Anand slumps to bottom in St Louis
ST LOUIS: India’s Viswanathan Anand had a forgettable outing in St. Louis Rapid and blitz as he finished last after scoring 13.5 points in all out of a possible 27 games that ended here.
Anand will now combat the world’s best including Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the Sinquefield cup slated to start after a day’s gap.
The Indian ace never got going after scoring a first round victory over Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the rapid section and this could be saving the blushes as Nakamura emerged as the clear winner of this leg.
Anand ended the last day scoring four points out of a possible nine in the blitz section that left him with 7.5/18 and did not help much.
KHUSHI TAKES LEAD IN 11TH LEG OF WPG TOUR
HYDERABAD: Khushi Khanijau shot 3-over 75 to take sole lead in the 11th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour on Thursday.
Khushi’s total score is 4-over 148 and is one shot clear of second placed Amandeep Drall (75-74). JAKARTA:REGIONAL languages seem to have become the new mantra of success for Indian sportspersons, with coaches finding it more convenient to convey a message succinctly to their players on the field in crunch situations.
Be it Olympic bronze medalwinning wrestler Sakshi Malik or the experienced hockey player Sardar Singh, there has always been the language barrier with foreign coaches.
When Sakshi pulled off a sensational victory over Aisuluu Tynybekova in the play-off bout at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and won a bronze medal, instructions from her coach Kuldeep Malik in chaste Haryanvi made a big difference.
“Pakad le chori, patak de jor se (grab the rival girl, bring her down),” coach Kuldeep shouted in the dying minute, and within seconds Sakshi was there pumping her fist in jubilation.
“Language is a big gamechanger now as our players, especially wrestlers, prefer instructions in the same language they are fluent with,” said Kuldeep, who feels Indian sportspersons, especially those in power games, have issues with other languages, though he didn’t spell out in as many words that English was creating barriers.
“I speak with my wards in Hindi or Haryanvi as they are comfortable with it. I don’t want to go into technicalities but the communication between players and coaches should be perfect so that both are on the same page during competition. These days, Indian sportspersons prefer Indian coaches.”
Hockey midfielder Sardar Singh and former captain Manpreet Singh feel that having an Indian as the head coach has helped overcome communication barriers and it has helped tactically. “We feel more comfortable with an Indian coach like Harendra Singh,” said Sardar on Thursday. “Our understanding of each other and our game has grown because we discuss things in our language. He knows that as senior players we can’t change our game overnight.”
“With foreign coaches, you hardly get time to understand