Rajouri to meet Kathua in inter- distt Kabaddi today

Excelsior Correspondent

RAJOURI, Feb 19: District Rajouri and Kathua entered the girls final in the under-19 Inter-district Kabaddi Tournament organised by the of Youth Services and Sports Department, here today.

Earlier, Rajouri defeated district Udhampur girls by 16 points. While, in the second semi-final, district Kathua outplayed district Jammu by 6 points.

The final will be played tomorrow, wherein the Minister of School Education, Mr M S Tariq will be the chief guest.

In the boys section, district Poonch, Udhampur, Rajouri and Kathua entered the semi-finals.

Poonch defeated district Kupwara by a big margin of 24 points in the first quarter-final. In the second quarter-final of the day, Udhampur outplayed Baramulla by 20 points.

District Rajouri thrashed Srinagar by 32 points, whereas, Kathua had already entered the semi-finals stage.

Now, in the semi-finals, Kathua will be playing Udhampur, while Rajouri will take on Poonch. The semi-finals will be played on February 21.

Batra elected as president of J&K Hockey Association

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 19: Mr N K Batra has been elected as president of the Jammu and Kashmir Hockey Association in the general body meeting, which held at M A Stadium, here today.

Mr S J G Raina will be the patron-in-chief, while Mr Jagjeet Singh has replaced Mr Avtar Singh for the post of general secretary of the Association. Avtar Singh has been made senior vice-president alongwith Mr J B S Bali.

Mr Trilok Singh and Inder Singh will act as vice-presidents of the Association. Mr M S Reen and V K Kohli have been elected as joint secretary and secretary of the association respectively.

Messrs Paramjeet Singh will be the resident secretary for Kashmir wing, while Romal Singh will hold the same post for Jammu wing. Mr Ravinder Paul Singh will be the treasurer of the Association.

Those nominated as executive members for Kashmir included messrs Daljeet Singh, Brijpaul Singh and Sodhi, Salinder Singh, Deedar Singh, Vijaypaul Singh, Rajinder Singh, S A Masoodi and Showkat Ahmed.

The executive committee for Jammu included messrs Manmohan Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Raja Singh, Amarjeet Singh, Karak Singh, D D Singh and Joginder Singh.

The outgoing president of the Association, Mr Joginder Singh Raina thanked the members for extending the cooperation and support during his tenure.

The newly elected president, while addressing assured that he will take all the matters with the State Sports Council and the Government regarding problems being faced by the Hockey Association.

Mr Joginder Singh Raina was nominated as chairman to conduct the elections proceedings.

Mr Ramesh Mahajan of State Sports Council and Mr G R Beig, J&K Olympic Association were the observers in the election, in which new body of the Association took over the charge.

Leander squanders chances as India
concede lead over Korea

CJEKI (SOUTH KOREA) Feb 19: Leander Aaes, conjurer of many a magic victory over top players, committed virtual harakiri as he stumbled at the door of victory to put India in an embarrassing 0-2 position on the first day of the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania zonal qualifying round against South Korea here.

India number one Paes, once again squandered his best chance of winning the second singles after being on match point to hand over victory to Korea’s Asian Games double gold medallist Yong-Il Yoon in a marathon five-setter 4-6 3-6 7-5 6-2 6-1.

India’s number two player Mahesh Bhupathi, short of singles practice, lost to the Korean number one Hyung-Taek Lee in straight sets 6-1 7-5 6-2 in the opening singles encounter early this morning in chilly-cold conditions.

The first tie, putting Bhupathi against a much improved lee and a local crowd in this resort island egging on their home player, the Indian never reached his top form.

After losing the first set 6-1, the 23-year-old Bhupathi started with renewed vigour but after 5-5 in the second, Lee held the whiphand to break him and serve out the set. It was a formality in the third as Lee crushed a demoralised Bhupathi to put his country 1-0 up.

Paes had the best chance to sqaure the tie on the first day today, but after taking a two set lead and going strong at 5-5 in the third, and on match point, he suddenly found Yoon forcing his way back into the game. Yoon won the third 7-5 and went on to win next 6-2 and the decider was even a smoother ride for the Korean who won 6-1 and to give his country a stranglehold over the five-match rubber.

It revived the memories of his loss to Britain’s Greg Rusedski in a cliff-hanger five-setter in the September world group qualifying round when he lost 6-2 3-6 6-3 2-6 9-11.

India will now have to win tomorrow’s doubles tie featuring Paes/Bhupathi against Yoon/Lee to keep itself in contention. To win the tie they will have to win both the reverse singles on Sunday, a no mean task.

The victors will meet New Zealand, who beat China in the first week of February, in September.

Korea leads India 3-2 in an all-time Davis Cup record and have never lost on home soil. (PTI)

Gajinder Memorial Hockey Champ
J&K Police, distt Udhampur win matches; enter semis

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 19: Jammu and Kashmir Police and district Udhampur also entered the semi-finals of the ongoing 12th Gajinder Memorial State Hockey Championship being played at Green Field grounds, here today.

Jammu and Kashmir Police, which got direct entry into the quarters, thrashed district Rajouri 9-0 to enter the semi-finals stage.

Police dominated the field throughout, leaving no chance for district Rajouri to open their account. Police took five goals first half lead and established their dominance over Rajouri.

Centre-forward, Charanjeet Singh made four goals, while left-in Gurjeet Singh made hat-trick. Charanjeet Singh scored field goals in the 7th, 17th and 36th and also converted a penalty corner in the 46th minute of the match. Whereas, Gurjeet sounded the board in the 25th, 47th and 55th minute of the match.

Left-out Rajinder Singh scored goal in the 23rd minute, while left-off, Manjeet Singh contributed a goal in the 29th minute to make it a big win for the Police.

In another quarter-final of the day, district Udhampur down Jammu East via tie-breakers 3-0 to enter the semi-finals.

In the schedule time the match ended in a goalless draw. In the tie breakers, Sukhbir Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Parveen sounded the board successfully for Udhampur.

In the semi-finals tomorrow, district Udhampur will meet district Baramulla, while 5-Grenadiers will take on Jammu and Kashmir Police.

National Games
Kerala maintain dominance, Andra sweep
badminton medals

IMPHAL, Feb 19: Andhra Pradesh swept badminton medals but Kerala continued to, head the medal tally on the sixth day of the fifth National Games today.

Hosts Manipur picked up the first gold of the day when Y Bala Devi clocked 51.56 minutes to break the existing National Games record in the 10-km walk.

Kerala has now 26 medals, 16 of which has come from canoeing and kayaking, while Manipur has 19 medals, its best-ever performance in the National Games history.

As Kerala dominated the calm water of Lok Tak lake, Andhra shuttlers had a field day at the D M College Indoor Stadium by picking up all the three gold.

Andhra bagging the fourth gold in the men’s open event is almost a certainty as national champion P Gopichand is in the final. With the form he has right now, it is now a matter of formality before the adnhraite picked up that gold too.

Manipur continued the domination over the long distance events, as they bagged the gold in the women’s 10 km walk this morning when Y Bala Devi clocked 51.56 minutes to break the National Games record held by Chitra Dhillon of Punjab set at Pune National Games in 1994. Bala Devi today sliced 1.71 minutes to break the National Games record.

Punjab’s Paramjit Kaur and her team-mate Jasmin Kaur got the silver and bronze with the timing of 52.04 minutes and 54.03 minutes respectively.

In the women’s badminton open final P V V Laxmi of Andhra Pradesh was stretched to the third game by her teammate Nelima before she surrendered 11-9, 2-11, 11-4. Meanwhile in the canoeing and kayaking event, Kerala has made a mockery of other teams picking up 16 of the total 20 medals on offer. The remaining medals were picked up by Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar athletes.

Although the women athletes of Kerela in this event has always been dominating the National Games, but this time the men’s team have suprised all picking up as many as ten golds while women picked up the rest.

Held at lok tak lake away from the hustle and bustle of the Khuman Lampak sports complex, the Kerela team allowed Delhi to pick up two golds while host Manipur had to be satisfied with three bronze medals.

Punjab lords over the palace ground picking up six golds besides two silvers and a bronze. So complete was their domination in the equesterian event that second placed karnataka got just three silvers.

It was a great performance of the Punjab team as they had won only one gold in the last National Games besides three bronzes.

However the surprise of the National Games was moderate performance of Karanatka team which won a whopping 72 gold medals last time at their own backyard.

In the tennis event, the top players including the top seed Vinod Sridhar of Tamil Nadu and the no 2 Vasudeve Reddy cruised into the second round of men’s tennis open event. In the women section top seeded Rushmi Chakaravarty had also no problem brushing aside T Yamaini of the state 6-0, 6-2. But the big surprise of the morning was the walk over given by the former national champion Asif Ismail, whose fitness has been on question for a long time. (UNI)

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