Thursday, July 1, 1999
today's calendar
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S P O R T | Thursday, July 1, 1999 |
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The rise of tennis prodigy Jelena
Dokic |
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Probe panel summons 3 Pak players Tendulkar to lead Air-India rallies to annex title Kasparov defeats Anand 6 nations for Bihar karate meet Scholarships for sportspersons |
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Sampras, Graf roar into last 8; Becker ousted LONDON, June 30 (AFP)
— Boris Becker’s Wimbledon love affair was
finally broken off yesterday when he slumped out of the
fourth round in straight sets to Australian second seed
Pat Rafter. The double US Open champion won on his second match point when Becker, who won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 1985, and again in 1986 and 1989, placed a backhand volley out. The Australian faces Todd Martin of America, the eighth seed, in the quarter-finals. Becker, 31, will retire after an event in Stuttgart next month. Favourites Pete Sampras and Steffi Graf, meanwhile, roared into the last eight and were joined by Venus Williams after she battled back to beat Russian pin-up Anna Kournikova. Top seed Sampras, seeking a record sixth singles title, contemptuously brushed aside Daniel Nestor on court two for his fourth successive straight sets win. The American won 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to set up a quarter-final against either Briton Greg Rusedski or Australia’s mark Philippoussis. Graf will face Williams in the last eight after taking just seven minutes to seal a 6-3, 6-2, victory over Belgian qualifier Kim Clijsters. Graf, the 30-year-old seven-time winner, had led 6-2, 4-2 in a match held over from Monday after yesterday’s washout and immediately held serve from 40-all against her 16-year-old opponent. Graf then wrapped up victory on her fourth match point with a forehand winner to take her place in last eight. "It was important to hold the first game and go 5-2 up," said the German, who is overwhelming favourite for women’s title after top seed Martina Hingis’ shock first round exit. Williams lost the first set 6-3 at a packed court 18 against Russian starlet Kournikova, who won first four games. But the American, a quarter-finalist last year, broke for 3-1 in the second and levelled the match by taking it also 6-3. Williams, who thrashed crowd favourite Kournikova in Rome in their last meeting, quickly opened out a 4-0 lead of her own in the third set and won it 6-2, taking victory with a ferocious backhand volley. Three-time runner-up Goran Ivansevic of Croatia endured more misery when he lost 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 6-4 to Martin out on court 14 as organisers bid to make up for lost time by starting all the day’s matches at noon. Another previous finalist, 1997 men’s runner-up Cedric Pioline of France, ousted Slovak Karol Kucera, the 13th seed, in five sets 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-3 having led two sets to one from Monday. In the quarter-finals Pioline faces the winner of the Tim Henman-Jim Courier clash. In the women’s singles American qualifier Alexandra Stevenson continued her outstanding run by beating compatriot Lisa Raymond, the world number 37, 2-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-1. The big-serving 18-year-old won a battle of nerves in the second set tie-break and now plays 16-year-old Jelena Dokic of Australia in another fascinating women’s quarter-final. Last year’s runner-up, Nathalie Tauziat, survived an early hiccup to oust 15th seeded Belgian Dominqiue Van Roost 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Tauziat, the eighth seed, was 6-3, 0-1 up from Monday but lost serve immediately and it cost her the second set. Van Roost was 2-1 up with a break in the third but the Frenchwoman upped her game and took the match with a forehand volley on her first match point. Tauziat tackles Croatian teenager Mirjana Lucic in the last eight. Lucic, the 17-year-old who knocked out Monica Seles in the last round swept aside Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn 7-5, 6-3, having started at 5-5 from Monday. The 22-year-old Thai left her game in the locker-room as Lucic broke to take the first set and roared 4-0 up in the second before hitting back with two breaks of her own. But Lucic immediately
broke Tanasugarn for 5-3 and served out for the match. |
Agassi closing in on elusive double LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) — It is 19 years since a man tamed the slow red clay of Roland Garros and Wimbledon’s slick green turf in the same season. The last man to achieve the feat was Bjorn Borg. The Swedish six-times French Open champion and five-times Wimbledon winner achieved the elusive double in 1978, 1979 and 1980. Before Borg, you have to look back to Rod Laver in 1969. Earlier this month in Paris, Andre Agassi became the first man since Laver to win all four Grand Slam titles — Wimbledon plus the French, US and Australian Opens — when he won the French crown in sensational style. Now he finds himself perfectly placed to do the French-Wimbledon double. Agassi has eased into the quarter-finals of the tournament he won in 1992 and faces fellow baseliner Gustavo Kuerten for a place in the Wimbledon semis. Kuerten had never won a match on grass before this tournament but Agassi knows the enormity of the task ahead. "It would be awesome to win this tournament... but there is a lot of tennis left". "Of course there will be a lot of nerves, a lot of pressure, but nothing can compare to the intensity of pressure and reward that I felt the weekend of Roland Garros." The 29-year-old American, always a crowd favourite at Wimbledon, feels the support of his English fans is intensifying the further he gets — and says that is good for the tournament. "For me to be in the quarters alters my life a lot, there’s no question about it," he said. "But also to be in the quarters maintains interest in the tournament. I mean, I’m shooting for an important goal (the double) and that’s something that keeps the interest of the spectators. "So it’s nice to give back. It’s great to take from them (the fans). It’s a great sort of win-win out there." Agassi certainly knows what it takes to win Wimbledon and feels he is better prepared than he was when he triumphed in 1992. "I think my serve’s gotten better, I’ve learned how to utilise it a lot better. "I think I’m more experienced with what shots to hit when, and I think mentally too I’m a lot more capable than I was seven years ago. "I think the most important shot in grass court tennis is the second serve... if you lose your serve that could be the set." Agassi is playing better than he has for years. He looks lean, hungry and has the confidence needed to carry off the crown on Sunday. "I’m certainly confident," he said. "I certainly feel good about every aspect of my game, and I know that when push comes to shove I’ll be taking some good cuts at the ball". "I’m looking
forward to the challenges that will be presented... the
tennis is going to get good," he vowed. |
Relaxed Novotna enjoys success LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) — There is something calm and philosophical about Jana Novotna this year. Perhaps the 30-year-old Wimbledon champion feels she has little left to prove after finally winning the title she chased so fiercely for so long. Maybe she feels she is lucky just to have the chance to defend her title after badly spraining her ankle playing doubles at the French Open earlier this month. Whatever the reason Novotna has lost her urgent, brittle edge and looks relaxed and at home in southwest London. After beating French baseliner Nathalie Dechy in a rain-interrupted match on Monday to reach the quarter-finals, the Czech said she felt she had not played a good match but was helped through by a new confidence. "Because you have done well here before and you’re looking forward to it, you enjoy the whole atmosphere and you don’t care if it’s a first round match or a second round match. You just go out and enjoy yourself on a daily basis," she said. Novotna won the coveted title at her 13th attempt last year, beating France’s Nathalie Tauziat in the final after twice reaching the final and losing, to Steffi Graf in 1993 and Martina Hingis in 1997. Wimbledon crowds took her to their hearts after the 1993 debacle when she was 4-1 up in the final set, but lost her serve and the match as Graf’s mental toughness won through. As she picked up her runners-up trophy she wept tears of fatigue and frustration on the Duchess of Kent’s shoulder. The Duchess told Novotna her time would come. After so many years of disappointment, stepping on to Centre Court as defending champion last week was a highlight of her tennis life. "It was very special...when you walk on Centre Court again and the Duchess of Kent is there and everyone reminds you of last year," Novotna said. Other big tournaments do not have the same allure. Though she reached the final of the Australian in 1991, she has made only the semis of the other Grand Slams and was defeated in the third round at Melbourne and fourth round at Paris this year. "There are other Grand Slam tournaments that I am not necessarily looking forward to go and play," she said. "I’m sure it’s the same for other players who enjoy playing on grass." Novotna’s aggressive and athletic style, so well suited to fast lawn surfaces, takes its toll on the body and as she gets older injuries take longer to heal. But the fifth seed does not fret about her fitness as she might have done before. "Now I’m in the quarter-finals and a couple of weeks ago I wasn’t even sure if I would be playing at this time of year. So it’s a miracle," she said. "But I’m here
and I just have to take it one match at a time." |
The rise of tennis prodigy Jelena Dokic LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) — When Damir Dokic saw Monica Seles on television he looked at his daughter Jelena sitting on the sofa next to him in Belgrade and had an idea. If tennis could propel Seles to fortune in a foreign land, it could perhaps do it for the Dokic family, he reasoned. He went out and bought a tennis racket for his six-year-old and for the next year they hit a ball to each other off a brick wall below their apartment. "Dad told me that from the first time I picked up a racket I always hit the ball right back into his hands and that’s when he thought I may as well go for it," Dokic told an interviewer. After a year Jelena was defeating her father regularly and he looked for help from Josip Melnar, Seles’s coach before she left Yugoslavia eventually to become a US citizen. Jelena won the under-12 title in Yugoslavia and the second part of Mr Damir’s dream came to fruition when an aunt sponsored the family’s migration to Australia. "We came because life was hard there and secondly because the tennis was better here," she told the Herald-Sun in 1998. The 11-year-old girl, the only member of her family to speak English on their arrival in Sydney, soon showed her talents by winning an under-18 tournament. But what set Jelena apart was her single-minded approach and her aggression, qualities there for all to see at Wimbledon on her extraordinary ride to the quarterfinals. She was soon being called Australia’s best women’s prospect since Evonne Goolagong but she had very little in common with the easy-going former Wimbledon champion. "She’s totally different to Evonne, who was flashy with a lot of feel and touch with her racket skills," her former coach Lesley Bowrey said in early 1998. "Jelena is 100 per cent aggression. She goes for her shots and has the ability to hit the ball very hard and accurately." Bowrey once called Dokic a "trained assassin". Craig Miller spotted Dokic early on in Australia and immediately added her to the New South Wales squad. "When she goes on court, because of her intensity, there’s no second place," he said at the time. "What impresses me is Jelena’s ruthlessness and her desire to win and there isn’t a day in which she trains in which there’s not 110 per cent". "She puts so much intensity into hitting on a brick wall that it’s frightening. A lot of kids are talented but not prepared to work hard, to step outside their comfort zone. Jelena is always out of her comfort zone." To fit in practice four days a week Dokic would have to get permission to leave school early, travelling 75 minutes each way by train with her unemployed father. When her burgeoning career took her abroad, she carried on her schooling by correspondence, determined to have her education to fall back on in case tennis let her down. But this has never seemed likely since Dokic hit national headlines when she became the youngest women’s player to represent Australia, winning both her singles matches aged 15 in a Fed-Cup tie against Argentina last July. Fed-Cup selector Judy Dalton said Dokic had not only shown her worth on court she had also given the older squad members "lesson in intensity". Former Wimbledon champion John Newcombe said the 15-year-old had been "absolutely fantastic". "I would hope Jelena is going to be somebody of the calibre of Martina Hingis," Dalton said. "I’m not saying it’s going to happen but I hope it will happen." Dokic beat top seed Hingis 6-2 6-0 in the first round at Wimbledon last week. "I’ve been to a lot of tournaments in eastern Europe and, I mean, if they don’t win, they don’t eat. Even though she has lived in Australia for over three years, she has still got that intensity," Dalton said. By mid-1998 Dokic was rated the top girls’ junior in the world — again an Australian first — and by the US Open even Steffi Graf had noticed there was a new kid on the block. "She is a strong hitter and fighter on the court. She has powerful forehand — she could be the next Fraulein forehand but I think I am safe since she isn’t German," Graf said. Graf is one of Dokic’s heroes as is Seles as "she doesn’t like giving her opponent a point and neither do I". Like Seles, Dokic used to grunt when she hit the ball but stopped after comments by fellow players. Unlike fourth seed Seles, Dokic is still in the singles at Wimbledon and just two matches away from the women’s final. It has been an extraordinary journey as the 16-year-old qualifier is the first to acknowledge. "If you’d told
me two weeks ago after qualifying (I’d be) into the
quarter-finals, I wouldn’t have believed it." |
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MUMBAI, June 30 (UNI) — The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today echoed similar feelings on sports links with Pakistan as expressed by former captain Kapil Dev yesterday. Kapil, after visiting the jawans injured in the war-torn area of Kargil, was of the firm opinion that India should severe all sporting links with Pakistan and to start with, immediately announce the cancellation of the annual Sahara Cup one-day championship played in Toronto, Canada, played between the two countries. BCCI President Raj Singh Dungarpur, under whose term Indo-Pak Test cricket relations resumed after a gap of almost ten years early this year at home, today termed Kapil's call as "very rational and worthy of discussion at BCCI's forthcoming working committee meeting." Raj Singh was keen to address the situation arising out of the "cruel war-like" situation forced on India by Pakistan. This new line of thought once again clouds the Sahara Cup, sponsored by an Indian company and ironically termed as the Friendship Cup. Last year the whole nation was divided over the BCCI's stand to split the Indian team into two to enable the country to be represented both at the inaugural Malaysian Commonwealth one-day championship and also at the Sahara Cup as dates of the two events clashed. The move, apart from creating bad blood between Raj Singh and Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi backfired as both teams returned empty-handed. Dungarpur said: "Cricket can't remain in isolation. We have to see the sentiments of the people. The matter will definitely come up for discussions at the board's working committee meeting in the middle of next month." "In a matter like this, the board will be guided by the national policy in our relationship with Pakistan as it has always done (in the past)", Dungarpur said. Meanwhile, Kapil's statement was whole-heartedly supported by former Test players Polly Umrigar, Gulabrai Ramchand and Naren Tamhane but former all-rounder Bapu Nadkarni called it a "sentimental outburst." Umrigar, in usual carefully selected words, said Kapil has a point and it will not be advisable to carry on sports relations even if the game is played in a neutral country. Ramchand, under whose captaincy India defeated Richie Benaud's Aussies in Kanpur Test in the fifties, emphatically said no to cricket with Pakistan. He said," Our neighbours have betrayed the friendly hand extended by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and there is no sense in BCCI continuing cricket relations with war mongers. Let Pakistan first restore peace on Indian terms and then only we should talk of cricket." Tamhane, still rated much higher as a wicket-keeper than flashy Farokh Engineer and Budhi Kunderan, agreed that conditions were not conducive for playing any sport with Pakistan. Like Polly and Ramchand, Tamhane — who has now fully recovered from life threatening ailment — also had his heart with the Indian jawans. Bapu Nadkarni, however, asked why India did not withdraw from the World Cup and refused to play against Pakistan when the Kargil issue had started raging. "Is it really a war that we should draw any conclusions", he asked. Nadkarni, who in his
days could land a ball on a handkerchief near batsman's
crease ten out of ten times, said he could understand why
Kapil was disturbed after returning from the front.
"I would have probably reacted in the same
sentimental way", he admitted.
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India-Pak
cricketing ties may be strained CHANDIGARH: Former India captain and world record holder Kapil Dev has adopted an upright patriotic posture by saying that India should not play against Pakistan in the Sahara cup — played annually at Toronto, Canada — as long as Pakistan does not "learn to behave". Kapil's demand was made after a visit to Srinagar where he interacted with Indian soldiers, who have been wounded in the Kargil operations. The Sahara Cup is scheduled to be played in September next. In fact, Kapil has demanded that India should not play against Pakistan anywhere. The Sahara Cup was started a few years ago so that India and Pakistan could play on neutral territory and resume their cricketing contacts. The cup has been going on for the past couple of years. The tournament has helped to promote cricket in Canada and has, to some extent, lessened the tension associated whenever and wherever the two countries play cricket, say for example in Sharjah. Last year, however, the Toronto tournament came under a cloud when a Pakistani player assaulted an Indian fan in the stands . The issue, thankfully, did not go to court. If Kapil's suggestion is accepted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) it will not be the first time that cricketing relations between India and Pakistan will be strained. Cricketing relations between the two countries were affected following the 1965 and 1971 wars and India hosted Pakistan for a Test series for the first time in 12 years only in January this year. Ironically, Kapil's international career took off when India and Pakistan played a Test series in Pakistan in 1978. This series saw the resumption of cricketing ties between the two countries for the first time after the 1971 war. Kapil's statement must have set many on the right thinking path. Accompanied by Ajay Jadeja, the former Indian all rounder talked to the jawans, who were all too happy to meet the legend, who has promised to raise funds for the jawans. While Kapil's suggestion has definitely set the cat among the pigeons in the BCCI. Things must be equally bad in Pakistan, if one is to go by media reports. After Pakistan's disastrous display in the final of the World Cup in England earlier this month reports have surfaced that the Pakistani players "drank and gambled" during their stay in England for the World Cup. According to media reports, Pakistan's Accountability Commission has received intelligence reports that players "partied, drank and gambled late into the night before their capitulation against Australia in the World Cup final." How the Pakistan Government reacts to the report of the Accountability Commission is yet to be seen. But given the outcry by the fans of the game in the country the government will have to come down strongly on the erring players. It must be remembered that an angry crowd pelted the Pakistani players on arrival at Karachi airport with rotten eggs and chanted slogans "gamblers go back". Houses of players were also targets of mob fury. Most followers of the game , not only in Pakistan but throughout the world, are keenly awaiting the report of the one-man judicial commission probing charges of betting and match-fixing against senior Pakistan cricketers, including captain Wasim Akram, Salim Malik and Ijaz Ahmed. There are reports that the inquiry of the commission, which was set up much before the selection of the Pakistani squad for the World Cup, is complete and the report has been handed over to the government. Now that Pakistan had lost in the final of the World Cup, and that too very badly, there are chances that the report would be made public soon. Under such circumstances
Pakistan too might not be keen to take on India in the
Sahara Cup. However, it remains to be seen how the Board
of Control for Cricket in India reacts to Kapil's
suggestion which, in any case, is being echoed by a large
number of followers of the game in the country. |
Probe panel summons 3 Pak players KARACHI, June 30 (AFP) — A one-man judicial commission probing match-fixing allegations in Pakistan cricket today summoned captain Wasim Akram, and players Salim Malik and Mushtaq Ahmed, court sources said. The players, who were all members of the recent World Cup squad, have been asked to appear or send their counsels at the next hearing on July 8. The commission, headed by Lahore High Court judge Malik Mohammad Qayyum, is expected to submit its findings next month to Pakistani President Muhammad Rafiq Tarrar, who is also the patron of the country’s cricket board. The inquiry, started in September, has assumed greater significance after Pakistan’s humiliating defeat in the World Cup final won by Australia, which triggered angry reaction among fans and media. The commission has also summoned former cricketers Ata ur Rehman and Salim Pervez and former coach Javed Miandad. Rehman has reportedly alleged Akram gave him Rs 3 lakh to bowl badly in a one-day match against New Zealand in 1994 but he has not appeared in court for questioning. Akram and Malik have stayed in England after the World Cup, while leg-spinner Mushtaq returned home last week with other players. During the proceedings today, the judge showed his displeasure when Miandad did not appear and asked the cricket board to arrange for his return. Miandad, who is on holiday in England, has said he is unable to appear before the panel. Akram and Malik’s counsels were present at the hearing. Around 50 witnesses, including present and former players, cricket officials and alleged bookies, have already testified. Akram and batsmen Ijaz Ahmed and Salim Malik were implicated in an interim report by a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) committee last year. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ehtesab (accountability) bureau has already intitiated a probe into match-fixing allegations against team members after the team’s World Cup defeat. The commission has also asked the bureau to convey its findings to it. Former Pakistan team coach Javed Miandad told a judicial inquiry commission probing match fixing allegations yesterday that he is unable to appear before it, a court official said. "I am busy with my wife and children in London and cannot make it. And I have nothing special to tell the court," Khawar quoted Miandad as saying to him by telephone. The commission, which started the probe in September, is to hold a hearing on Saturday. The commission was probing the allegations of match fixing and bribery against star players including skipper Wasim Akram. Around 50 witnesses, including present and former players, cricket officials and alleged bookies have already testified before the commission. The court officials said
the commission is expected to submit its final report
next month. |
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CHANDIGARH, June 30 — Sachin Tendulkar will lead the Indian XI against the Sri Lankan XI in the Siyaram Cup tie to be played under lights at the PCA Stadium, S.A.S. Nagar, on July 10, according to information available here.The match is being played as a benefit tie for M.P. Pandove, secretary of the Punjab Cricket Association and a former first class player.Mr Pandove has already announced that the money earned from the match would be given to the Dhruv Pandove Trust which has its headquarters at Patiala. With Mohammad Azharuddin ruled out of the match due to surgery on his shoulder, it was expected that the Indian vice-captain Ajay Jadeja would lead the Indian XI , consisting of all players who represented India in the World Cup. However, with Sachin Tendulkar willing to lead the squad, Ajay Jadeja has agreed to be the vice-captain of the team. According to information available , the Indian XI team will consist of the following: Sachin Tendulkar, Ajay Jadeja, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Robin Singh, Nayan Mongia, Debashis Mohanty ,Venkatesh Prasad, S. Ramesh, Amey Khurasia and Nikhil Chopra. Punjab spinner Harbhajan Singh has been included in the squad to give some local colour. The Sri Lankan XI will also consist of players who represnted the country in the World Cup where the former champions had a disastrous campaign. The names of the umpires
will be finalised at the steering committee meeting,
scheduled to be held on Friday (July 2). |
Air-India rallies to annex title BANGALORE, June 30 (PTI) — Last year’s runner-up Air-India rallied to outplay Bombay 3-1 to clinch their maiden junior national hockey title here today. Prabhjot Singh sounded the board twice while Sanjeev Kumar struck the third goal for Air-India in the summit clash of the 30th edition of the tournament played at the Karnataka State Hockey Association stadium here. Led by excellent performance by the forwards, Air-India made a fine comeback and outplayed Bombay in all departments of the game. Air-India woke up after the rivals jolted them with a fourth minute penalty conversion by Rabindro Singh and equalised in the 28th minute when Sunil Yadav exchanged quick passes with Deepak Thakur to outwit three Bombay defenders and feed Prabhjot at the far end. Prabhjot made no mistake in slamming home and struck again three minutes later off a Thakur cross to give his team a 2-1 lead. Sanjeev Kumar Singh rounded off the tally in the 49th minute in an acrobatic effort as he dived full length to a cross from Yadav to consolidate the airmen’s stranglehold. After Robindro Singh put Bombay ahead with a powerful shot that grazed goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan’s pads before finding the net, Air-India shook off their lethargy and tormented their opponents. Faced with Air-India onslaught, Bombay, looked erratic and fumbled in every aspect. Earlier, Bengal finished third defeating Punjab and Sindh Bank 2-1 in the match between losing semi-finalists. Stephen Kujur and Cyril Ekka scored for the winners while, Harminder Singh (Jr) scored the lone goal for the losers. The following players were picked up for ‘best player awards’: Goal keeper: B.K. Chatri
(Karnataka); full back: Bikramjit Singh (PSB); forward:
Deepak Thakur (Air-India); half-back: Viren Rasquina
(Bombay); all-round: Prabhjot Singh (Air-India). |
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FRANKFURT (Germany), June 30 (DPA) — Indian grandmaster and defending champion Vishwanathan Anand lost to Russina Gary Kasparov but managed a draw against another Russina Anatoly Karpov at the speed chess tournament here last evening. Earlier, arch-rivals Kasparov and Karpov drew their match, which marked their first clash since 1996. The match between the two Russians, which experts described as exciting, ended in a draw after 38 moves, giving each player half a point in the four-man tournament within the framework of the chess classics festival here. Roughly 500 spectators watched the encounter, in which Karpov had the white pieces and opened with his queen pawn. Kasparov then chose a Grunfeld Indian defence and managed to thwart an attack by Karpov on the king side, thereby gaining a valuable half point. Kasparov and Karpov had last started at each other across a chessboard at the tournament in Las Palmas, Spain, in 1996. In other matches during the evening, Karpov lost to Russia's Vladimir Kranmnik, Kasparov however drew with Kramnik. The tournament, in which the grandmasters play each other four times — twice with white and twice with black — ends on Friday. The players have 25 minutes each in a match. The evening, during which each man played three matches, concluded with Kasparov in the lead together with Kramnik, each with 2.0 points, followed by Karpov and Anand with 1.0 points apiece. A masters speed chess event is also being held, featuring seven grandmasters — among them such stars as Michael Adams (England), Alexander Morozevich (Russia) and Judit Polgar (Hungary) — and the computer "Fritz". After the first day, Polgar was leading with 2.5 points, followed by Peter Leko (Hungary), Peter Swidler (Russia) and "Fritz 6", each with 2.0 points. Another attraction, at
the end of the festival, will be a four-game challenge
between "Fritz" and Anand. The computer will be
seeking revenge for last year's narrow loss to the Indian
grandmaster. |
6 nations for Bihar karate meet JAMSHEDPUR, June 30 (PTI) — Around 450 karatekas, including 50 women from six countries, would take part in the invitational international karate championship to be held here from July 3. The two-day meet would conclude on July 4. Organising committee Chairman B.D. Bodhanwala said today that 95 karatekas including 18 women from Malaysia, South Africa, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka would vie for honours along with those from hosts India. The Bihar Karate Do
Association (BKA) General Secretary and Technical
Director, Mr L. Nageswar Rao, said several national and
international stalwarts would demonstrate the technique
of mordern karate to enthusiastic participants and
spectators. |
Scholarships
for sportspersons CHANDIGARH, June 30 — The Haryana Sports Department has invited applications for providing scholarship to sportspersons of the state showing excellence in various sports events held during last financial year. The last date for receiving the applications is July 30. The sport disciplines covered under the scholarships include archery, athletics, aquatics (swimming, waterpolo, diving), badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, cricket, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, fencing, football, gymnastics, handball, hockey, judo, kabaddi, kho-kho, karate, lawn tennis, rowing, shooting, netball, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting, wrestling, yachting, yoga, baseball, skating, soft ball, billiards, korfball, throwball, snooker, golf, kabaddi (Haryana style). The sportspersons who have won medal or participated in any recognised international meet or attained up to three places in the National Games, Federation Cup, Federation National Championship, All-India Inter-University Championship, National School Championship, Subroto Mukerjee Cup, Nehru Cup, Cooch Bihar Cricket Trophy, All-India Rural Sports Meet, All-India Women Sports Festival, State Sports Festival, State Association Championship, State School Meets of Education Department, All-India Central School Meet, State Rural Meet, Mini-state Sports Festival, State Women Sports Festival would be considered for scholarship. The applications should
be sent through the District Sports Officer. Attested
copies of participation and position secured in the
related sports event and residential proof of Haryana,
should be attached with the application. |
H
Hockey trials JALANDHAR, June 30 (FOSR) — Trials to select the Punjab women hockey team will be held at Lyallpur Khalsa College for Women on July 3 at 3.00 pm. The team will participate in the Sixth Federation Cup hockey slated to be held at Tirupati from July 19 to 26, according to Olympian Rajinder Singh, Hony Secretary, Punjab Women Hockey Association. Punjab Women's Hockey Association will also organise a 12-day coaching camp at Jalandhar for selected probables prior to their participation in the Federation Cup. Bobby excels JALANDHAR, June 30 (FOSR) — Riding on the crest of a strokefilled 97 by Bobby, Cricket World cup scored an empahatic 90-run victory over Mand Eleven and entered in the semi-final of Bapu Sarup Singh Memorial Cricket tournament being organised by the Navjot Cricket club at Basti Danishmanda. Cricket World Cup piled up 227 runs losing eight wickets in 20 overs. Bobby was the highest scorer who made 97 runs in just 29 balls with the help of ten sixes and seven fours. Vishal Gupta made 30 runs. For Mand Eleven Rana took 2 wickets for 32 and Somnath claimed 2 wickets for 33 runs. In reply, Mand Eleven was able to score 137 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs. For Cricket World Club Rajinder Raju took 3 wickets for 12 runs and Harish Happy dismissed 2 batsmen for 27 runs. Jalandhar tennis championship JALANDHAR, June 30 (FOSR) — The Jalandhar District Tennis Association in its executive committee meeting held at Gymkhana Club, Jalandhar, decided to organise Jalandhar District Tennis Championship in September-October 1999. It would include under-12, under 14, under-16, under-18 boys and girls singles and doubles events besides men's singles, doubles and veteran singles and doubles categories to be played at Model Town tennis ground, Jalandhar. The association has also decided to organise coaching camps this year. A spokesman for the
association said it had decided to uplift the Model Town
tennis courts and a sub-committee had also been formed to
meet the Chief Minister in this regard. It will also
approach the Punjab Sports Department for grant-in-aid
for the construction of the tennis stadium, keeping in
view the National Games to be held in Punjab next year. |
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