Jisna sets national youth record
Doha: India’s Jisna Mathew set a new national youth record while winning a silver in girls’ 400m race on the third day of the Asian Youth Athletics Championships here. Jisna, a trainee under legendary P T Usha, clocked a creditable personal best time of 53.84 secs in the 400m final at Qatar Sports Club Stadium. The gold went to Bahraini girl Salwa Eid Nasser in 53.02s. Malaysian Shereen Samson Vallabouy took the bronze at a distant 55.14s. It was also the third best time by any Indian woman this year after Anilda Thomas (52.71 secs at the National Games) and M R Poovamma (53.41 secs at the Federation Cup). India also won two more silver and three bronze medals to swell their medal tally to 12 (2 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze) over three days.
Rishika, reddy sail into rd two
Nashik: Second seed Rishika Sunkara, fourth seed Bhuvana Kalva and sixth seed Snehadeviv Reddy enjoyed a relatively easy passage into the second round of the USD 10,000 NIWEK ITF women’s tennis championships here. On the first day of the main draw matches, Indian Fed Cup team member Rishika ousted Akshara Iska 6-3 6-4, while Bhuvana outplayed Nandini Sharma 6-3 6-3 in two all-India matches.
nadal out of top five
PARIS: Rafael Nadal dropped out of the top five in the ATP rankings for the first time in 10 years on Monday after failing to defend his title at the Madrid Masters. Nadal, a two-time defending champion in the Spanish capital, lost to Andy Murray on clay for the first time in Sunday’s final. It was Nadal’s fourth loss on his favorite surface this year, only two weeks before starting his quest for a 10th French Open title. “I haven’t been able to play two weeks in a row, well, in the whole year,” Nadal said. Novak Djokovic is still the top-tanked player, followed by Roger Federer and Murray. Nadal was ranked seventh on May 2, 2005, the last time he was out of the top five. “Whatever will happen, will be,” Nadal said. “It’s something that we have to realize, all of us, that what’s happening during these last years, it’s very complicated to be 10 or 11 years without leaving the top four.”
Kerala girl athletes recovering
Alappuzha (Kerala): The condition of the three Sports Authority of India (SAI) girl athletes, who attempted suicide last week, is improving and they are recovering well, said a doctor at the Medical College Hospital here. Four young girl athletes, residents at the SAI Water Sports Centre in Vembanad, had on May 6 ate some poisonous fruit on being reprimanded by the centre authorities for consuming beer. One of them, Aparna, passed away on Thursday. The doctor said the condition of the other three girls was now stable. “All of them had normal food today but are still kept in the medical intensive care unit. There have been incidents of similar cases where the condition gets bad after showing initial promise. Hence we do not wish to take any chance at all,” the doctor said.The three girls will be put through a series of counselling sessions and once they successfully complete it, they will be discharged, he added.
Court to rule on player’s strike
Barcelona: A Spanish court will decide whether soccer players can go ahead with their planned strike before the final two rounds of the season. The National Court said Monday it was summoning the Spanish league and the Spanish players’ union to “hear arguments” on Wednesday before ruling on the league’s request that the strike be temporarily suspended. The union has the backing of the Spanish soccer federation to begin an “indefinite” strike on Saturday in protest of a proposed government law to regulate broadcast revenues. If the law is approved, it would centralize the sale of TV rights and supposedly give the teams in the top division the vast majority of the revenue. The strike would affect the last two rounds of the league and the Copa del Rey final on May 30.
BRICS U-17 football tourney in india
New Delhi: Apex industry body ASSOCHAM has proposed a BRICS Under-17 Football Cup in India next year and a Memorandum of Understanding is set to be signed on Tuesday with Brazilian representatives here.
bid process for Oly TV rights opens
laussane: The IOC has opened the bidding process for broadcast rights across Europe for the 2018 and 2020 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee issued the “invitation to tender” Monday for the rights to the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The deadline for bid submissions is June 15. The IOC says bidders will be asked how they would work with the new year-round digital Channel that will be launched in 2016.