Bajrang loses final, settles for silver
Takuto Otoguro stuns Punia in 65kg final to become the youngest Japanese world champion at age of 19
NEW DELHI: Bajrang Punia played his heart out but lost the title clash against Japanese Takuto Otoguro to settle for silver medal at the Wrestling World Championships in Budapest on Monday.
In a high scoring edge-of-theseat final, Bajranj and Takuto launched attack after attacks but the Japanese played his cards smartly to win 16-9.
Bajrang, however, is the only Indian to win two World Championships medal. His first medal, a bronze, came way back in 2013 at the same place. Sushil Kumar is the only Indian to win a gold at the World Championships which he clinched in 2010.
Takuto, just 19, became Japan’s youngest world champion. The earlier record was held by Olympic gold medalist and four-time world champion Yuji Takada, who won the 52-kg world title at age 20 in 1974.
The score might not suggest how close the contest was but Bajrang fought doggedly against Takuto whose swift leg-attacks right from the start was clearly the clincher.
Takuto took the Indian by surprise with his aggressive intent as he raced to a 5-0 lead. Bajrang looked completely at sea against Takuto’s fast moves.
SAINA, SINDHU SEEKING FRENCH OPEN SUCCESS
PARIS: Indian badminton stars, including defending champion Kidambi Srikanth, PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will be eyeing their first major BWF title of the year when the French Open begins on Tuesday.
World No 10 Saina, who did well to the reach the Denmark Open final on Sunday before losing to nemesis and top-ranked Tai Tzu Ying, and Srikanth, a semi-finalist in the same event, have very little time to recover after a hectic last week.
World number three Sindhu will be fresher, having made an unexpected first round exit in Odense.
Besides Srikanth, the other Indians in the men’s singles draw are B Sai Praneeth and Sameer Verma. Verma had lost a marathon battle against Srikanth in the quarter-finals of Denmark Open.
ANAND SETTLES FOR DRAW AGAINST HESS
ISLE OF MAN, UK: Former world champion Viswanathan Anand struggled for the second day running as he was held to a draw by almost-retired Robert Hess of the US in the second round of Isle of Man International Chess.
Anand was on the verge of losing to 13-year-old Raunak Sadhwani in the first round on Sunday and had to dig out some fine manoeuvres to stay in the game.
At the top of the list in the second round was Grandmaster V Vishnu Prasanna, who got the better of nearly 200-points above rated Tamir Nabaty of Israel.
Joining the celebration was Grandmaster-in-waiting Harsha Bharthakkoti, who put it across compatriot and higher ranked S P Sethuraman.
Vidit Gujrathi also apparently made a contribution to the tactics books at the expense of fellow Indian Debashish Das. Gujrathi was in top form in bringing all his pieces together against a hapless black king.
Hungarian Peter Leko had won a very difficult endgame against Tania Sachdev in the previous round but found young Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa a much tougher nut to crack. The game ended in a draw as the former world championship candidate failed to make progress.
YUKI OUT OF TOP-100, PRAJNESH UP TO 146
NEWDELHI:YUKI Bhambri, who has just returned to circuit after recovering from a knee injury, dropped out of top-100 but Prajnesh Gunneswaran was rewarded for his good run at the Ningbo Challenger as he touched a career-best 146 on Monday.
Bhambri was on the edge of the top-100 when he lost his first round at the European Open in Antwerp last week and has now dropped seven places to 107. Ramkumar Ramanathan, who had also lost to Fabbiano, gained a place to be 124. He was followed by Sumit Nagal (312) and Saketh Myneni (316, +10).
INDIAN NAVY SINK AIR INDIA IN SEMIS
MUMBAI:INDIAN Navy goalkeeper B Sanjay and midfielder and drag-flick specialist Jugraj Singh played stellar roles in steering the sailors to a 9-8 semi-final win via the tie-breaker penalty shootout in the 14th PMC Bank-all India Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup hockey tournament on Monday.
In the second semi-final, Central Secretariat, Delhi edged past Central Railway, Mumbai 4-3 in a keenly contested clash. SEMI-FINAL RESULTS
Indian Navy 9 (Jugraj Singh 4, Ajinkya Jadhav 2, Pratik Singh, Pawan Rajbhar, Rajat Sharma) bt Air India, Delhi 8 (Raheel Mohd 2, Sharda Nand Tiwari, Joginder Singh, Arjun Sharma, Uttam Singh, Jaspreet Singh, Abharan Sudev) via penalty shootout. Full-time: 5-5. Central Secretariat, Delhi 4 (Shariq, Jayesh Jadhav 2, Aman) bt Central Railway 3 (Rajendra Pawar 2, Yuvraj Walmiki).