Hockey team making improvement: Oltmans
New Delhi: India might have finished a disappointing ninth in the recent Hockey World Cup, but High Performance Director Roelant Oltmans today sought to present the performance of the national team in a positive light, saying the country showed "100 per cent improvement" and better results will follow "very soon". Oltmans said even though the end result in the World Cup was not satisfactory, Indian hockey was "clearly moving forward". "We had clear and good debrief of the World Cup in the last two days. We discussed the insights into the way we prepared the team for the World Cup and shared future ideas to ensure we keep on improving," he said on Saturday. "We showed 100 per cent improvement. We showed lot of improvement in terms of structure, mental and physical abilities and results will come very soon. But it is difficult to say how near it is," Oltmans said. He was speaking to reporters at the end of two-day meeting of Hockey India's 10-member Team, Coaching and High Performance Evaluation Committee, which assembled here to evaluate the performance of Indian men's hockey team in the World Cup in The Hague, Netherlands.
Telefunken win Hot Weather
New Delhi: Telefunken Cricket Club defeated South Delhi Colts by 33 runs at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium here on Saturday to win the 40 Over Hot Weather cricket tournament. Colts won the toss and invited Telefunken to bat first. Telefunken were slow to start with 100 runs coming in 27th over but after that it was all about power-hitting after Delhi Ranji Trophy player Yogesh Nagar came in to bat at the fall of third wicket in the same over. Nagar (95 not out off 65 balls) missed his century by five runs but managed to take his side 274 for 6 in 40 overs - enough to win the match. Colts, though, started with a bang as their openers Aditya Saini and Shivakant Shukla tearing apart Telefuken bowling attack and putting up 95 runs in 10 overs. But their fall in the 16th and 19th overs changed the course of the match. Colts further couldn't stick up to its required run rate and ended up losing all their wickets for 241 runs in 40 overs. Telefunken's Mayank Dagar and Ankit Dabas shared 7 wickets between them. Yogesh Nagar was awarded Man Of The Match. Brief Scores: Telefunken: 274/6 in 40 overs (Yogesh Nagar 95*, Ankit Dabas 62 ; Avinash Yadav 2/44 , Ashish Yadav 2/68) beat South Delhi Colts: 241 all out in 40 overs (Shivakant Shukla 64, Aditya Saini 41; Mayank Dagar 4/43, Ankit Dabas 3/44) by 33 runs.
Rosberg takes pole position at British GP
Silverstone: Formula One championship leader Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for the British Grand Prix on Saturday, capitalizing on a critical error of judgment by his Mercedes teammate lewis Hamilton on the last lap of a shock-filled and rain-hit qualifying session. The German secured pole by persevering on his final lap in drying conditions as Hamilton — who had the fastest time up to that point - aborted his lap and pulled into the pits, believing that the his time could not be bettered. The other drivers who stayed out on track made up large chunks of time in the closing sector of the lap, where the track had dried considerably, and Hamilton was shuffled down to a disappointing sixth place on the grid for his home race. Defending four-time champion Sebastian Vettel qualified second for Red Bull and Mclaren's Jenson Button a season-best third to give home fans something to cheer. Force India's Nico Hulkenberg qualified in fourth ahead of Mclaren rookie Kevin Magnussen. The drama of the last session of qualifying matched that of the opening session, when both Ferraris and both Williams were eliminated, caught out by the rapidly changing track conditions as intermittent showers quickly passed over the Silverstone circuit.
Goa to host Durand Cup for first time
Panaji: The 127th edition of Durand Cup will be played in Goa in October-November, the first time the prestigious football tournament is being organised outside Delhi, where it was shifted over seven decades ago. A dozen teams will clash in the main phase of the Rs 50-lakh prize money competition, organised by the Army, which will be played from October 28 to November 9 at different venues in the coastal state. Organisers said Goa, a football-crazy state, has been chosen as a host to widen the tournament's reach and appeal.
Marcel Kittel wins 1st Tour stage
Hrrogate: Marcel Kittel of Germany won the first stage of the Tour de France for a second year in row after a late crash brought down British rival Mark Cavendish in the presence of royals on Saturday. Kittel, who earned four Tour stages last year, won the 190.5-kilometer (118-mile) run in mainly bucolic Yorkshire countryside from leeds to Harrogate. The German raised his arms skyward and cried after he edged Peter Sagan of Slovakia in second, and Ramunas Navardauskas of lithuania in third. "I am incredibly proud of this victory," Kittel, a Team Giant-Shimano rider who also won two Giro d'Italia stages in May, said through a translator.