India clinch four gold, end seventh in Youth CWG

NASSAU: India finished seventh in the 6th Commonwealth Youth Games after winning 11 medals. India won four gold, one silver and six bronze medals in the sixday event which concluded on Sunday.

On the opening day on July 18, India got off to a flying start with the judokas grabbing four medals. Soni picked up India’s first gold, winning the 73kg category event, beating Australia’s Uros Nikolic. Ashish followed with a bronze in the 60kg category, with a win over England’s Harry ZaneProsser. Among the girls, Antim Yadav and Rebina Devi Chanam won two more bronze medals in the 48kg and 57kg categories respectively.

In boxing, India bagged four medals with World Youth champion Sachin Siwach clinching the gold in lightflyweight (49kg) after defeating James Nathan Probert of Wales. Muhammed Etash Khan then added a bronze in boys bantamweight (56kg) category.

JOSHI, DABKE WIN

CHENNAI: India’s Neel Joshi and Ananya Dabke won the under-15 boys and girls titles in the Dutch Junior Open squash tournament at Amsterdam. Joshi, the topseed in his event, defeated England’s Alhassana Khalil 9-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-6 in the final.

Dabke got the better of second seed Serena Daniel of USA 11-7, 11-4, 12-10 to clinch the title. The Mumbai girl had earlier beaten the top seed Chukwu Chinyere of Hungary in her semifinal match. Vikas Mehra (U-19) and Arnaav Sareen (U-15) secured third place finishes.

HARIKRISHNA SECOND

BIEL (SWITZERLAND): Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna got off to a flying start in the Biel International Chess Festival campaign after finishing runner-up in the Rapid Chess Championship here.

The eight-player closed-tournament saw the likes of former world champion Anatoly Karpov, women’s world champion Hou Yifan, David Navara (top seed), Alexander Morozevich, Yannick Pelletier and Rafael Vaganian.

The second seeded Indian beat Vlastimil Hort, local lad Pelletier before losing to top seeded Czech Grand Master Navara.