Seven Indians in Round 2
New Delhi: Seven Indians have moved into the second round of the World Junior Squash Championship being played in the historic city of Wroclaw, Poland. On a tough opening day for Indians yesterday, Rishi Tandon, Sachika Ingale and Tanvi Khanna posted contrasting victories over their respective opponents while Harshit Kaur Jawanda, lakshya Ragavendran, Kush Kumar and Deepak Mishra had a first round bye. Rishi impressed in his 3-1 win over Petr Zatrepalek of Czech Republic. Both exchanged the first two games before the Indian upped the tempo and raced away with the match. Sachika Ingale had an easy outing against Hayley Hughes of New Zealand and won her match in straight games to set up a second round clash with Grace Mcervale of Australia. Tanvi also cruised into the next round with an easy 3-0 win over Ayaka Shiraishi of Japan.
Faulds is HIl Director Competitions
New Delhi: Hockey India league (HIl) on Wednesday appointed Todd Faulds as its Director Competitions for the second edition of the league, which is scheduled to be held from January 23 to February 23 next year. Faulds worked as a Competitions Manager for the FIH Champions Trophy Men 2012 in Melbourne, International Super Series 2012 in Perth and was also involved in Australian Youth Olympic Festival this year as Competitions Director. "I am delighted to welcome Todd Faulds to the Hero Hockey India league team," HI secretary general Narinder Batra said.
Divij, Raja in quarters
Bogota: Divij Sharan and Purav Raja, playing their first ATP Tour level event together, scored a comfortable straight-set win over Emilio Gomez and Michael Quintero at the USD 638,085 Claro Open, here. The fourth seeded Indian pair beat Gomez of Ecuador and Quintero of Colombia 6-2 6-2 in the first round of the hard court tournament. The Indians broke Quintero’s serve twice in the first set to pocket the first set. They did not get a good start to the second set as Divij was broken in the first game and soon they were down 0-2. However, they shrugged off the adverse start and won six games on the trot to win the set and the match. Divij and Raja won 56 points to 29 of their rivals.
Jwala launches Shuttle Express
Pune: Commonwealth Games doubles gold Medallist Jwala Gutta launched the Indian Badminton league’s School Programme initiative --Shuttle Express’ Pune leg at the Symbiosis Vishwabhavan School, here on Wednesday. The city will be held under the aegis of the Pune District Metropolitan Badminton Association on July 18-19 and will showcase students from schools in Pune, who will vie for the titles in both the boys and girls singles categories in the city leg. The city winners will play the National Finals during the forthcoming IBl in August. "I am really happy to be here with the kids who are playing not only to win the Shuttle Express but to be the next badminton champion for India," Jwala said. Saina Nehwal, P V Sindhu and Ashwini Ponnappa had launched the New Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai leg of the tournament, respectively.
Baan unlikely to extend contract
New Delhi: Upset with All India Football Federation’s tardiness in implementing an ambitious project authored by him, national team technical director Rob Baan is unlikely to seek extension of his two-year contract which ends in October. Baan, who has a wealth of experience as coach and technical director having worked in several countries in these capacities, was the brain. Baan has an annual package of Rs 2 crore and according to AIFF sources, he has in his contract the liberty of working only 15 days in a month and the AIFF will have to provide him four to five air tickets for travelling home in a year. He had been critical of the lack of national team training centres and elite academies. He was also not supportive of India captain Sunil Chhetri’s stints abroad, besides expressing dismay at the country languishing in the bottom heap of the FIFA rankings.
‘Cricket will always be no. 1 sport’
Mumbai: NBA star Chris Bosh is confident that basketball will catch up with other sports in India in popularity but conceded that cricket will remain number one in fan following just like American football is in his home country. "I don’t think it (basketball) will be the most popular sport (in India). Even in America, it is not the most popular sport. American football will always be the king. But that does not mean a lot of people won’t like it. I think cricket will always be the national sport but it is always great to love another sport and other people to see what else is out there," Bosh said here during his maiden visit to the country to promote basketball. Bosh is also optimistic that an Indian player would make it to NBA ranks in the near future though he is yet to see firsthand the potential of the hoopsters in this country.
Constantine tipped for Jamaica job
Kingston: Stephen Constantine, who coached Indian football team to a memorable lG Cup international tournament title in 2002, is being tipped to take charge of the Jamaican national side. Constantine is considered to be the front runner to succeed Theodore Whitmore as head coach.