Indian sports news wrap, December 16

MOTORSPORT

FMSCI Indian National Car Racing C’Ship 2023: Arya Singh notches maiden win in MRF F2000

Kolkata’s Arya Singh finally delivered his maiden win in the MRF Formula 2000 category after a string of near misses to start his campaign in the fourth and final round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship at the Madras International Circuit, here on Saturday on a bright note.

Also chalking his first win in the MRF Formula 1600 category that was run on a combined grid with the F2000 was Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj after starting from P3.

Arya Singh, 22, made the best of a poor start by pole-sitter and championship leader Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) and jumped into the lead which he sustained with a brilliant drive. Arya did well to survive close attention from Jaden Rahman Pariat (Shillong) following a couple of laps behind the safety car which came into play after Bengaluru’s Aditya Swaminathan spun at the Bridge Complex. Jaden finished a deserving second followed by veteran Chetan Korada (Chennai).

“I am super happy today. In the past, I missed a win many times for some reason or the other. Today, after going into the lead, I was determined to make it count for my first win in this category,” said Arya Singh.

Meanwhile, Viswas Vijayaraj, in his first season in the MRF F1600, did well to grab the lead from a P3 start. He increased the gap lap by lap, showing good pace to emerge a deserving winner ahead of pole-sitter Aman Nagdev (Noida) and 16-year-old Veer Sheth (Mumbai). Championship leader Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru) came in fourth.

Earlier, Chennai’s Ritesh Rai (Arka Motorsports) grabbed the pole position with a hot lap of 01minute, 50.754 seconds followed by Biren Pithawalla (Team N1 Racing) from Mumbai (01:51.042) and last year’s champion, Coimbatore’s Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) whose best lap was 01:51.680 in the qualifying session.

Championship leader in this category, Gurunath Meiyappan (Race Concepts) missed the qualifying run due to other commitments and will start last on the grid in Sunday’s Race-1.

Performance Racing’s pair of Deepak Ravikumar (01:55.697) and fellow-Chennai driver, Akkineni Anand Prasad (01:55.939) filled the front row in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category. Anand Prasad leads Ravikumar by just three points in the championship standings.

Qualifying for pole position in the Super Stock category was Thrissur’s Diljith TS (DTS Racing) clocking a top lap of 02:03.430 while Anirudha Arvind (Redline Racing) from Chennai will start tomorrow’s Race-1 from P2.

Diljith (01:51.073) also qualified for pole position in the Formula LGB 1300 category ahead of Bengaluru’s Navneet Bhurani (Momentum Motorsports) after putting in a best lap of 01:51.853.

-Team Sportstar

BADMINTON

Inter-Ministry tournament: Deswal, Rishi of Delhi Audit beat Abhinav Prakash of Ministry of Communication and Swati Sharma of Delhi Audit

Gaurav Deswal and Bhavya Rishi of Delhi Audit beat Abhinav Prakash of Ministry of Communication and Swati Sharma of Delhi Audit 21-13, 21-17 in the mixed doubles final of the Inter-ministry badminton tournament at the AIIMS Gymkhana on Saturday.

Himanshu Saroha and Bhavya Rishi of Delhi Audit were declared as the ‘Player of the tournament’ in the men’s and women’s sections respectively.

At the conclusion of the championship, Rohan Kapoor of Delhi Audit was felicitated for being part of the silver winning Indian team in the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

Rajeev Sharma of Delhi was also felicitated for winning the gold in the over-55 section in the World Seniors championship in Jeonju, Korea.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

India’s Rohit meets Nepal’s Tamang in final of All-India Amateurs golf

India’s Rohit and Nepal’s Subhash Tamang beat their respective opponents on Saturday to set up a summit clash in the All-India Amateur Golf Championship in Kolkata.

Rohit, who has played on numerous Indian Golf Union teams, beat Jordan Clay Burnand of South Africa 2 & 1 in the semifinal at the RCGC.

In the other semifinal, Tamang, who is trained by former Indian pro Tarun Sardesai, beat top seeded Altin Van Der Merwe of South Africa 3 & 1.

The final will be played over 36 holes in two sessions on Sunday.

Rohit and Tamang were seeded third and fourth respectively after the strokeplay. Van Der Merwe topped the 36-hole strokeplay section while Shat Mishra was second.

While Shat lost in the pre-quarterfinals, Van der Merwe’s run came to an end in the semi-finals.

Rohit beat Rohan Singh Rana 3 & 1 in the first round and then added the scalp of Anshul Khabthiyal 3 & 2. Thereafter in the quarter-finals, he moved past Jujhar Singh on the 18th hole. He beat South Africa’s Burnand 2&1 in the semi-finals.

The match play segment was arrived at following 36-hole stroke play segment. The top 32 players moved into the second stage with 16 pairings in Round 1.

The team event, which forms part of the stroke play, was won by South Africans Van der Merwe and Jordan Clay Burnand with a total of 2-under 286. India’s Sandeep Yadav and Rohit were second at 294 and India ‘B’ comprising Vinamra Anand and Shaurya Bhattacharya were third at 295.

The All India Amateur Championships is the country’s oldest golf tournament having started in 1892. The Championships were not held during the two World War and was cancelled once in 2020 due to COVID-19.

– PTI

Veer Ahlawat, Chikka in contention in Riyadh

India’s Veer Ahlawat shot a sizzling five-under 66 in the third round to race up the leader board and put himself in contention at the season-ending USD 1 million Saudi Open in Riyadh on Saturday.

Veer (70, 67) , who began the week in 53rd place on the Asian Tour Order of Merit, moved to Tied-third place and two shots behind Thailand’s Phachara Khongwatmai (68-66-67).

Phachara is 12-under and overnight leader, Denwit Boriboonsub (68-66-68) is 11-under and second.

Veer is lying third and his compatriot S Chikkarangappa (71-67-66) is 9-under and Tied-sixth.

Among other Indians, Yuvraj Singh Sandhu (71-67-69) is Tied-19th, Gaganjeet Bhullar (76-64-68) is T-25th and Ajeetesh Sandhu (73-70-74) is way down in T-67th place.

Veer had three birdies on the trot from the second to the fourth, but a dropped shot on sixth and a birdie on ninth meant he was 3-under for the front nine.

On the back nine, he birdied 10th, 12th and 13th but bogeyed 14th and finished at 66.

– PTI

TENNIS

Tennis Premier League 2023: Bengaluru SG Mavericks beats Mumbai Leon Army, qualifies for semifinals

Arjun Kadhe and Conny Perrin put Punjab Patriots in the semifinals with a strong performance in the Tennis Premier League in Pune on Saturday.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Ramkumar Ramanathan, Arina Rodionova and Vishnu Vardhan combined strong once again to power Bengaluru SG Mavericks to a 46-34 victory over Mumbai Leon Army in the Tennis Premier League on the charcoal grey courts of the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex on Saturday.

Ramkumar was particularly impressive as he beat Ernests Gulbis 15-5. Mumbai did pull one back thanks to Karan Singh and Vijay Sundar Prashanth beating Ramkumar and Vishnu Vardhan 11-9.

However, there was no stopping Bengaluru from being on top of the table and qualifying for the semifinals in style with 219 points.

Punjab Patriots was well served by Conny Perrin as it made the semifinals with a 43-37 victory over Pune Jaguars, the favourite whipping boy for all the teams. Digvijay Pratap Singh and Arjun Kadhe tilted the balance in favour of Punjab with a 12-8 victory over Lukas Rosol and Rithvik Bollipalli.

Delhi Binny’s Brigade gave itself hope by edging out two-time champion Hyderabad Strikers 41-39, thanks to Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan turning the tide first in partnership with Sahaja Yamalapalli and then with Dennis Novak.

Delhi with 201 points managed to pull through to the semifinals, as Bengal Wizards (209) helped its cause by beating Gujarat Panthers (192) 45-35.

– Team Sportstar

AITA National series: Shankar, Shatakshik win junior titles

Shanker Heisnam and Shatakshika Sahayak won the boys and girls titles respectively in the AITA National series junior tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Saturday.

Shanker beat Jatin Nain and Shatakshika beat Rubani Kaur Sidhu in straight sets in the finals.

It was a double crown for both, as Shanker had won the doubles title earlier with Chandan Shivaraj, while Shatakshika had won the doubles with Sia Mahajan.

– Team Sportstar

SNOOKER

National Billiards & Snooker: Sourav Kothari-Md Hussain Khan to battle it out in semis

Sourav Kothari (PSPB) will meet Md Hussain Khan (RSPB) in the semifinals of the 15-Red snooker event at the ongoing National Billiards & Snooker Championships in Chennai.

In Saturday’s quarterfinal, Kothari prevailed over Anurag Giri (Madhya Pradesh) 5-3 (69-35, 8-96, 78-9, 50-82, 65-9, 19-61, 67-44, 65-6), whereas Hussain trounced Sunny Choudhary (Delhi) 5-3 (80-2, 79-42, 68-59, 55-79, 42-50, 8-82, 63-52, 65-23).

Also, Shoaib Khan (Dekhi) edged past Rayaan Razmi (Maharashtra) 5-4, having stunned defending champion Kamal Chawla (RSPB) in the pre-quarterfinal.

He will be taking on Paras Gupta (UP), as the latter had it easy over Shabaaz Khan (Maharashtra) 5-1 (61-59, 55-67, 90-10, 74-42, 82-57, 107-19).

Earlier during the day, teenager Natasha Chethan (Karnataka) won her maiden sub-junior girls’ billiards crown, as she defeated Aanya Patel (Gujarat) 143-107.

The 15-year-old happened to be a semi-finalist at the IBSF Women’s Under-21 World Snooker Championships in Riyadh back in July.

– PTI