Mallick before Jamaican sojourn
Bhubaneswar: Odisha sprinter Amiya Mallick is on strict diet and fitness regime as he prepares to train in Jamaica under Glen Mills, the coach of sprint king Usain Bolt. “My diet had been specific in the past several weeks. I am avoiding oily and spicy food. I have been avoiding eating out. Besides, I am focusing on protein, green boiled vegetables,” Mallick told IANS here in an interview. The 21-year-old sprinter, who has the best individual timing of 10.50 seconds in the 100-metre and 21.22 seconds in the 200m, would leave for Jamaica Sunday. He was ranked India’s No.1 in men`s 200m in 2009. He bagged a gold medal in 200m clocking 21.22 seconds at the National Athletic Championship in Ranchi in September last year. “Anil Kumar Prakash holds the current 200 metres national record of 20.73 second and my aim is to break that. I will work hard to achieve the speed,” said Mallick, who is pursuing Master’s in Business Administration in Bhubaneswar-based KIIT University. “Usually most of the parents want that their children should play badminton, tennis or cricket but I am lucky that my parents have been always supportive to me. Besides family, coach, friends and colleagues all encouraged and helped me,” he added.
Chandhok’s team third in Dubai
Dubai: Indian racing ace Karun Chandhok got his 2014 season off to a brilliant start as he fought off mechanical issues to finish third in the SP2 class victory at the Dubai 24hours, Asia’s leading Endurance race. Chandhok, competing in race for the second time in his career, drove for the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN. Chandhok, driving the No. 126 Nissan 370Z Nismo joined Nissan GT Academy winners James Moffat, Tor Graves and Ashley Oldfield in the race. The No. 126 car was fighting with the RJN sister car for the win when the team suffered issues into the night, costing them more than 2 hours in the pits. The team was at one point 16 laps behind the leader and managed to unlap themselves 5 times but was too late. Chandhok rued the bad luck but was happy to start the season with a podium finish. “This is a great start to the year for me and I would like to thank the Nissan GT Academy Team RJN for this opportunity. It was a crazy race and at one point we looked fast enough for the win. You need luck in a 24 hour race and we didn’t get our share of the luck but we fought back and took a podium finish,” he said.
Shetty, Ankita are champions
Patna: Youngsters Sanil Shetty and Ankita Das were crowned men’s and women’s singles champion respectively at the 75th Senior National Table Tennis Championships here on Sunday. No. 2 seed Shetty defeated his PSPB team mate Harmeet Desai 4-2 and No. 4 Ankita Das, also of PSPB, drubbed AAI’s Krittwika Sinha Roy 4-0 to take home the winners’ purse of `2.30 lakh and `1.45 lakh, respectively. Incidentally, Shetty is the first national champion to emerge from Mumbai after the great Kamlesh Mehta, who last won the title in 1995. .
ONGC, IOB make winning starts
Mumbai: Federation Cup champions ONGC (Uttarakhand) and runners-up IOB (Tamil Nadu) both easily won their respective men’s Group-A round-robin matches of the UPl-9th Savio Cup Basketball Tournament at the Don Bosco High School courts in Matunga here on Sunday. ONGC, which had emerged triumphant in the Fed Cup in Ahmedabad last Thursday, tamed Income Tax 67-50 after leading 40-23 at the break. PNS/Agencies