‘NSFs have to be transparent’
New Delhi: The Sports Ministry on Sunday stated in clear terms that it expects complete transparency from all the National Sports Federations (NSFs) and also sought their support for corruption and controversy-free sport. In his first interaction with journalists after taking charge, Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said he was committed to take Indian sport forward but he needs support from all quarters, including media, to do that. The ministry had recently asked IOA and all NSFs to put information about expenses incurred on their delegates on the Glasgow Games trip. “We need support of all NSFs, so we are appealing to everybody. Day to day activities have to be more transparent for good governance and to generate confidence in people. We have indicated and the message is clear, tussle is not healthy, we have to behave like one family. Sports should be corruption and controversy free,” Sonowal said during the interaction.
Men beat Qatar, eves beat dutch
Tromso (Norway): The Indian men came up with their third victory on the trot defeating Qatar 3-1 while the women humbled Holland 3.5-0.5 in the seventh round of 41st Chess Olympiad here on Sunday. S P Sethuraman and Krishnan Sasikiran scored important victories for India on the second and third board accounting for Mohammad Al-Sayed and Zhu Chen respectively while Parimarjan Negi was held to a draw by Mohammad Al-Modiahki on the top board. In the fourth board B Adhiban also played a draw with Nezad Husein Azaz. The victory, coming at an important juncture, took the Indian men to joint sixth spot in current standings and are now within striking distance of what was considered an impossible task - a podium finish. That said, they have the biggest hurdle to tackle in the next round when they meet three times winner and defending champion Armenia.
Sania-Cara reach final
Montreal: Sania Mirza and Cara Black survived a thriller in the semifinals as they carved out a hard-earned 7-6(3) 3-6 13-11 victory to set up a Rogers Cup doubles final against top-seeded Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci here. The fourth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean pair knocked out the second seeded Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei and China’s Peng Shuai in a contest that lasted an hour and 50 minutes. Having saved a set point in the opening set, Sania and Cara prevailed over their higher ranked opponents in a tie-break. However, Hsieh and Peng fought their way back in the second set and comfortably wrapped it up 6-3, taking it to the deciding set. In the third set, Sania and Cara opened up a 9-6 lead, before Hsieh and Peng rallied and held a match point at 11-10. But from there Sania and Cara won three straight points, to run away with the match on their fifth match point. With this victory, Sania and Cara ended a three-match losing streak in their head-to-head with Hsieh and Peng.
lahore outplay Vancouver
london: They turned up quite jet-lagged after landing here in the wee hours but Pakistan’s lahore lions roared quite loud in their opening match of the World Kabaddi league, comprehensively beating Vancouver lions here on Sunday. lahore emerged triumphant 74-61 in the match. Mohsin Bala was their best stopper, contributing four points to the tally. In fact, Vancouver’s raiders, for most part of the proceedings, struggled to outwit lahore’s stoppers. Vancouver did come back strongly in the last two quarters after being down 31-42 in the opening 24 minutes but the effort came too late for the side to have any shot at victory. For Vancouver, Sucha Singh top-scored with 15 points, while Kulwinder Singh emerged the best defender with five points.
Cueists ready for Team C’ship
New Delhi: Having displayed their individual brilliance on the green baize, the Indian cueists are now ready to deliver as a team in the inaugural IBSF World Billiards Team Championship, which commences in Glasgow on Sunday. Pankaj Avani, who recently made the country proud again by not only winning the IBSF World 6-Red Snooker Championship but also creating a unique record of winning world titles in the longer and shorter formats of both billiards and snooker, has teamed up with veteran cueists with an eye on another world title. “After the 6-Red World Championship this is the next major I am going to participate in. So from the short format in snooker to the long one in billiards is a shift to the other end of the spectrum. But that’s what I thrive on - specialising in two sports,” Advani said ahead of the four-day event. The Bangalorean, who has won nine World titles of which seven are from billiards, has Rupesh Shah, Devendra Joshi and Ashok Shandiliya in his team. Advani, 29, believes consistency and teamwork will be key to success. PNS/Agencies