Bolt leads Jamaica’s World Championships charge
KINGSTON: Usain Bolt is among three Olympic champions leading a strong Jamaican team at the athletics World Championships in London next month.
Bolt will chase his fourth successive 100m world title and a fifth consecutive 4x100m relay gold at the Aug 4-14 meeting, his last international competition.
Olympic double sprint champion Elaine Thompson and Omar Mcleod, who won Jamaica’s first 110m hurdles gold at the Rio Games, were also included in the 59-member squad.
DJOKOVIC IN DOUBT
NEW YORK: Former world No 1 Novak Djokovic is in doubt for the US Open due to his elbow injury, Serbian media reported. Djokovic retired hurt during the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and said he was considering taking a break to recover from the longstanding injury to his right elbow. Serbia’s Sportski Zurnal reported that Novak could face 12 weeks on the sidelines. “He has a bruised bone,” it quoted Zdenko Milinkovic as saying.
INDIA GETS WTA EVENT
NEWDELHI:India will host its first WTA tournament in five years when the city of Mumbai stages a $125,000 event in November, giving home players an opportunity to compete with the world’s top-50. Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) has come forward to bring the tournament to the country.
MSLTA had recently bagged the hosting rights of India’s ATP World Tour event, Chennai Open and it was re-branded as Maharashtra Open, to be held in Pune.
“It’s time that our players such as Ankita Raina, Karman Kaur Thandi, Rutuja Bhosale and others get to play at a better level and try to move up the rankings ladder,” MSLTA secretary-general Sunder Iyer said.