Anjum, Mehuli shine in national c’ship
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Anjum Moudgil of Punjab won the women’s 10m air rifle competition, while Bengal’s Mehuli Ghosh claimed four gold medals at the 62nd National Shooting Championship here on Monday. Anjum followed up her 50m rifle 3 positions victory a day earlier with another top podium finish. She shot 249.1 in the finals to lead Punjab 1-2 with Jasmine Kaur coming second with a score of 247.9. C Kavi Rakshana of Tamil Nadu won the bronze with an effort of 226.0 in the eightwoman final.
Ghosh won four gold, including the junior and youth women’s 10m air rifle individual and team event. She shot 253 in the youth final and 249.1 in the junior final respectively to emerge triumphant. Olympian Apurvi Chandela made it to the air rifle finals but finished fourth. She, however, won gold in the team event along with ONGC compatriots Shriyanka Sadangi and Gayatri Pawaskar, totalling 1868.5 to leave behind Rajasthan, who had 1865.
GOVEAS, MANISH BITE DUST IN FIRST ROUND
PUNE: India’s Aryan Goveas and Manish Sureshkumar got a taste of Challenger-level tennis but made hasty first-round exits along with two seeded players in the KPIT-MSLTA Challenger here on Monday. Local wild card Goveas played well in patches before losing 3-6, 4-6 to Canada’s Brayden Schnur in 69 minutes at the centre court.
Schnur was part of his country’s Davis Cup side when India lost the close World Group playoff tie 2-3 to the hosts in Edmonton in September last year. The two points India earned were for wins against Schnur, ranked 189.
It was all about flat, hard hitting for Goveas but it was not enough against a player like Schnur, who reached his maiden Challenger final early this year in Australia.
Third seed and world number 132, Elias Ymer from Sweden, handed wild card entrant Manish a good tennis lesson with an easy 6-4 6-1 win. After being broken at love at 4-5 in the opening set, Manish lost steam.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Nicola Kuhn knocked out Slovakia’s Andrej Martin 6-2, 6-3 to make it to the second round of the $50,000 tournament.
In the doubles, local boy Arjun Kadhe and Saketh Myneni, the finalist from the last week, progressed to the quarter-finals with a crushing 6-1, 6-1 win over Dakshineshwar Suresh and Parikshit Somani. India’s top singles players Prajnesh Gunneswaran, Ramkumar Ramanathan, Saketh Myneni and Sumit Nagal, will be seen in action on Tuesday.
ASHMITA WINS GOLD IN DUBAI CHALLENGE
NEW DELHI: Nineteen-year-old shuttler Ashmita Chaliha defeated Jeon Jui of Korea 21-19, 21-15 to win the women’s singles badminton title in the Dubai International Challenge.
But Subhankar Dey had to settle for a silver medal after going down in the final to Russia’s Vladimir Malkov 10-21, 15-21 in men singles.
The Indian-malaysian pair of Tarun Kona and Lim Khim Wah returned with a silver in men’s double as they went down to Kim Sang Soo and Yoo Yeon Seong 13-21, 16-21 in the final.