World Cup: Dipa bags vault bronze
NEW DELHI: Gymnast Dipa Karmarkar on Saturday claimed bronze in the vault event on the third day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Cottbus, Germany. The 25-year-old from Tripura, who had an injury-marred campaign at the Asian Games, scored 14.316 to secure bronze in the tournament, which is also a part of eight-event qualifying system for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Dipa had qualified for the vault finals on Friday, scoring 14.100 to finish at the sixth place out of 16 gymnasts in the qualification.
Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade won gold with a score of 14.728, while USA’S Jade Carey (14.516) bagged silver. Dipa had won a gold in the vault event of Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup at Mersin, Turkey in July for her first medal after returning to action following a long lay-off of nearly two years.
With this performance, the Indian, who had finished fourth at the Rio Olympics, inched closer to qualifying for the 2020 Olympics.
In balance beam, Dipa scored 11.066 (4.8 + 6.266) for a lowly finish out of the 32 competing gymnasts. Rakesh Patra was ranked 16th out of 29 gymnasts in parallel bar qualification round with a score of 13,033 (5.3 + 7.733).
In the qualification round of men’s vault, Ashish Kumar finished 23rd out of 27 gymnasts after scoring 12.866. Aruna Reddy, however, couldn’t participate in floor due to the knee injury she suffered on the opening day.
11TH GAME DRAWN
NEWDELHI: Norwegian champion Magnus Carlsen and American challenger Fabiano Caruana played out their 11th draw in as many games on Saturday as their World Chess Championship match in London remained deadlocked. They were tied at 5.5 points apiece with one classical game left. Rapid and blitz games lie ahead if there is no result in Monday’s 12th game, in which the challenger will play with white pieces. Carlsen, playing with white pieces on Saturday, and Caruana agreed a 55-move draw, extending the record sequence of draws in a World Championship Match.
PUNE CHALLENGER
PUNE: Ramkumar Ramanathan stood out with individual brilliance to capture his maiden doubles title on the ATP Challenger circuit, clinching the KPITMSLTA doubles trophy with Vijay Sundar Prashanth on Saturday. A fired-up Ramkumar played solid from the baseline and brought in a lot of energy as the unseeded Indian pair edged past the third-seeded Taipei pair of Tsung-hua Yang and ChengPeng Hsieh 7-6(3), 6-7(5), 10-7 in a pulsating final.
NEHRU HOCKEY
CHANDIGARH: Indian Railways emerged champions of the 55th Nehru Senior Hockey Tournament, defeating Punjab National Bank 2-1 on Saturday. Baljinder Singh, who won the ‘man-of-thematch’ award, set the ball rolling, scoring in the 26th min, while Ajit Kumar Pandey consolidated the lead in the 32nd minute. Shamsher scored for PNB in the 69th minute. Pardeep Singh of Railways was also declared the ‘best player’ of the tournament.
U MUMBA WIN
PUNE: Siddharth Desai proved his worth yet again as U Mumba beat Dabang Delhi 39-23 in a Pro Kabaddi Season 6 match here on Saturday. Siddharth and Rohit Baliyan combined to score 17 raid points whereas Fazel Atrachali and Surender chipped in with 8 tackle points to lead U Mumba to a win. Chandran Ranjit was the lone performer for Dabang Delhi, earning seven points.