Commonwealth Games: Indian Shooters, Weightlifters Take Medal Tally to 22 on Day 5

July 28, 2014

Commonwealth gold

Glasgow, Jul 28: Satish Sivalingam was the best performer of the day for India with his gold-medal winning feat as India took their medal tally to 22 on the fourth day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games here on Monday.

Young markswoman Shreyasi Singh gave ample display of her potential by winning a silver in the women's double trap event. The shooters have now contributed nine medals in India's overall tally of 20 so far.

Mohammed Asab was the other shooter who provided cheer for the strong Indian contingent by claiming the bronze medal in the men's double trap event at the Barry Buddon Centre at Dundee.

Later in the day, Punam Yadav lifted a total of 202kg to claim a bronze in the women's 63kg category. The 19-year-old (88114) from UP finished third behind Nigeria's Olayuwatoyin Adesanmi and defending champion Obioma Okoli, who lifted 207kg each.

A dominant Satish Sivalingam rewrote the Games Snatch record later enroute to his gold medal winning performance while Ravi Katulu finished second behind him in the men's 77kg weightlifting event at the Commonwealth Games.

With the addition of these medals, India's overall medals tally has swelled to 22 with six gold, nine silver and seven bronze and they continued to maintain their fifth position on the medals table.

England are at the top with a tally of 21-16-16, closely followed by powerhouse Australia (21-15-22), hosts Scotland (11-7-9) and Canada (7-3-6).

However, there was disappointment in store for India's women hockey team as they were blanked 0-3 by world number four New Zealand.

India shot-putter Om Prakash Karhana has qualified for the final with his best throw of 18.98m. He finished eighth in the qualifying.

Meanwhile, M Povamma has qualified for the semifinals of the women's 400m semifinals after clocking 54.01 while Sharadha Narayan also reached the semifinals of the women's 100m with a timing of 11.39s.

Shreyasi shot down a total target of 92 to bag the silver, two shots behind gold winner Charlotte Kerwood of England. Another Englishwoman Rachel Parish won the bronze with 91 points, after a shoot-off with Cynthia Meyer of Canada.

A not-so-impressive first round of 22 points saw Shreyasi trailing at the third spot after the third and penultimate round but the Delhi shooter recovered some lost ground in the final round to win the silver at the Barry Buddon Centre at Dundee near here.

With Kerwood, in whose name the Commonwealth Games record of 106 points (at 2006 Melbourne) stands, struggling in the final round, Shreyasi was in with a chance to go for a shoot-off for the gold but missed the double target twice to settle for the white metal. Shreyasi had rounds of 22, 24, 23, 23.

The other Indian in the fray, 20-year-old Varsha Varman finished fifth with 88 points (22, 19, 24, 23).

In the men's double trap event, the 26-year-old Asab from Meerut shot 26 in the finals to pip Nathan Xuereb of Malta, who managed 24.

Asab was placed fifth in the qualifications while another Indian shooter in the event, Ankur Mittal had to be contend with a fifth-place finish in the finals. Mittal qualified second for the finals.

Punam, who won a bronze in junior Asian Championship early this year, then gave India more reasons to smile by winning bronze after an intriguing fight with Olayuwatoyin Adesanmi and defending champion Obioma Okoli.

The two Nigerian athletes totalled 207kg, five kilos more than the Indian, but was awarded gold as her body weight was one kilo less than the defending champion at 62kg.

Punam's best lifts in Snatch came in third attempt while in Clean and Jerk, her best effort was in the second attempt. After starting with 85kg, Punam ended her Snatch attempts with a final lift of 88kg.

In the Clean and Jerk, the 19-year-old Punam began with 110kg, then improved it to 114kg in the second attempt but her last attempt of 117kg could not materialise.

Another Indian, Vandana Gupta, finished fourth in the same event as she ended with a total of 198kg. Her best lift in Snatch was 91kg in her third attempt and in Clean and Jerk she could manage only 107kh as her two later attempts of 110kg failed.

The Indian women's table tennis team, runners-up in Delhi four years ago, failed to win a medal after losing the bronze play-off to Australia at the Scotstoun Sports Campus.

23-year-old Ziyu Zhang starred for Australia by winning her two singles, against the experienced Shamini Kumaresan and Madhurika Patkar respectively. Zhang's come from behind victory in the fourth rubber against Patkar helped Australia seal the tie 3-1.

Patkar and Kumaresan had lost the preceding doubles rubber against Jian Fang Lay and Miao Miao to trail 1-2 in the match.

Zhang gave Australia the early advantage by packing off Kumaresan 11-5 2-11 11-6 11-9 in the opening singles. The chubby-looking Chinese-born paddler used her expansive forehand to good effect and was equally potent with her backhand.

For India, the lone bright spot was Manika Batra's convincing win over Fang Lay, an opponent more than double the Delhi girl's age. The 19-year-old foxed the 41-year-old Australian with smart use of pimples for a 11-5 8-11 11-8 11-7 win.

India's Sajan Prakash finished a disappointing sixth in Heat 5 of men's 100m butterfly event.

Commonwealth Games

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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: Premier Indian off-spinner R Ashwin has described Mahendra Singh Dhoni as a "massive influence" on his career, revealing that at the beginning of his IPL stint, he was driven by an intense desire to get the former captain's attention.

Ashwin got his contract with CSK, one of the most successful IPL sides, in 2008 and said the stint with CSK shaped his career.

"IPL and CSK is a stage that everyone wants. For me it was more about recognition. MSD did not know who Ashwin is, (Matthew) Hayden and (Muttiah) Muralithan did not know who Ashwin is. The first thing that came to my mind was that 'I will show these people that Ashwin is here'," Ashwin told Harsha Bhogle on 'Cricbuzz in Conversation'.

"I don't know it was being foolish or arrogance but that was how I was made. Nobody was giving me a chance that Ashwin will play alongside Muralitharan or ahead of Muralitharan. I thought, I will get there ahead of him one day," he added.

Ashwin said Dhoni, who led CSK, had "massive influence" on him and the only way to impress him was by troubling him in the nets.

"I got the eye of Hayden, Jacob Oram, and Stephen Fleming while bowling to them at the nets. They were finding it difficult to face me in the first year (2008) but I had not caught the eye of MSD," he said.

"I never had massive interactions with him. It was going to the nets and getting MSD...he was hitting Muralitharan out of the park and I thought, if I bowl better than him, I met get to play ahead of Murali.

" I got his attention when I got him during a Challenger trophy and celebrated like a crazy kid," he recalled.

After that, Ashwin said during CSK's match against Victoria Bushrangers in the now defunct Champions League, he volunteered to bowl the Super Over and Dhoni gave him the ball without hesitation.

Ashwin did not fare well and ended up conceding 23 runs. The off-spinner said when Dhoni walked past him after the match, he only said that, "you should have bowled the carrom ball."

"MS always maintained that you are exceptionally skilful and you should keep doing what you do."

Ashwin has been very successful against the left-handers as 189 of his 365 wickets are of southpaws. Ashwin credited his engineering background and advice from Duncan Fletcher for the success.

"He made a statement that changed cricket. He said it's all about geometry and left it at that. Understanding angles (engineering background) has given me edge over others," he said.

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News Network
February 14,2020

Los Angeles, Feb 14: Tributes to the late Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers legend who died last month in a helicopter crash, will play a major role in Sunday's 69th NBA All-Star Game.

This year's annual showcase of league talent will be played in Chicago and feature numerous nods to Bryant, a five-time NBA champion who also matched a league record with four NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player awards.

Bryant, an 18-time NBA All-Star, died at age 41 on January 26 in a crash near Los Angeles that also took the life of his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others.

All-Star teams guided by LeBron James of the Lakers and Greek star Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks will compete to win each of the first three quarters, which will all start 0-0 and last 12 minutes.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the clock will be turned off and a final target score will be established by taking the leading club's cumulative score through the first three quarters and adding 24 points -- the number representing the jersey number worn by Bryant for the final 10 seasons of his NBA career.

The first team to reach the cumulative target score will win the NBA All-Star Game.

All-Star Game jerseys will also honor Bryant and his daughter.

Team Giannis players will wear jersey number 24 in tribute to Kobe while Team LeBron players will wear jersey number two, the number his daughter wore when playing youth basketball.

Both teams will wear jersey patches displaying nine stars, representing the nine people who were killed in the crash.

Academy Award-winning actress and Grammy Award-winning singer Jennifer Hudson, a Chicago native, will perform a special tribute to Bryant, his daughter and the others who were killed in the crash. Her performance will begin the night ahead of the player introductions.

James and Antetokounmpo each chose their squads from available starters and reserves voted and selected to the All-Star contest.

Team LeBron starters will include James, his Lakers teammate Anthony Davis, NBA scoring leader James Harden of Houston, Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers and Slovenian guard Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks.

Team Giannis starters include the Greek big man, Cameroon stars Joel Embiid of Philadelphia and Pascal Siakam of Toronto and guards Kemba Walker of Boston and Trae Young of Atlanta.

A record eight All-Star Game players from outside the United States also include Frenchman Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz on Team Giannis and Team LeBron reserves Ben Simmons of Australia and the Philadelphia 76ers, Lithuanian Domantas Sabonis of Indiana and Serbian Nikola Jokic of Denver.

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News Network
May 24,2020

Melbourne, May 24: Former Australia captain Mark Taylor does not foresee the T20 World Cup scheduled in October-November going ahead and wants the ICC to take a decision during its Board meeting this week.

Taylor also feels that if IPL takes place during the window the T20 World Cup was to be held, the Australian players are likely to be cleared by their Board to take part in the cash-rich league in India.

The ICC Board meets on May 28 to discuss a host of issues related to COVID-19 pandemic, including a revamped schedule and the fate of the men's T20 World Cup in Australia.

For latest updates and live news on coronavirus, click here

"My feeling is the World T20 won't go ahead in Australia in October as planned. Is it going to be viable to have a world tournament in October or November? The answer to that is probably no," Taylor, also a former Cricket Australia (CA) director, was quoted as saying by 'Nine Network'.

"It would probably be good (if a decision is made this week). Because then everyone can start planning and we can stop sitting here and saying 'well ifs, buts or maybes'."

CA chief executive Kevin Roberts has said that a call on the fate of the T20 World Cup, scheduled to be held from October 18 to November 15, may potentially not come until August.

Read: Coronavirus India update: State-wise total number of confirmed cases, deaths

But players and administrators around the world are keen for some certainty and many have predicted that the 16-team event will soon be postponed.

There are reports that the BCCI is eyeing the October window for the IPL though officially it maintained, that it will not consider new dates of the cash-rich league until the T20 World Cup's fate is decided.

Taylor said the CA wants to keep BCCI happy so the Australia players are likely to be cleared for the IPL if it happens in October.

Pat Cummins, who was bought for a record amount of Rs 15.50 crore in last year's IPL auction, is among the Australians keen to take part in this year's competition.

"The Cricket Australia board will want to keep India happy. So they may want to let the players go to India if the IPL goes ahead," Taylor said.

"Because they want India to come here this summer and play, which will be our biggest summer in terms of dollars. That's the sort of discussion going on. No doubt."

Virat Kohli's team is scheduled to arrive in Australia for a Test tour starting November, which will go along way in addressing CA's financial woes triggered by teh COVID-19 pandemic.

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