Muhammad Ali hospitalised
louisville (Kentucky): Boxing great Muhammad Ali was hospitalized with a mild case of pneumonia that was caught early and should result in a short hospital stay, an Ali spokesman said Saturday night. The three-time world heavyweight champion, who is battling Parkinson's disease, is being treated by his team of doctors and is in stable condition, said his spokesman, Bob Gunnell. “He went into the hospital this morning,” Gunnell said in a phone interview. “He has a mild case of pneumonia and the prognosis is good.” Gunnell declined to say where the 72-year-old Ali is hospitalised. No other details are being released due to the Ali family's request for privacy, he said. Ali appeared in public in September to attend a ceremony in his hometown of louisville for the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards. He did not speak.
Keshavan wins silver at Asian C'ship
Nagano (Japan): India's Shiva Keshavan won silver at the 17th Asian luge Championships here on Sunday, bagging the medal after a close contest between the top three contenders. Japan's Hidenari Kanayama won gold with a time of of 49.791 seconds, followed by Keshavan (49.934). South Korean Kim was not far behind with a best time of 50.178. “Hidenari was practically unstoppable today. I was really happy with my race as I gave it my best shot,” said Keshavan in a statement. Coach Duncan Kennedy was happy with Shiva's progress. The Class B of the Asia Cup also saw India's Murlidhar Negi finish ninth. In the ladies' Class B section, India's Yuvavanti Negi, Nikita Thakur and Jahnavi Rawat finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Abhijeet bounces back in Al-Ain
Al Ain (UAE): Defending champion Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta fought back after an insipid draw to beat compatriot Ankit Rajpara in the third round of the 3rd Al Ain Classic. On what turned out to be a difficult second round when he was held to a draw by Semetey Tologontegin of Kyrgyzstan, Abhijeet was subjected to another hard fought game in which he came up triumphs, thanks to some late mistakes by Rajpara. Winner in this tournament last year, Gupta took his tally to 2.5 points out of a possible three and now shares the eighth spot behind seven co-leaders with a perfect score. Second highest rated in the fray, Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi was lucky to get half a point from another compatriot Sahaj Grover.
Pal, lakshmanan break records
Mumbai: Army runners Neeraj Pal and G lakshmanan, along with Kavita Raut of ONGC, broke course records while winning men's full marathon, half marathon and women's half marathon, respectively in the 4th Vasai Virar Mayor's Marathon here on Sunday. Pal, based in Hyderabad, broke from the field after the 25-km mark to clock 2:22.38 in the full marathon. He broke Elam Singh's time of 2:22.44 set in 2012. Kavita and lakshman's finishing times are among the fastest this year, beating Preeja Sreedhanran's winning time of 79.03 in the Delhi Half Marathon. lakshmanan's time was just a few seconds behind Suresh Kumar's winning time of 64.38 at Delhi. Present on the occasion was batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, ace woman long jumper Anju Bobby George and ISl team Chennayin FC captain Mikael Silvestre.
Chouhan wins Tata Open
Jamshedpur: Om Prakash Chouhan coasted to a four-shot victory at the 13th TATA Open, a `75 lakh event, after firing a one-under-70 in the final round at Beldih golf course here on Sunday. The 28-year-old Chouhan, who bagged his second title of the year, ended the week with a tournament total of 14-under-271, overtaking Chikkarangappa as the Rolex Rankings leader. Bangalore's Khalin Joshi came in second with a 10-under-275 total after his final round of two-under-69. On Sunday, the entire field played nine holes each on both courses - Beldih and Golmuri. The par for the combined courses was 71.
Prabhu wins U-13 title in Singapore
Chennai: Top seed Navaneeth Prabhu of India came back from a game down to beat Nicolas Chee of Malaysia 8-11, 11-6, 11-8, 12-10 in the Boys' Under-13 final of the Old Chang Kee Singapore Open Squash on Sunday. Another Indian Neel Joshi, who lost to Navaneeth in the semi-final, defeated Ishant Shah Atul Kumar of Malaysia 3-0 to finish third, according to a press release by Indian Squash Federation. In the women's section, top seed Samitha Sivakumar lost to liyen Teoh of Malaysia 7-11, 11-6, 7-11 9-11 to finish sixth in girls' Under-13 division while J S Krithica finished seventh with a 11-3, 11-7, 11-7 win over Vasundhara Vasanthan of Malaysia in the play-off. Nikith Joshi defeated Natasha Chin of Malaysia to finish fifth in girls' Under-19 division.
Chen long wins superseries final
Dubai: Reigning world Champion Chen long of China demolished Denmark's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus 21-16, 21-10 to win the men's singles crown of the $1,000,000 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Superseries Finals at the Hamdan Sports Complex here Sunday. This win helped the 25-year-old long to take 8-1 lead in career meetings between the two players.Indian campaign had ended Saturday when Olympic bronze medallist Saina Nehwal and men's World No.6 Kidambi Srikanth lost in the semi-finals.
Damani overpowers Arora to title
Mumbai: Brijesh Damani of PSPB overcame Shivam Arora of Mumbai 10-5 to win the title in the `1.89 lakh NSCI-BoI All India 9-Ball Open Pool tournament here. Indian Oil's Damani, the 2009 Otters Club 9-Ball runner-up, was rewarded for consistency and impressive positioning as he led right through the race-to-10 racks championship round. After surging to a 4-0 lead, Damani made it 6-1 before former national 6-Red champion Arora of Khar Gymkhana came back into the match to narrow the margin at 5-6 to set the stage for a tight finish. But Damani also snatched four racks in a row to earn the winner's prize of `50,000 and a special painting from the Indian Fine Arts by artist Vasant Viraj Naik of Goa.
Koshy wins, Vijay Kumar leads
Pune: Kochi girl Elizabeth Susan Koshy shot 449 to defend the national title for women's 50M rifle 3 position category at the ongoing 58th National Shooting Championships here on Sunday. Haryana's Anjum Moudgill finished second with a total of 445, while Commonwealth Games medallist lujja Gauswami of Gujrat settled for the bronze medal shooting 433.3 at the Balewadi Shooting Range. In the men's 25m standard pistol championship, Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar took the pole position in the qualification round shooting a total of 571, while trailing him just by a point was Gurpreet Singh. Omkar Singh from the Navy was placed third with a total of 568. Railways finished second with a total of 1693, while the bronze medal went to BSF, who shot a total of 1680.