Shuttler Jayaram suffers loss in Vietnam Open final

HO CHI MINH CITY: Indian shuttler Ajay Jayaram had to be content with a runners-up position at the Vietnam Open after losing the final to Shesar Hiren Rhustavito of Indonesia here. The 30-yearold Indian had an impressive run at the tournament before losing 14-21, 10-21 to Shesar in a 28-minute clash at the $75,000 BWF Tour Super 100 tournament.

It was second consecutive runner-up finish for Jayaram on the circuit as he had also reached the final at the White Nights International Challenge, last month.

MIXED DAY FOR ANAND

ST LOUIS, US: Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand had a mixed opening day with a win, a loss and a draw in the St. Louis rapid and blitz chess event.

Starting off with a victory over Hikaru Nakamura of United States, Anand missed the thread against Maxime VachierLagrave of France in the second round and then settled for a draw with Sergey Karjakin of Russia to end the day on three points out of a possible six.

INIYAN WINS IN CHESS

ABUDHABI:Young Indian International Master P Iniyan caused a huge flutter defeating highly rated Grandmaster Sjugirov Sanan in the fifth round of Abu Dhabi Masters chess now underway here. Taking his tally up to 3.5 points out of a possible five, Iniyan raised expectations of a Grandmaster norm after especially the way he crashed through the defences of his famous Russian rival.

IOA’S OBJECTION

NEW DELHI: The Indian Olympic Association said four officials and support staff cleared by the Sports Ministry on its cost for the Asian Games cannot be part of the contingent as it has not recommended them. The four are S C Roy (coach) and Ruma Kar (masseur) from archery, Manoj Rana (coach) from gymnastics and A Jayarajan from swimming. “We do not know how come their names cropped up in the contingent list approved by the ministry,” IOA Secretary General Rajeev Mehta said.