Indian hockey team loses to Spain in practice game

New Delhi, July 28 

The Indian men’s hockey team witnessed a disappointing start to its final preparatory campaign ahead of the Rio Olympics as it went down 4-1 to Spain in the first of the two practice games in Madrid.

Rupinder Pal Singh (21st minute) scored India’s lone goal last night. For Spain, Xavi Lleonart (10th, 31st) and Pau Quemada (30th, 42nd) scored two goals each.

The hosts started quickly off the blocks and opened the scoring in the 10th minute via Lleonart. India’s equaliser came in the second quarter from a penalty stroke that was converted by Rupinder.

Spain restored their lead in the final minute of the second quarter through Quemada. Spain scored two more goals in the third quarter.

TT coach fumes as Ghosh gives walkover

All is not well in the Rio-bound Indian table tennis camp as Soumyajit Ghosh’s decision to give walkover at a domestic event after refusing to play with a certain kind of ball left chief national coach Bhawani Mukherjee and TTFI top brass fuming.

Ghosh is currently India’s highest ranked player at world No 68. The incident happened today at the Inter-Institutional TT Championship in Jaipur, where Ghosh turned up for his employers Petroleum Sports Promotion Board and gave a walk-over in the individual event after playing the team event. The reason being the use of GKI balls (used in domestic tourneys) and not the DHS balls, which will be used in Rio. “I am not happy at all with Ghosh’s attitude. When a big player like Sharath (Kamal) has no problem, he should also be playing with Rio just round the corner. Anyway the ball issue is not a big one as different balls are used all around the world and you need to adjust,” Mukherjee said.

Ghosh said: “I did play with the GKI ball in the team event but then thought it might affect with my rhythm later on.” 

Ramkumar-Jeevan in quarterfinals

Lexington (US): Ramkumar Ramanathan and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan beat Brydan Klein and Andrew Whittington to progress to the doubles quarerfinals of the $50,000 ATP Challengher tournament here. The Indians won the first-round match 7-6(5) 4-6 12-10. — PTI