Dutee to lead India in Asian Junior C’ships
New Delhi: The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) on Thursday announced a 34-member Indian team, including rising sprinter Dutee Chand, for the Asian Junior Championship to be held at Taipei City from June 12-15. The Indian team will be led by 2013 Asian Athletics Championships bronze medalist in 200 metres sprint Dutee Chand and upcoming thrower Navjeet Kaur Dhillon. In the boys section, discus thrower Sachin, who created a new National junior record with a throw of 58.11 metres in the Chennai meet, shot putter Navtejdeep Singh and Shakti Solanki will lead the Indian campaign.
Pak Judokas to help India prepare for CWG
New Delhi: The Pakistan women Judokas may have missed the Commonwealth Games 2014 bus, but they are ready to help their Indian counterpart prepare for the event in Glasgow starting July 23. Pakistan’s 10-woman judo squad, including South Asian Judo Championship gold medalist Humera Ashique, will travel to Patiala in June to train the Indian athletes. Pakistan Judo Federation (PJF) secretary Masood Ahmed said that since Pakistan is not fielding a team at CWG due to the conflict between the Pakistan Olympics Association and the government, the athletes will now help the neighbours prepare for the Glasgow event.
Srikanth climbs to 13, Sindhu re-enters top-10
New Delhi: India’s rising shuttler Kidambi Srikanth climbed up five places to a career-best No. 13 in the men’s singles rankings, while P V Sindhu re-entered the women’s top-10 released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Thursday. Sindhu earned a place to rise to number 10 position in the table, riding on her brilliant performance during the recently-concluded Uber Cup here. She won five consecutive matches to help the Indian team win its maiden bronze medal in the biennial event. leading from the front, Saina Nehwal also came up with some stellar performances by winning five successive matches, including a victory over reigning World Champion Ratchanok Intanon, to retain her No. 8 place in the rankings.
Ponting calls for swift action on corruption
Sydney: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting has called for swift action on cricket’s corruption crisis, saying there is nothing worse for the game than the shadow hanging over it. Ponting said match-fixing and other rumours had circulated for years and he pleaded with the International Cricket Council’s anti-corruption watchdog and individual boards to act quickly so players and fans could have full faith that what happens on the field was legitimate. “We’ve all been aware of a certain amount of corruption in the game for a long time now and there’s always just been a bit of smoke, there hasn’t been much fire around it,” he said late Wednesday. “But like a lot of other big issues in our games, whether it’s drugs or whatever, the sooner the governing bodies can get to the bottom of these issues and actually start making an example of some of the people they know are in the wrong and they know are guilty, the better off we’re all going to be.”
Woods withdraws from US open
Dublin: Tiger Woods withdrew from the US Open on Wednesday as he recovers from back surgery that has kept him out of golf for nearly three months. It will be the second US Open, and sixth major, he has missed because of injury over the last six years. The announcement on his website was not surprising. A week ago at a promotional event for the Quicken loans National at Congressional, Woods said he still had not taken a full swing with a golf club and did not know when he could. He had microdiscetomy surgery to relieve a pinched nerve on March 31.