Ist Jammu Gold Cup Football Tourney
Churchal Brothers, Young Hero win their matches

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 2: Churchal Brothers beat National Club 2-0, while Young Hero, Jammu outplayed New Bharat, Jammu with a solitary goal in the first round knock out ties in the Ist Jammu Gold Cup Football Tournament being played at Mini Stadium, here.

In both the matches tough fight was witnessed particulary in the second match between Young Hero and New Bharat.

The first match was played between Churchil Brothers, wherein first goal was hit by Anil Kumar of Churchil Brothers in the very first half and took 1-0 lead. Second goal was hit by Sumeet Mattoo in the 54th minutes of the second half taking two goals lead over their opponent.

But the National Club could not surrendered and open their accound with a solitary goal in the 64th minute of the match. The goal came when Keemat Raj rightly converted his plenty stroke into goal.

In the second match, Young Hero and New Bharat teams played equally well throughtout. Young Hero won the match by solitary goal in the crucial last minutes. It was due to the extra efforts put in by Tony, who headed the ball into the golden in the last minutes efforts. Earlier, Young Hero got an gold opportunity in shape of a plenty which they failed to convert into the goal. The ball was stopped by Kewal, New Bharat goal keeper in a spectacular action, but soon after another attempt was made which he could not stop.

Former footballer, Mr Kailash Chibber, SHO Bakshi Nagar decalared open the first match. He was honoured with a memento by Arun Kumar.

In the second match, S Kuldeep Singh, former player was the chief guest and he was presented a memento by Mr Girdari Lal, vice-president, J&K Wrestling Association.

Tomorrow’s fixture: Ist match, Jammu Sports Club v/s International Club. 2nd match: Forest Department v/s II Nagas at 2 pm.

Inter-school Athletic meet concludes

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Nov 2: Three-day Jammu District Inter-school Athletic meet for boys and girls in the age group of 14, 17 and 19 years organised by the Department of Youth Services and Sports concluded at Jammu University Grounds, this evening.

Around 560 boys and 421 girls from various middle, high and higher secondary schools of Jammu district participated in the meet.

These students on the basis of their overall performance will further take part in the inter-district games.

The meet was conducted by Mr Ashok Kumar Sharma, District Youth Services and Sports Officer, Jammu in close liaison with field staff of University of Jammu.

Mrs Veena Bakshi, Divisional Youth Services and Sports Officer, Jammu was the chief guest, Mr M M Sharma, Director Physical Education Jammu was the guest of honour, while Mr V S Salathia, Special Assistant to Chief Secretary was also present on the valedictory function.

Prominent among those, attended the function were H S Chib, M L Sharma.

Jayasinghe sets new national mark

COLOMBO, Nov 2: Sri Lankan controversial sprint queen Susanthika Jayasinghe set the track ablaze by setting a new national mark and recording a grand double in the 76th National Athletics Championship here.

She set a new 100m national record yesterday, finishing in 11.27 seconds while on Saturday, she ran her favourite 200m in 23.28 seconds.

The previous 100m record, also set by her, was 11.41.

Sporting a new African hair style, she returned to the track after more than a year-long absence, during which she was plagued by controversies.

Susanthika’s new record was 0.01 second behind that of Liu Xiamei, the gold-winning Chinese in 1994 Asian Games. (UNI)

Snyder wins Bell Challenge

QUEBEC, Nov 2: Seventh-seeded Tara Snyder saved two match points in the third set then won the tiebreaker over fifth-seeded Chanda Rubin to win the Bell Challenge for her first WTA tour title.

Snyder, 21, prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) in the all-U.S. final yesterday.

"I was just praying near the end, it was so close," Snyder said. "It was such a rush of Adrenaline and when I hit the last shot, it was great."

Snyder trailed 5-4 in the third set after losing three consecutive games, and three consecutive forehand errors gave Rubin her first match point. But Snyder, with a service winner, brought the game to deuce. Later in the game, she hit a backhand down the line to save the second match point.

Snyder then rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the tiebreak, taking advantage of a missed call on a forehand that appeared to be long on the next point.

"That’s a case of somebody not doing what they’re supposed to," Rubin said. "It definitely bothered me. I tried to be aggressive but she played better shots from then on."

Snyder forced an error by Rubin at 6-6 after running down an overhead and then laced a backhand down the line to close out the match.

"I’ve always been able to concentrate and that’s something that I’ve always had in my favour," Snyder said. "And that’s what separates the top 20, is mental toughness. I’ve always prided myself on being mentally tough. I tried to be aggressive."

Snyder, who collected 27,000 dollars, started off the year ranked 120th in the world but entered the bell challenge at no. 45.

"When I started off the year, I wanted to get into the top 100," she said. "After I did that, I set my sights on the top 50. Now, I want to go even further. I don’t want to go for no. 1, but for the top 20. I still want to do things step-by-step." (AP)

S-Korea surprises Aussies with 1-1

KOREA, Nov 2: South Korea surprised Australia with a 1-1 draw in the only match on day three of the 20th Champions Trophy Men’s Hockey Tournament here today.

After the first two rounds of matches, Olympic and world champions Holland remained at the top of the table with six points in two matches.

Australia, with a better goal difference, are second and South Korea third.

The Australians levelled the score with 10 minutes to go after meeting tough resistence from the Koreans. Kim Young Kui scored for the Koreans in the 24th minute.

South Korea dominated most of the match and impressed with their short passes and swift changing of position. Aussies owed a great deal to their goalkeeper, Lachlan Dreher, who saved three near goals in the dying minutes of the match.

Australian forwards found it hard to break a tough Korean defence and had very few attempts on their opponents goal.

South Korea earned a penalty corner in the sixth minute but Kim Young Bae’s his was well stopped by Australian Goalie Dreher.

During their counter attacks, Australia forced four short corners in the span of seven minutes but to no avail.

Kim Young Kui opened the scoring when, on a move from the right, he received the ballfromsong seon tac and pushed it past the Australian goalie in the 24th minute as Koreans led by a solitary goal at the breather.

Olympic bronze medallist Australia thrashed South Korea 6-1 in their last Champions Trophy encounter in Adelaide last year. (AP)

Shruti Dhawan scalps Montika Anuchan

NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Local favourite Shruti Dhawan upset third-seed Montika Anuchan of Thailand to exact a revenge while the other three seeds made smooth progress into the second round of the ITF Women’s Circuit Masters Tennis Tournament here today.

On the opening day at the Delhi Tennis Association deco turf courts which saw by and large one-sided affairs, the 16-year-old Dhawan produced powerful groundstrokes and made suitable amends for her lack of serve consistency in the second set to win in straight sets

The 16-year-old Dhawan, who had gone down in three sets against the left-handed Montika at the just-ended indore satellite event, was totally transformed and won 6-2 6-4.

However, the favourites progressed without any hiccups. Top-seed Sai Jayalakshmi, winner of two of the three satellite legs, brushed past Ahmedabad-lass Nikita Bharadwaj 6-0 6-1 while second seed Rushmi Chakravarthi faced some resistance in the second set before downing Pooja Deshmukh 6-0 7-5.

Orawan Wongkamalasai, the fourth-seed however maintained the Thai presence with an authoritative 6-1 6-1 victory over Karishma Patel to set up an exciting duel with 16-year-old Russian Anna Nefedova who carried too many guns against a less-than-fit Priyanka contractor to win 6-1 6-0.

Sai Jayalakshmi will take on Archana Venkatraman, who won an unexciting baseline duel with 17-year-old Karnataka statement Gautam Sheetal at 6-1 7-5 while Shruti Dhawan will meet Shalini Thakur, who defeated bespectacled Niyati Shetty 6-2 6-0 in a match littered with unforced errors on both sides. (PTI)

Nehru-Hockey
Army boys crash CRZ School

NEW DELHI, Nov 2: Playing an all out attacking game Army Boys Sports Company(Danapur) whipped Chotu Ram Zamindar (CRZ) School Sonepat 4-0 to win the 27th Junior Nehru Hockey Tournament here today.

The winners led 1-0 at half time.

Earlier Lyallpur Khalsa School, Jalandhar defeated Birsamunda Vidyapitha Rourkela 11-10 in a sudden death tie breaker to finish third.

The Army boys played to a plan and kept attacking throughout the 70 minute of play. Sonepat School managed to keep their rivals at bay till the 35th minute but once Danapur team earned the break through they pumped in three more goals in the second session. It turned out to be one sided affair as Sonepat boys were mostly on the defensive. They crowded their defence which their rivals found it hard to penetrate. But the repeated assault led to the fall of the defence and Sonepat School’s resistance.

Mancid Dhengra gave Danapur the lead just on the half time(1-0) and a minute into the second session Arvind Kumar made it 2-0.

Rattled by these two quick goals CRZ beefed up their defence and foiled many attacks on their citadel. But the defence cracked again in view of the sustained attacks and Biraj Tete took the tally to 3-0 in the 61st minute. Three minutes before the final whistle Vijay Topno completed the tally (4-0).

The victory fetched Danapur side a cash ward of Rs one lakh, while CRZ School received Rs 60,000 and the Lyallpur School Rs 40,000. Earlier for the 3rd place match, Lyallpur Khalsa School and Birsamunda Vidyapitha Rourkela were locked 2-2 at the end of the regular period.

Satnam Singh and Paramjit Singh scored for Khalsa School while Junal Bara and Mangra Minz scored for Rourkela.

In the tie breaker both the teams converted four strokes each. Parmeet Singh, Manwinder Singh, Rupinder Singh, Jugraj Singh converted a stroke each for Khalsa while Pavitrajit Singh missed. For Rourkela Severen Barla, John Kerketta, Parbodh Tirkey and Tarcus Kullu were on the target but captain Ranjit Minz missed . In the sudden death, Khalsa converted all their five strokes through the same set of players while Rourkela converted four with Tarcus Kullu muffing up the last stroke.

Six players-forwards Satish Kumar(CRZ), Arvind Kumar(Danapur), Satinderpal Singh (Lyallpur), centre half Sanjib Beck (Birsamunda) and goalkeeper Bharat Kumar (Danapur) were declared the best players of the Tournament and will receive scholarship of Rs 2000 each. (UNI)

Rlys-MP ranji tie ends in a draw

NEW DELHI, Nov 2: The Central-Zone Ranji Trophy match between Madhya Pradesh and Railways ended in a tame draw with M.P crawling to 215 for three in their second innings on the fourth and final day here today.

Madhya Pradesh, who also drew their first match against Vidarbha earned five points from this tie on the basis of the first innings lead to take their tally to 10 while Railways got three points to add to the eight they bagged against Rajasthan.

M.P made 266 in their first innings and then bowled out Railways for 226.

With the visitors unwilling to take any risks on the slow turning Karnail Singh track, Railways’ bowlers also failed to make any headway as M.P gathered runs at a slow pace, content to play for a draw.

The only highlight of the day was a snail-paced unbeaten century (100) scored by opener Havinder Sodhi. Sodhi, batting on 21 in M.P’s overnight 51 for two, achieved the mark off 370 balls and hit 14 fours during his 500-minute stay.

Devender Bundela (57) was the other unbeaten batsman.

Earlier, Railways’ hopes of forcing a result were dashed when they failed to capatilise on the early morning conditions as Sodhi and Prashant Dwivedi (27), overnight 13, thwarted their attempts with defensive play.

MP meet UP at Lucknow from November 14 while Railways clash with Vidarbha here from November 6.

Brief scores: Madhya Pradesh 266 and 215 for three (Sodhi 100 not out, Bundela 57 not out) Vs Railways 226. (PTI)