Indian challenge ends at Thailand Masters badminton
Bangkok, Jan 31: Former world no.1 shuttler Kidambi Srikanth and Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian crashed out of the Thailand Masters Super 300 tournament as Indian challenge ended here on Friday. While Srikanth lost 17-21, 16-21 against sixth seed Zheng Xing Wang of China, former world junior no.1 Subramanian gave a tough fight to another Chinese Xuan Chen Zhu before losing 21-19, 18-21, 13-21 in a match that lasted one hour and 10 minutes. Later in the day, eight-seeded Indian men’s doubles pair of Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and K Sai Pratheek lost 19-21, 18-21 to second seeds Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Daniel Marthin of Indonesia. Young Rakshitha Ramraj also couldn’t cross the quarterfinal hurdle, going down fighting 21-19, 14-21, 9-21 to Thailand’s Thamonwan Nithiittikrai in another match. (PTI)
Ministry clears 88-member Indian contingent for Asian Winter Games
New Delhi, Jan 31: The sports ministry has approved the participation of a strong 88-member Indian contingent for the 9th Asian Winter Games to be held in the Chinese city of Harbin from February 7-14, ending weeks of uncertainty over the size of the group. The contingent will have 59 athletes and 29 team officials in disciplines such as alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, short track speed skating, and speed skating (long track) and will receive full funding from the government under the Assistance to National Sports Federations (ANSF) Scheme to athletes. However, the participation of the 23-member men’s ice-hockey contingent and seven support staff associated with the discipline has been cleared on a no-cost-to-government basis. (PTI)
BAI-REC to host first-ever BWF Level 1 course in India
New Delhi, Jan 31: In a bid to build a strong network of qualified coaches, the Badminton Association of India (BAI) will conduct the first-ever BWF Level 1 Course for coaches along with BAI Level 1 (Advanced) courses at multiple venues in February and March. The BWF Level 1 courses, which are supported by REC Limited and the Sports Authority of India (SAI), will be held in Goa, Raipur, and Guwahati. Each state association will be allowed to nominate preferably one male and a female representative between the age of 25-45, who fulfil the basic criteria of having represented the state in National or Zonal championships and have coaching experience of three years with the association. The first leg of the coaching courses began in Goa on Monday while the second edition will be held in Raipur from February 4-10. Guwahati will host the third edition from February 12-18. Last year, BAI launched its first-ever grassroots coaches training programme through which it trained around 250 coaches with training imparted to them across 112 days from March to October 2024. (PTI)