Sajan wins gold in junior Asian wrestling
NEWDELHI: India began their campaign in the Junior Asian Wrestling Championships on a positive note, winning four medals — one of them gold — in men’s Greco-roman on the opening day of the competition here Tuesday.
Sajan Kumar made the most of the opportunity to thwart Iran’s Shayan Hossein Afifi to walk away with gold in 77kg. Despite a cut above his right eye in the last 60 seconds, the Indian didn’t give an inch. India settled for silver in the 55kg as Vijay Kumar lost (0-8) to Pouya Mohammad Naserpour of Iran. India won its second silver through Aryan Panwar who lost 1-2 to Iran’s Amin Mohammad Zaman Mirzazadeh in 130kg.
ASIAN GAMES TORCH
YOGYAKARTA,INDONESIA: The torch for the 18th Asian Games was welcomed to the Indonesian city of Yogyakarta Tuesday, with a military parade, traditional dancing and a flypast by the airforce. The flame, which was lit Sunday in New Delhi — the host city of the first Asian Games in 1951 — arrived on an Indonesian Air Force Boeing jet. Cheering crowds greeted torch ambassador and badminton legend Susy Susanti as she led a procession from Adisutjipto Airport through the city, which is renowned as Indonesia’s cultural capital.
HANDBALL CLEARED
NEW DELHI : The Indian Olympic Association Tuesday cleared the men’s handball team for the Asian Games after the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court intervened. “We decided to clear men’s handball team for the Asian Games,” IOA secretarygeneral Rajeev Mehta said.
“After the court decision, it was referred to IOA legal commission which also cleared it. I have written to Asian Games Organising Committee to consider men’s handball team’s official entry in the Asian Games.”
The men’s handball team was not in the original 524-member contingent cleared by the IOA earlier this month.
IOA DROPS 20 ATHLETES
NEW DELHI: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Tuesday dropped 20 athletes from the Pencak Silat team for the Asian Games, alleging fake credentials, prompting the national federation to threaten legal action.
When the IOA released a list of 524 athletes for the Games on July 5, 22 athletes from pencak silat were selected, now the Olympic body has cleared only two members. “We are planning legal action,” a federation official said.
INDIA U-16 TRIUMPH
NEWDELHI: The India U-16 national football team, on an exposure tour to Thailand, came from two goals down to play out a 2-2 draw against U-17 Bangkok Glass FC on Tuesday. Trailing for much of the match, the Colts put in a superb performance in the last 10 minutes and scored twice, courtesy strikes from Ricky (83’) and Ravi (86’), to finish the match on level footing. Coming on the back of a 2-0 win over Buriram United U-17, the Colts were slow and the opponents capitalised on that.