India’s Japan campaign ends
Tokyo: India’s campaign in the Japan Open badminton tournament ended today after Ajay Jayaram, K Srikanth and H S Prannoy lost their respective men’s singles quarterfinal matches at the USD 200,000 Super Series event here. While Prannoy fought hard before going down 21-11, 20-22, 21-13 to Huan Gao of China, Srikanth and Jayaram lost in straight games to crash out of the tournament. Prannoy, who was in rollicking form in the Indian badminton league last month, gave a good account of himself as he came back from a game down against a higher ranked opponent to clinch the second one and take the match into the decider. The contest, which was the first meeting between the two, lasted an hour and 13 minutes. After being tied at 8-8, the Chinese bagged nine points on the trot to open a 17-8 lead and then easily claimed the opening game. Prannoy came back strongly in the second game before he once again lost steam in the third game to do down in the end.
Feroze Khan defends Cship
Delhi: Chennai based S. Feroze Khan, defended his Indian junior touring car title in style at the end of the recently concluded 2013 MRF National Championships. Feroze, piped Ananth Pittawala of Team N1 from Mumbai in a sensational finish, to win the second and final race of the day at Greater Noida’s Buddh International Circuit (BIC) to seal the championships. Ananth was in great form on the day, having won the first race already and looked set to win the second as well, but Feroze obviously had other ideas. This capped a memorable season for Feroze, where he won six out of the nine races spread over three legs across Chennai, Coimbatore and Greater Noida.
Sethuraman back in reckoning
Kocaeli: Indian Grandmaster S P Sethuraman came back into the reckoning for top honours after defeating Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland in the seventh round of World Junior Chess Championship here. After losing the sixth round against Yu Yangyo of China, Sethuraman needed to win to stay in contention and he did that in style with white pieces to take his tally to 5.5 points. Playing the white side of a Queen pawn game, Sethuraman got the initial advantage and he capitalised on it well to win a pawn by force in the middle game. Jan-Krzysztof, however, came up with some real resistance and it was only in the nick of time that Sethuraman found a brilliant queen sacrifice to march to glory. Yu Yangyi of China, meanwhile, stayed ahead of the rest with another fine performance against Russian Urii Eleseev. The Chinese took his tally to a commanding 6.5 points out of a possible seven and stayed a half point clear of defending champion and local hero Alexander Ipatov.
Churchill play salgaocar
Duler: Defending champions Churchill Brothers would look to start their campaign on a winning note when they take on Salgaocar FC in the lung opener of the I-league here on Saturday. The defending champions hope to retain their crown despite seeing a lot of their star players leave at the end of the last campaign. Churchill Brothers coach Sukhwinder Singh, who has taken over from Subhash Bhowmick, believes his side were well prepared to defend the title. The former JCT coach was happy the way his team played in the Goa Professional league (GPl). They are the only undefeated team so far in the league and lead the table.