CWG: Wrestlers Sushil, Amit, Vinesh win gold, India bag 8 medals on Day 6

July 30, 2014

Glasgow, Jul 29: Sushil Kumar led the charge as Indian wrestlers put on a stunning show in the Commonwealth Games winning three of the five gold medals on offer on Tuesday.

India bag 8 medalsAmit Kumar and teenager Vinesh Phogat also bagged gold medals while Rajeev Tomar settled for the silver medal in what was a successful outing on the first day of the wrestling competition at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC). The three gold medals also lifted India to fifth position in the medal's standings.

The star of the day undoubtedly was two-time Olympic medallist Sushil, who just took 107 minutes to clinch the gold medal in the men's 74kg freestyle category beating Pakistan's Qamar Abbas in an one-sided affair.

It was Sushil's first major international medal after his pet 66kg category was removed and he had to add nine kilograms to adjust in a new weight bracket. Sushil had won both his Olympic medals, bronze in Beijing and silver in London, 2010 World Championship gold, 2010 Asian Games gold and the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold in the 66kg category.

Sushil was leading 6-2 in the first period when referee V. Keelan decided to give it in favour of the Indian, who managed to pin down Abbas.

Sushil was in dominating form in all his preliminary bouts. He opened his account with a facile 4-0 win over New Zealand's Jayden Lawrence in the Round of 16 and then beat Sri Lanka's Sandrage 4-0 in the quarter-final.

It was the third gold for India after Amit and Vinesh's triumph in their respective categories.

Amit won the gold medal in the men's freestyle 57kg category beating Nigerian Ebikweminomo Welson. Amit won the bout 3-1 on classification points. Amit won six points in the two periods while Welson got two.

Amit had beaten Mauritian Jean Guliyan Bandoo 5-0 in the Round of 16 and then got the better of South African Bokang Masunyane 4-0 in the quarter-final. Amit booked his place in the final with an exciting 4-0 win over Pakistan's Azhar Hussain in the semi-final.

Indian teenager Vinesh Phogat then made it a double delight as she registered a thrilling 11-8 win over England's Yana Rattigan to clinch the gold medal in the women's freestyle 48kg wrestling competition.

Vinesh, 19, is the cousin of Geeta Phogat, who had won the first gold medal for India in women's wrestling in the 2010 Delhi Games.

Vinesh had beaten Canadian Jasmine Mian in the semi-finals of the women's 48kg freestyle category and Nigerian Rosemary Nweke in the quarter-finals.

The only relative disappointment for India was that of Tomar losing the men's 125kg freestyle final match to Canada's Korey Jarvis. In a close contest, Tomar lost 0-3 to Jarvis and settled for the silver.

Tomar had defeated New Zealand's Marcus Carney in the semi-final and Nigerian Sinivie Boltic in the quarters.

Another Indian in fray, Jyoti finished fourth in the women's 75kg freestyle event. Since there were just five wrestlers, the competition was held according to the Nordic System or a round robin format.

In shooting, Sanjeev Rajput won the silver medal and Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the men's in 50m Rifle three positions.

Earlier in the day, Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar failed to reach the finals, Harpreet Singh went on to win the silver medal in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol shooting.

Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar entered finals in the 74kg catagory on Tuesday after defeating Nigerian wrestler Bibo 8-4.Rajeev Tomar, another Indian wrestler also entered finals in the 125kg catagory after defeating New Zealand wrestler Marcus Carney 11-1.

Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar crashed out in the 25m rapid fire pistol shooting. The other Indian in the event, Harpreet Singh advanced to the finals

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News Network
July 16,2020

Bhubaneswar: Jul 16: The Department of Sports and Youth Services, Government of Odisha on Thursday revealed that ace sprinter Dutee Chand has been given Rs 4.09 crore since 2015 and also appointed as Group-A officer in the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) currently drawing a gross salary of Rs 84,604 per month.

On Wednesday, Dutee clarified that she wants to sell her luxury car because she is unable to bear its maintenance cost and it will also aid her training for Tokyo Olympics.

The 24-year-old believes after selling her car she can use that money for training amid the shortage of money due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"Rs 3 crore as financial incentive for medals won at Asian Games 2018. Rs 30 Lakhs for training and financial support during 2015-19. Rs 50 Lakhs for training support for Tokyo Olympics (Released In two instalments on 02/08/2019 and 27/12/2019," the statement read.

"The State government appointed Dutee Chand as Group-A level officer in Odisha Mining Corporation (A Gold Category PSU). She is currently drawing Gross salary of Rs 84,604 (June 2020 Salary) per month. She is not required to come to office so that she is able to concentrate full-time on training. Accordingly, since her appointment in OMC, no official work has been allotted to Chand," it added.

The state government further provided details of the financial support provided by the OMC for her training.

"OMC provided Rs 29 Lakhs to Dutee Chand for Training and financial incentives. The total financial support provided to Dutee Chand from State government/OMC is 4.09 crores(after 2015)," the statement read.

"The Athletics Federation of India (AFI) and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports (MYAS), Government of India may also be providing adequate support for the athlete based on performance," it added.

Earlier, Dutee said she is facing a shortage of funds due to the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to the next year and is planning to sell her car to meet the expense of her training.

"Training is going quite good so far, I have been training here in Bhuvneshwar. Earlier, there was no problem related to funds for training as Tokyo Olympics were coming up and our state government conferred me, but because of coronavirus the Olympics were postponed and I had spent the money which was given to me by the sponsors. Now, I need money for training, I need new sponsors but because of coronavirus I am finding it difficult to find them. Now I have decided to sell my car to arrange funds," Dutee had said.

Dutee, who has been recently nominated for the Arjuna Award 2020, said COVID-19 had impacted heavily on sports and sponsors are not willing to support her at this time.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: Star Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan deeply regrets his "silly mistake" of not reporting a corrupt approach by an Indian bookie to the ICC, leading to his one year suspension from the game.

Shakib was banned for two years, one year of it suspended, for failing to report corrupt approaches during an IPL edition by an alleged Indian bookie named Deepak Aggarwal.

"I took the approaches too casually When I met the anti-corruption guy and told them and they knew everything. Gave them all the evidence and they knew everything that happened," Shakib told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"To be honest, that's the only reason I was banned for a year, otherwise I'd have been banned for five or 10 years," he added on the ICC's investigation.

The 33-year-old, who was in brilliant form before the ban, amassing 606 runs in the 2019 World Cup in the UK, said he regrets how he went about the situation.

"But I think that was a silly mistake I made. Because with my experience and the amount of international matches I've played and the amount of ICC's anti-corruption code of conduct classes I took, I shouldn't have made that decision, to be honest."

Lesson learnt, Shakib's advice to all young criceters is to never take any such message lightly.

"I regret that. No one should take such messages or calls (from bookies) lightly or leave it away. We must inform the ICC ACSU guy to be on the safe side and that's the lesson I learnt, and I think I learnt a big lesson," he added.

The all-rounder, whose ban ends on October 29, said he became a bit arrogant and never felt he was doing anything wrong by not reporting the bookie's approach immediately.

"Because you do most things right in your life, you tend to get arrogant with some decisions. You may not realise but you're doing wrong by the books. It never came to my mind that I am doing something wrong

"It was just a feeling of 'okay, what's going to happen, leave it' and I continued with my life. But that's the mistake I made. And that happens," Shakib said.

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January 23,2020

Melbourne, Jan 23: Sania Mirza's return to her first Grand Slam after a two-year break was cut short on Thursday when the former world number one was forced to retire midway through her first round match in women's doubles at the Australian Open due to a calf injury.

India's Mirza, who won six Grand Slam doubles titles, took a break from the game after the China Open in October 2017 and gave birth to her son a year later.

The 33-year-old made a winning return to the WTA Tour at this month's Hobart International with Ukrainian Nadiia Kichenok, picking up her 42nd WTA doubles title and the first since winning the women's doubles in Brisbane in 2017.

Mirza said she strained her calf muscle in her right leg during the Hobart final.

"It just got worse in the match. It was bit of a bad strain, but I had a few days off," she told reporters. "So I obviously had to try to do whatever I could to try to get on the court.

"It felt okay when I went on the court, but it was tough to move right. I just felt like I'm gonna tear it or something pretty bad."

Mirza won her first Grand Slam in mixed doubles at the Australian Open in 2009 and also bagged the women's doubles in 2016.

Mirza always believed there was tennis left in her which inspired her comeback, she told Reuters on Sunday.

She had already pulled out of the Australian Open mixed doubles, where she was to partner compatriot Rohan Bopanna.

Mirza and Kichenok were trailing the Chinese pair of Xinyun Han and Lin Zhu 6-2 1-0 on Thursday when the Indian had to call it quits due to the injury.

"As a tennis player you want to compete, it is the Grand Slam. If it's any other tournament, you would probably take a call and be like 'I don't want to risk it'," she said.

Mirza, who is married to former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik, said she would take two weeks to recover and was hoping to play at next month's Dubai championships.

"When you play a professional sport, injuries are really part of it. And it's something that you have to accept," she said. "Sometimes the timing is really not ideal, it's tough that it happened in a Grand Slam, or just before a Grand Slam."

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