South Asian Games: India win 19 medals on Day 1 including 14 golds

February 7, 2016

Guwahati, Feb 7: It was gold rush for India on the opening day of the South Asian Games with the country's wrestlers, swimmers and weightlifters showing their regional dominance by making a near clean sweep of top honours in Guwahati on Sunday.

Asiangame

India clinched 14 gold, and five silver medals on a highly productive day to top the medals tally with an overall count of 19. Sri Lanka, despite having a higher overall medal count of 21, occupied the second spot in the table owing to a lesser tally of gold medals (4). Wrestlers were the stars for India, grabbing as many as five gold medals followed by the swimmers who clinched four gold and three silver medals

The weightlifters added three gold medals to the tally after the cyclists had opened India's account with two gold and an equal number of silver medals in the morning. Three women and two male grapplers finished on top of the podium as the proceedings went on expected lines on the opening day of the competitions. Rajneesh and Ravinder bagged the gold in Men's 65kg and 57kg divisions respectively.

In women's wrestling, Priyanka Singh claimed the top position in 48kg, while Manisha won the gold in 60kg and Archana Tomar clinched the yellow metal in 55kg categories. The Indians created quite a splash in the pool as well picking up three of their four gold medals by clocking record times. Asian Games bronze-medallist Sandeep Sejwal (men's 200m breaststroke), Shivani Kataria (women's 200m freestyle) and the women's 100m freestyle relay team set new Games record timings on their way to gold while Damini Gowda added another yellow metal in women's 100m butterfly.

Sejwal won his pet event in 2:20.66sec to better his own record of 2:21.03 which he had set in the last edition in Dhaka in 2010 and defended his title. Kiran Jasinghe of Sri Lanka and Mohd Shariful Islam came second and third in 2:26.17 and 2:26.99 respectively. In women's 200m freestyle, Kataria first set a new Games record in the morning heats with a timing of 2:12.13 and she bettered it in the evening with an effort of 2:08.68 on her way to gold. Machiko Raheem and Ishani Erandika Senanayake, both from Sri Lanka, were second and third respectively.

Damini Gowda then brought home the third gold for India in women's 100m butterfly as she clocked one minute and 4.92 seconds to finish much ahead of two Sri Lankans K A Hiruni Perera (1:06.89) and Machiko Raheem ( 1:07.24). The Indian women's 4x100m freestyle quartet completed the home side's dominance by winning the relay event, the last of the day, to the big cheer from the crowd. They clocked 4:01.95 to better India's own record of 4:08.72 set in the 2006 edition in Colombo. The Sri Lankan ( 4:05.07) and Pakistan (4:22.38) teams were second and third respectively.

As many as six Games records were set out of the eight competed today and expectedly Sri Lanka ran neck and neck with India by grabbing 3 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze. Pakistan won a silver while Bangladesh could win four bronze medals at the Dr Zakir Hussain Aquatic Complex here. In men's 200m freestyle, India's Saurabh Sangvekar won the silver in 1:53.03. The second silver came in men's 100m butterfly through Supriyo Mondal in 55.86 seconds.

India established early dominance in the weightlifting competition as well by notching up three gold medals on the first day of competitions. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, Harshdeep Kaur and Gururaja bagged the yellow metal for India. Chanu, silver medallist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, opened the medal account for India in weightlifting in women's 48kg weight category. She lifted a total of 169kg (79kg in snatch + 90kg in clean and jerk). All her efforts in snatch, clean and jerk and total are South Asian Games records as women's weightlifting has been included for the first time in the SAG. Gururaja bagged the second gold for India by winning the men's 56kg event with a total lift of 241kg (104kg + 137kg) on the opening day of the competitions today.

Chathuranga Lakmal of Sri Lanka won the silver. India's third gold was won by Harshdeep Kaur in women's 53kg category with a total lift of 171kg (73kg + 98kg). Earlier, the day's tone was set by cyclists with India clinching both the gold and silver medals on offer. The Indians finished first and second each in both the men's 40km individual time trial and women's 30km individual time-trial finals to begin the cycling competition on a high.

Tourangbam Bidyalaxmi won the women's 30km individual time trial event in a time of 49 minutes 24.573 seconds ahead of compatriot and fellow Manipuri Elangbam Chaoba Devi, who clocked 49 minutes 31.311 seconds in the road race at the national highway number 37. In the men's 40km individual time trial final, Arvind Panwar clocked 52 minutes and 28.800 seconds to win the gold while his Indian team-mate Manjeet Singh was second in 54 minute and 1.183 seconds.

In Shillong, Indian archers assured themselves of four gold and as many silver medals in the individual recurve and compound sections. Defending champion Tarundeep Rai and Gurucharan Besra along with former world number one Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi Laishram stormed into the final of recurve men's and women's sections respectively in the morning session at the Polo Ground.

In the afternoon session, Abhishek Verma and Rajat Chauhan posted contrasting wins, while Purvasha Shende and Jyoti Surekha secured easy victories in the men's and women's semis in the compound section to confirm their final berths India ruled the the roost on the wrestling mat as they ran away with all the five gold medals on offer on the opening day of competitions here.

Priyanka Singh (women's 48kg freestyle), Archana Tomar (women's 55kg freestyle), Manisha (women's 60kg freestyle), Ravindra (men's 57kg freestyle) and Rajneesh (men's 65kg freestyle) won gold with ease in a show of complete dominance at the DTRP Indoor Stadium. Priyanka opened the gold medal account for India by defeating Sumitra of Nepal 4-0, while Niroshan of Sri Lanka won the bronze.

Tomar bagged the second gold for India as she toyed with her opponent S Chaowdhary of Bangladesh in a 4-0 result. X P Kumari of Sri Lanka was third as she beat Sarmila Rai of Nepal in the bronze medal bout.

Manisha ensured India's clean sweep in the women's section as she got a 4-0 verdict against X Kabita of Nepal in the final bout. Rina Akhtar of Bangladesh won the bronze in that category.

Ravinder then gave India the gold in the men's 57kg freestyle with a 3-0 win over Mohammad Bilal of Pakistan before Rajneesh completed the memorable day for India with a 4-0 win over Pakistan's Nadar in the men's 65kg.

In men's football, India made a disappointing start to their campaign as they suffered a solitary goal loss to Sri Lanka. They will now have to beat Maldives in their group match on February 10 if they want to finish among top two and qualify for the semifinals.

India enjoyed the lion's share of possession at the SAI Center ground and dominated most of the proceedings but failed to convert the chances that came their way. Sri Lanka's all-important goal was scored in the 14th minute by captain MCM Rinas from a free-kick from around 30 yards.

In squash, top Indian players Sourav Ghosal, Harinderpal Singh and Joshana Chinappa easily made it to the semifinals while Sunayna Kuruvilla bowed out of the competition in the individual events.

Ghosal hardly broke a sweat as he beat Mohd Shumon of Bangladesh 11-5 11-1 11-3 in the quarterfinals while Harinderpal also sent packing Mohd. Shamil Wakeel of Sri Lanka 11-3 11-8 11-3 to enter the semifinals.

In women's individual event, Joshana toyed with Krishna Thapa of Nepal 11-6 11-4 11-4 to storm into the semifinals. However, Sunayna Kuruvilla failed to make it to the semifianls after losing to Mihilya Methsarani of Sri Lanka 11-6 9-11 11-4 5-11 10-12. In Volleyball, Indian men's team spanked Nepal 3-0 (25-15 25-16 25-16), while in Kho Kho, Indian men's team beat Nepal 23-21 and the women's side defeated Sri Lanka 16-14.

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Agencies
April 12,2020

London, Apr 12: Former Formula 1 legendary driver Stirling Moss died at the age of 90 on Sunday.

"All at F1 send our heartfelt condolences to Lady Susie and Sir Stirling's family and friends," Formula 1 said in a statement.

Often referred to as the greatest driver never to win the world championship, Moss contested 66 Grands Prix from 1951 to 1961, driving for the likes of Vanwall, Maserati and Mercedes, where he famously formed a contented and ruthlessly effective partnership with lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio.

In his 10-year-long stint at the tracks, Moss took 16 wins, some of which rank among the truly iconic drives in the sport's history - his 1961 victories in Monaco and Germany in particular often held up as all-time classics.

Moss won the 1955 Mille Miglia on public roads for Mercedes at an average speed of close to 100mph, while he also competed in rallies and land-speed attempts.

Following an enforced retirement from racing (barring a brief comeback in saloon cars in the 1980s) after a major crash at Goodwood in 1962, Moss maintained a presence in Formula 1 as both a sports correspondent and an interested observer, before retiring from public life in January of 2018.

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Agencies
January 6,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 6: 'The Irishman,' and 'Two Popes' were shut out from the winners list despite getting multiple nominations, the movies didn't win a single award at the Golden Globes Award held on Sunday (local time). Other movies in the list include 'Bombshell,' 'Dolemite Is My Name,' 'Harriet,' 'Jojo Rabbit,' 'Knives Out' and 'Little Women.'

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 'The Irishman' may have gone into the 2020 Golden Globes with the second-highest number of film nominations, tied with 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' with five nods, but Martin Scorsese's highly anticipated mob epic for Netflix was completely shut out at the award ceremony.

Netflix landed the most film nominations of any company with 17 mentions, but it won only one award which is the best-supporting actress for 'Marriage Story's' Laura Dern. Netflix's nominated films 'Dolemite Is My Name' and 'The Two Popes' was tied with 'Joker' with four mentions each and failed to grab any awards.

'Dolemite Is My Name' star Eddie Murphy was expected by a number of pundits to win for best actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy.

'Bombshell', 'Harriet',' Frozen 2', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Knives Out', 'The Lion King', 'Little Women' and 'Pain and Glory' are among the other films that received multiple nominations but didn't win a single award.

On the TV side, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' tied in the race to most small-screen nominations with 'Chernobyl' and 'The Crown' with four nominations, and 'The Crown' won only one award, for star Olivia Colman.

The three-time nominees 'Barry', 'Big Little Lies', 'The Kominsky Method' and 'The Morning Show' also didn't grab any award. 'Catch-22', 'Killing Eve', 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' and 'The Politician' who were two-time nominees that were also iced out.

'Hustlers' star Jennifer Lopez failed to take home the best-supporting actress award as she was predicted to win the award by a number of pundits. Billy porter also failed to make history with the best drama actor win for his role on 'Pose,' if he would've won the award, he reportedly would have been the first openly gay African-American to win that award.

'Chernobyl' won two of its four nominations. Despite that, star Jared Harris didn't win the best actor in a limited series Globe which was predicted by many prognosticators. The award was bagged by Russell Crowe for his portrayal of Roger Ailes in 'The Loudest Voice.' But the star was absent from the ceremony.

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News Network
March 2,2020

Christchurch, Mar 2: India captain Virat Kohli on Monday said the under-fire Rishabh Pant has got a "lot of chances" but the team is not looking to try someone else in the youngster's place just yet as one player can't be singled out in a collective failure.

Pant has been under the scanner for the past one year because of his inconsistent run. His tally of 60 runs across four innings in the 0-2 Test series loss to New Zealand, which concluded here on Monday, has only amplified the debate whether it was prudent to leave out a keeper of Wriddhiman Saha's calibre and back Pant.

"...we have given him (Pant) a lot of chances in the home season as well starting from Australia. Then he was not playing for a bit. In turn he really worked hard on himself," Kohli came to Pant's defence after the series here.

"You need to figure out when is the right time to give someone else a chance. If you push people too early, they can lose confidence," he added.

"...collectively, we didn't perform. I don't believe in singling him out. We take the hit together as a group whether it's the batting group or as a team."

When asked if he believes Pant has taken his place in the side for granted, Kohli made it clear that the culture of this team doesn't encourage anyone to think along those lines.

"I don't see anyone taking his place for granted in this team. That's the culture we have set. People are told to take responsibilities and work hard. Whether it happens or not is a different thing. Then you can have a conversation with the players," he said.

"But no one has come here thinking I am going to play every game or I am indispensable," he added in no uncertain terms.

Kohli, just like head coach Ravi Shastri, made it clear that Pant can make a difference in overseas conditions and he won't like to deviate during future tours.

"The time that he didn't play, he really worked hard on his game. So we thought this is the right time because of his game and the way he plays because he can make a difference lower down the order.

"That was our planning behind it. We can't really fluctuate when it comes to what we planned," he added.

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