Wrestlers leave for Astana
New Delhi: Olympic heroes Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar have decided to give it a miss for the second year running even as an upbeat Indian wrestling contingent gets set to leave for the Senior Asian Championship to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from April 22 to 27. Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil and london Games bronze medallist Yogeshwar will not be a part of the touring squad for the competition, which will see a huge Indian squad of around 38 members, including grapplers, coaches and support staff. "The team is leaving for Astana in a couple of days. But Sushil and Yogeshwar will not be a part of the squad. Apart from them, all the other top wrestlers of the country will be taking part in the competition," Raj Singh, secretary Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), said.
Neeraj enters QFs of Youth C'ship
New Delhi: Neeraj Parasar (64kg) clinched a superb come-from-behind victory over Romania's Andrei Ninel Gheorghe to enter the quarterfinals even as the country's women pugilists bowed out of the World Youth Boxing Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria on Friday. Neeraj, the reigning national champion rallied to beat Gheorghe 2-1 in the pre-quarterfinal bout to bring some cheers into the Indian camp after three losses in the day. In a see-saw battle, Neeraj was found wanting in the opening three minutes before getting his act together in the remaining two rounds to emerge triumphant. However, the other Indians in fray today disappointed. In the afternoon session, Sathish Kumar (56kg) started the proceedings for Indian men on a rather disappointing note, losing 0-3 to Cuba's Javier Diaz Ibanez in the second round. The Indian women's challenge came to an end with both Jamuna Boro (60kg) and Manju Bombariya (75kg) losing their respective prequarterfinal bouts.
Arvind loses in semis of NZ Open
New Delhi: German Open champion, Arvind Bhat of India today crashed out of the New Zealand Open after suffering a straight-game defeat to top seed Jen Hao Hsu of Chinese Taipei in the semifinals of the USD 50,000 Grand Prix event in Auckland. The fifth seeded Indian, went down 14-21 9-21 to Jen in a 33-minute men's singles match. Arvind fought back from 2-5 to 6-6 in the first game but Jen broke off at 9-9 and never gave the Indian another chance to claw back. In the second game, Jen was more dominating as he accumulated points at will to create a huge gulf which Arvind could not bridge. From 4-4, Jen jumped to 9-4 and then 16-5 as Arvind's game crumbled. Two-time national champion, Arvind, had defeated Malaysia's Tang Jie Chen 21-8 21-14 before edging out another Malaysian Chun Seang Tan.
Raj Singh named Chef-de-Mission
New Delhi: Wrestling Federation of India Secretary General Raj Si ngh was today named Chef-de-Mission of the Indian contingent for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow in July-August. International shooter Raja K Sidhu will be the deputy chef-de-mission, the IOA said in a release.