Indian sports news wrap, June 27

BOXING

Youth Women’s Nationals: Two-time Asian Junior champion Nikita Chand starts on a winning note

Uttarakhand’s pugilist Nikita Chand kicked off her campaign with a win on opening day of the sixth Youth Women’s National Boxing Championships in Bhopal.

Nikita (60kg) emerged victorious against Vaishnavi Waghmare of Maharashtra with a 4:1 scoreline. The two-time Asian Junior Champion started off the first round cautiously but impressively shifted gears as the bout progressed to secure a triumphant start to the championship.

Nikita will take on Anamika Yadav of Uttar Pradesh in the next round.

The day’s matches witnessed impressive performances from emerging boxing talents. Bhawna Sharma of Haryana (48kg), Shalini Gupta of Uttar Pradesh (52kg), Nidhi of Chandigarh (52kg), Riya Toor (60kg) of Punjab and Supriya Rawat of Delhi (66kg) all secured comprehensive victories with an identical scoreline of 5:0.

Khushi Jadhav of Maharashtra delivered a commanding performance in the 50kg category and overpowered Megha Behra of Odisha to record a win by RSC (Referee Stopping the Contest) in Round 1.

On Tuesday, Anshu (50kg) of Haryana will square off with Archana U N of Karnataka.

In the 54kg category, Babita Singh of Uttar Pradesh will face off against Manaswini Sabat of Odisha while Neha of Chandigarh will take to the ring against Charu Yadav of Rajasthan.

Kirti (+81kg) of Haryana will go head-to-head against Manisha Giri of Punjab.

– Team Sportstar

TENNIS

Rawat reaches second round at ITF event in Jakarta

Sidharth Rawat bounced back from a slow start to beat Gunawan Trismuwantara of Indonesia 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday.

Top seed Digvijay Pratap Singh, however, was beaten in the first round 6-4, 6-3 by Yuta Kawahashi of Japan.

– Team Sportstar

AITA women’s tournament: Divya reaches quarterfinals

Divya Ungrish got past second seed Kashish Bhatia in the pre-quarterfinals of the AITA Rs.100,000 women’s tennis tournament at the Joygaon Academy in Jhajjar on Tuesday.

Divya led 6-2, 1-0 when Kashish conceded the match as she felt dizzy and unable to stay on court.

– Team Sportstar

MOTORSPORT

Mumbai’s Hamza takes second place in Asia’s prestigious X30 Championship in Sepang

Hamza Balasinorwala with the trophy.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Eleven-year-old Indian kart racer Hamza Balasinorwala fought his way from the back to clinch the second position on the podium in the 4th Round of the IAME Asia Series in Sepang on Monday night.

The Grade 6 student of Podar International School, Mumbai improved with every practice session but was hit by bad luck in the crucial qualifying round to take the twelfth position on the Cadet class grid.

Hamza suffered another setback in Heat 1, pulling out of the race – eventually won by Esteban Freihuber from the Philippines — in the first lap itself.

The Rayo Racing prodigy made a strong comeback in Heat 2, overtaking several experienced racers from around Asia to finish fourth. Singapore’s Aaron Mehta won this race, ahead of Thai racer Kamolphu Anuchatkul and Freihuber.

In the pre-finals, Hamza expertly manoeuvred through the field from a 10th-place starting position, to finish fifth place. Mehta notched up his second consecutive win while Anuchatkul and Freihuber once again took the other two places on the podium.

As the finishing order of the pre-final decides the start order for the final, the Indian began from fifth on the grid. Getting off to a good start, Hamza soon found his way past Singapore’s Maximilian Schilling only to be passed by another Singaporean — Michael Lederer.

Lederer eventually took the win two seconds ahead of Hamza.

“I am really happy to get my first international podium. I want to thank my family and team for their support,” Hamza, who has already notched up multiple podiums in the IndiKarting Pro Races, said.

– Team Sportstar

SHOOTING

Fifth National Selection Trials: Ramita beats Elavenil for top spot in women’s air rifle

Ramita Jindal (left) congratulated by Elavenil Valarivan for topping women’s air rifle at the National shooting selection trials in Delhi on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit:
KAMESH SRINIVASAN

Ramita Jindal was consistently strong as she beat former World No. 1 Elavenil Valarivan by 0.9 point for the top spot in women’s air rifle in the fifth National shooting selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Tuesday.

After qualifying on top with 632.4, marginally ahead of Elavenil, the 19-year-old Ramita was flawless in the 24-shot final, as she led right through. She was 0.6 point ahead of Elavenil before the last two shots and delivered 10.6 and 10.7 shots to clinch the deal.

Nancy placed third ahead of Narmada Nithin, Meghana Sajjanar, Ayushi Podder, Ayushi Gupta and Samiksha Dhingra.

Manyata Singh topped the junior event with a final score of 253.0, as she beat Jasmeen Kaur by 1.6 point.

In the men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol event, Bhavesh Shekhawat beat Gurmeet 33-31 for the top spot. Anhad Jawanda took the third place ahead of Anirudh Singh Rana, Udit Joshi and Udhayveer Sidhu.

Some of the seasoned shooters like Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar and Olympian Gurpreet Singh failed to make the final.

In the junior event, Sameer Ghulia beat Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu 28-26 after having qualified on top with 576 along with Abhinav Choudhary.

– Kamesh Srinivasan