Paris Olympics-bound Preeti was among seven Indian boxers to have clinched the gold medal as the country’s medals tally hit a high of 43 at the conclusion of the Asian U-22 & Youth Boxing Championships here. Preeti (54kg) made a remarkable comeback after going down 0-5 in the first round to register a 3-0 win in the final against Kazakhstan’s Bazarova Elina. The Indian boxers won 12 gold, 14 silver and 17 bronze medals to finish second behind hosts Kazakhstan, who bagged a total of 48 medals. The first gold medal on Tuesday went to Vishvanath Suresh in the 48kg category with the reigning champ defeating Kazakhstan’s Karap Yernar 5-0. Nikhil (57kg) defeated Sabyr Yerbolat of Kazakhstan with a referee stopped contest (RSC) win in the third round. Akash Gorkha (60kg) secured a 4-1 win over Kazakhstan’s Ruslan Kuzeubayev to win India’s third gold medal in the men’s category. In the women’s category, Poonam Poonia (57kg) and Prachi (63kg) defeated Kazakhstan’s Sakysh Anel and Anar Tursynbek respectively with an identical 4-1 scoreline. Later, Muskan (75kg) was made to work hard by Uzbekistan’s Zokirova Aziza for a 3-2 split decision but one that gave India’s its seventh gold medal. Preet Malik (67kg), Guddi (48kg), Tamanna (50kg), Saneh (70kg) and Alfiya Pathan (81kg) finished their campaigns with silver medals after going down in their respective finals. The Indian U-22 team grabbed a total of 21 medals including seven gold, five silver and nine bronze medals. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
08 May,2024 07:27 AM IST | Astana (Kazakhstan) | PTIKyren Wilson held his nerve on Monday as he overcame an impressive fightback from qualifier Zak Jones to win snooker’s World Championship title for the first time. Wilson eventually triumphed 18-14 in the final at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre in northern England but only after Jones had won three frames in a row from 17-11 down to give himself hope of a remarkable rally. But in the end, the 12th-ranked Englishman regained his composure sufficiently. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
08 May,2024 07:25 AM IST | Sheffield | AFPManipur got the better of Duruello by a solitary goal in a women’s match of the Joe Fernandis memorial rink hockey tournament at Astro Park, Bandra, on Tuesday. Diana Waikhom scored the all-important match-winner for the Manipur girls. In another women’s encounter, Rajdhani Hockey routed Mansi Foundation 7-0 in a lop-sided affair. Priyanka scored a fine hat-trick for Rajdhani Hockey while her teammates Gayatri and Amandeep netted a brace each. In a men’s league tie, Union Bank beat Central Railway 2-1. Yashil Dhar and Amit Gowda scored for UBI while Joginder Singh pulled one back for CR.
08 May,2024 07:23 AM IST | Mumbai | A CorrespondentFive youth Indian boxers Brijesh Tamta, Aryan Hooda, Yashwardhan Singh, Laxmi and Nisha put up impressive performances to clinch gold medals at the ASBC Asian U-22 & Youth Boxing Championships here on Monday. Brijesh gave India its first gold medal of the tournament with a unanimous 5-0 win over Tajikistan’s Muminov Muinkhodzha in the men’s 48kg final. Aryan (51kg) continued the momentum with an equally dominant 5-0 victory against Kyrgyzstan’s Kamilov Zafarbek. Yashwardhan Singh (63.5kg) had to work hard against Gafurov Ruslan of Tajikistan to clinch the contest with a 4-1 verdict. In the women’s category, reigning junior world champion Nisha grabbed the yellow metal in the 52kg category as she outperformed Kazakhstan’s Otynbay Bagzhan in a 5-0 win. Laxmi (50kg) won India’s fifth gold medal with a referee stop the contest (RSC) win in the second round of the bout against Enkh Nomundari of Mongolia. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
07 May,2024 04:43 AM IST | Astana (Kazakhstan) | PTIIndian table tennis star Manika Batra shocked World No. 2 Wang Manyu of China to secure the biggest win of her singles career and enter the pre-quarterfinals of the Saudi Smash here on Monday. Manika, ranked 39, beat the second-seeded Chinese 6-11, 11-5, 11-7, 12-10 in just 37 minutes. Though Manika lost the opening game to the Tokyo Olympics team gold medallist and 2021 World Champion, she fought back well to take the next two games. In mixed doubles, Harmeet Desai and Yashaswini Ghorpade surprised the Spanish fifth-seeded pair of Alvaro Robles and Maria Xiao 3-2 (11-5, 5-11, 3-11, 11-7,11-7) to storm into the quarter-finals. Ayhika and Sutirtha Mukherjee defeated Mariam and Marwa Alhodaby 3-0 (11-7, 1-3, 11-4) to enter the pre-quarters. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
07 May,2024 04:41 AM IST | KAEC (Saudi Arabia) | PTIThe Indian men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams qualified for Paris Olympics after finishing second in their respective second-round heats at the World Athletics Relays here on Monday. In the women’s competition, the quartet of Rupal Chaudhary, M R Poovamma, Jyothika Sri Dandi and Subha Venkatesan clocked 3 minutes and 29.35 seconds to finish second behind Jamaica (3:28.54) in heat number one to book a Paris Games ticket. Later, the men’s squad of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Arokia Rajiv and Amoj Jacob finished with a collective timing of 3 minutes and 3.23 seconds to also finish second in their heat, behind USA (2:59.95). This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
07 May,2024 04:39 AM IST | Nassau (Bahamas) | PTIMcLaren’s Lando Norris won the first Formula One race of his career with a shock victory over world champion Max Verstappen in the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday. Breathing life into an F1 season that risked becoming a one-man story again, Norris, in his 110th race for McLaren, beat Verstappen by over seven seconds with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishing third. Verstappen, who began on pole, had won four of the opening five races of the season and leads the world championship standings. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
07 May,2024 04:37 AM IST | Miami Gardens | AFPDespite sleepless nights struggling with a fever, Andrey Rublev found a way to fight back and win the Madrid Open for the first time. Rublev won 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 after Auger-Aliassime double-faulted on the last point of the final at the clay-court tournament. “I would say this is the most proud title of my career,” Rublev said. “I was almost dead every day. I was not sleeping at night. The last three, four days I didn’t sleep.” Rublev gave “full credit to the doctors,” who were “doing some tricky things” to make sure he could play. “I have no words. If you knew what I had been through in the past nine days you wouldn’t imagine I’d be able to win a title,” he said. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
07 May,2024 04:34 AM IST | Madrid | AFPHosts Bombay Gymkhana’s Rajan Samant ended the fine run of Nikhil Chari, representing Lodha Bellissimo to win a keenly contested Men’s Singles 45 final in the GD Birla Memorial Masters badminton tournament, organised by Badminton 45, managed by Badminton Gurukul at Bombay Gymkhana on Sunday. Samant, who lost the first game 17-21, showed resilience and character in the second, prevailing 25-23 in the tough contest, which saw the lead change hands several times, as both players fought hard to gain supremacy. Samant’s superior fitness proved decisive as he cruised home quite comfortably in the decider, winning 17-21, 25-23, 21-15. Joe Fernandis hockey: CTC beat Mumbai Customs 4-2 Champions Training Centre (White) beat Mumbai Customs 4-2 in the Joe Fernandis Memorial Rink Hockey tournament at Astro Park, Bandra on Monday. Olympian Devindar Walmiki, Rajat Sharma, Aqib Rahim and Ganesh scored for CTC while Jayesh Jadhav and Joshua Vessaokar netted for Customs.
07 May,2024 04:26 AM IST | Mumbai | A CorrespondentRedemption, realization of a father's aspirations, a significant stride in burgeoning careers, and validation of early life decisions, the Paris Olympics qualification held varying significance for the diverse members of the Indian men's and women's 4x400m relay teams, clinching their tickets to Paris. Below are insight into the eight athletes, four men and four women, who clinched second place in their respective qualifying heats at the World Athletics Relay in Nassau, Bahamas, thereby securing their passage to the Paris Olympics. MR Poovamma For Olympian Poovamma, it's a redemption of sorts after she faced the ignominy of a two-year ban for a doping offence in 2021 before getting a favourable decision after the intervention of Kerala High Court. The 33-year-old, a multiple medallist in the individual 400m and 4x400m relay race in the 2014 and 2018 Asian Games, returned to action during the Goa National Games last year after serving a two-year ban. "Finally, I can return to action now. The ordeal is over, though it left me mentally distressed," she had told PTI then. The Arjuna Awardee is one of the most decorated athletes in the country, having won a women's 4x400m relay gold and 400m individual silver in the 2013 Asian Championships. She went on to win a gold and a bronze in the women's 4x400m relay and 400m individual event. The Karanataka-born, who married another international athlete from Kerala, also won a gold each in the women's 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relay races in the 2018 Asian Games. Rupal Chaudhary She scripted history by becoming the first Indian athlete to win two medals -- silver in women's 4x400m relay and bronze in the individual 400m -- at the World U20 Athletics Championship in 2022 in Colombia. The 19-year-old hails from a family of modest means. Her father is a small farmer in Shahpur Jainpur village in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district. As the closest stadium to her base -- Meerut -- does not have suitable synthetic tracks for training, she would endure a two-hour journey to Delhi for two days ever week to train. She became the second Indian to win a medal in the women's 400m after Hima Das' historic gold in the 2018 edition of the championships in Finland. Jyothika Dandi Sri Hyderabad-based Jyothika, who ran the second leg on Monday, took to sports to fulfil the dreams of her father who wanted his daughter to feature in the Olympics. The 23-year-old is quite close to it, though the final selection of the relay team rests in the hands of the Athletics Federation of India. She was part of the Indian women's 4x400m team that won a bronze in the Asian Championships last year. She won a 400m gold in the National Open Championships in and a silver in Goa National Games last year. Subha Venkatesan The 24-year-old from Trichy in Tamil Nadu is the daughter of a construction worker and a homemaker and she took to sports on the insistence of her maternal grandfather who works in the police department. Trained initially at the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu's (SDAT) Centre of Chennai, Subha went on to win medals in national meets before she became part of the women's 4x400m relay team that won a silver in the 2018 Asian Junior Championships. Muhammed Anas The 29-year-old Anas is the most well-known men's quarter-miler in the country and the national record holder. Already a two-time Olympian, Anas has won medals at the Asian Games, Asian Championships and 2016 he became is only the third Indian quarter-miler (individual 400m) to participate at the Olympics after KM Binu and Milkha Singh. He was a part of the Indian men's 4x400m and mixed 4x400m relays in Tokyo Olympics. He was also part of the men's 4x400m team that broke the Asian record in the World Championships last year and won the gold medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou. Anas hails from Nilamel village in Kerala and his father Yahiya was a state-level athlete. Anas has often stated that he became interested in running after seeing Jamaican legend Usain Bolt dashing down the track in the 2008 Olympics. He was a long jump champion at his school, but shifted to track on the advice of coaches. At the 2016 senior nationals, Anas clinched the 400m silver in his first attempt and broke the 46-second barrier at the Indian Grand Prix and Federation Cups that year for the first time. Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi Born in Palakkad, Kerala, Muhammed Ajmal was a football player just like many youngsters in his state. He participated at the U-19 state level football tournaments until his coach recommended a shift to running. He was a 100m sprinter first and then began competing in 400m. Amoj Jacob Born in Kerala but brought up in New Delhi, Jacob's sporting journey began during his time at St. Xavier's School in Rohini, when his coach suggested that he try becoming a sprinter. The 25-year-old was initially interested in football. His mother is a nurse at a Delhi hospital. He was part of the gold winning 4x400m relay team at the 2017 Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar, besides winning the Hangzhou Asian Games gold in the same event. Arokia Rajiv Hailing from a village near Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, athletics runs in Arokia's blood as his father Y Soundararajan was a state level sprinter and long jumper. Arokia's father Soundararajan was a bus driver while his mother a daily wager. The 32-year-old Armyman was part of the gold-winning 4x400m mixed relay team and he settled for a silver medal in the men's 4x400m relay at the 2018 Asian Games held in Jakarta. He was part of the Tokyo Olympics 4x400m relay team that broke the then Asian record. (With agency inputs)
06 May,2024 04:50 PM IST | New Delhi | mid-day online correspondentThe Indian men's and women's 4x400m relay contingents have clinched spots for the Paris Olympics, finishing second in their respective second-round heats at the World Athletics Relays held on Monday. In the women's event, the quartet comprising Rupal Chaudhary, M R Poovamma, Jyothika Sri Dandi, and Subha Venkatesan clocked 3 minutes and 29.35 seconds to secure second place behind Jamaica (3:28.54) in heat number one, thus earning a ticket to the Games. Subsequently, the men's team composed of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Muhammed Ajmal, Arokia Rajiv, and Amoj Jacob posted a collective time of 3 minutes and 3.23 seconds to also claim second position in their heat, trailing behind the USA (2:59.95). The top two teams in each of the three heats in the second round secured Olympic berths for the Paris Olympics scheduled from July 26 to August 11. The qualification of the women's 4x400m team for the Olympics came as somewhat of a surprise, given that the focus had primarily been on the men's 4x400m squad, which had set an Asian record in consecutive global events—the Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Championships—as well as clinching gold at the 2023 Asian Games. The Indian women's team had finished fifth in the first-round qualifying heat on Sunday, recording a time of 3 minutes and 29.74 seconds. In contrast, the men's team had encountered setbacks in the first-round qualifying heat when Rajesh Ramesh withdrew midway due to cramps. Arokia Rajiv replaced Ramesh and ran the third leg after Anas and Ajmal. Despite the men's team's timing on Monday falling short of their best, the focus remained on securing Olympic qualification. The Indian men's team had previously set an Asian record of 3:00.25 at the Tokyo Olympics before improving it to 2:59.05 during the 2023 World Championships. Monday's timing was below their previous record. Also Read: Indian walkers Akshdeep, Priyanka qualify for Paris Olympics in mixed-relay India had even put up a strong challenge against the formidable USA during the heat race at the 2023 Budapest World Championships before settling for second place. Meanwhile, India withdrew from the mixed 4x400m relay second-round heats on Monday due to Ramesh's absence after suffering muscle cramps during the men's 4x400m first-round heat on Sunday. Ramesh had participated in both the mixed 4x400m and men's 4x400m races on Sunday. India had featured in the mixed 4x400m relay at the Tokyo Olympics, where the event made its debut. The Indian women's 4x400m relay team will be making a comeback to the Olympics after missing out in the Tokyo Games. This will mark the eighth appearance for the Indian women's 4x400m team, with their first participation dating back to the 1984 Games. For the men's 4x400m team, this will be their fourth Olympic appearance, with their debut taking place at the 2000 Sydney Games. With this development, India now boasts at least 19 track and field athletes bound for Paris, including defending javelin throw champion Neeraj Chopra, among others. The athletics events at the Games are set to commence on August 1. A total of 70 teams have qualified for relay events at the Paris Olympics following two days of thrilling action at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas. Fourteen teams in each of the five disciplines contested in Nassau—the women's and men's 4x100m and 4x400m relays, along with the mixed 4x400m—secured automatic berths for Paris. The first 40 qualified teams—eight in each of the five relay events—were confirmed on Sunday, with the final 30 teams securing qualification on Monday, following a second round of Olympic qualifying for teams that missed out on the first day.
06 May,2024 03:54 PM IST | Nassau | mid-day online correspondentADVERTISEMENT
