Indian archers bag two medals
New Delhi: Indian recurve archers bagged two medals -- a silver and a bronze -- in the second World Cup held at Medellin, Columbia on Monday. While India’s recurve ‘B’ team comprising Atanu Das, Thupuvoyi and Sanjay Boro lost to Korea in the shoot-off to return with a silver medal, the mixed team of Atanu Das and Bombayla Devi laishram pocketed a bronze by beating a Mexican combination. Trailing 0-4 against Korea, India’s recurve ‘B’ team made a spirited comeback to take the tie into shoot-off. In the nerve-wrecking contest, the Koreans shot perfect 30 whereas the Indian archers could only manage 28 to settle for silver. Archery Association of India (AAI) president Vijay Kumar Malhotra congratulated the country’s archers for bagging two medals from the prestigious event.
INDIA’S PROBlEM IS CONSISTENCY
New Delhi: Australian ace Jamie Dwyer was forthright in his assessment about the current India hockey team terming Sardar Singh and Co as an “inconsistent” bunch, who will have to depend a lot on ace drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh and comeback man Gurbaj Singh. “Indian team keeps on improving but so does every other team in the world of hockey. They are not far off the best teams in the world but their consistency is still a problem, I feel. We will soon find out how good or bad they are,” Dwyer told PTI during an interaction on Monday. On the duo of Gurbaj and Rupinder Pal, Dwyer, who has a whopping 150 strikes from 250 internationals said,”Gurbaj had a great HIl and so did Rupinder Pal. I expect these two guys will perform well for the Indian team.” Dwyer hit the nail on its head when he stated that India needs to step up on their twin problems --- conversion of penalty corners and being good defensively which includes saving the drag-flicks. “I think any team that wants to perform well at the World Cup must be good defensively. As far as India is concerned they also need to have a very good penalty corner attack and defence,” he said.\\
Scott topples Tiger Woods as No. 1
london: Adam Scott officially replaced Tiger Woods as world number one golfer on Monday, ending the American’s 60 week reign on the top of the rankings. Scott, 33, is the first Australian to be world number one since his boyhood hero Greg Norman, who spent 331 weeks in the position in the 1980s and ‘90s. The 2013 Masters champion was inactive last week, but was already assured of taking top spot with Woods sidelined with a long-standing back problem. Playing in the Byron Nelson Championship, American Matt Kuchar could also have moved ahead of Woods, but tied for seventh and had to settle for fourth spot in the rankings. Scott has not won a tournament since his historic victory at Augusta National 13 months ago, but he has benefitted from the absence of Woods, who said recently he still does not know when he will return to competition following surgery on his back. Woods returned to the top of the world rankings in March, 2013, taking over from Rory McIlory and he has been there ever since. The American has spent a total of 683 weeks as the world’s best during the course of his career. Scott becomes the 17th player to become world number one since Germany’s Bernhard langer was the first in 1986. He’s the fourth player to overtake a rival for the top spot in a week in which he isn’t playing, joining England’s lee Westwood and Nick Faldo and Welshman Ian Woosnam. “The ranking system is just the way it is,” Scott said of the two-year revolving points system that makes his ascension possible. “It’s a very hard system to perfect with tours all over the world.”
Blatter congratulates Bengaluru
New Delhi: FIFA president Sepp Blatter has congratulated I-league champions Bengaluru FC on “winning the I-league championship in their debut season”. In a letter to All India Football Federation, Blatter wrote: “Please convey my warmest wishes to all of the players, the manager, the technical and medical staff as well as all the team’s supporters, as each part of this organisation have no doubt been instrumental in their club’s victory.” “On behalf of the world football community, I would like to thank Bengaluru FC for the excitement they bring to fans of the beautiful game, and wish them all the best for the future,” his letter further read. Bengaluru FC finished on 47 points to emerge champions in the 2013-14 edition of the Airtel I-league in their debut season.
Pyongyang ready to rumble Pyongyang: The wild world of professional wrestling is heading to North Korea. The authoritarian nation locked in a long standoff with its neighbours and the United States over its nuclear bomb ambitions announced plans on Monday for an international pro-wrestling match in the capital, Pyongyang, in late August. “World renowned pro-wrestlers” from Japan, the US and other countries will take part, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch. It provided few other details. A former professional wrestler turned Japanese lawmaker, Kanji Inoki, will head the organising committee along with the chair of North Korea’s International Martial Arts Games Committee, the dispatch said. Inoki, perhaps best known in the United States for his exhibition bout with boxer Muhammad Ali in the 1970s, is a regular visitor to North Korea and organised another pro-wrestling event in Pyongyang in 1995.