Anand retains Morelia-Linares title

LINARES (Spain), Mar 8: World champion Viswanathan Anand asserted his supremacy at the Morelia-Linares tournament for the second time on the trot after settling for a facile draw with former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the 14th and final round here.

Anand ended this category-21 tournament with 8.5 points and finished a half point clear of nearest rival Magnus Carlsen of Norway who played a draw with Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan in his last game.

Levon Aronian of Armenia signed peace with Peter Leko of Hungary while Alexei Shirov of Spain could not break the ice and reached the same result against Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk making it an all-draws affair in the final round. For the records, Aronian and Topalov tied for the third spot on 7.5 points, Radjabov finished fifth on 7, Ivanchuk ended clear sixth a half point behind while Shirov and Leko tied for the seventh spot scoring just 5.5 points apiece.

It was an encore of Anand’s last year’s result here but the gap was a bit narrower. In the previous edition too, Anand had won the title scoring 8.5 points but was a full point ahead of nearest contenders. In the final round Anand, white, had little troubles against Topalov as the Indian knew that his half point cushion was going to be tough for Carlsen to jump over.

It was a sicilian najdorf by Topalov wherein Anand, as demanded by the tournament situation, played it safe and allowed Topalov to get away with an easy equality in the middle game. (PTI)

ICL winner to get Rs 2.50 crore

CHANDIGARH, Mar 8: The winning team of the forthcoming ICL Twenty20 cricket tournament would get prize money of Rs 2.50 crore while the runners up would pocket Rs 1.25 crore,the tournament organizers announced here.

The Indian Cricket League (ICL) today announced the prize money corpus of Rs. 12.33 crore for its upcoming ‘Edelweiss 20s Challenge’ to be held at Panchkula, Gurgaon and Hyderabad.

Announcing the prize money executive board member of the ICL Kiran More told reporters here today that the third placed team would get Rs 50 lakh.

Every league match will be fiercely contested and the financial incentive for every win at the league stage will be Rs. 25 lakh, resulting in total prize money of Rs. 7 crore at the league stage. (PTI)

CA not to tour Pakistan

KARACHI, Mar 8: Cricket Australia has virtually decided not to tour Pakistan after getting a briefing from their High Commission in Islamabad, but will not announce a decision until next week.

Well informed sources told that although the PCB is still making efforts through the Government to salvage the tour, the Australian High Commissioner in Pakistan Zorica Mccarthy had advised the Aussies against touring the country because of the prevailing security situation. "Cricket Australia and Australian Cricketers Association have virtually decided not to undertake the tour after the briefing they got from the High Commissioner and independent external security advisors. But they will announce this next week," a source said. (PTI)

Bhupathi starts tennis academy

DUBAI, Mar 8: Tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi has started a tennis academy in Dubai, now a favourite overseas centre for several educational insitutions in India.

Bhupathi, who went to school in the Gulf and has a huge friends circle here tied up with the tennis training centre in Mirdiff, Dubai to launch the Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy (MBTA).

The opening of the academy was held in Mirdifff yesterday with as many as 40 children attending along with their parents, the Gulf News said.

The initiative for the joint venture came from Mohammad Al Merri, General Secretary of Tennis Emirates in an attempt to develop promising talent in the country. The academy will be headed by PTR professional Anil Mathew along with a team of qualified professionals.

Bhupathi was joined by Gaurav Natekar, Vice President of MBTA at the opening clinic. (PTI)

Jammu’s first Civil Golf Course to
be ready by September: CM

Excelsior Corresondent

JAMMU, Mar 8: The winter capital will soon have its first civil 18-hole Golf Course. The Rs. 25 crore fast-track project is being pursued by the Chief Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and is targeted to be completed by September next.

At present, there is only one golf course in Jammu city at Paloura owned and maintained by the Border Security Force. Outside the city premises, there are two golf courses at Miransahib and Nagrota, both belonging to the Army.

"This Golf Course will be the most beautiful place and a major tourist attraction in Jammu city", the Chief Minister told media persons who accompanied him on a visit to some development projects including the fast coming up Golf Course on Saturday. He said the Sidhra Golf Course will be the second most beautiful in the State after the Royal Springs Golf Course in Srinagar, rated among one of the best in the world. Mrs. Shamim Azad and senior officers led by Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Sudhanshu Pandey also accompanied the Chief Minister.

The Golf Course is a two-phase project spread over an area of 1384 kanals of land. The course will have nine fairways including two par 5, four par 4 and three par 3. The golf club and water bodies are other components of the project. Five thousand trees including fruit growing species will be planted in the golf course.

The Chief Minister, in a lighter vein, told media persons that the Golf Course being ready around the time of Assembly elections and the present and the two former Chief Ministers from major political parties, being golfers, the first match on the golf course could be played between the ruling and the opposition parties.

Nissar for comprehensive plan for sports development

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 8: Minister for Youth Services and Sports Haji Nissar Ali has asked the officers to formulate a comprehensive plan for development of sports in the State. In pursuit of this, the Minister asked them to involve all members of Standing Committee of Sports Council, J&K. He also directed them to submit the same by the end of the current month so that the proposal would be sent to the Government of India for approval.

This was stated by the Minister during 126th meeting of standing committee of J&K State Sports council held here today. Members of Standing Committee Yogesh Sawhney, Rangil Singh, Sabia Qadri, Ajay Sharma, Haji Mirza Hussain, Major Gen. Mohammad Amin, Joint Secretary (J) Sports Council, Siddharath Sharma Joint Secretary (K) Sports Council Abdul Rauf, Commissioner Secretary, Technical Education and youth Services and Sports Pramod Jain, Secretary, Sports Council Ravinder Gupta and other senior officers of Planning, Sports Council and Technical Education departments attended the meeting.

Threadbare discussions were held with regard to various agenda items included allocation of State Sports Associations for Domestic and outside state activities.

The Minister asked the concerned to ensure strictly the rules and regulations of the Standing Committee adding the rules of the Council should be implemented in letter and spirit.

Earlier, the Minister visited Govt. Ghandhi Memorial Science College, Jammu and took stock of works under execution at a cost of Rs.42.54 lacs. The works included construction and fixing of Chain link fencing around football field, pre-fabricated chang rooms and Mini Pavilion Block.

Haji Nissar directed for speeding up the execution of works so that all required arrangements can be ensured well before commencement of the National Football Championship Santosh Trophy.

Heritage’s KG section celebrates Annual Day

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 8: The Kindergarten section of Heritage School celebrated its second Annual Day in school premises, here today.

Dr. Indu Khoda from Government Medical College Jammu was the chief guest, while Vijaya Rajendran, wife of IGP Jammu, was also present.

On the occasion, KG students performed several colorful and entertaining items during the function.

In her address, Dr. Khoda appreciated the efforts of both teachers and students for presenting the show in most impressive manner. She emphasized on the importance of activity based education for all round development of the child.

Earlier, Ranjana Jamwal, coordinator KG section listed the six point policy of the section. At last, B N Sarkar, Principal of the school presented the vote of thanks.

Guru Ramdas Public School celebrates Annual Day

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 8: Guru Ramdas Public School, Digiana today celebrated its Annual Day.

Prof Harbans Singh was the chief guest on the occasion.

Manveen Kour, Principal welcomed the chief guest while Joginder Singh, Founder of the school lit the traditional lamp.

A colourful cultural programme was also presented by little kids.

A medical camp was also organised on the occasion. Later, the prizes were distributed amongst the kids.

P D Singh appointed as Indian
Universities Hockey team coach

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 8: The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) has appointed P D Singh, Hockey coach of Jammu University as coach of the Indian Universities Hockey (M) team for the forthcoming 1st South-Asian Inter-University Hockey (Men) Tournament slated to be held at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar (Punjab) from March 13 to 17.

This is for the first time that any hockey coach from J&K has been appointed as coach of Indian Universities team.

He (P D Singh) had recently officiated as a Technical Officer in the recently concluded 3rd All India Police Martyrs’ Memorial Hockey Tournament at K K Hakku Stadium.

Jammu, Poonch, Baramulla, Pulwama enter semis

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 8: Jammu, Poonch, Baramulla and Pulwama have secured berth into the semifinals in the Bhai Gurbaksh Singh Memorial 6th State Korfball Championship being played at Green Field, Gandhi Nagar.

The second phase of the championship begun today with Baramulla, Kupwara, Bud-gam, Srinagar, Ganderbal, Sophian, Pulwama, Ana-ntnag, Kathua, Samba, Poonch, Rajouri, Bandipora, Udhampur and host Jammu are competing in the said championship being organised by the J&K Korfball Association.

In today’s matches, Baramulla got the better of Anantnag by 4-2 goals while Pulwama prevailed over Bandipora by 5-1.

In other matches, Srinagar beat Kupwara by 7-0, Sophian beat Ganderbal by 3-1, Poonch beat Budgam by 3-1, Baramulla beat Srinagar by 3-0, Poonch beat Rajouri by 3-1 and Pulwama beat Sophian by 11-3. In the first phase of the tournament played on February 8, Kathua beat Samba by 8-6 and Jammu trounced Udhampur by 14-6.

Earlier, MLC T S Wazir, President of J&K Korfball Association was the chief guest on the occasion who declared open the second phase of the tournament today.

Manjeet Singh, Secretary, R K Sharma, Treasurer, V P Sharma, Joint Secretary, Gulzar Ahmed, Manjit Singh, Firdous, Manzoor Ahmed, Vinod Kumar and Anil Shukla were also present.