Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 12: J&K Bank Academy notched its second win on trot today to seal a berth in the quarterfinals in the ongoing 2nd Rajiv Gandhi Football Tournament being played at GGM Science College Grounds here.

J&K Bank Academy got the better of Param Football Club by 2-0 goals. J&K Bank Academy drew first blood through Aiman Rashid in the 25th minute. Param Football Club had their chances in the second half but just could not deliver the knock-out punch.

In the second half, J&K Bank Academy stretched its lead further through Adnan Ayub in the 52nd minute to make it 2-0.

Aiman and Parveen of Bank Academy were shown yellow cards for foul play in the 27th minute, while Mohit Verma of same team was shown in the 55th minute. Rishi, Udit and Mukin Malik of Param FC team were also shown the same in 8th, 40th and 52nd minutes respectively.

The victorious team will now take on Churchill Brothers Jammu tomorrow.

In another match, Power Development Corporation (PDC)-A subdued Young Rovers by 4-0 goals in a lop sided affair.

Urfan opened the account in the 28th minute, which was the only goal scored in the first half.

The trio of Bilal, Nuhu Sulaiman and Sameer had a brilliant coordination in the second half that helped them to slam goals in 41st, 56th and 65th minutes respectively.

In the third and last match of the day, Young Heroes dispatched Jammu Sports by 3-2 goals in a thrilling tie-breaker.

The matches were officiated by Vijay Kumar, Sohan Kumar, Koushal Kumar, Rakesh Kumar, Rohit Gupta, Gagan Kumar, Rajeev Deb, Vijay Kumar Ricky, Suresh Gupta and Anil Kumar.  

The tournament is being organised by State Youth Congress under the aegis of J&K Football Association.

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 12: The J&K State Sports Council Employees Association today elected its office bearers and executive body.

Earlier, the Sports Council Employees convened a general meeting at Jammu and Srinagar simultaneously to nominate their representatives for executive body of association.

M S Baba, Abdul Qayoom and Rajan Sharma attended the meeting as observers.

It was reiterated that the J&K State Sports Council Employees Association shall remain steadfast on the policies initiated by Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, Minister for Youth Services and Sports, R S Chib and Secretary J&K Sports Council, Kiran Wattal for the upliftment of sports in the State.

Sheikh Mustaq Ahmed was elected as president of the association while Anil Gupta as general secretary.

Dalbir Mehta was elected as treasurer while Sheikh Tulal Ahmad as auditor. Krupali Singh and Nusrat Gazala were elected as vice-presidents.

Baljinder Pal Singh and Abdul Majid Dar were elected as joint secretaries whereas Satpal Singh and Sheikh Riyaz Ahmed as organising secretaries.

Kishanjeet Singh, Om Parkash Gupta, Fahmida, Nirdosh Kumar, Bashir Ahmad, Baldev, Bodh Raj, Jugal Kishore, Vikas Dogra, Inderpal, Singh, Dilbagh Singh, Gurcharan Singh and Ritika Salathia were elected as executive members of Jammu Division.

The elected executive members of Kashmir Division include Abdul Wahid, Bashir Ahmed, Mohammad Iqbal, Abdul Rehman, Sharifudin,  Showkat Ahmed, Mohammad Akbar, Asdullaha, Farooq Ahmed, Narinder Singh,  Fayaz Parray and Mohammad Amin. M S Baba, Abdul Qayoom and Rajan Sharma were elected as chief patron and patrons of the association for a period of two years.

NEW DELHI, Mar 12: India ace Saina Nehwal will have to put behind her quarterfinal finish at the All England Championship and gather herself quickly to defend her title at the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold, which starts with the qualifiers at Basel, Switzerland tomorrow.

World number four Saina will open her campaign against Sayaka Sato of Japan in the women’s singles competition.

The 21-year-old Indian has a 2-1 record against the Japanese. The last time they meet, Saina had defeated her in straight games at the World Superseries Finals in 2011.

National champion P V Sindhu, who has been making a lot of news since last year at the international circuit, will take on Jie Yao of The Netherlands. (PTI)

INDIAN WELLS (USA), Mar 12: Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina recovered from a second-set lapse against Timea Bacsinszky and Alberta Brianti to advance to the doubles quarter-finals of the Indian Wells WTA Premier event, here.

The second seeded Indo-Russian pair scored a 6-1 3-6 10-2 in the second round of the USD 5,536,664 hard court tournament.

Sania’s singles campaign had ended with a second round defeat against world number 26 Anabel Medina Garrigues. (PTI)

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

DODA, Mar 12: Young Star Sazan overcame the challenge of Youth Cricket Bhaderwah by two wickets in the final to clinch police public cricket tournament organised by District Police, Doda under Civic Action Programme (CAP) at Sports Stadium, Ghat here today.

Batting first, Youth Cricket Bhaderwah piled up 150 runs in the allotted 20 overs which in reply, Young Star Sazan overhauled by loosing eight wickets in the process.

SP Doda, Mohammad Arif Rishu was the chief guest on the occasion while Lt Col V S Chouhan of 8 RR was the guest of honour.

Cash prizes, trophies and commendation certificates were distributed amongst the winner and runner-up teams.

Mementos were also awarded to panel of umpires, commentators and scorers.

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 12: Bagh-e-Bahu XI scripted a thumping 7-wickets win over Young Star Cricket Club (YSCC) in an exhibition match organized by YSCC at M A Stadium here today.

Batting first after winning the toss, YSCC accumulated 128 runs in the stipulated 20 overs for the loss of six wickets.

Naval was the top scorer with 31 runs with five splendid hits to the fence while Shivam chipped in handy 27 runs off just 26 balls.

Abhimanyu and Abhishek contributed 18 runs apiece whereas Rattandeep Sharma also made a handy contribution of 11 runs to the total.

For Bagh-e-Bahu XI, Rahul was the chief destroyer with two wickets. Puneet claimed one wicket.

In reply, Bagh-e-Bahu XI did the needful in 17 overs with Monu (41) being the highest scorer. He faced only 29 balls which included five boundaries. Shami also played a handy knock of 37 runs off 28 balls.

For YSCC, Adit was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets while Rattandeep clinched one wicket.

Monu of Bagh-e-Bahu XI was adjudged as man of the match.      

The match was officiated by Shashi Pal and Rajeev as umpires, while Sunil Kumar acted as scorer.

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 12: In a major initiative to provide much needed fillip to sports activities in the University of Jammu, sanction has been accorded to construct three lawn tennis courts in the university campus.

Prof Dhian Singh Bhau, Director, Directorate of Sports and Physical Education, while talking to the Excelsior confirmed that the tennis courts will be constructed soon.

“Prof MPS Ishar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu, during his visit to the Directorate of Sports and Physical Education, on February 29 had a thorough inspection of the whole department”, said Prof Bhau.

“He stressed on the need for creation of adequate sports infrastructure besides proper repair and maintenance of the existing infrastructure”, Bhau informed.

“Vice-Chancellor also instructed to construct three lawn tennis courts and basketball court”, he added.

When asked him about the selection of location for construction of proposed lawn tennis and basketball courts, he said “we are in the process of selecting an appropriate location in the university campus to construct the same”.

Prof Dhian Singh Bhau said the tennis courts will be constructed on the lines of courts prepared in the Officers Mess at District Police Lines.

“Vice-Chancellor, Prof MPS Ishar is very keen to upgrade the standard of sports in the university”, said Prof Bhau adding “our sportspersons have performed reasonably well at various levels in different disciplines and construction of lawn tennis courts will definitely help in promoting the game”.

He, however, maintained that the construction of the courts is likely to commence in April.

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

JAMMU, Mar 12: The Rural Women Cultural and Sports Meet organised by Viraj Kala Kendra was held at Youth Hostel, Nagrota here today.

First Lady, Usha Vohra was the chief guest on the occasion who lauded the efforts of Viraj Kala Kendra for the socio-economic upliftment of the rural women, educational advancement of the children of slum areas and promotion of arts.

She further said there was no dearth of talent among the women and children of rural areas which needed to be channelised in right direction.

First Lady stressed on the importance of the right to education of all children, particularly the education of girl child saying that it was the key to progress and empowerment.

On behalf of Governor, Usha Vohra presented a cheque of ` 50000 to the management of Viraj Kala Kendra in providing education to the children from the less advantaged families.

She also gave away prizes to the participants of cultural programme and winners of sports events.

Raj Bharti, president, Viraj Kala Kendra, in her address presented a detailed report on the activities and functioning of the Kendra.

Dr Madhu Khullar, Director Health Services, Jammu, Dr Indu Koul Khoda, chairperson, Jammu and Kashmir Police Wives Welfare Association and members of Viraj Kala Kendra were also present.

Sushma Sharma presented the vote of thanks. The meet was sponsored by the Department of Youth Services and Sports.