Lakshya causes upset, in final of Asian junior meet
NEW DELHI: India’s Lakshya Sen booked his place in the final of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships after beating fourth-seeded Indonesian Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay 21-7, 21-14 in the semi-finals in Jakarta on Saturday.
The sixth-seeded Indian, who had beaten second seed Li Shifeng in the quarter-finals on Friday, will now face top seed Kunlavut Vitidsaran of Indonesia in Sunday’s title clash.
Sen raced to an early lead in the opening game and finished it off in 16 mins. The second game was a tight affair but Sen got past the finishing line in 40 minutes. “I am happy with my form and hope to maintain the tempo in final,” said the 16-year-old.
JEEVAN, DIVIJ OUSTED
NEW DELHI: India’s challenge ended in the doubles event of ATP Hall of Fame Open following defeats of Divij Sharan and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan with their respective partners in the semi-finals in Newport, USA.
Divij and Jackson Withrow lost 3-6, 4-6 to Jonathan Erlich and Artem Sitak while Jeevan and Austin Krajicek went down to Marcelo Arevalo and Miguel Angel Reyes-varela.
ANAS BETTERS RECORD
NEW DELHI: Mohammed Anas marginally improved his national 400m mark by clocking 45.24 seconds in a meet in Czech Republic on Saturday. His previous best was 45.31 secs, a fourth place finish during Commonwealth Games in April.
THREE SILVER MEDALS IN JUNIOR WRESTLING
NEWDELHI: It was missed chances for India in the men’s freestyle event on the penultimate day of the Junior Asian Wrestling Championships here at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex on Saturday. Vishal Kaliraman went down to Iran’s Amir Hossein Morteza 10-7 in 70kg. Naveen lost 7-1 against Gulomjon Abdullaev of Uzbekistan in 57kg . Sachin Giri (79kg) went down tamely to Iran’s Sajjad Saberali Gholami 10-0. Earlier, Karan won bronze in 65kg.
RAKESH BREAKS POLE VAULT RECORD
NEWDELHI: Rakesh Gond claimed gold medal with a new national record in men’s pole vault on the opening day of the National Youth Athletics Championships at Vadodara on Saturday. He cleared 4.90m to better previous record of 4.75m set last year by Kanhaiya Singh.
ARCHERY MEDALS
BERLIN: Indian archers ended their campaign with a silver and bronze medal, both coming from compound section, at stage four of the Archery World Cup here on Saturday.