Vijayakumar leads podium sweep for India in Caterham 7 double-header
CHENNAI: Veteran B Vijayakumar from Coimbatore scored a double by winning both the races in the Caterham 7 Asia Zonal Championship while the Formula 4 South-East Asia Championship triple-header threw up three different winners in Alessandro Ghiretti (France), Alister Yoong (Malaysia) and Muizz Musyaffa (Malaysia) at the MMRT, here on Sunday. Vijayakumar led a 1-2-3 finish for India in both the races with MR Dastur and Vicky Chandhok completing the podium in that order in the double-header. Much of the excitement in the Caterham races came in the first race. Polesitter Vijayakumar lost position to Chandhok who was subsequently docked a 30-second penalty for jump start. Vijayakumar recovered to regain his position at the front and went on to win comfortably. Chandhok came in second but was pushed to third following the penalty while another first-timer Dastur moved up to second.
SAMEER VERMA WINS
HYDERABAD: India’s Sameer Verma and the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lived up to the top billing by clinching the men’s singles and doubles titles respectively at the Hyderabad Open badminton tournament here on Sunday.
Top seed Verma defeated Malaysia’s Soong Joo Ven 21-15, 21-18 in the men’s singles summit clash of the $75,000 BWF Tour Super 100 tournament. Rankireddy and Shetty also came out victorious, beating third-seeded Indonesian pair of Akbar Bintang Cahyono and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani 21-16, 21-14 to lift the men’s doubles crown.
OLYMPIC GREAT JOHNSON RECOVERING FROM ‘MINI STROKE’
NEW YORK: Michael Johnson is recovering from a ‘mini stroke’, the Olympic champion and former world record-holder said on Twitter on Saturday but expects to make a full recovery. “Last week I rather surprisingly suffered what’s known as a Transient Ischemic Attack or mini stroke,” the 50-year-old American tweeted.
“The good news is I’m back at home with my family, cleared of any ... issues and have already made great progress on my road to a full recovery.” Johnson became the first man to win both the 200 and 400 metres at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and then captured gold in the 400 four years later in Sydney. His 200m world record of 19.32 seconds stood for 12 years until 2008 when it was broken by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt with 19.30. Bolt lowered it again to 19.19 at the 2009 world championships. Johnson’s 400m world record of 43.18 stood for 17 years until South African Wayde van Niekerk lowered it to 43.03 in the 2016 Olympic final.
MO FARAH WINS 5TH STRAIGHT GREAT NORTH RUN
LONDON: Mo Farah delivered a dominant performance to claim a record fifth victory in the Great North Run on Sunday in the latest step in his bid to win a major marathon. The British runner led from the front to cross the line in 59min 26sec, just four seconds short of the personal best he set in winning his second title in 2015. It was also his fifth consecutive win in the race. Farah shrugged off New Zealand’s Jake Robertson in the final section of the race in Newcastle as he set himself up in style for his attempt to win his first major marathon crown in Chicago next month.
ANDREA WINS
MILAN : Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso won the San Marino MotoGP on Sunday for the Ducati rider’s third success of the season, holding off world championship leader Marc Marquez of Honda. The 32-year-old Dovizioso finished 2.822sec ahead of the Spaniard on the Misano track on Italy’s Adriatic coast with Britain’s Cal Crutchlow snatching third for Honda after pole sitter Jorge Lorenzo of Ducati crashed with two laps to go.