AIFF keen on sports medicine
New Delhi: The All India Football Federation on Saturday conceded that only a couple of I-league clubs have proper sports medicine facilities and asked all the teams to seriously invest in this department. “All I-league clubs should incorporate sports science, for prevention of injury, recovery, to prevent injury of players and help recovery of players. Sports medicine has been neglected for long by the clubs,” AIFF senior vice-president Subrata Dutta said. “Except for Bengaluru FC and may be Pune FC, all other I-league clubs do not take sports medicine seriously and do not have proper sports science facilities. This is for the sake of their better performance and for the benefit of the players,” Dutta said during the launch ceremony of the fifth AFC Football Medical Conference to be held here next year.
Archers return empty-handed Kolkata: Indian compound mixed pair of Abhishek Verma and Jyothi Surekha Vennam lost in the bronze medal play-off to cap a rare forgettable outing at the Archery World Cup Stage I in Shanghai on Saturday. According to the information received here, Verma and Jyothi succumbed to Pierre Julien Eloche and Sophie Dodemont 153-150 without putting any fight as India failed to open their account in the season-opener.
Three bronze for India
New Delhi: Indian grapplers gave their fans something to cheer about on the fourth day of the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan with Joyti Joyti, KK Yadav and Manoj Kumar bagging bronze medals in their respective bouts on Saturday. Joyti wrestled past Gulmira Ismatova of Uzbekistan in the bronze medal bout of the women’s 75kg freestyle.
Chikka wins thriller
Kathmandu: Overnight leader S Chikkarangappa clinched a thrilling play-off win against compatriot Shankar Das to lift the Surya Nepal Masters trophy here on Saturday. Four youngsters — Abhinav lohan, Chikkarangappa, Abhijit Singh Chadha and Shankar — jostled for the title with each one of them leading at certain stages of the final round. In the end, Shankar emerged the club house leader at 15-under.