Balasubramaniam upsets Nguyen
MUMBAI: Balasubramaniam H shocked Vietnamese IM Nguyen Van Huy in a fourth round match of the 4th Mumbai International GM Chess Tournament on Thursday.
The 15-year-old Balasubramaniam showed great character to produce outstanding performance to put it across the 33-yearold Nguyen to record his third win and remain unbeaten at the end of four rounds.
The Tamil Nadu boy’s other two wins came against Bangladesh’s Koshor Shazzad and Russian GM Lugovskoy Maxim, while he played out a draw with Bangladesh GM Rahman Ziaurin the second round.
SHARATH EYES NINTH NATIONAL TITLE
CUTTACK:VETERAN Achanta Sharath Kamal will be chasing a record-breaking ninth title when the 80th National Table Tennis Championships starts at the Nehru Indoor Stadium on Friday. Sharath, who reached a career-high ranking of 30 last month, is just a step away from surpassing Kamlesh Mehta’s eight titles.
If he does that, Sharath would not only create history but could remain there as the lone Indian for a long time to come. The only challenge for him is his team mate G Sathiyan, who has been in a terrific form with a proven record and is just a spot behind Sharath at No 31 in the rankings.
Manika Batra will be the favourite to lift the women’s trophy. Ever since her performances at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games last year, her stock has risen and she also bagged the ‘Breakthrough Star’ award by ITTF at its annual awards in Incheon last month.
VINESH, BAJRANG HEADLINE PWL DRAFT
GURGAON:ASIAN Games gold medallists Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia will headline the Pro Wrestling League (PWL) players draft to be held here on Friday.
Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik and 2010 Summer Youth Olympics silver medallist Pooja Dhanda are two other top wrestlers who will be part of the draft. The fourth edition of the wrestling league is scheduled to start from January 14. The league offers a prize purse of Rs 1.9 crore for the winners and Rs 1.1 crore for the runners-up.
A new team — MP Yodha — will be seen in action this season alongside Delhi Sultans, UP Dangal, Haryana Hammers, Mumbai Maharathi and the NCR Punjab Royals.
FORTUNEGIANTS ENTER PRO KABADDI FINAL
MUMBAI: Gujarat Fortunegiants on Thursday held their nerve to defeat a resurgent UP Yoddha 38-31 in a thrilling Qualifier 2 here on Thursday to enter the final of Pro Kabaddi League.
Fortunegiants will face Bengaluru Bulls in the summit clash scheduled to take place on January 5 at the NSCI in Worli.
In the second Qualifier Gujarat emerged on top courtesy their breathtaking raids and equally stunning tackles.
For Gujarat Fortunegiants, Sachin Tanwar (10 points) was the most successful raider. While K Prapanjan (5 points) and Rohit Gulia (5 points) also contributed to Gujarat’s win. NEW DELHI: Commonwealth Games gold medallist shooter Anish Bhanwala is meticulously planning his path to the 2020 Olympics and says the first step in the “process” will be to secure a quota for Tokyo Games in the upcoming World Cup.
The 16-year-old shot a CWG record score of 30 to claim the top prize in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event last year. The win made Anish, then 15, the country’s youngest-ever gold medallist at the quadrennial event.
The Haryana-born shooter has bagged several International titles including the Commonwealth Shooting Championship 2017 (Brisbane), ISSF World Cup 2018 (Guadalajara) and ISSF Junior World Cup 2018 (Sydney). In 2017, the teenager made heads turn when he won the 25m standard pistol gold with a world record score of 579 at the ISSF Junior World Championships.
“My target is to do well in the World Cups this year, where quotas for the Olympics will be on offer. The main one is the World Cup in Delhi in February, it’s in my home ground,” Anish said.