Katsumi stars in Bagan's win
Barasat (West Bengal): Defending champions Mohun Bagan defeated Sporting Clube de Goa 1-0 courtesy Katsumi Yusa's late strike and thereby tightened their grip on the pole position of the I-league football tournament, here on Saturday. Katsumi's 73rd minute strike from a Sony Norde centre proved to be the difference in a match where Goan side gave Mariners a tough time but it was the resilience of their young goalkeeper Debjit Majumder who managed to keep a clean sheet. After eight games, Mohun Bagan are the only team to maintain an unbeaten record with 18 points with five wins and three drawn games, followed closely by Bengaluru FC, who are on 15 points with equal number of wins.
Mayookha bags gold
doha: long jumper Mayookha Johny fetched India a gold in the long jump event at the Asian Indoor Athletics Championships here on Saturday. Mayookha controlled the competition from the very outset and finished on top of the podium with a leap of 6.35m, an effort that propelled her to India's first Asian indoor title in the event. In the women's 60m dash, India's Dutee Chand settled for a bronze after shattering the national record in 60m dash with a time of 7.37 seconds as she won her heats. Sugandha Kumari brought the third medal for India as she won a bronze in women's 1500m with a time of 4:29.06.
You cannot buy a World Cup: Blatter
zurich: Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter insists that the vote to host the 2022 football World Cup was not fixed, saying that "you cannot buy a World Cup." Blatter said that former French president Nicolas Sarkozy had asked Michel Platini to vote against the US bid to host the 2022 World Cup. The quadrennial event was eventually allotted to Qatar. "You cannot buy a World Cup, it will go at the end where the higher political influences are," Blatter was quoted as saying by the BBC on Saturday.
‘SF16-H car will make us stronger’
london: Four-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel believes Ferrari will be "even stronger" than last year following the launch of its new SF16-H car for the 2016 season. The team is looking to challenge Mercedes after finishing second in the 2015 constructors' championship. Vettel won three races in his debut season with Ferrari but finished third in the drivers' competition. "We had a fantastic year last year and we all want more. When I joined the team there were a lot of people changing their positions and it was a difficult time to have expectations," Vettel said.
‘England lacked winning mentality’
madrid: Football legend and current Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane believes that only a lack of a winning mentality prevented the England teams he faced from winning a major tournament. "The mental factor can play a big part in football. Spain couldn't make it further than the quarter-finals for years; when they did manage to they went and dominated football in a way that hadn't been done before," Zidane was quoted as saying by Shortlist magazine on Friday. "Some of those England teams I played against with players like Scholes, Gerrard and Beckham were more than capable of winning tournaments, so maybe mentality played a part," he added.
Argentina Davis Cup team finalised
buenos aires: The captain of Argentina's national tennis team, Daniel Orsanic, confirmed the names on Friday of the players who will visit Poland to represent the South American country in the first round of the Davis Cup. The Argentinian captain explained in a news conference that the chosen ones are leonardo Mayer, number 38 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world ranking; Guido Pella (71), Carlos Berlocq (115) and Renzo Olivo (160). The list did not include Federico Delbonis (46) and Schwartzmann (90) which came as a surprise because they were part of the team in 2015 when Argentina went out in the semifinals against Belgium, reports Xinhua.
‘can change Indian boxing's destiny’
kolkata: Former world champion l Sarita Devi on Saturday lamented on the long-dragging administrative mess in Indian boxing but said it is up to the country's boxers to rise above this crisis with their performance at the Rio Oly. India does not have a national federation after the International Boxing Association terminated Boxing India last year. The sport is being administered by an ad-hoc committee. "At this moment, boxing can go either way, we can't say which way. It's at crossroads but the destiny is in our hands. If we do well and put India on top at Oly, the future will definitely be shining again," she said.