Amit strikes gold; Mary Kom, Seema settle for silver
sofia: Amit Panghal claimed his second consecutive international gold but celebrated M C Mary Kom content with a silver in the 69th Strandja Memorial boxing tournament for men and women on Sunday. Amit (49kg), who fetched the top honours at last month's India Open, defeated Morocco's Said Mordaji to fetch the yellow metal. He recovered from a sloppy start to out-manuever Mordaji, who was taller and matched the Indian in pace but eventually fell short on accuracy. However, Mary Kom (48kg), who came into the event in pursuit of a third consecutive gold medal after the Asian championships and the India Open, lost to Bulgaria's Sevda Asenova in a rather shocking decision. Seema Poonia (+81kg), who went down to Russia's Anna Ivanova also grabbed silver.
Aruna finishes 7th at Gymnastics World Cup
melbourne: After clinching a historic bronze medal in vault at the Gymnastics World Cup, Aruna Budda Reddy finished a lowly seventh in the final round of women's floor event on Sunday. Aruna had created history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to win an individual medal at the Gymnastics World Cup but the 22-year-old from Hyderabad couldn't bring her best on Sunday as she scored 10.833 to finish in the seventh position. Among others, Rakesh Patra also finished seventh in the final round of the parallel bars after scoring 13.433, 1.400 points behind gold medallist Xiaoming Wu of China. 2014 Asian Games bronze medallist Ashish Kumar also endured a difficult day after finishing 8th in men's vault event.
Yuvraj, Kapil to grace laureus Sports Awards
monaco: A galaxy of sporting stars from across the world, including cricketers Kapil Dev and Yuvraj Singh today descended on the sovereign city-state along the French Riviera here for the 18th edition of the prestigious laureus World Sports Awards 2018 to be held on February 27. While Kapil is an academy member of the laureus World Sports Awards along with Australian cricket legend Steve Waugh, Yuvraj has come here as an ambassador. Some of the big names of yesteryears, who will be attending the gala night on Tuesday are Boris Becker, Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, Alessandro Del Piero, luis Figo, Raul, Carlos Puyol, Ryan Giggs, former Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas among others.
Golden finish for Norway
pyeongchang: Winter Olympics legend Marit Bjoergen lifted Norway top of the final Pyeongchang medals table on Sunday, as Russia celebrated a dramatic men's hockey gold -- but also saw their flag barred from the closing ceremony over doping. Bjoergen, 37, won her second gold and fifth medal at Pyeongchang in the women's 30km cross country mass start, extending her record Winter Olympics career tally to 15. Germany also finish on 14 golds, but Norway take top spot with their record 39 medals overall to Germany's 31. Canada are third with 11 golds, while hosts South Korea are seventh. Norway's celebrations capped a dramatic final day of competition that saw the Olympics Athletes from Russia beat Germany 4-3 in a sudden-death, overtime hockey thriller.
Gopi, Monika defend Marathon title
new delhi: Reigning Asian Champion Gopi Thonakal ran his personal best to retain his title at the IDBI Federal life Insurance New Delhi Marathon on Sunday. Gopi clocked 2 hour, 15 minute and 16 seconds to clinch the gold under ideal running conditions but missed the tough Commonwealth Games qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India. Nitendra Singh Rawat was second in 2:24:55 while Bahadur Singh Dhoni took the bronze in 2:24:56. In the women's event, Monika Athare retained her title, clocking 2:43:46.