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Set for Kolkata Test (Go
To Top) KOLKATA: The West Indies squad has arrived in Kolkata after ending their three-day match against the Ranji Champions, Railways, in a draw. The team members appeared at the nets on Monday at the sprawling Eden Gardens ground where the third cricket test between India and the West Indies is set to begin on Wednesday, October 30. India has already clinched the three-Test series 2-0 after winning the first two Tests at Mumbai and Chennai. India captain Saurav Ganguly, who suffered a back injury during the second Test, will be fit for the final match. The skipper has said he is aiming to score a maiden century in front of his home crowd. West Indies skipper Carl Hooper has blamed poor batting for the team's dismal performance in the first two tests. Pre-World
Cup 2002 Paragliding On in Himachal Pradesh (Go
To Top) BIR VALLEY (Himachal Pradesh): The mountainous Himachal Pradesh is host to a four-day paragliding competition in a run-up to possible World Cup.
Bir Valley in Kangra district is the latest destination for the competition which has paragliding enthusiasts from Italy, France, Turkey, Mexico and Korea. Some of the world's best paragliders including Scotty Marion, Ameico Sousa, Norman Lausch and Stephane Andre are taking part in the event. State's Department of Tourism and Civil Aviation, the main organisers of the event, also plans to include more competitive tasks to attract both amateur and professional pilots. Warm thermal current from April until the middle of November makes it ideal for paragliding in the valley. Paragliding started in 1995 but it was last year that the State decided to regularise the sport and exploit the tourist potential. The tournament concludes on Tuesday, October 29. Zaheer
Not to Play in Kolkata Test (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: Left-hand opening bowler Zaheer Khan will not play the one-dayers against the West Indies. He has also been ruled out for the Third and last Test match to be played in Kolkata from October 30 because of a knee injury. Zaheer is currently on an intense rehabilitation programme but team officials say he will be kept in reserve for New Zealand tour. SAI
Suspends Sunita Rani's Coach (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: The Sports Authority of India on Friday, October 25, suspended Renu Kohli, Sunita Rani's coach, to facilitate the inquiry ordered by the Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI). "The suspension is a normal procedure in such cases so that the inquiry is free and fair", according to a top SAI official. The official said that according to rules the suspension would have to be revoked after three months in case no charges were established against Kohli, who has already been examined by the one-man committee of Sushil Salwan. The committee is probing the Sunita Rani drug scandal. Rani was stripped of her gold and bronze medals, won at the Busan Asian Games, after she tested positive for banned substance, nandrolone. Anand
Opts Out of Chess Olympiad (Go
To Top) HYDERABAD: With the good news comes bad news. Vishwanathan Anand, who won the World Cup chess title on Sunday, October 20, will not lead the Indian team to the 35th Chess Olympiad to be held from October 25 in Slovenia. If Anand had played along with the other players like Sasikiran and Harikrishna, India could have been a tough team to beat. But he believes the format does not give a fair chance to all teams. Cross-country
Swimming Competition in Patna (Go
To Top) PATNA: To popularise water sports in Bihar, a ten-km long swimming competition was organised in Patna on Sunday, October 20. As many as 24 swimmers from across the country took part in the competition. The whole of the ten-km lap fell within the Ganga. This was the first occasion when such an event was organised in the State. The organisers admitted the State did not have facilities to organise such competitive events quite often. They said the idea behind holding the long distance race was to popularise the water sport in the State. Sunita
Rani Stripped of Her Medals (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Monday, October 21, ended speculations when it decided to withdraw medals awarded to Indian athlete Sunita Rani during Asian Games held in Busan recently after she tested positive for a banned drug, nandrolone.
The 22-year-old Rani, who won the 1,500 metres gold and took a 5,000 metres bronze, will lose both her medals after she was found to have used the illegal steroid, nandrolone. An official of the OCA said they decided to strip Rani of her medals after a detailed procedure. Raja Randhir Singh, secretary general of OCA, told reporters the medals would be forwarded to other athletes who have replaced Sunita Rani in the medals tally. The loss of Rani's gold will push India down to eighth position in the final standings, giving seventh place to Taiwan who have more silver medals. Asian Games organisers in Busan, South Korea, had said tests on Rani's "B" samples had confirmed the presence of the muscle-building substance. Rani denied taking banned drugs. Rani's case was the second doping scandal for India in four months, after weight-lifters Krishnan Madasamy and Satheesha Rai were stripped of their medals at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, spoiling a superb overall showing by the team. Rani, a talented runner who had shone even as a junior, won a silver and bronze in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games and made a comeback recently after being sidelined for almost two years due to a hip injury. The specialist who treated her said her hip bone had been severely eroded and was on the verge of a major fracture. Some doctors have suggested that steroids, if injected without expertise, can lead to decalcification of bones. Worries about doping have long been the subject of whispered discussions among Indian coaches, athletes and federation officials. Critics say the practice is widespread in a country desperate to shake off its also-ran tag at the world level. Last year, weight-lifter Kunjarani Devi, who had won many world-level medals, was stripped of an Asian championship gold after she tested positive for a stimulant and junior world discus winner Seema Antil lost her title for a similar offence. Sports officials say doping offenders go unpunished because the New Delhi laboratory of the State-run Sports Authority of India (SAI) does not have International Olympic Committee (IOC) accreditation. Tendulkar's
New Milestone (Go
To Top) CHENNAI: Sachin Tendulkar has opened a new chapter in the record books by becoming the first batsman to score 20,000 runs in the history of world cricket. Needing 16 to reach the mark, Tendulkar, unbeaten on 21 at tea on the second day of the second Test against West Indies here on Friday, October 18, drove Carl Hooper for a boundary to make the rare achievement. Besides scoring 8461 runs off 162 innings in 102 Test matches, the maestro has amassed 11,544 runs from 300 one-dayers to take his tally beyond the coveted mark, the total being 20,005. India's
Asiad Contingent Back Home (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: Indian players have returned home after putting up a good show in the just-concluded Asian Games at Busan in South Korea. Sports officials, fans and family members received the athletes, who brought home 11 gold, 12 silver and 13 bronze medals, on Monday, October 14. This was better than their performance at Bangkok four years ago where they won only seven gold medals in a total of 35.
However, there was a blot on the record as runner Sunita Rani tested positive for using the banned drug, nandrolone. Rani was the winner of gold medal in 1,500 metres and silver in 5,000 metres. The men's hockey team, hoping to retain the title they won in the last Games in Bangkok, stumbled at the Final hurdle and had to be content with the silver medal. The hosts beat them 4-3, avenging their defeat at the Final four years earlier. India's overall position in the medals tally was ninth. The Asian Games, symbolising prosperity and unification for a new millennium across Asia, saw over 6,000 athletes from all the 44 countries battle for glory and will be remembered for the first-time participation of a North Korean contingent. Sunita
Rani Tests Positive a Second Time (Go
To Top) BUSAN: A day after she tested positive for the banned substance, nandrolone, Sunita Rani, ace runner and double medal winner in the Asian Games here, on Monday, October 14, failed the second dope test too. According to Jagdish Tytler, the Chef de Mission of the Indian contingent, the confirmation came when the result of a second sample collected after the 5000 metre race, in which she won the bronze medal, was tested. Rani had also won the gold in women's 1500 m setting a new Games record. Kabaddi
in Qatar Olympics (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: Kabaddi team lived up to its expectation by winning the fourth successive gold medal at the Asian Games held in Busan, South Korea. An official of the contingent said the game has been included in the Olympics as well. "It is a golden moment. We have come back after winning gold in Kabaddi for the fourth time. Our players put up a good show. The other good news is that the game of Kabaddi has been included in the Qatar Olympics", he said. An ancient game, played all over Asia, is a team sport which requires both skill and power, and combines the characteristics of wrestling and rugby. In Kabaddi, two teams compete with each other for higher scores by touching or capturing the players of the opponent team. Each team consists of 12 players, of which seven are on court at a time, and five in reserve. The two teams fight for higher scores, alternating defence and offence. The court is as large as that for a dodge ball game. The game consists of two 20-minute halves, with a break of five minutes for change of sides. The snooker team of Yaseen Merchant and Rafat Habib was the first to give India its inaugural gold in Busan games. Paes,
Bhupathi Win Gold in Asiad Men's Doubles Tennis (Go
To Top) BUSAN: As expected, top seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi of India won the gold medal in men's doubles tennis in the Asian Games here on Friday, October 11. They defeated the South Korean pair of Lee Hyang-Taik and Chung Hee-Seok in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3. In women's hockey, India brought their disastrous campaign to an end with a 0-2 loss to Japan in the bronze medal match. This was the fourth straight loss for the Indian colts, who now finish last in the four-nation tournament. For Japan, both the goals were scored by Sakae Morimoto, one in each half, in the 29th and 44th minute. Japan had also beaten India 3-2 in the league phase. Indian
Women Win Three Golds in Asiad Athletics (Go
To Top) BUSAN: India's `golden' run in athletics at the 14th Asian Games here continued on Thursday when Sunita Rani, Saraswati Saha and Neelam J Singh claimed the top honours in women's 1,500 metres, 200m and discus throw events, respectively. In fact, Rani and Singh set new Asian Games records in their respective events. Rani won the gold in the 1,500 m race, with a time of four minutes and 06.03 seconds. Tatiana Borisova was placed second, while Japan's Yoshiko Ichikawa had to settle for the bronze. Saha won the 200 m gold with a time of 23.28 seconds. China's Ni Xiaoli clocked 23.34 seconds to come in second, while Kazhakhstan's Viktoriya Kovyreva took the bronze timing 23.48 seconds. Singh, winner of the bronze medal in the last Asian Games, recorded a throw of 64.55 m to win the gold in discus. China's Aimin Song (61.80 m) was second, while Shuli Ma (59.89 m) won the bronze. More
Golds for India in Women's Long Jump, Kabaddi
(Go
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BUSAN: India's Anju George struck gold for India in the women's long-jump event at the 14th Asian Games at Busan on Monday, October 7, taking the gold medal tally to four for the country. Anju had won a bronze at the Manchester Commonwealth Games. Her 6.74 metre clearance at the Open Nationals in Delhi was ranked 24th in the world and best in Asia for the current season. Earlier in the day, defending champions India beat Pakistan 37-7 in the last league match to win the kabaddi gold medal. India, who were leading 23-4 at the half time, gave little chance to the opposition in the second half as well claiming 14 points as against 3 by Pakistan. Shiv
Kapur Wins Gold in Asiad Golf (Go To
Top) BUSAN (South Korea): Golfer Shiv Kapur won India's second gold in the 14th Asian Games when he won the individual title here on Sunday, October 6. Earlier, Yasin Merchant and Rafath Habib had won India's first gold in snooker doubles. Srinath
Returns to Tests (Go
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BANGALORE: Fast bowler Javagal Srinath will play the first two games of a three-Test home series against West Indies starting in Bombay next week. Srinath, who announced his retirement in June after a five-Test West Indies series, recently reversed his decision, BCCI secretary Karunakaran Nair told reporters. Srinath abruptly retired from Tests on his return from West Indies but he was keen to continue playing one-day games to be in contention for next year's World Cup in South Africa. Srinath played his first game in the Champions Trophy final against hosts Sri Lanka last week-end as a replacement for injured left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra.Nehra, who was ruled out because of a torn webbing in his bowling hand, will be considered only if he passes a fitness test on Monday. Snooker
Team Wins India's First Gold
(Go
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BUSAN: India won their first gold of the 14th Asian Games when their snooker team defeated Hong Kong 3-1 in the final on Tuesday, October 1, 2002. Yasin Merchant and Rafat Habi combined to beat their opponents Marco Ka Chun and Chi Wai 33-71 74-20 92-13 78-21 to clinch the gold medal. -ANI |
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