Haryana leaders at Athletics Meet
Hyderabad: Haryana beat arch rivals Kerala after six years to win the team championship at the National Youth Athletics Meet, which concluded here on Sunday. Haryana emerged champions with 166.5 points. Kerala, which stood at the top place in the last five years, could manage only 134.75 points to finish runners-up. However they retained the team crown for girls (100 pts) while Haryana boys tops with 108.5 points at the end of the three day meet. last year's World School Games champion Rohit Yadav (Haryana) improved his personal best in javelin throw with an excellent 76.11 m throw. It was also a new meet record. With today's performance he is very close to Song Qingshu of China, who won with 76.36m in their youth nationals at Nanchang just four days ago. An interesting dual for the top spot between the duo will be on cards in the Asian Youth championships at Bangkok next month. Both Rohit and his Uttar Pradesh teammate Avinash Yadav, who finished second today with 71.59m, have attained the world youth qualification also.
Harika suffers 1st loss in Reykjavik
Reykjavik: India's grandmaster Harika Dronavalli's unbeaten run came to an end when she went down fighting to Dutch grandmaster Jorden van Foreest in the fifth round of the highly competitive Reykjavik Open here. Harika, the World No. 14, who had looked solid till now, ran into time trouble after a smart opening and ended up giving away a point. "I was in a good position at the beginning but I consumed too much time in the middle game," conceded Harika. "With the clock ticking away, I made one final mistake which proved to be my undoing," she added. The Indian star is currently 40th on the table but just one and a half points behind leader Anish Giri with three wins and one draw. The 10-round Swiss tournament will see the Guntur lass take on young FIDE Master Vignir Vatnar Stefansson from Iceland. Even though the local boy is rated lower and is joint 52nd after five rounds, he also has the same number of points as Harika.
East Bengal return to winning ways
Barasat: East Bengal returned to winning ways with a 3-1 victory over Minerva Punjab in a penultimate round clash of I-league here on Sunday. Wedson Anselme (31st), Robin Singh (52nd minute via a penalty) and substitute Bikash Jairu (90th) minute were the scorers for the red-and-gold brigade, who had slipped out of I-league title contention after a four-match losing streak under coach Trevor Morgan. East Bengal, however, failed to keep a clean sheet as Krishna Pandit struck in the dying moments through Victor Amobi in the injury time. Playing under interim coach Ranjan Chowdhury after Morgan's exit, East Bengal brightened their hopes for a top- three finish as they breached the 30-point mark, three behind rivals Mohun Bagan, who slipped to second after their 0-1 defeat at Aizawl FC on Saturday. East Bengal complete their I-league engagement against relegation-wary Mumbai FC on April 29, while ninth-placed Minerva travel to Pune.