Hima ends campaign on high with record
TAMPERE,FINLAND:NEWLY-CROWNED world under-20 quarter-mile event champion Hima Das on Saturday ended her campaign after anchoring the Indian women’s 4x400m relay quartet to a junior national record, though the quartet failed to qualify for the final round here.
The Indian women’s 4x400m relay team comprising S Venkatsen, Jisna Mathew, Ritika and Hima clocked 3 minute, 39.10 seconds to finish fourth in heat number two, thus failing to qualify for the final round.
The first two in each of the three heats and the next two fastest teams qualified for the finals.
Despite failing to qualify for the finals, the Indian quartet bettered the earlier national under-20 record of 3:40.50 set in 2002 in Bangkok.
Sahil Silwal missed out on a bronze after finishing fourth in men’s javelin throw. He came up with a best throw of 72.83m in his last attempt. The bronze winner – Tzuriel Pedigo of USA -- cleared 73.27.
In other events, Priyadarshini Suresh crashed out of the women’s triple jump with a subpar 12.50m effort to finish 10th in the Group A qualification round.
The 31-member Indian team ended its campaign with one gold medal won by Hima in the women’s 400m race. The 4x400m relay race was the last event for Hima, who had clinched the women’s 400m gold on July 12 to become the only Indian to win a yellow metal in a track event in a world level competition.
SHUTTLERS OUTPLAY KAZAKHSTAN
NEWDELHI:INDIAN juniors started their badminton campaign on a winning note by thrashing Kazakhstan 5-0 in the mixed team event on Day 1 of the Asian Junior Championships in Jakarta. Akarshi Kashyap and Lakshya Sen, in singles and the pairings of Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker (women), Manjit Singh and Dingku Singh (men) and Srishti Jupidi and Srikrishna Sai (mixed) all won their matches.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY TEAM SCORE OVER IRELAND
ANTWERP,BELGIUM:THE Indian junior women’s hockey team put up a dominating performance as it beat Ireland 4-1 in its opening match of the Under-23 Six Nations Tournament that began here. Though Ireland scored the first goal, India hit back through Jyoti, Mumtaz Khan and twice through Manpreet Kaur.
SHUBHANKAR FAILS TO MAKE CUT IN SCOTLAND
GULLANE, SCOTLAND: Shubhankar Sharma’s maiden appearance at the Scottish Open ended in agony on 138 (68-70) as he missed the cut after failing to hole a lot of putts at the Gullane Golf Club, here.
ADITI MISSES CUT AT MARATHON CLASSIC
SYLVANIA, OHIO: Aditi Ashok performed poorly on the front nine for the second day in a row and shot a dismal 73 after a first round score of 75 to miss the cut at the Marathon Classic in Ohio.
CHOPRA SET TO MAKE DIAMOND LEAGUE FINAL
NEWDELHI:JAVELIN thrower Neeraj Chopra has a good chance to qualify for the prestigious Diamond League Final on August 30. Chopra finished fifth in the Rabat (Morocco) leg of the Diamond League series on Friday with a best throw of 83.32m.