Chinki Yadav 11th shooter to qualify for Tokyo Olympics
Doha: Chinki Yadav on Friday secured the second quota for Tokyo Olympics in women’s 25m Pistol event as she entered the finals at the ongoing Asian Shooting Championship. She shot 296 to register a total of 588, finishing behind Thailand’s Naphaswan Yangpainboon, who shot 590 in the qualifications. On Thursday, she had shot 292 to give herself the chance of securing one of the four available places for next year’s Olympic Games. This was India’s 11th quota in Shooting for Tokyo Games. The 21-year-old will now look to win a medal as well. Rahi Sarnobat had already secured the other quota for India at the ISSF World Cup in Munich. Rahi’s score of 37 had helped her beat Ukraine’s Olena Kostevych at the event and take the top spot. The 28-year-old made a stunning comeback to the sport as she became the first Indian woman to win gold at the Asian Games. This after an elbow injury had forced her to stay away from shooting. Rahi won the first Olympic quota place that was available to the Indians in this category in Munich with those in the pistol and rifle events being won by Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil, Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma. (IANS)
2023 men’s hockey WC in India
New Delhi: The 2023 men’s hockey World Cup will be held in India, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) said on Friday. This will be the second consecutive time that India will be hosting the tournament and the fourth time overall. India had hosted the World Cup in 1982 and 2010 before 2018. The FIH release also stated that the 2022 women’s hockey World Cup will be hosted jointly by Spain and the Netherlands. “We will work closely with the local organising committees on the sustainability and legacy aspects of these events”, FIH CEO Thierry Weil said. The Executive Board also approved the qualification process for both events. The hosts will qualify automatically. The winners of the Continental Championships will qualify directly (5 teams). The remaining 10 teams will qualify through a home-and-away play-off; the 20 teams involved in these qualifiers will be determined by Continental quotas, based on the FIH World Rankings at the end of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and the finishing positions of teams in the Continental Championships. The men’s World Cup is slated to be held from January 13 to 29, 2023 while the women’s World Cup will be held from July 1-17, 2022. (IANS)
Former Mohun Bagan secy dies
Kolkata: Iconic football club Mohun Bagan’s former secretary Anjan Mitra, who served in the position for more than two decades, died here on Friday due to a heart ailment. Mitra was 72 and is survived by wife Sujata and daughter Sohini Mitra Chaubey. He was one of the longest serving administrators of Mohun Bagan, among the most successful clubs in the history of Indian football. According to hospital sources, Mitra died early on Friday due to several complications that first started when he underwent a bypass surgery in 2014. “He breathed his last at 3.10am,” a hospital official said. As a mark of respect, Mohun Bagan called off their practice here. His mortal remains will be taken to the club in the afternoon before being cremated at the Keoratala burning ghat. (PTI)
U-19 Challenger teams named
New Delhi: The All-India Junior Selection Committee on Friday picked India A, India B and India C teams for the upcoming U-19 Challenger Trophy to be played in Hyderabad from November 11. The tournament will also feature Nepal ‘A’ as the fourth team. The All-India Junior Selection Committee also named Shivam Mavi and Aditya Thakare as replacements for the injured Arshdeep Singh and Kamlesh Nagarkoti respectively in India’s squad for the Emerging Asia Cup. The BCCI medical team informed that Nagarkoti is unwell and will not be able to take part in the tournament while Arshdeep suffered a quadriceps strain during training. (PTI)
Satwik-Chirag in China Open semis
Fuzhou (China): Indian men’s star doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continued their prolific run on Friday as they entered the semi-finals of the ongoing China Open upsetting World No. 3 pair of Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen. The Indian duo were at their absolute best as they defeated the former world champions 21-19, 21-15 in the quarter-final clash which lasted for 43 minutes at the Haixia Olympics Sports Center. In what was a rematch of the Thailand Open final, the Indian duo took a 3-0 lead in the first game and conceded it only once at 17-16. (IANS)