INDIA LOSE 14 TO DENMARK IN SUDIRMAN CUP

were beaten 1-4 by Denmark in their opening match of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship on Monday. PV Sindhu defeated Line Kjaersfeldt 21-18, 21-6 in the women’s singles. But Ashwini Ponnappa and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen 15-21, 21-16, 17-21 in mixed doubles. Ajay Jayaram was beaten 12-21, 7-21 by Viktor Axelsen in the men’s singles. In the men’s doubles, Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy lost to Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen 21-17, 21-15 and womens’ doubles pair of Ashwini and N. Sikki Reddylost to Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna 21-18, 15-21, 21-23.

Jitu Rai and Tejaswini Sawant failed to make it to the final of the men’s 10m Air Pistol and women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, respectively, at the ISSF World Cup. Jitu finished 10th overall while Tejaswini secured 15th position. Jitu’s teammates in the event, Prakash Nanjappa and youngster Anmol Jain both finished with identical scores of 576 and in 34th and 36th positions respectively.

Manipur’s Neroca FC won the second division I-League beating Lonestar Kashmir FC 4-1 to become the first team from north-eastern state to achieve the feat. Neroca finished with 23 points from 9 matches, 7 points clear of Kolkata’s Southern Samity. AIFF general secretary Kushal Das said: “After Aizawl FC’s success we have another team from the North East who are keeping the flag flying high. I am sure their achievement will encourage more to take up the sport and spur off another social revolution, this time in Manipur.”

Indian racer Mahaveer Raghunathan ended his outing in the second round of the Boss GP series on a high in Zandvoort, the Netherlands, by finishing second. The 18-year-old Chennai driver had finished second in the first race on Saturday.