Gowda 7th, Khusbir 39th
Moscow: India's discus thrower Vikas Gowda finished seventh in the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships while Khusbir Kaur finished a distant 39th but still improved on her own national record in the women's 20km Race Walk event in the. Us-based Gowda's best effort was 64.03m which he hurled on first and fourth attempts. Germany's Robert Harting successfully defended his title with an effort of 69.11m while Poland's Piotr Malachowski (68.36m) won silver and Gerd Kanter (65.19m) claimed bronze. Kushbir clocked 1 hour 34 minutes and 28 seconds to finish 39th in the 62-athlete field, cutting down three minutes from her earlier national mark of 1:37:28 which she created in Patiala last year. Elena lashmanova of Russia won the gold in 1:27:08.
Mehta qualifies for India Open
New Delhi: Indian cueist Aditya Mehta notched up a 4-2 win over China's Xiao Guo Ding to join Pankaj Advani in qualifying for the inaugural Indian Open snooker championship to be held in New Delhi in October. Aditya, who won the World Games gold medal at Cali, Colombia in July, beat Xiao Guo Ding 61-17, 73-36, 107 (104)-9, 01-89 (88), 00-105 (105), 60-25 at Doncaster Dome, 20 kms from Sheffield in England on Wednesday.
India vs Tajikistan today
Khujand (Tajikistan): Exposure-starved Indian football team will take on higher-ranked Tajikistan in an international friendly here on Wednesday, in what will be their first show of strength in more than six months. India have played just one international match so far in 2013, a 2-4 loss against Palestine in February and Wim Koevermans men will be aiming to give a good account of themselves ahead of the SAFF Championships scheduled in Kathmandu from September 1-11.
Negi loses to Kryvoruchko
Tromso (Norway): World's second youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi let slip a position of strength and lost to Ukraine's Yuri Kryvoruchko in the second game of the chess World Cup's opening round here. The shocking loss with white pieces means that Negi will have to now battle it out in the tie-break games of shorter duration as the final score after the two-game mini-match stands tied at 1-1. PNS/Agencies