High jumper Tejaswin wins season-opening meet

New Delhi: Tejaswin Shankar, the national record holder in high jump, won the top prize in the International High Jump Gala Elmos in Heist-op-den-Berg, Belgium, with a leap of 2.23 metres. Shankar, competing for the first time since October last year, finished ahead of Greece’s Antonios Merlos (2.20 metres) in the World Athletics Indoor Tour Challenger event. The 25-year-old, who holds both the high jump and decathlon national records, could not better his personal best of 2.29m.

Nairobi
Diksha fires 68 to finish in top-20, Shannon wins

Indian golfer Diksha Dagar’s fine 5-under 68 on the final day helped her finish in the top-20 of the Magical Kenya Ladies Open. Diksha signed off at tied-19th. Pranavi Urs, who was tied-eighth after three rounds, collapsed to a 3-over 76 and ended T-23rd. Vani Kapoor (73) was T-36. The event produced a stunning result as Singapore’s 19-year-old Shannon Tan, making her LET debut, beat the field by four shots.

New Delhi
Sheeraz, Ganemat top Indian finishers in skeet

Sheeraz Sheikh and Ganemat Sekhon were the top Indian finishers in men’s and women’s skeet, respectively, at the ISSF World Cup in Rabat, Morocco. Sheeraz shot 120 to finish 11th. In women’s skeet, Ganemat’s tally of 114 gave her 12th spot.

Wangels (Germany)
Gukesh loses three rounds, finishes sixth in playoffs

India’s Grandmaster D Gukesh had to be content with a sixth place finish in the rapid playoffs of the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess challenge after losing the last three rounds. Nodirbek Abdusattarov of Uzbekistan dominated the rapid event, which determined the pairings for the knockout stage. Gukesh will now take on Fabiano Caruana in the quarterfinals to be played in the classical format. —Agencies