Bindra, Heena to lead in C’ship
New Delhi: Ronjan Sodhi yet again missed out on a berth in the Indian shooting squad, for the ISSF World Championships, and Gagan Narang also failed to make the air rifle team, to be spearheaded by Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra. The tournament assumes significance as 64 quota places for the 2016 Rio Olympics will be up for grabs. Sodhi had recently skipped the World Cup in Beijing and is also not a part of the squad for the upcoming Commonwealth Games. The former world no. 1 double trap shooter has been going through a lean patch for some time now. The selection committee picked the team as per the policy of National Rifle Association of India. As per NRAI’s policy, shooters are selected on the basis of their last six scores. World champion in air pistol, Heena Sidhu will lead the challenge in the women’s section, and there will also be lajja Gauswami, Anisa Sayeed, Rahi Sarnobat and Shagun Chowdhary to name a few. In the men’s 10m air rifle event, Bindra will be there alongside Sanjeev Rajput and Ravi Kumar. While london Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar, Harpreet Singh and Gurpreet Singh will represent the country in rapid fire pistol. Kumar is also there in centre fire pistol alongside Pemba Tamang and Gurpreet Singh.
Indian cagers go down fighting
Mumbai: India went down fighting after taking a surprise first-half lead over reigning continental and defending champions Iran in a Group A game of the 5th FIBA Asia Cup Basketball Championship in Wuhan, China on Tuesday. After being ahead in the opening half by a dozen points at one stage, India conceded the advantage to Asian Champions Iran, ranked 20th in the world, in the third quarter and then went down 49-62 to finish the five-team group with two wins and as many losses, according to FIBA Asia website. Their other loss was against Japan on the first day of competition. India, who had ensured their berth in the quarters by blanking bottom-placed Indonesia 91-55 after shocking hosts and former continental champions China 65-58, were powered in the main by 17 points from Amjyot Singh. But a purple patch was struck by the duo of Arsalan Kazemi and Hamed Hadadi that helped Iran muster 18 points on the trot without any reply from the Indians
Durand Cup in Goa from Oct 28
Mumbai: The 127th edition of the Durand Cup football tournament, carrying a prize money of Rs 50 lakh, is to be conducted in Goa from October 28 to November 9.The tournament, which was first played in 1888 and is the third oldest in the world, is being held under the aegis of Indian Army’s Headquarter, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa Area, said a Defence media release on Tuesday. The tournament is to be conducted in two phases. The qualifying phase would see 12 to 16 teams grouped into pools, with the top two teams advancing to the main tournament.
Vani eager to end title drought
Bangalore: The past few weeks haven’t yielded favourable results for Delhi golfer Vani Kapoor, and she would now look to end her title drought when she tees off at the ninth leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour, commencing on Wednesday at the Eagleton Golf Resort. A dip in her game costed Vani the titles in the last two tournaments. With total earnings of INR 8,60,000 from eight starts, Vani is comfortably sitting atop the money list and is the firm favourite for the ninth leg in the absence of strong competition from local sensation and Hero MotoCorp sponsored Sharmila Nicollet and veteran golfer Smriti Mehra.
Anglian Holding Wins CFl
New Delhi: Anglian Holding became the proud winners of the inaugural edition of the 90Bids Corporate Football league beating fancied UDM Financials 3-0 at the rain-affected Thyagaraj Sports Complex on Sunday.The final was watched by a large gathering and was a fitting climax to a fortnight of keen matches. All the three goals were scored in second session. Deepak Malhotra netted the first and third goal while Vikas scored in between. Anglian goalkeeper Gaurav brought out a few fine saves.
Flower to begin Pak job today
Karachi: Former Zimbabwe all-rounder Grant Flower will join Pakistan on Wednesday as a batting coach even as the Cricket Board (PCB) had announced South African Grant luden as the team’s new fielding coach-cum-trainer. Grant Flower, the brother of former Zimbabwe skipper, Andy Flower has been given a two-year contract by the PCB after he applied for the position two months back. His appointment has sparked off some debate in Pakistan cricket circles with many unconvinced whether he will be able to bring about improvement in Pakistan’s inconsistent batting line up.