14 Indians reach finals at Asian U-15 & U-17 Boxing C’ships
Amman, April 27: Nine of the 12 Women’s U-15 boxers competing in the semifinals won their respective bouts to progress ahead, as 14 Indians were guaranteed a finals spot at the Asian U-15 & U-17 Boxing Championships after the eighth day of competitions. India was guaranteed 43 medals before the day’s play began, but bronzes turned to silver and gold after Indian pugilist booked their place in the finals. In the Women’s U-15 semifinals, Komal (30-33 kg), Navya (58 kg), and Sunaina (61 kg) secured dominant RSC (Referee Stopped Contest) victories. Khushi Ahlawat (35 kg), Tamanna (37 kg), Princi (52 kg), and Trushana Mohite (67 kg) posted convincing wins by clear points margins. Milky Meinam (43 kg) battled hard to edge out her opponent in a tight 3-2 result, rounding off a highly successful day for India’s young female boxers. Svi (40 kg) and Vanshika (70+ kg) had received byes to the final. In the Men’s U-15 competition, Sanskar Vinod (35 kg) became the first to secure a place in the title bout with a RSC win over Kyrgyzstan’s Arsen Zhorobaev. Sanskar was later joined in the final round by Rudraksh Singh Khaidem (46 kg), Abhijeet (61 kg), and Lakhsay Phogat (64 kg), all of whom won on points. (IANS)
KSSMSC 2025: Shooter Abhinav Shaw shines with triple gold
New Delhi, April 27: Teenaged shooters continued to rule the roost at the ongoing 23rd Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial (KSSM) Shooting Championship, a premiere domestic rifle and pistol tournament. After the heroics of Rashmika Sahgal and Shambhavi Kshirsagar over the past couple of days, it was the seasoned Abhinav Shaw, who did the star turn on 10m air rifle mixed team Sunday at the Dr. Karni Singh ranges here, winning all three golds on offer, in the Olympic event. Incidentally, the West Bengal rifle shooter, the youngest ever medallist at the Nationals, is also the reigning junior world champion in the mixed team event. In the senior final, Abhinav partnered world championship bronze medallist Mehuli Ghosh and the two overwhelmed the Railways’ pairing of Meghana Sajjanar and Shahu Tushar Mane, 16-4, in the title decider. Elavenil Valarivan and Smit Rameshbhai Moradiya won bronze for Gujarat in the event that saw the highest 20-teams compete. Then in the junior gold match, he partnered Swati Chowdhury to give West Bengal a second gold on the day as they took out Shambhavi and Parth Rakesh Mane of Maharashtra 16-12, in a much more tightly contested final. Abhinav Agrawal and Gautami Bhanot picked up bronze for Madhya Pradesh, giving Gautami her first medal of the day. Abhinav completed the golden hat-trick with his third partner of the day Sandrata Roy, in the youth category. This was also a final where Abhinav and Sandrata dominated their opponents, the MP pairing of Nikhil Pundir and Gautami Bhanot, inflicting a 17-5 defeat. Haryana won bronze through Ameerah Arshad and Puru Raj Birthal. (IANS)
Assefa breaks women-only world marathon record in London
London, April 27: Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa smashed the women-only world record by 26 seconds at the London Marathon, running 2:15:50 to win the World Athletics Platinum Label road race on Sunday. The Olympic silver medallist kicked away from Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei to clinch her first London Marathon win after finishing second to Peres Jepchirchir last year. Jepchirchir’s winning mark of 2:16:16 a year ago had also been a women-only world record and that is the mark Assefa improved, finishing strongly to win by almost three minutes ahead of Jepkosgei (2:18:43). Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands was third (2:18:59), the World Athletics reported. Given the strength of the field, the women-only world record was always the target. With that in mind, the lead group of Jepkosgei, Assefa, Hassan and Megertu Alemu followed the pacemakers through 5 km in a blistering 15:34 – not only inside the targeted 2:15 pace, but on sub-2:12 rhythm. The quartet maintained that pace through 10km, hitting that mark in 31:16. Assefa and Jepchirchir broke away by the halfway point, which they passed in 1:06:40, 10 seconds ahead of Hassan. The leading pair continued to move away from the rest of the field and after 35 km was reached in 1:52:12, Assefa made a break. A 5:03 24th mile made the difference and by 40 km Assefa was 56 seconds ahead. She finished hard to stride over the finish line in 2:15:50 – the second-fastest marathon of her career behind the 2:11:53 she ran to win in Berlin in 2023, a mark that at the time was a world record for a women’s marathon in a mixed race. (IANS)
Ayush, Pantsulaia and Savchenko on top at M’rashtra Open Chess
Pune, April 27: India’s Ayush Sharma, Georgia’s Levan Pantsulaia and Russia’s Boris Savchenko were in the joint lead after the ninth round of the third Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament here on Sunday. Ayush got the better of Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB while Pantsulaia won against Nitish Belurkar from Goa. Savchenko was the winner in the clash against India’s Deep Sengupta of PSPB to go into the lead. Meanwhile, in the below 1800 rating event, Alaukik Sinha was in the lead after the sixth round. (PTI)