Yashaswini shoots down gold, secures 9th Olympic quota

Agencies
September 1, 2019

Rio de Janeiro, Sept 1: An authoritative Yashaswini Singh Deswal secured India's ninth Olympic quota in style, upstaging the women's 10m air pistol's numero uno shooter Olena Kostevych of Ukraine for a gold in the ISSF World Cup here.

The 22-year-old former junior world champion on Saturday recorded 236.7 in the eight-woman final of the season's fourth ISSF World Cup for pistol and rifle shooters.

Ukraine's world number one Kostevych, also a former Olympic and world champion, claimed the silver with 234.8, while Serbia's Jasmina Milavonovic bagged the bronze with 215.7.

Such was the dominance of Yashaswini that she ended the final a massive 1.9 points ahead of the event's next best performer, Kostevych.

Yashaswini, a student of Economics, had also topped the qualifications by a mile, aggregating a score of 582.

Starting the finals with 10.1, 10.5 and 10.1, the Indian was third after the first five-shot series of stage 1.

A 10.6 pushed her to number two and a 10.1 to the top, eventually ending the stage as number one.

She started the elimination rounds with a bumper 10.4, which was followed by 10.0.

The standing was not disturbed despite a 9 as her lead was pretty big by that time.

She briefly slipped to second with a 9.1, but a humongous 10.8, soon after, firmly established Yashaswini's place at the top.

After confirming the quota, Yashaswini shot a perfect 10.9, extending her dominance and securing the top prize with an effortless performance.

Her two final shots were in the 9s, but importantly, both were higher than those of the Ukranian champion.

The brilliant performance saw Yashaswini join Sanjeev Rajput, Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker as India's other quota holders for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

This is also India's third gold in Rio, after Abhishek Verma and Elavenil Valarivan won the yellow metal in the men's 10m Air Pistol and women's 10m Air Rifle respectively.

Earlier in the day, Kajal Saini of India delivered a hugely improved performance in the women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) by finishing 22nd with a qualifying round score of 1167.

Former world champion in prone, Tejaswini Sawant finished 47th with a score of 1156.

In the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Adarsh Singh and Anish Bhanwala shot 291 out of 300 in the first precision round to be in 13th and 14th spots respectively.

Anhad Jawanda, the third Indian in the fray, shot 281 to be in 48th spot.

The trio will come back for the final Rapid Fire round on Sunday to try and make it among the top six finalists.

The Indians also continued to do well in the non-competition Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) section. Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh finished 1-2 in the women's 10m Air Pistol, shooting scores of 580 and 577 respectively.

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Agencies
August 4,2020

New Delhi, Aug 4: Former India women's team captain Anjum Chopra firmly believes that the BCCI has a plan for women's cricket but she wants the Board to communicate its ideas more specifically.

Speaking to news agency, Chopra, who is now a successful broadcaster, said the BCCI is thinking in earnest about the progress of women's cricket.

"It's not that the BCCI is not thinking about women's cricket. I only think they need to be more specific in communication about women's cricket," Chopra said.

"I firmly believe that they must be thinking about women's cricket but the communication all this while has been very specific to men's cricket."

The latest trigger for criticism of BCCI was India's withdrawal from a tour of England in September owing to logistical issues arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chopra concedes it was "not nice" but Indian players' participation in the women's IPL, in November, will still be useful preparation for next year's ODI World Cup.

"It is heartening to see women's cricket making headlines. They should have been a part of that England tour and it did not feel nice initially but the women's IPL, irrespective of the format, will be helpful for World Cup preparations. Any form of cricket is good preparation," Chopra said.

"Missing out on a tournament is not nice, but logistically there may have been issues. And you can't send an under-prepared team."

"If you see in isolation we may have missed out on an opportunity to play in England. The more the girls play the better it is, before playing a tournament of the stature of World Cup. The assurance from the president is a very good thing."

Chopra welcomed the Sourav Ganguly-led BCCI's decision to hold the women's event in the UAE alongside the IPL, which will run from September 19 to November 10. The women's IPL will coincide with the business end of the men's league.

"I am definitely happy, it's always nice to be part of any cricket anywhere across the world.

"They should have been nearing the final stages of the preparation for the World Cup by now, but because of the pandemic things did not go as planned," she added.

Chopra had a successful international career spanning over 17 years, during which she represented India in a record six World Cups and became the first woman cricketer to appear in 100 One-day Internationals.

She also felt that the pandemic would not have much impact on the women's game that has gained momentum in recent times.

"...Cricket was on pause button...Once cricket resumes and players are back on the park, everything is going to get picked up. It might take some time to get started as everything starts from zero...

"The awareness the women's game has created, I hope it stays. They will just restart, not start after the pandemic."

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News Network
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Friday extended wishes to the "most prolific batsman of all time" Sachin Tendulkar on his 47th birthday.

ICC took to Twitter and wrote: "Happy birthday to Sachin Tendulkar, the most prolific batsman of all time! To celebrate, we will give you the opportunity to vote for his top ODI innings in a bracket challenge! Stay tuned to join the celebrations."

The Maharashtra-born player had an illustrious career in the game, creating several records.
Tendulkar made his debut in Test cricket on November 15, 1989. In the same year on December 18, he played his first ODI match.

The legendary cricketer has the most number of runs in the longest format of the game, amassing 15,921 runs. Along the way, Tendulkar scored 51 Test centuries, most by any player.

Things are no different in ODI cricket as Tendulkar atop the list of most runs in this format as well. He has accumulated 18,426 runs in ODI which includes 49 tons.

Tendulkar represented the country in six World Cups during his career that lasted for 24 years. He was the part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad.

This year, Master Blaster decided not to celebrate his birthday due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the country.

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News Network
April 21,2020

New Delhi, Apr 21: India skipper Virat Kohli on Tuesday said people seem to have become more compassionate while coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and hoped the sense of gratitude towards frontline workers like doctors and police personnel remains even after the crisis is over.

Speaking in an online class organised by "Unacademy", Kohli and his actor wife Anushka Sharma spoke at length about the challenges they faced before tasting success.

"The one positive out of this crisis that we as a society have become more compassionate. We are showing more gratitude to the frontline workers in this war, be it police personnel, doctors or nurses.

"I hope it stays this way even after we overcome this crisis," said Kohli with Sharma seated next to her.

Kohli said the pandemic has taught the world a very important lesson.

"Life is unpredictable. So, do what makes you happy and not get into comparisons all the time. People have a choice now how to come out of this phase. Life is going to be different after this," said the skipper.

For Sharma, the pandemic has forced people to care about the basics in life.

"There is a learning in all of this. Nothing happens without a reason. If the frontline workers were not there, we would not have access to basics," she said..

"This has taught us that no one is special than the other. Health is everything. We are more connected as a society now," she added.

During the session, Kohli was asked about the moment when he felt most helpless.

"I felt nothing was working for me when I was not picked for the state team initially. I cried the whole night and asked my coach 'why did I not get selected'?" he responded.

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