Rupinder stars in Punjab’s emphatic victory
GWALIOR :Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh scored a hat-trick as defending champions Hockey Punjab beat Association of Indian Universities 6-0 to register their second win at the ninth men’s Senior National Hockey Championship (Division A), here on Friday.
Besides Rupinder (4th, 15th, 50th minutes), Dharamvir Singh (10th), Akashdeep Singh (39th) and Hartaj Aujla (51st) also scored for Punjab in Pool A match.
In Pool C, Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) beat Uttar Pradesh Hockey 5-3 while Punjab National Bank registered a convincing 10-3 victory over Hockey Gangpur-Odisha.
BHULLAR MAKES CUT
JEDDAH: Gaganjeet Bhullar waged a battle to make cut while Shubhankar Sharma had a forgettable week at the inaugural Saudi International. Bhullar was two-over and outside the cutline but three birdies on back nine kept him for the weekend at T58. For Sharma, rounds of 77 and 73 became his undoing as he bowed out with fellow Indian Rayhan Thomas (67, 77).
A FIRST FOR VANI
BALLARAT( AUSTRALIA ): VaniKa poor became the first Indian to earn a card for the Australian Ladies PGA Tour (LPGA) after coming through its first-ever Qualifying Tournament at the Ballarat Golf Club here. Vani shot rounds of 71, 78 and 69 to finish at two-over 218 and was T12 with three others.
WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
NEW DELHI : The Indian women’s football team will face Iran in their first match of the Hero Gold Cup at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on February 9. The four-nation tournament is being organised by AIFF in association with the Odisha government. The tournament will also feature Myanmar and Nepal.
Fixtures: Feb 9: Myanmar vs Nepal (4pm); India vs Iran (7pm). Feb 11: Myanmar vs Iran (4pm); India vs Nepal (7pm); Feb 13: Iran vs Nepal (4pm); India vs Myanmar (7pm). Feb 15: Final.
NARSINGH ISSUE
NEWDELHI: The Delhi High Court asked CBI to complete within a month its investigation into wrestler Narsingh Yadav’s 2016 complaint alleging that his food was spiked leading to a ban on him for four years from the sport on doping charge. He cannot be left remediless, the court observed and said the shelf life of an athlete is very short.
PSPB BADMINTON
GREATER NOIDA: MR Arjun and Chirag Shetty (IOCL) beat V Diju and KT Rupesh Kumar (ONGC) in the men’s doubles final of the PSPB Inter-Unit Badminton, winning 21-14, 18-21, 21-18. Rituparna Das and Rahul Yadav (ONGC) retained the women’s and men’s singles titles after a walkover. The women doubles was won by ONGC’s Rutaparna Panda and PC Thulasi, beating IOCL’s Aparna Balan and Tanvi Lad 21-6, 21-19.