J’khand, Maha among winners on day 7 in Senior Men National C’ship
Chennai, Nov 10: Hockey Association of Odisha, Le Puducherry Hockey, Hockey Jharkhand and Hockey Maharashtra registered dominant wins in their respective pool matches on the seventh day of the 14th Hockey India Senior Men National Championship here on Sunday. Hockey Association of Odisha blanked Hockey Arunachal 9-0 in Pool E with Amandeep Lakra (5’, 25’), Ajay Kumar Ekka (15’, 50’) and Kerobin Lakra (47’, 53’) scoring twice each. Nilam Sanjeep Xess (11’), Pratap Lakra (23’), and Sudeep Chirmako (35’) also sounded the board. Le Puducherry Hockey trounced Hockey Rajasthan 13-2 in another match at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium. For Le Puducherry Hockey, T Arun Kumar (3’, 21’, 25’, 26’), Mahendran P (2’, 7’, 29’, 32’) and R Ranjith (8’, 37’, 42’, 50’) netted four goals each along with a contribution from captain Veerathamizhan V (55’). Captain Virendra Singh (15’) and Keshav Pandey (47’) were the scorers for Hockey Rajasthan. In Pool G, Hockey Jharkhand defeated Hockey Gujarat 18-2, while Hockey Maharashtra beat Goans Hockey 5-0. (PTI)
National level shot-put player found dead in Bhopal
Bhopal, Nov 10: Amit Verma, a national level shot-put player, was found dead in his apartment in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal on Sunday, an official said. Verma’s friends reached his house after he did not respond to their calls in the morning, TT Nagar police station in-charge Sunil Singh Bhadoria said The friends broke open the door when the 22-year-old athlete did not answer the doorbell. They found his body inside the apartment, the official said. Bhadoria said no suicide note was found in the house. At this stage, police cannot say if it is suspicious, according to the official. The reason for Verma’s death can be ascertained only after post-mortem, he said. The shot-put player was in Bhopal for the past year to train at the TT Nagar Stadium, he added. (PTI)
Ace Mark Cavendish ends cycling career in style with Singapore win
Singapore, Nov 10: Mark Cavendish, one of the best road sprinters in cycling history, retired in style on Sunday by winning the Tour de France Criterium in Singapore. The 39-year-old from the Isle of Man broke famed Belgian cyclist Eddy Merckx’s long-standing record for most career Tour de France stage wins with his 35th victory in July. Fittingly, for his final race Cavendish wore No. 35 on his race jersey and won in a dash to the line for the 165th victory overall in his career. “I’m quite emotional actually,” Cavendish said. “I realised in the last 5 laps that it was the last 15 kilometres of my career.” He finished just ahead of Belgian riders Jasper Philipsen and Arnaud De Lie. “What an incredible day to share my last race with those riders,” Cavendish said. “With the future of sprinting, with this next generation of sprinters.” Nicknamed the “Manx Missile,” Cavendish had planned to retire after the 2023 season but changed course and returned with the goal of passing Merckx’s Tour stage-win record. However, Cavendish was a pure sprinter and – being limited in the mountain stages – was never close to winning the Tour. Cavendish also won stages at the two other Grand Tours – 17 on the Giro d’Italia and three at the Spanish Vuelta – and became a world champion in 2011 in Copenhagen. (AP)
