Indian sports news wrap, June 15

Chennai

BOXING

Youth Men’s National Boxing Championships: Asian Junior Champion Krrish Pal moves to pre-quarters

Krrish Pal, the 2022 Asian junior boxing champion, showed his prowess and advanced to the pre-quarterfinals on the second day of sixth Youth Men’s National Boxing Championships in Gangtok, Sikkim.

In the 48kg round of 32 bout, Krrish, representing Chandigarh, faced Lovepreet Singh of Rajasthan. Krrish proved to be too quick for his opponent right from the beginning and smartly landed a combination of punches. As a result, the referee had to stop the contest in the first round. He will take on Mohammad Junad of Telangana in the next round.

Three more boxers from Chandigarh- Aaditya Raj (71kg), Bhavya Saini (80kg) and Ankush (92+kg) also won their respective bouts and progressed to the next round. Aadtiya blanked Jammu & Kashmir’s Raizwan whereas Bhavya won unanimously against Goa’s Suyashparab. Ankush defeated Rishi Govindu of Andhra Pradesh by RSC in the first round.

In other bouts of the day, Maharashtra’s Usman Ansari (51kg) outclassed Upmanyu of Himachal Pradesh in the first round while Tamil Nadu’s T Kowshik (60kg) got the better of Adarsh Pradhan of Sikkim in a 4-1 split verdict.

Punjab’s Bhupender Singh also moved to the next round after defeating Bengal’s Sakir Ahmed 5-0 in the 54kg round of 32 clash. Karan Kumar (51kg), Honey (57kg), Lovi (63.5kg) and Vansh Sharma (71kg) were the other boxers from Punjab to advance to the next round.

– Team Sportstar

GOLF

Seher grabs lead, Gaurika and Kriti chase hard in eighth leg of WPGT

FILE PHOTO: Seher Atwal.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Seher Atwal grabbed a last hole birdie and with it the sole lead in the eighth leg of the Women’s Pro Golf Tour 2023 at the Clover Greens in Hosur on Thursday.

Seher, who trailed overnight leader Gaurika Bishnoi (68-70) by one shot, is now one ahead with rounds of 69-68 and a total of 137.

Rookie Kriti Chowhan showed that she is settling into pro golf with a fine round of 5-under 67, which was the best card of the day, and moved to third, up from overnight tied seventh place. Kriti has cards of 72-67.

Hitaashee Bakshi turned in a consistent card with 2-under 70 after a first round 71 to be tied fourth at 141 alongside amateur Keerthana Rajiv (71-70), while another amateur Saanvi Somu (71-71) is sixth as the top six are under par for 36 holes.

Just two shots separate the top three players and three others are within five of the leader to set up a tight finish.

The amateurs continued to do well as Anvitha Narender (74-71) was seventh and Ayushi Dutta (73-73) was tied eighth alongside Rishika Muralidhar (74-72) and Jasmine Shekar (72-74).

Seher got off to a blazing start with birdies on first and second and added further gains on the Par-3 fourth and Par-4 seventh and was 4-under 32 for the front nine. She ran up a string of pars from 10th to 16th, before dropping her first shot of the day on Par-5 17th. She quickly made up with a birdie on 18th for a card of 68.

Gaurika had a super run of three birdies in a row from ninth to 11th and had two other birdies on the first and 18th. Her three dropped shots came on the third, 12th and 14th for a day’s score of 2-under 70.

Kriti Chowhan’s 67 was most impressive with four birdies on the front nine and three on the back nine. She gave away shots on fourth and the 18th.

Among other big names in the field, Sneha Singh, twice winner this season, was tied 11th with 73-74 and Tvesa Malik (76-72) was tied 13th.

The cut fell at 9-over 153 and 25 players made the final round.

-PTI

Amateur Avani Prashanth cards 65, lies second among pros in German Masters

FILE PHOTO: Avani Prashanth
| Photo Credit:
GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP

India’s top amateur Avani Prashanth continued her stellar run in 2023 as she opened her campaign at the Amundi German Masters with a sensational 7-under 65 that included an albatross.

Avani was lying second, one shot behind Northern Ireland’s Olivia Mehaffey (64), who started from the back nine and had 10 birdies and two bogeys. The round was yet to finish, though all five Indians had finished for the day.

Among the other Indians, Diksha Dagar (69) was tied sixth. Vani Kapoor shot 73 and was Tied-48th, Ridhima Dilawari carded 3-over 75 to be Tied-84th and Amandeep Drall was Tied-87 with 105.

While Avani had six birdies and an albatross against two bogeys, Dagar, who has had two Top-10 finishes recently on the LET, had five birdies against two bogeys Avani is playing on special sponsor’s exemption at the Ladies European Tour event. She won the Queen Sirikit individual honours and then topped the Asian Games for Indian team besides logging a Top-10 at Magical Kenya Ladies Open, an event that was won by another Bangalore golfer Aditi Ashok.

Avani was ninth in Kenya and earlier she was T-12 at Hero Indian Open, also a prominent event on LET.

The world’s 80th ranked amateur, Avani, who plans to turn pro towards the latter part of the year, played in the first group of the day. She started with four pars and a bogey on Par-3 fourth. Then she turned the tide with three birdies in four holes and turned in 2-under.

On the back nine of the Golf and Country Club, Seddiner See, a town in Brandenburg in Germany, Avani went birdie-albatross-birdie from 12th to 14th. “It was thrilling to register an albatross on the Par-5 13th. I hit a 5 iron from 197 yards, and it went in,” said Avani, whose first albatross came as an eight-year-old in a practice round at the Eagleton Golf Course in 2015.

“I feel I still left a few shots out there on the green which were 7-8 footers. Driving was excellent, missed one fairway, on the 18th and that became a Bogey.”

On the par-3 fourth, she hit a good tee shot tracking to the pin but the wind suddenly blew from the north and carried the ball, 25 yards right. It was a very tough up and down and she could not make it.

Avani added, “I have been using an app, Upgame, to assess my game and it is helping.” Johanna Gustavsson of Sweden was sole third with a 6-under 66, while Kristyna Napoleava of Czech Republic and Cara Gainer of England were tied fourth with 68 each.

-PTI

SHOOTING

Kumar Surendra Singh championship: Varun Tomar beats Sharvan Kumar to air pistol gold

From left to right – Silver medallist Sharvan Kumar, champion Varun Tomar
and bronze medallist Sagar Dangi in the men’s 10m air pistol at the Kumar Surendra Singh shooting championship in Bhopal on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Varun Tomar pipped qualification topper Sharvan Kumar (584) by 0.7 point for the air pistol gold in the 21st Kumar Surendra Singh pistol championship at the Madhya Pradesh Academy in Bhopal on Thursday.

Varun had qualified with a score of 581. He had a solid start in the first two five-shot series in the final and sustained the good work to pull through to the gold, especially with the last two shots.

In the junior section, Kamaljeet shot a top score of 584 in qualification and cruised to the gold, 3.4 point ahead of Jonathan Antony.

Yash Tomar was quite remarkable as he won the bronze in the junior and youth sections, apart from the gold in the sub-youth event.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

Trap shooters eye Asian Games spots at 4th National shotgun selection trials

The best of trap shooters in the country will be vying to confirm their berth for the Asian Games and Asian Championships in the fourth National shotgun selection trials being staged at the Madhya Pradesh Academy over the next three days from Friday.

Quite interestingly, Zoravar Singh Sandhu, Prithviraj Tondaiman, former World Champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu, Olympic quota winner Bhowneesh Mendiratta, Asian Games silver medallist Lakshay Sheoran and Olympian Kynan Chenai have been clubbed together in one of the 16 squads.

Similarly, in the women’s section, Shreyasi Singh, Preeti Rajak, Manisha Keer, Rajeshwari Kumari, Sabeera Haris and Bhavya Tripathi find themselves together in the first squad.

Olympian Shagun Chowdhary, Kirti Gupta, Aadya Tripathi and Pragati Dubey are in the second squad, along with Mahima Vishwakarma and Aashima Ahlawat.

The women are in six squads, with other leading shooters like Seema tomar, Varsha Tomar spread out in different squads.

There will be two rounds of 25 birds on the first two days of trap competition, and the third day will have one round followed by the finals for the top six.,

– Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Bopanna-Ebden pair progresses to semifinals in Stuttgart

Top seeds Rohan Bopanna and Australia’s Matthew Ebden beat the all-Italian duo of Lorenzo Musetti and Lorenzo Sonego 6-1, 7-5 to reach the semifinals of the ATP250 event on grass in Stuttgart, Germany, on Thursday.

The Indo-Australian pair will next face the fourth-seeded German duo of Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz.

-Team Sportstar