Gagan Narang to participate in Commonwealth Games

Published>Tue, Aug 17 10 09:16 PM

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) India's ace rifle shooter Gagan Narang said Tuesday that he would participate in the Commonwealth Games here from Oct 3-14.

Earlier this month Narang, who was overlooked for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna for the third consecutive time, felt he was demotivated and didn't want to take part in the Games.

But Narang, who won the bronze at the World Championship in Munich, said that the overwhelming response from well-wishers, family and the shooting fraternity has moved him.

'I have made up my mind to shoot in the coming Commonwealth Games. There is no short of motivation when you see so many people support you and they want you to succeed. Doesn't matter now if I did not get the award. It is a story of the past for me. I shall start training for the games shortly,' Gagan said in a statement issued by indianshooting.com.

'I was on a break after coming back from Munich, in this period I consulted my family, my coaches and the federation for my future course of actions. The only answer I got from all of them was shoot to prove a point. Although my achievements of the last four years have been ignored, I have decided to just keep doing my job from now on, which is to win medals and glory for India,' he said.

'I feel winning a medal for my county is even bigger than any award. If the government feels I deserve any award in future I will get it but from now on I would never expect it or will even talk about it,' Gagan said.

Source: Web Search

Fennel on two-day visit to monitor Games' progress

Published>Tue, Aug 17 10 09:08 PM

New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS) Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Mike Fennell will begin a two-day visit here Wednesday to monitor the city's preparedness for the Oct 3-14 Games.

Fennell, who arrived in India Tuesday evening, will be inspecting the stadia besides meeting the government officials.

'Mr. Fennell and I will be going to all the venues tomorrow except shooting and the next day we will be in a series of meetings with government officials, including the chief minister and Mr. Jaipal Reddy, and the Organising Committee executive board,' CGF chief executive Mike Hooper told IANS.

Final touches are still being given to the venues but Organising Committee vice chairperson Randhir Singh who visited all the venues except the Kadarpur Shooting Range, the venue for big bore shooting, Monday gave Aug 25 as the deadline when all the venues will be ready.

Randhir Singh said the Games Village will open Sept 16 when some of the foreign athletes will come here for registration.

Fennell's visit has comes at a time when the Games are embroiled in charges of corruption. Fennell himself had expressed concerns over these developments ahead of his visit.

Source: Web Search

Gov Council to decide on number of matches in IPL IV on Aug 20

Tue, Aug 17 10 08:52 PM

Mumbai, Aug 17 (PTI) The Governing Council of the Indian Premier League is expected to decide on the number of matches in next year''s expanded fourth edition of the T20 league here on August 20. "The IPL meeting will decide how many matches should be held in 2011," highly placed sources told PTI today. After eight teams were in the fray for the first three editions of the cash-awash league, the highly popular event has been expended to feature 10 teams from next year. The sources said it was more or less certain that it was not possible to hold the full compliment of matches -- 94 -- if the event is to be held on a home-and-away basis with two semi-finals, third-fourth place play-off match and the grand final. "Playing 94 matches is not possible especially in the months of April-May-June when IPL IV is to be held. May be we will go for 73-74 matches in all," the sources said. "A three-member committee has been formed (former cricketers Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri) and they will give their opinion. There are 3-4 different opinions. We will finalise it during the meeting," they said. (More) PTI SSR VKV SSC

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Wrestler Satywart Kadian wins bronze at Youth Olympics

Published>Tue, Aug 17 10 08:38 PM

Singapore, Aug 17 (IANS) India won their second medal in the inaugural Youth Olympics here Tuesday with wrestler Satywart Kadian bagging the bronze in the men's freestyle 100kg event.

Kadian defeated Geno Petriashvili of Georgia 3-1 to win the second medal for the country after teammate Pooja Dhanda won a silver in women's freestyle 60kg wrestling event Monday.

Earlier in the day, Kadian fought back after losing to Cuban Abraham De Jesus Conyedo Ruano 0-3 in his first group match. The Indian came back to beat Parmvir Dhesi of Canada 3-0 and Andries Schuttl of South Africa 3-1 to finish second in Group B and book a place for the bronze medal match.

Ali Magomedabirov of Azerbaizan won the gold beating Jesus Conyedo Ruano 3-0.

In badminton, Sunil Kumar Prannoy continued his good run and entered the semifinals of the boys singles. The Indian shuttler defeated Tse-Feng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei 21-13, 18-21, 24-22 in a nail-biting quartefinal. He will face J. Kang of Korea next.

Another medal hope, Yuki Bhambri, beat Chi-Lian Huang of Chinese Taipei 6-2, 6-4 in the second round of boys singles to reach the tennis singles quarterfinals, where he will meet John Morrissey of Ireland.

It was a mixed bag for India in athletics.

Arjun qualified for boys discus throw final by finishing first in the qualification with a personal best throw of 63.90m.

Indrajeet Patel finished 9th in boys 3000m qualification round with 8:15.02sec and failed to qualify for the final.

In rowing, Yasin Khan and Gurpreet Singh finished fifth in the junior men's pair semifinals while Thomas Nimmy and Deo Mitali Sekhar came sixth in junior women's pair semifinal.

--Indo--Asian News Service

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Anelka banned for 18 games after World Cup row

Tue, Aug 17 10 08:18 PM

Striker Nicolas Anelka has been banned for 18 games by the French team after the players' World Cup revolt, the French Football Federation (FFF) said on Tuesday.

World Cup captain Patrice Evra was banned for five matches for leading a boycott of a training session in South Africa in June in support of Anelka, who was banished from the squad for insulting coach Raymond Domenech.

The FFF banned Franck Ribery for three games and Jeremy Toulalan for one. Eric Abidal, who was also involved in Tuesday's disciplinary hearing, escaped without sanction.

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Baltacha to spearhead Scot tennis squad at CWG

Tue, Aug 17 10 07:52 PM

Glasgow, Aug 17 (PTI) World number 55 Elena Baltacha was today named in the five-member Scotland tennis squad for the upcoming Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi. The star attraction of the squad announced by the Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) and Tennis Scotland is Baltacha, who reached the third round of the Australian Open and is the highest ranked woman player in Great Britain. 19-year-old Jocelyn Rae is the other singles player, who will compete in the women''s singles event while doubles specialist Mhairi Brown will pair up with Baltacha for the women''s doubles event. Baltacha and Brown had won a silver medal at the inaugural Commonwealth Youth Games in Edinburgh in 2000. Meanwhile, Grand Slam winner Jamie Murray, brother of highest ranked British singles player Andy Murray, and seasoned Colin Fleming will pair up as men''s doubles team. "It is always exciting to welcome a new sport to Team Scotland and we are delighted to have the tennis players now confirmed. Given the extreme pressures of the professional circuit we are delighted that players like Elena, Colin and Jamie have made the commitment to play for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games," CGS chairman Michael Cavanagh said. PTI AT SSC

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20-member Delhi team for Girls Sub Jr National Football

Tue, Aug 17 10 07:46 PM

New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) Midfielder Dolima Chibber will lead a 20-member Delhi team in the Girls Sub-Junior National Football Championship to be held at Haldwani in Uttrakhand from August 19 to September 4. Manisha Bhalla was named vice-captain of the team by DSA selection committee today after a 20-day open selection trial-cum coaching camp here. Delhi have been clubbed with Pondicherry and Sikkim in Cluster-II. They open their campaign against Sikkim on August 21, followed by a match against Pondicherry on August 23. The team will leave for Haldwani tomorrow. The team: Goalkeepers: Urvashi Tiwari, Ayesha Mathur. Defenders: Jaspreet Kaur, Arpita Singh, Mansi Puri, Jayanti Jha, Aishwaraya Subramaniam, Divya Goel, Kashika Sharma, Rai Joshi. Midfielders: Dolima Chibber (captain), Manisha Bhalla (vice-captain), Jaya Bhatia, Antra Surya, Tanya Manocha. Forwards: Deveena Sharma, Tanya Rizvi, Aaushi Nayyar, Aakansha Chaudhary, Sonia Lakra. Coach: Shabnam.

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