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South Asian Games: 299 medals for India so far

February 16, 2016

Guwahati , Feb 16: The boxers hardly broke a sweat to scoop all the seven gold medals up for grabs, while shooters ended their campaign with an outstanding tally of 25 gold medals to ensure that India's reign at the top remained unhindered at the 12th South Asian Games, on Monday.

kabaddi

On the penultimate day of competitions, the Indian contingent continued to be perched at the top with 299 medals (181 gold, 88 silver and 30 bronze). Sri Lanka were second on the table with 181 medals (25 gold, 60 silver and 96 bronze, followed by Pakistan with 100 medals (11 gold, 35 silver and 55 bronze). Besides, the boxers and shooters' good show, the judokas grabbed seven gold and a silver in a near sweep while India also bagged both the yellow metals in men's and women's kabbadi as well as in men's and women's handball in a complete domination yet again.

The Indian women's football team also won a gold medal, defeating Nepal 4-0 in the summit clash. Their men's counterparts, however, lost to Nepal 1-2 to settle for a silver. The boxers were the stars of the show today in Shillong with all the seven men in the final notching up mostly comprehensive victories. Commonwealth Games silver-medallist L Devendro Singh (49kg) began India's gold rush when he thrashed Pakistan's Mohib Ulla at the SAI campus in North Eastern Hill University on the outskirts of the city. The London Olympics quarterfinalist was adjudged the winner on a split decision of 2-1.

Next man in was 35-year-old former national champion Madan Lal (52kg) and he too prevailed over another Pakistani opponent in Mohammad Syed Asif to be adjudged 3-0 winner. World No.2 and World Championships bronze-medallist Shiva Thapa (56kg) was the fan favourite of the day and he impressed the boisterous crowd to prevail over Sri Lankan W Ruwan Thilina. Against the aggressive Lankan who was aiming for head butts, Thapa adopted a defensive strategy to avoid his initial blows.

World no.6 Vikas Krishan (775kg) put up a brave front, fighting through flu to down Pakistan's Tanveer Ahmed. The Olympic medal prospect prevailed over his opponent with some feisty uppercuts and was adjudged 3-0 winner unanimously. Another from the Indian boxing hub of Haryana, 20-year- old Dheeraj Rangi, who had secured a silver medal at the World Military Games in South Korea last year, defeated Pakistan's Ahmed Ali in the 60kg gold medal bout.

Experienced boxer Manoj Kumar, the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist, was also adjudged winner in an unanimous decision of 3-0 against Dinidu Saparamadu of Sri Lanka in the 64kg category. Commonwealth Games medallist Mandeep Jangra (69kg) survived a closely-fought contest against Afghanistan's Rahemi Alla Dad to win 3-0. At the shooting range in Guwahati, Indian shooters made yet another clean sweep on the final day to sign off with a staggering 25 out of 26 gold medals on offer.

Rio Olympics bound Gurpreet Singh shot gold in men's individual 25m rapid fire pistol with a total of 28 hits on target, while Sweta Singh grabbed another yellow metal in women's individual 10m air pistol event with a total score of 194.4 even though she was shooting with her spare gun at the Kahilipara Shooting Range here. Another Olympics quota holder Heena Sidhu had to be content with the silver in the women's 10m air pistol event with a total score of 192.5, while 18-year-old Chandigarh shooter Yashaswini Singh Deswal took the bronze.

India also took a gold each in both the team events to sweep aide any competition from other countries in the discipline. India gave away just one gold -- to Bangladesh -- in the discipline. The home shooters ended the competition with 25 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze. Bangladesh are at a distant second with one gold, three silver and three bronze. Gurpreet made up for his disappointing sixth-place finish in the 10m air pistol event on Saturday by winning the gold in 25m rapid fire pistol event today.

Bashir Ghulam Mustafa of Pakistan took the silver with 24 hits on target while another Indian Vijay Kumar, who had won a silver in this event in 2012 London Olympics, bagged the bronze. In the women's 10m air pistol final, there was tough competition among the three Indians, exchanging leads among three of them.

But towards the end, Sweta had established good lead over her two Indian rivals after young Deswal had a horrendous series of two shots of 8.3 and 7,7 which cost her dear. Sidhu was not at her best in the final and she had just five shots of 10 plus scores out of 20 attempts, besides having poor shots of 8.8 each.

For Sweta, this was the worst ever performance despite winning the gold as she had to shoot with a spare gun. In judo, Bhupinder Singh (60kg), Jasleen Singh Saini (66kg), Manjeet Nadal (73kg) and Karanjeet Singh Maan (81kg) won the gold medal in men's category, while Sushila Devi Likmabam (48kg), Kalpana Devi Thoudam (52kg) and Anita Chanu Angom (57kg) clinched the yellow metal in the women's section.

Sunibala Devi Huidrom lost to Phupu Lhamukhatri of Nepal in 63kg final to settle for silver. In kabaddi, defending champions India maintained their supremacy by clinching gold in both men's and women's events.

Indian men beat arch rivals Pakistan 9-7 in a closely fought thrilling summit clash while their women counterparts hardly broke a sweat in defending their gold they had won in the previous edition by thrashing Bangladesh 36-12 in the final. It was a repeat of the 2010 summit clash in both the finals and Pakistan and Bangladesh had to be content with a silver in men's and women's events for second time in a row.

In handball, India dethroned Pakistan as regional champions in the men's handball while their women counterparts also clinched the gold to stamp the home country's supremacy in the discipline. Indian men beat Pakistan 32-31 in a nail-biting summit clash that went down to the wire at the Laxmibai National Institute of Physical Education Northeast Regional Center grounds here. The Indian men's team thus exacted revenge of their loss in the 2010 edition summit clash in Dhaka.

The Indian women's side, on the other hand, defended the title they had won in 2010 edition by beating Bangladesh 45- 25. However, in men's football, India's long wait for a gold in the South Asian Games after 1995 continued as they lost 1-2 against Nepal in the summit clash.

In a closely-fought final, India took the lead in the 31st minute with Holicharan Nazary converting a penalty kick but Nepal replied strongly in the second half by pumping in two goals through Prakash Thapa (66th) and Nawayug Shreshtha (72nd) to win the match at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here. India thus settled for the silver while Bangladesh took the bronze after defeating Maldives 7-6 via penalty shoot-out in the third-place play-off today.

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 1: Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are aiming to set up their preparatory camp for the 13th edition of the tournament from early August.

This year's IPL was slated to commence from March 29 but the tournament was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, the IPL Governing Council chairman Brijesh Patel had confirmed that the 13th edition of the mega event will commence on September 19 in the UAE.

As per a report in ESPNcricinfo, CSK players have been asked to report to Chennai first, following which they will leave for Dubai via a charter flight only after approval from the Indian government.

The IPL Governing Council will meet on August 2 to finalise the schedule and other key arrangements for the tournament. Also, the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) around securing eight teams for 51 days across three venues will be formally established in that meeting.

CSK, who has the oldest squad in the IPL, are looking for a month's preparation before ahead of the tournament.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the side was the first team to start their training camp in March. Senior players like Suresh Raina and Ambati Rayudu had begun training their training in December 2019.

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News Network
March 19,2020

Geneva, Mar 19: Regional Olympic officials are rallying around the IOC and have backed its stance on opening the Tokyo Games as scheduled, as direct criticism from gold medalist athletes built amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Leaders of continental Olympic groups praised the IOC after a conference call Wednesday to update them on coronavirus issues four months before the opening ceremony in Tokyo on July 24.

"We are living through an unpredictable crisis and as such, it is important that we have one policy, expressed by the IOC, and we follow that policy in unison," the Italy-based European Olympic Committees said.

However, when the International Olympic Committee published an interview with its president, Thomas Bach, after a separate call with athlete representatives, it prompted a four-time Olympic champion to urge postponing the games.

Bach acknowledged that many athletes were concerned about qualifying events being canceled, but noted that there were still four months to go until the games are set to be opened.

"We will keep acting in a responsible way in the interests of the athletes," Bach said.

British rowing great Matthew Pinsent wrote on Twitter that the comments from Bach, his former IOC colleague, were "tone deaf."

"The instinct to keep safe (not to mention obey govt instructions to lock down) is not compatible with athlete training, travel and focus that a looming Olympics demands of athletes, spectators organisers," Pinsent wrote.

Responding to the criticism from Hayley Wickenheiser, a four-time Olympic hockey gold medalist, the IOC said it was "counting on the responsibility and solidarity of the athletes."

Members reinforce faith in IOC

The IOC repeated its steadfast stance after a conference call with sports governing bodies, many of which have not completed qualification events for Tokyo.

"There is no need for any drastic decisions at this stage; and any speculation at this moment would be counter-productive," the IOC said.

That message was repeated after Wednesday's conference call by IOC executive board member Robin Mitchell, the interim leader of the group of national Olympic bodies known as ANOC.

"We share the view that we must be realistic, but not panic," Mitchell said in a statement released by the IOC on behalf of the Oceania Olympic group.

Offering unanimous support for the IOC's efforts to resolve qualification issues, the 41-nation Pan-American group noted challenges facing potential Olympians.

Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll said his organized recognized there was a global health crisis, but equally was assured by the IOC that the games would go ahead.

"We recognize people are suffering -- people are sick, people are losing jobs, businesses are struggling amid enormous community uncertainty. Things are changing everyday and we all must adapt," Carroll said.

"We owe it to our Australian athletes to do everything we can to ensure they will participate with the best opportunity in those Games."

Australia's team delegation leader said the focus now was "moving to the planning of our pre-Games preparation to ensure we get our athletes to the Games healthy, prepared and virus free."

"Clearly that is a major challenge for all National Olympic Committees," he said.

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News Network
May 1,2020

Melbourne, May 1: Reclaiming the top spot in Test cricket has brought smiles back on their faces but Australia coach Justin Langer says beating India in their own den remains the ultimate test and their numero uno status will be put to test when they clash with the Virat Kohli-led team.

After a tumultuous transition phase post the ball-tampering scandal, Australia on Friday displaced India as number one side in Test format but Langer is aware that it does not take long for the situation to change.

"We recognise how fluid these rankings are, but at this time it was certainly nice to put a smile on our faces," Langer told Cricket Australia website. "We've got lots of work to do to get to be the team that we want to be, but hopefully over the last couple of years not only have we performed well on the field, but also off the field," Langer added.

The former left-handed opener underlined what he felt will be the ultimate test of character.

"Certainly a goal for us has been the World Test Championship ... but ultimately, we have to beat India in India and we've got to beat them when they come back (to Australia).

"You can only judge yourself as being the best if you beat the best and we've got some really tough opposition to come," Langer put his priorities in place. The team he insists needs to get better as now others will come gunning for them.

"Getting to No.1 is a great thing, but when you're No.1, you're always the hunted," Langer said. "We've been the hunters for a while, now we're the hunted and we need to get better and better."

Langer also hoped that white ball team under Aaron Finch will win the World Cup. "I know how hard it is to win World Cups ... everything has to go right. One day, I'd love to see Aaron Finch with all his mates lift that T20 World Cup above his head."

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