fight it out with American James Cerretani and Adrian Menendez-Maceiras Spain for a place in the semifinals.
Chowrasia best-placed indian
New Delhi: SSP Chowrasia was the best placed Indian in sole fourth position, two shots behind the leaders, at the end of the opening round of Panasonic Open India here on Thursday. There was a three-way tie for the lead as two Australians — Kieran Pratt and Wade Ormsby — and Singaporean lam Chih Bing shared the top spot with rounds of five-under 67 each at the demanding and windy Delhi Golf Club. Behind them was Chowrasia, a two-time winner of co-sanctioned events, at three-under 69. Seven players were at two-under 70 and another 17 at one-under 71. While Ormsby and Pratt came back with bogey-free rounds, lam had one bogey on the 12th.
Ryder assault accused appear
Wellington: Two men charged with assaulting New Zealand cricketer Jesse Ryder were remanded on bail when they appeared in court on Thursday. A 37-year-old man was charged with assault and a reckless disregard for Ryder’s safety, while his nephew aged 20 faced two charges of assault at Christchurch District Court. Both were granted name suppression at their lawyer’s request, though some New Zealand media outlets had previously named them. Police didn’t oppose the continuation of bail and Judge Gary MacAskill remanded them to April 18. The men’s lawyer, Jonathan Eaton, said publication of the names or images of the men could jeopardize a fair trial.
Four Indians in quarterfinals
Indore: Four Indian cueists booked quarterfinal berths in the 12th ONGC Asian Billiards Championship after the completion of round-robin stage here on Thursoday. Rupesh Shah, Alok Kumar, B Bhaskar and K Venkatesham advanced to the knockout stage after winning their respective matches at the Indore Tennis Club. Rupesh claimed the top seed without losing any game out of three matches he played. Today, he blanked Nguyen Thanh long of Vietnam 4-0, scoring breaks of 101 and 99 points in opening two games. PNS/Agencies