Haryana enter semifinals of women’s hockey Nationals

Pune: Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Jharkhand qualified for the semifinals of the senior women’s hockey National Championship. Deepika (5th, 14th minutes) struck a brace to hand favourites Haryana a 4-1 win over Odisha. Indian internationals Neha Goyal (39th) and Navneet Kaur (54th) also got goals for Haryana. In the other quarterfinals of the day, Madhya Pradesh beat Bengal 4-3 in a shootout after both teams were locked 1-1, while Jharkhand edged past Mizoram 2-1.

Bengaluru

Nayana bags long jump gold ahead of fancied Shaili

Kerala’s Nayana James registered a personal best mark en route to the women’s long jump gold medal at the third Indian Open Jumps Competition. The 28-year-old leaped 6.67 metres, improving her personal best by 17cm. Favourite Shaili Singh, with a solid season opener of 6.40m, had to be content with the silver medal. The men’s long jump title went to Kerala’s Muhammed Anees whose best effort was 7.94m. In men’s triple jump, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Abdulla Aboobacker won the gold (16.76m) ahead of CWG gold medallist Eldhose Paul (16.45m).

Christchurch

Teen golfer Zara in shared lead at Queen Sirikit Cup

Indian teen Zara Anand braved icy and frosty conditions on the opening morning of the 44th Queen Sirikit Cup golf tournament to card a 1-over 73 and take a share of the lead. The 15-year-old, who was added to the team by the Indian Golf Union following the withdrawal of 2023 winner Avani Prashanth, shares the lead with Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Wei Wu, the reigning Women’s Amateur Asia-Pacific champion, and Japan’s Aina Fujimoto.

Kabul

Afghanistan condemns CA’s postponement of series

A miffed Afghanistan Cricket Board today asked its Australian counterpart to “not succumb” to pressures from its government, which the south Asian country believes led to the postponement of a bilateral T20 series. Cricket Australia on Tuesday postponed a three-match T20I home series against Afghanistan’s men’s team in August, citing the “worsening” conditions for women and girls in that country. Agencies