Zareen in Youth C’ships final
New Delhi: Reigning junior world champion Nikhat Zareen (54kg) continued her winning run to enter the final of the AIBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships in Albena, Bulgaria. The 17-year-old is now assured of at least a silver medal from the completion and will stake a claim for her second world title. Zareen, who won the flyweight division gold medal at the inaugural edition of the AIBA Women’s junior World Championship, has moved into the youth category and fights in the bantamweight division. She registered a comprehensive victory over Desire Galli from Italy in the quarters to advance to the round of four. In the semi-finals, the Andhra boxer was up against another junior world champion Viktoriya Virt of Ukraine.
Rauf not to travel to Mumbai Karachi: Disgraced Pakistan umpire, Asad Rauf has ruled out travelling to Mumbai for any investigation into the IPl spot-fixing scandal in which he was chargesheeted by the Mumbai police. “We have full faith in the Indian courts but not in the Mumbai police. The present circumstances don’t allow me to travel to India,” Rauf said on Saturday. “But I have consulted my lawyers and I am willing to fully cooperate with any inquiry by the ICC anti-corruption and security unit,” he said.
India u-21 held 3-3 by Malaysia Johor Bahru: India wasted a two-goal advantage to draw 3-3 against hosts Malaysia in their last inconsequential round-robin match of The Sultan of Johor Cup Under-21 hockey tournament, here on Saturday. With this match, India finished on top of the standings but the result of the tie was merely of academic interest as both India and Malaysia have already qualified for Sunday’s summit clash ahead of Saturday’s game. Both India and Malaysia finished with 13 points and were unbeaten in the round robin stages but the Indians managed the top position on account of a better goal difference. With their final spots already sealed, both the teams lacked urgency and did not go all out in the match.
Sania wins 4th title of season
Tokyo: Sania Mirza continued her impressive run as she captured her fourth title of the season and 18th overall with Cara Black of Zimbabwe, recording a come-from-behind win over liezel Huber and Hao Ching Chan to lift the Pan Pacific Open trophy, here on Saturday. The unseeded slayers of the top seeds in the semifinals, pipped the American-Taipei combination 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 in one hour and 25 minutes. After losing the opening set, Sania and Cara made a stunning recovery as they bageled their opponents with three breaks to push the match to super tiebreaker, where the Indian-Zimbabwean combo rallied again to edge past the rivals 11-9 win.
Infant Jesus, Nagaland win
New Delhi: K H Ninthouigamba inspired Infant Jesus Academy, Vasco, Goa to an upset win over Krishnadevpur High School, Burdwan while Nagaland made a thumping start to their campaign with a 10-0 hammering of GSS, Car Nicobar in the Under-14 category of the 54th Subroto Cup football tournament here on Saturday. India Under-14 international, Ninthouigamba scored a brace (49th and 51st minute) and skipper Abhijit Sarkar (39th) and Abu Taheer (42nd) chipped in with a goal each to complete the turnaround. Earlier, Sayan Das’ 24th minute strike and and Sheikh Mohammed Ali’s opportunistic goal in the 35th minute had put the Burdwan side in driver’s seat. Earlier in the day, Nagaland rode on hat-tricks from Ghunaka (12th, 46th, 48th) and Noketho (20th, 33rd, 38th) to bulldoze the Car Nicobar outfit.
MTB Himalaya flagged off
Shimla: India’s premier international mountain biking challenge, MTB Himalaya 2013, was today flagged off with Portuguese rider luis leao Pinto being the favourite for top honours. The race is spread across six days, covering 500 km, 3250 mt above sea level. Pinto, a national champion who is world number 9 and seeded sixth in Europe, and his compatriots Eduardo Pereira and luis Canto Moniz were teh first to complete the first stage of the race, covering 40km.
Sidi Peter bags gold, Jung upset
Pune: Hungary’s world record holder Sidi Peter won the 10m Air Rifle gold medal at the Sanjay Kakade Group Gun for Glory shooting championship, being held at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex, here on Saturday. Peter, who has entered into the event on invitation, had to shoot in the qualification round, as his rifle was held back by customs in Mumbai.
Arjun Maini seals first victory
New Delhi: Young driver Arjun Maini claimed his maiden win in the Formula BMW series as he pipped Vishnu Prasad by three seconds in race 1 of round three in the JK Tyre Racing championship at the Buddh International Circuit here on Saturday. Competing in the series, exclusive for Indian U-20 drivers, Arjun started from second position on the grid but overtook pole sitter Mahavir in lap 4 to take the lead, which he defended well till the end to win the 10-lap race. Mahavir later conceded his second position to Vishnu in lap 7 and despite finishing third he ended up in eighth position after being handed a five-place penalty for jump-start. As a result Karminder Singh was promoted to podium, which was his first of the season.
Chelsea draw 1-1 at Tottenham london: Chelsea captain John Terry’s header recovered a 1-1 draw at Tottenham before his side had Fernando Torres sent off in a heated london derby on Saturday. Tottenham took the lead in the 19th minute through Gylfi Sigurdsson. But Chelsea seized the initiate in the second half, and Terry connected with Juan Mata’s free kick to level. Fernando Torres had been at the heart of Chelsea’s second-half revival, but the striker was dismissed with 10 minutes to go after a second booking for clashing with Jan Vertonghen as he jumped.
dortmund, Bayern register wins
Frankfurt: Marco Reus and Robert lewandowski scored two goals apiece for Borussia Dortmund to rout 10-man Freiburg 5-0, while Bayern Munich laboured to a 1-0 win over Wolfsburg after a goal by Thomas Mueller in the Bundesliga on Saturday. Bayer leverkusen beat Hannover 2-0 as the trio of leaders opened a significant gap after seven games. PNS/Agencies