Champions! Delhi Acers clinch PBL title after thrilling 4-3 victory over Mumbai Rockets

January 18, 2016

New Delhi, Jan 18: Delhi Acers notched up a thrilling 4-3 victory over Mumbai Rockets in the summit clash to clinch the revamped Premier Badminton League (PBL) title at the Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi on Tuesday.

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Tommy Sugiarto, men's doubles pair of Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong and Rajiv Ouseph won their respective matches as Delhi clinched the trophy and pocketed a winner's cheque of Rs 3 crores.

Mixed doubles pair of Kamilla Juhl and Vladimir Ivanov thrashed Gabrielle Adcock and Akshay Dewalkar 15-6 15-12 to draw first blood for Mumbai Rockets.

In the first men's singles, Tommy Sugiarto then continued his unbeaten run at the tournament as he saw off Mumbai's H S Prannoy 13-15 15-9 15-9 to bring Delhi back into the contest.

In the men's doubles match, Ivanov and Mathais Boe played their heart out before going down narrowly 14-15 15-10 15-14 to Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong as Delhi grabbed a 2-1 lead after three matches.

China's Han Li, who had beaten World No 2 Saina Nehwal on Friday to take Mumbai into the finals, then notched up a 12-15 15-8 15-8 win over P C Thulasi in their Trump match to make it 3-2 in Mumbai's favour.

In the deciding match, which was Delhi's Trump match, 2010 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph took the court against RMV Gurusaidutt and he took Delhi across the line by grabbing two points with a 15-11 15-6 win over the Indian in the last match of the day.

In the first match, Kamilla and Ivanov stamped their authority early as they zoomed to a 8-5 lead at the break. The Denmark shuttler dished out some superb serves to continue their good run and reeled off six points to reach 14-8. Ivanov hit wide but they grabbed the next point to win the opening game.

Adcock and Dewalkar opened up a slender 3-1 lead early on in the second game and reached the interval with a 8-4 cushion. But Mumbai clawed back when Dewalkar hit wide and then wrested a 12-9 lead with Ivanov in full flow. Kamilla's return took Mumbai to a 14-11 match point. Delhi saved one but a service error sealed it in Mumbai's favour next.

In the second match of the day, Sugiarto, who has not lost a match in PBL, took the court against Prannoy and despite a fight from the Indian lead 8-5 at the break when the latter's smash got buried at the nets.

Prannoy clawed back at 9-9 with a cracking smash and moved into the lead at 12-11 when Sugiarto hit the nets. The Indian moved into the game point at 14-12 with a dribble at net and grabbed the opening game when Sugiarto hit long.

Sugiarto once again nosed ahead, grabbing a 8-3 lead in the second game with a cross court return. With Prannoy struggling with his strokes, Sugiarto ran away with the match to bounce back in the contest. In the decider, Sugiarto continued his dominance and lead 8-3 at the break. The duo engaged in gruelling rallies but Prannoy failed to close the points. The result was Sugiarto zoomed to the match point in a jiffy. The Indian saved three points before the Indonesian sealed his sixth win when Prannoy hit long.

"It was a tough match as it is the Final Tie of the League, so its quite expected. Prannoy played very well today and gave me good competition. Losing the first match was a setback but I came back with better strategies. Happy to win the match, it's big boost to my team," Sugiarto said.

In men's doubles, Ivanov and Boe rallied their way from 5-8 to clinch the opening game after a thrilling battle with Keat and Heong. However, the Delhi pair came back strongly to grab the second game. In the decider, Keat and Heong moved to a 10-3 lead early on and also reached the match point at 14-11.

Ivanov and Boe saved three match points to draw parity but Ivanov hit wide next to hand over the match to Delhi.

Koo Keat Kien and Tan Boon Heaong said: "It was an unbelievable match. We all held our nerves till the last moment. We had some game-plans. Though we lost the first game, the second game turned into a big motivation for us. We gave everything in the third game and eventually managed to out-fox the opponents."

Delhi's Thulasi then conjured up hopes of an upset as she dished out a delectable game of badminton to grab the opening game against Saina slayer Han Li but the Chinese bounced back in style as she brushed aside the Indian in the second game with a much-improved game.

In the decider, Li continued to dominate as she opened up a 8-4 lead at the break. The China shuttler didn't let her guard down after the interval and picked points with ease. Thulashi engaged in rallies and some of her strokes stunnned Li but in the end it was the Chinese who had the last laugh.

The second men's singles turned out to be a edge of the seat affair as Guru and Rajiv fought hard right from the start and the England shuttler entered the first break at 8-7.

The duo continued their tooth and nail battle after the breather moving together till 11-11. Rajiv then changed gears and dominated the rallies and pushed Guru to commit errors who netted one and then sent one long to allow Delhi grab the first game.

In the second game, Rajiv opened up a 8-4 lead and then continued his dominance as Guru's game crumbled.

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News Network
February 10,2020

Potchefstroom, Feb 10: India's under-19 cricket team manager Anil Patel says the ICC has taken a serious view of the aggressive celebrations by Bangladesh players after their World Cup triumph and will be reviewing the footage of the final game's "last few minutes".

Some Bangladeshi players got carried away while celebrating their historic three-wicket win over India in the final on Sunday. While their captain Akbar Ali apologised for the "unfortunate incident", his Indian counterpart Priyam Garg said their reaction was "dirty".

"We don't know what actually happened," Patel told 'ESPNCricinfo' on Sunday.

"Everybody was in a shock, absolutely, but we don't know what happened exactly. The ICC officials are going to watch the footage of the last few minutes and they are going to let us know," he said.

Even when the match was on, the Bangladesh players were overly aggressive while fielding and their lead pacer Shoriful Islam sledged the Indian batsmen after every delivery.

As soon as the match ended, it became tense with Bangladeshi players rushing to the ground and displaying aggressive body language. The two teams nearly came to blows before the situation was defused by the coaching staff and on-field officials.

Patel claimed that match referee Graeme Labrooy met him and expressed regret at what transpired on the field.

"The referee came to me. He was sorry about the incident. He clarified the ICC is going to take very seriously what has happened during the match and the last session. They are going to witness the footage and they will tell us in the morning (Monday)."

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News Network
January 10,2020

New Delhi, Jan 10: Injured Assam archer Shivangini Gohain underwent a critical surgery at the AIIMS. Dr. Deepak Gupta, professor of Pediatric neurosurgery at AIIMS, revealed about the delicate nature of the procedure and said there was no room for error.

"It was touching vertebral artery which supplies blood to the brain stem. The arrow was 0.5 cm in front of the spinal cord and the child could have become quadriplegic if someone tried to pull it out," Gupta said.

According to doctors, the arrow accidentally went inside the body damaging the shoulder bone, part of the neck, spinal cord and left lung.

Dr Gupta said, "Now the patient is fine. We had planned the surgery in a very unique way. Last whole night, our team was doing the planning and plotting to conduct this complex surgery. About 15 cm part of the arrow was inside the body which has entered through shoulder bone and affected neck, spinal cord and left lung".

"We started the surgery in the morning at 6 am which lasted for three and a half hours. We have successfully removed the arrow. The patient is stable now and shifted to ICU for observation," he added

Shivangini Gohain, the 12-year-old Assam archer who was impaled by an arrow shot accidentally at the SAI centre in Dibrugarh, was training unsupervised and the mishap was a result of negligence by the local coach and officials, the state's archery association has said.

The child was training at the Dakha Devi Rasiwasia College at Chabua, which serves as an extension centre under the Sports Authority of India (SAI) Regional Centre in Guwahati when the incident took place on Wednesday.

She was airlifted to Delhi on Thursday night and admitted to the AIIMS Trauma Centre. Pulin Das, a joint secretary of Assam Archery Association and executive member of the state Olympic association said the injury to the school girl from the Deodhai village, which is 3km from Chabua, happened as the trainees were practising without any coach and other officials.

“There is a SAI contractual coach Marcy and he has left for the Khelo India Games in Guwahati. He didn't instruct the trainees to stop the camp for some time nor did the college principal, who acted as administrator of the extension centre, looked after the practice,” Das said on Friday.

The extension centre has 11 trainees, six boys and five girls, and they were training under SAI contractual coach A C Marcy from Nagaland, who is in Guwahati for the Khelo India Youth Games.

“The training ground itself is in very bad shape, it was not even a dedicated ground for archery training, some play football, cricket and other sports on that ground. But the worst part is that the SAI coach did not give instructions to stop the camp for a while and the archers were training without any supervision,” he added Das said Gohain was struck by an arrow shot by boys doing practice for compound event. The arrow remained stuck for more more than a day before she was airlifted to New Delhi on Thursday night.

“There was nobody to look after the archers, they were training on their own though their parents were outside the ground. An arrow shot by a boy trainee who was doing compound event practice hit her on the shoulder,” the official said.

Gohain's father Brinchi Gohain was outside the practice area and with no official of the college and SAI coming for help, she was taken to Assam Medical College in Dibrugarh, 33km from Chabua.

“She could reach the AMC in Dribugarh only on Thursday morning. There, the doctors told her parents to take her to a more reputed hospital like AIIMS in Delhi. With help from people close to the local Member of Parliament and Assam CM himself, she was taken by air ambulance to Delhi.

“I was told that she had a very tough time as the arrow remained stuck for more than a day. She is a strong-willed girl and she fought. Her father must be a daily wage labourer and he was distraught also.”

The SAI said that it will bear all the expenses of her treatment. The Assam Archery Association has contributed Rs 20,000 towards her treatment.

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News Network
June 22,2020

New Delhi, Jun 22: Claiming to be saddled with faulty equipment from China, the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) on Monday called for a boycott of sports apparatus made in that country after the violent face-off in eastern Ladakh killed 20 Army personnel last week.

The IWLF ordered four weightlifting sets, comprising barbells and weight plates, from Chinese company 'ZKC' last year. The body said that the equipment turned out to be faulty and the weightlifters are no longer using them.

"We should boycott all Chinese equipment. The Indian Weightlifting Federation has taken the decision that it will not use any equipment made in China," IWLF secretary general Sahdev Yadav said.

The IWLF, in a letter, has informed the Sports Authority of India (SAI) about its decision to stop using any equipment made in China.

"In a letter to SAI we have written that IWLF won't be using the Chinese equipment," he said.

"In future also we will not use made in china sets. We will use sets made by Indian origin companies or any other company but not from China," Yadav added.

National coach Vijay Sharma revealed that the plates were found to be sub-standard when the lifters started training again earlier this month following the easing of the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

"The sets were spoilt. We can't use them now," Sharma said.

"All the weightlifters in the camp are against China. They have stopped using Chinese apps like Tik Tok. Even while ordering things online, they check where the product has been manufactured," he added.

Asked why the sets were even ordered, Sharma said they had no option as the equipment from China is to be used in the Tokyo Olympics and lifters needed to be familiar with it.

"We had ordered four sets from China for Olympic training a year ago. Now, since we have resumed training post the lockdown we haven't used them. All the lifters are against the use of Chinese equipment," he said.

He said equipment was ordered from China for the first time.

"We don't order equipment from China as the quality is very bad. This was the first time we got it."

The weightlifters are currently training with equipment made in Sweden.

"Post the lockdown we started training on sets from Swedish company 'ELICKO'. SAI has issued 10 sets for us. The main training takes place with those. Maximum international competitions have sets from ELICKO," Sharma said.

Yadav also said that there are ready alternatives to Chinese equipment.

"We have a lot of alternatives. We already have good Indian sets and we also have equipment from Sweden. We will use that, why should we use Chinese?" Yadav said.

Calls to boycott China-made goods erupted across India after the Galwan valley clash last Monday. It was the most violent face-off between the troops from the two countries in more than four decades.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has said it is open to boycotting Chinese products in the wake of the incident.

The BCCI will also review IPL's sponsorship deals, including the title deal with Chinese mobile manufacturing company Vivo later this week.

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