Saurabh smashes junior record at world championships

Agencies
September 6, 2018

Changwon, Sept 6: Asian Games gold-medallist Saurabh Chaudhary shattered the world record to claim the junior 10m air pistol gold at the ISSF World Championships here Thursday but senior shooters failed to impress yet again.

Arjun Singh Cheema settled for a bronze in the same event and the Indian team took the silver, propelled by Chaudhary's phenomenal individual performance.

The 16-year-old Chaudhary, who won the Asiad gold last month, qualified third with a score of 581 before shooting down his own world record with a score of 245.5 in the final. Singh managed 218 once the field was pruned to eight following the qualifying round.

Chaudhary first set a world record in the 10m air pistol event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup in June.

Korean Hojin Lim, who made the finals as the top qualifier, finished second with a final score of 243.1 for the silver medal.

The Indian team of Chaudhary, Singh and Anmol, who could not make the individual final, claimed the silver with a combined score of 1730.

The gold was snared by the Korean team, which broke the world record with its total of 1732. Russia picked up the bronze with a score of 1711.

Chaudhary, son of a farmer based in Kalina Village in Meerut surprised everyone with his maturity to keep calm under the pressure at the Asian Games.

He picked up the sport only three years ago. A student of class XI Chaudhary learnt the tricks of the trade at Amit Sheoran's academy at Benoli near Baghpat, 53 kilometres from Meerut.

However, there was disappointment for senior shooters, who endured a successive barren day. Asiad bronze-medallist Abhishek Verma raised hopes for a medal by qualifying third for the 10m air pistol event for men.

However, the lawyer-cum-marksman disappointed with an eighth-place finish in the final after shooting a score of 118.

Korea's Jin Jongoh claimed the gold in this event. The local favourite was tied on a score of 241.5 with Russia's Artem Chernousov but prevailed in the shoot-off.

So far, Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela are the only Indian shooters to secure quota places for the Olympics by winning a silver and finishing fourth respectively in the women's 10m air rifle event.

Though the two shooters have secured quotas, as per the stated policy, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) will take the final call on selection, based on the aggregate scores of shooters (in international tournaments and selection trials) leading up to the Olympic Games.

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News Network
July 5,2020

Colombo, Jul 5: Sri Lanka batsman Kusal Mendis was on Sunday arrested for knocking down a pedestrian while driving, police said.

Mendis hit a 74-year-old man, killing him in the wee hours, in the Colombo suburb of Panadura.

He is to be produced before a magistrate later today, police said.

The 25-year-old wicket-keeper batsman has represented Sri Lanka in 44 Tests and 76 ODIs. Mendis was part of the national squad which had resumed training after the Covid-19 lockdown.

Sri Lanka's international assignments, including a tour by India, have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

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Agencies
June 6,2020

Malappuram, Jun 6: One more COVID-19 death was reported in Kerala on Saturday taking the toll in the State to 15.

The 61-year-old deceased, Hamsa Koya, a former footballer who represented Maharashtra in Santosh Trophy, had returned from Mumbai with his family on May 21.

Koya was undergoing treatment at Manjeri Medical College in Malappuram. The medical bulletin issued said that he was suffering from pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.

On June 5, as his health deteriorated, he was administered plasma therapy on the advice of the state medical board. However, he did not respond to medicines and breathed his last at 6:30 am on Saturday.

The medical bulletin said that his family members including his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren of 3 years and a 3 month-old child also had tested COVID-19 positive and were earlier shifted to hospital for treatment.

With this, the total death toll in Kerala has reached 15. 

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News Network
May 25,2020

Karachi, May 25: Pakistan head coach and chief selector Misbah-ul-Haq believes Babar Azam is destined to be a world-class player and is very close to being in the same league as India skipper Virat Kohli and Australia's Steve Smith.

"I don't like comparisons but Babar is currently very close to being in the same class as Virat Kohli, Steve Smith or Joe Root," Misbah said in an interview to Youtube channel, Cricket Baaz.

"He believes in the work ethic that if you want to better Kohli you have to work harder than him at your skills, fitness and game awareness."

The 25-year-old, who was named captain of the Pakistan T20 team ahead of the Australia series in October last year, was recently handed the reins of ODI team as well.

"Making him the T20 captain was a tester. We wanted to see how he will respond to this challenge. All of us agree that he has done a very good job and his biggest plus is that being among the worlds top players he leads by example," Misbah said.

"If you are a performer like Babar then it becomes easier for you to motivate the rest of the team and get things done.

"Even when I was made captain in 2010 my performances were here and there and I was in and out. But captaincy changed my game and mindset and I became a more hard-working and motivated cricketer."

Misbah said Babar always challenges himself and would get better as a captain with experience.

"He is in a zone of his own. He just doesn't want to be in the team. He just doesn't want to play for money. He wants to be the top performer for Pakistan. He is always pitting himself against other top batsmen like Kohli or Smith," he said.

"He loves challenges in the nets and on the field. He has really matured as a player and in time he will get better as a captain with experience."

Babar was the leading run-scorer of the T20I series against Australia last year. He also scored 210 runs, which included a hundred, at 52.50 in the Test series against the same opponents.

In the two-Test home series against Sri Lanka, Babar ended the series with 262 runs with an average of exactly 262.

Misbah feels Babar had changed as a batsman when he got runs in the Tests in Australia.

"Before that he was getting runs in tests but not consistently. In Australia and in the following tests against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh he changed," he said.

Talking about his experience as a head coach, Misbah said: "Having captained, it has helped me a lot. As captain I had to manage everything and also having played under top coaches ... I have seen closely their work ethics and how they managed things.

"It is a learning process. Having remained captain it is a big advantage for coaching because you know the players and their mood swings. You know which player will respond in a given situation,which player is feeling pressure in a scenario.

Misbah said it is not easy juggling between different roles.

"Most important thing as a coach is mentally and psychologically how you handle a group of players," the former skipper said.

"Sometimes captain and coach is different as you have to take tough decisions. Being chief selector makes it it a bit difficult but I had experience of creating and managing teams, I have been building teams since 2003. Till now it is going well."

Misbah feels in Pakistan cricket there were different parameters for judging foreign and local coaches.

"I don't know why it is like this why do we have different eye for locals and foreigners. Maybe we feel they have something special. It looks like every decision by a foreign coach is right. In contrast we tend to be very critical of local coaches no matter what decision they take," he said.

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