Pakistan receives invitation to join HIL after New Zealand pulls out
LAUSANNE, (Switzerland), July 23: After Hockey New Zealand notified the International Hockey Federation (FIH) of their decision not to participate in the next FIH Hockey Pro League Men’s season despite having won the FIH Hockey Nations Cup last month, FIH has, in accordance with the regulations, extended an invitation to the Nations Cup runners-up Pakistan, to join the 2025-26 Pro League edition. The Pakistan Hockey Association has been given a deadline till August 12 to inform FIH of their decision to accept or deny the invitation, the FIH informed in a statement on Wednesday.The upcoming season will be the seventh one of the “League of the Best”.New Zealand, which was at one time ranked as high as No.5 in the FIH World Rankings, has slipped to No.12 in the latest list. The sport, which used to get a lot of support from the New Zealand government, is not receiving similar support post-COVID-19 pandemic.Meanwhile, Pakistan too has been struggling to make it back to the top echelons of international hockey. A three-time winner of Olympic gold medals, Pakistan has failed to qualify for the last three editions of the Olympic Games. (IANS)
Mahreen, Arshvant lead Indian challenge a US Kids Golf C’ship
PINEHURST, (USA) July 23: Two of India’s most decorated teenage golfers, Mahreen Bhatia and Arshvant Srivastava will lead the Indian challenge at this week’s US Kids World Teen Championship at the iconic Pinehurst, North Carolina.The US Kids India team has six players in this year’s edition of the annual World Teens event. There are two players in the Boys 15-18 and four in Girls 15-18 and all have good experience in and out of India.Mahreen was third at the 2024 edition and runner-up in 2023 and is aiming to get to the top.In the past year, her achievements also include a win at the 2024 Shubhankar Sharma Invitationals and she was second at the 2024 at the Tommy Fleetwood International Pathway Series Pres by DP and also won the FCG Callaway World Juniors in the US in July last year.She was also in the Top-5 of the Faldo Series Asia Grand Final.Arshvant comes in with a lot of experience from US Kids events in the past few years and has two good wins on domestic circuit in 2024 at the NCR Cup Juniors and the Greens to Glory event and was the runner-up at US Kids Indian Championship.This season he has had Top-5 finishes in US Kids China, US Kids Thailand and the Faldo Series Asia Grand final and was seventh in the US Kids UAE.Vihaan Jain played the 2024 US Kids World Teens in 2024 and was T-13 with Arshvant also in the field.Asara Sawhney was T-7 in 2024 US Kids, while Anushka Gupta and Ayesha Gupta also hold a lot of promise. (PTI)