India win all three titles in Asian Squash Doubles C’ship
KUALA LUMPUR, June 26: In a remarkable achievement, India swept all the three titles — men’s, women’s and mixed events — in the second Asian Squash Doubles Championships after beating their respective rivals in the finals here on Thursday.The top-seeded men’s pair of Abhay Singh and Velavan Senthilkumar lost the first set but made a comeback to beat their Pakistani opponents Noor Zaman and Nasir Iqbal 2-1 (9-11, 11-5, 11-5) in the summit clash that lasted 88 minutes.The Indian duo had reached the final after beating Hong Kong pair of Chi Him Wong and Ming Hong Tang in the semifinals.In the women’s doubles final, second seeds Joshana Chinappa and Anahat Singh also rallied from a set down to win 2-1 (8-11, 11-9, 11-10) against Malaysia’s Ainaa Amani and Xin Ying Yee in a 35-minute final.Joshna and Anahat had made it to the summit clash after beating Hong Kong’s Po Yui Kirstie Wong and Yee Lam Toby Tse.The top-seeded mixed doubles pair of Abhay and Anahat made it a clean sweep of titles for India as they beat Malaysia’s Rachel Arnold and Ameeshenraj Chandaran 2-0 (11-9, 11-7) in the 28-minute summit showdown.In the process, Abhay and Anahat bagged their second title of the championships.(PTI)
BAI names 19-member team for Asian Junior C’ships in July
NEW DELHI, June 26: The fast-rising Tanvi Sharma was on Thursday named in India’s 19-member squad for the Badminton Asian Junior Championships (team and individual) to be held in Solo, Indonesia from July 18 to 27.Tanvi won a gold in the Badminton Asia women’s team championship. Junior world No. 1 men’s doubles pair of Bhargava Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gibburu will also be critical to India’s chances in the event.The team event will be played in a relay format, with the first side to reach 110 points declared the winner. It will begin with a group stage, followed by knockout rounds, with the top two teams from each group advancing.The full squad will report to a national preparatory camp at National Centre of Excellence in Guwahati from July 4 to 15. The NCE Guwahati will also host the BWF Junior World Championships later this year.Tanvi, currently ranked World No. 2 in the BWF junior rankings, will anchor India’s women’s singles challenge. Rounak Chouhan is ranked 12th in the boys’ singles.Vennala Kalagotla will feature in both singles and doubles, while in the men’s doubles, Bhargava and Viswa Tej will aim to extend their dominance as the top-ranked junior pair globally. (PTI)
Aquatic C’ships: Shoan betters national meet record
BHUBANESWAR, June 26: Shoan Ganguly bettered his national meet record in 400m medley on the fifth and final day of the Senior National Aquatic Championships with Karnataka finishing at the top with a haul of total 41 medals.Karnataka’s Ganguly clocked 4:24.64 to finish first in the 400m medley whereas Advait Page came in second with 4:26.90, followed by Aryan Nehra from Madhya Pradesh with a timing of 4:30.35.In women’s 800m freestyle, Delhi’s Bhavya Sachdeva claimed the gold medal with 9:09.67, followed by Telangana’s Vritti Agarwal (9:18.16) and Maharashtra’s Aditi Satish Hegde (9:18.20) at second and third respectively.Maharashtra’s Rishabh Das finished first with 56.13 in men’s 100m backstroke while Karnataka duo of Utkarsh Patil (56.29) and Akash Mani (56.35) came second and third respectively.In women’s 100m backstroke, Karnataka’s Vihitha Loganathan bagged the gold medal with 1:05.18 followed by Bengal’s Soubrity Mondal (1:05.19) and Odisha’s Pratyasa Ray (1:05.64).SSCB’s Likith Prema finished first in men’s 100m breaststroke with 1:03.16, while Tamil Nadu pair of Danush Suresh (1:03.11) and MS Yadesh Babu (1:03.81) came in second and third respectively.In women’s 100m breaststroke, RSPB’s Harshitha Jayaram finished with 1:13.24 followed by Mannata Mishra (Odisha) and Saanvi Deshwal (Maharashtra), who both clocked 1:15.57.On the final day of the 78th edition of the tournament, Karnataka recorded a total haul of 41 medals including 16 gold medals, 11 silver and 14 bronze. (PTI)