Anand, Swapnil win while Gujrathi draws
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand and Swapnil S Dhopade notched up wins while Vidit Santosh Gujrathi played out another draw as the trio shared the joint third place after the eighth round of the Isle of Man International chess tournament.
Anand continued his unbeaten run at the tournament by beating France’s Fressinet Laurent in 41 moves. He will face China’s Hou Yifan next.
Swapnil, meanwhile, defeated England’s Short Nigel after battling for 73 moves. The Indian will play Ukraine’s Eljanov Pavel in the ninth round.
SIX IN A ROW FOR JAGAN
TVS Racing’s mascot Jagan Kumar notched his sixth straight title in the premier Super Sport Indian (165cc) class on a rain-affected day to bring down the curtain on the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship. Massive downpour in the early hours disrupted the procedings here but a herculean effort by officials got the club circuit (short loop, 2.1 Kms) ready for racing with the full circuit (3.7 Kms) not available due to waterlogging.
RUSSIA, CHINA BANNED
Russia and China were banned from international weightlifting, ruling them out of the world championships, after reanalysed drugs tests from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics returned at least three positive results each.
In all, nine nations were suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) for a year with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Ukraine all sitting out the world championships in California from November 28-December 5.
ISLE OF MAN:
PUNERI PALTAN WIN
Puneri Paltan pipped UP Yoddha 34- 33 in a close encounter in the Pro Kabaddi League. UP Yoddha mounted a strong comeback in the last 10 minutes but just fell short by a point.
Deepak Hooda scored three super raids and ended with 16 points for Puneri Paltan.
CHENNAI: PARIS: CHENNAI: