Ekta Dey improves women’s 3000m steeplechase jr natl record
Lucknow, March 10: Madhya Pradesh’s Ekta Pradeep Dey set the women’s 3,000m steeplechase national record while also breaching the Asian U-20 qualifying time enroute winning the gold medal on the concluding day of the National Junior Federation Athletics Championships here on Sunday. Dey clocked 10:10.08 seconds to breach the Asian U20 Championships qualification time of 11:30.00 and she also bettered the earlier national record of 10:29.50 seconds. A day after missing the Asian U20 qualification time in 100m dash, sprinter Dondapati Mrutyam Jaya of Odisha ran a scorching 21.59 seconds race to win the men’s 200m gold and breach the Asian U20 qualification time of 21.60 seconds. Jaya was the only 200m sprinter to have breached the Asian U20 qualification time. On Saturday, he won gold in 100m with a time of 10.67 seconds, while the Asian qualification time was 10.50 seconds. (PTI)
Parvej Khan finishes seventh in NCAA Championships
New Delhi, March 10: National Games gold medallist Parvej Khan finished seventh in the one mile track event’s final in the NCAA Championships of the United States in Boston, one of the most competitive collegiate competitions in the world. Khan clocked 4 minutes 03.05 seconds to finish seventh on Saturday, having become the first Indian to qualify for the final of a track event in the NCAA Championships. The 19-year-old Indian clocked 3 minutes 57.126 seconds to finish third in the preliminary run. USA’s Luke Houser finished first with a timing of 4 minutes 01.72 second while Australian Adam Spencer came second in 4 minutes 01.92 seconds. Lucas Bons (4:02.12) of the US was third. Khan was representing University of Florida as he earned a college scholarship there last year. (PTI)
AIFF AGM calls ‘personal attacks’ on Chaubey as ‘motivated’
Itanagar, March 10: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Sunday passed a resolution during its Annual Genral Body Meeting (AGM) here, calling the “personal attacks” on president Kalyan Chaubey as “motivated” and “outright insult” to all its members. The AGM was held a day after the conclusion of the National Football Championships for the Santosh Trophy here on Saturday. The AGM was preceded by a meeting of the executive committee. “Both the Executive Committee and the General Body expressed anguish at the way personal attacks have been made against senior AIFF officials, especially the president, from certain quarters,” the AIFF said. “The members felt that the attacks were not only personal against the federation president but also an outright insult to every member of the federation and the AIFF in general. The members also felt that this was in absolutely poor taste and has caused serious damage to the progress of Indian football. “Taking note of this, the House passed a resolution calling this attack motivated and done with definite malicious intent,” a release said. The AGM is being held after the controversial sacking of Shaji Prabhakaran as AIFF secretary general and allegations of “corruption” made against Chaubey by former legal head Nilanjan Bhattacahrjee. Chaubey had, however, termed the allegations as baseless and had served a legal notice to Bhattacahrjee, whose service was also terminated by the AIFF earlier this month. The General House also discussed the current state of Indian refereeing and the possible introduction of VAR (Virtual Assistant Referee). “The AIFF Chief Refereeing Officer, while submitting his report and pointing out that 85 percent of on-pitch refereeing decisions are proving to be correct in the current season, also held discussions with five reputed agencies specialised in VAR. (PTI)