Briefly
Olympic medallist Gurbax Singh Grewal dies at 84
Olympic hockey medallist Gurbax Singh Grewal has died following a heart attack in Zirakpur near Chandigarh.
He was 84. Grewal, who was part of the Indian team that secured a bronze medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, died on Friday. In a rare distinction, he represented India at the same Olympics alongside his brother Balbir Singh Grewal, marking one of the few instances of siblings featuring together in the national hockey side at the Games.
Beyond his playing career, Grewal served as a senior sports officer with Western Railways, where he played a key role in identifying and inducting talent, including several players from Rajasthan, into the Railways hockey setup.
After retiring from service in Mumbai, he remained actively involved in the sport’s administration, serving as honorary secretary of the Mumbai Hockey Association.
Vanshika, Chirag win 10m air pistol mixed team gold
Vanshika Chaudhary and Chirag Sharma won the 10m air pistol mixed team event at the ISSF Junior World Cup on Saturday, taking India’s gold tally to five.
With one more day of competitions left, India continued to lead the medal table with five gold, five silver and four bronze. The duo shot 484.3 to shrug off the challenge of Aliaksandra Piatrova and Mikita Daubash (467.6) representing the Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN). The second Indian pair of Mohini Singh and Himanshu Rana tallied 407.4 to clinch bronze in the four-team final.
Vanshika and Chirag had earlier shot a combined 582 on Saturday morning at the Olympic International City Shooting range to top the 14-team qualifiers, while Mohini and Himanshu finished third as well with a 568.
It was a second gold in the tournament for Vanshika, having earlier won the individual women’s 10m air pistol title. It was also a second medal for Chirag, who had earlier won bronze in the junior men’s air pistol. The Trap men’s and women’s competitions also concluded on the day when India had one finalist each. Both Zuhair Khan and Bhavya Tripathi claimed the sixth qualifying spot in their respective qualifiers. While Zuhair shot 115, Bhavya recorded 108 after five rounds.
Bhavya then finished eighth in the junior women’s trap final, where Italian Martina Montani won gold with a new junior world record score of 26 hits out of a possible 30.
In the men’s final, Zuhair finished seventh as France’s Agez Thomas also shot a junior world record score of 28 to win the event.
The final day on Sunday will see the 50m rifle 3 positions men junior and the trap mixed team junior events being decided.
