Indian sports news wrap, August 21

GOLF

Lahiri finishes third in Newcastle

Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri shot a fine 3-under 68 in the final round but failed to find as many birdies as he deserved to finish third at the International Series England.

The 36-year-old had earlier finished second at the International Series in Vietnam.

Lahiri, who carded 70-69-69 in his first three rounds, finished at 8-under 276 and was third behind winner, Andy Ogletree (64) at 15-under and Ian Poulter (64) at 9-under 275.

Among the other Indians, Ajeetesh Sandhu (71-72-71-72) was T-31 while Gaganjeet Bhullar (76-67-75-76) at 10-over 294 was T-65 and Jyoti Randhawa (74-71-81-74) was T-74.

Lahiri, who finished runner up at the last LIV Series event, has been playing well. In five starts prior to this, he has been second or T-2 three times and T-12 once.

He has good results in the LIV Series, which have not been counted for World Ranking points.

Lahiri was “very, very pleased” with his performance.

“I think that was probably the top-three ball-striking rounds of the year for me, I think I would rate this round better than my Saturday at Bedminster (on LIV) and better than Adelaide (LIV).

“I was very, very happy with how I swung it. My control of the ball in the air, my distance control everything was spot on. I drove it phenomenally,” he added.

Ogletree stamped his authority once again on the Asian Tour by claiming the USD 2 million International Series England after a stunning seven-stroke victory – with a runaway 16-under tournament total.

The American was unstoppable, shooting a final-round seven-under-par 64 – the joint lowest round of the week.

This is Ogletree’s third convincing International Series victory – he triumphed in Qatar by three this year, and by four in Egypt last season – and it consolidated his lead on both the Asian Tour and International Series Order of Merits. He won USD 360,000.

– PTI

Geoffrey Emmanuel
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Double podium for Chennai’s Geoffrey Emmanuel in Malaysian Superbike Championship

Geoffrey Emmanuel from Chennai did India proud by clinching a double podium during his debut season in the Malaysian Superbike Championship at Kuala Lumpur’s Sepang International Circuit (SIC) last weekend.

Riding a Honda CBR 250cc, the 18-year-old, representing Gusto Racing India, finished third overall in the 250cc category (A Class) of the championship. It was a commendable performance by the youngster given the limited seat and track time at the SIC. Starting from P3, Geoffrey missed the second spot by less than a tenth of a second in Race 1.

“It was a very challenging weekend for me. We had barely three days to set up the stock CBR250 bike, apart from learning the track. Racing at the SIC was a big opportunity for me and another step towards achieving my goal of making it to the MotoGP,” said Geoffrey, who also takes part in the FIM World Junior Championship.

“The race itself was very competitive, but I managed to hold my position till the finish and am absolutely delighted that I made the podium in both races. I would like to thank my team for its support and the work the boys put in to transform the stock bike into a race-spec machine in such a short span of time. The podium finishes have motivated me to work even harder to realize my racing dreams,” he added.

The championship comprises six races to be held over three rounds at the same venue. The second round is scheduled for September 8, followed by the final round on December 15.

-Rayan Rozario

FOOTBALL

Former national footballer and now head coach of Telangana under-17 team, Sheikh Abdul Rahman, monitoring the selections for the State
team at Gymkhana Ground in Hyderabad on Monday.
| Photo Credit:
V V SUBRAHMANYAM

Record turn-out at Telangana U-17 squad selection

The beaming faces said it all at Gymkhana Ground in Secunderabad!

A record turn-out of about 300 young footballers turning up for the State under-17 squad selection at Gymkhana Ground was not just the kind of response the Telangana Football Association (TFA) officials were expecting.

With Sheikh Khaleel Rahman, who represented the united Andhra Pradesh seven times in the Santosh Trophy, being the head coach, TFA secretary G. Palguna is hoping for the much-awaited turn-around in his team’s dream to put in place quality footballers in the next couple of years.

“In fact, all these boys are only from the twin cities. We have the selections for the district boys soon. At the end of it all, we will be pruning the genuinely talented to about 40 to 50 and give them long-term coaching with the first target being the Junior nationals in Sambalpur (MP) next month,” Rahman informed ‘Sportstar’.

“Most of the boys are inspired by the success story of Hyderabad FC in the ISL and also the fact that the City now boasts about 20 academies,” said Rahman, taking time off a hectic schedule for the last three days.

“These boys have been split into teams identifying each of them position-wise and making them play matches to test their skills. There is no doubt about the abundance of talent. They only lack match practice,” said Rahman, the Deputy Manager in SBI.

“Exactly for this reason, TFA is now roping in the Football Academies to start under-15 and 17 leagues soon to prepare teams for the National leagues. This, we feel, will ensure an assembly line of quality players if they are given the kind of desired exposure,” the former midfielder said.

The selection panel of P. Acharjee, Zakir Hussain, Vincent Paul, Noorul Ahmed (all AFC license holders) and Akbar Abedi monitoring the selections under the supervision of Rahman and the TAF top officials, there is hope of genuine talent being given the chance to dream big.

-V. V. SUBRAHMANYAM

CHESS

Patient Sethuraman takes lead; Guha holds Puranik in National chess championship

S. P. Sethuraman took his time to convert his chance into a well-crafted 94-move victory over fellow Grandmaster Deep Sengupta to emerge as the leader with six points after as many rounds of the National chess championship here on Monday.

With eighth seed Mithrabha Guha holding second seed Abhimanyu Puranik to a 43-move draw on the top board, Sethuraman knew a victory would give him a half-point lead and encashed on his two-pawn advantage.