Indian sports wrap, October 13: Sharma misses cut in France

GOLF

Sharma misses cut in France, Svensson leads

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma missed the cut at the Open de France with rounds of 72-75 at the Le Golf National in Paris, where he competed in the Olympic Games two months ago.

Sharma, after four birdies and five bogeys in his first round, had two birdies, three bogeys and a triple bogey in his second round and missed the cut by a big margin as it fell at 1-under.

Jesper Svensson took one stroke lead into the final round as he bids for a second DP World Tour title in his rookie season.

The Swede, who won the Porsche Singapore Classic in March, carded a four under 67 to sign for a 13 under par total as he moved one clear of Sam Bairstow and Thorbjørn Olesen at Le Golf National.

Both Svensson and Bairstow are in their rookie campaigns after graduating from the European Challenge Tour, finishing fifth and 18th respectively on last year’s Road to Mallorca Rankings.

The English pair of Dan Bradbury and Joe Dean share fourth on 11 under par, with Dean signing for a five under 66 to move seven places up the leaderboard.

– PTI

Aditi finishes tied 55th as Ruoning wins Buick title

India’s Aditi Ashok dropped three bogeys in a row early in the final round and carded 3-over 75 to finish tied 55th in the LPGA Buick Shanghai tournament in Shanghai on Sunday.

She had rounds of 71-72-69-75 over the week for a total of 1-under for four rounds.

China’s Ruoning Yin shot an 8-under 64 to win the tournament. It was her fourth career LPGA victory. Yin trailed third-round leader Mao Saigo of Japan by one stroke, but rallied with birdies on five of the final six holes.

Yin finished on 25-under 263 for the four rounds at the Qizhong Garden Golf Club.

Saigo closed with a 71 and tied for second with Sei Young Kim of South Korea, who carded a 68. Saigo was looking for her first LPGA Tour victory. They were both six strokes off the lead, finishing at 19-under 269.

Yealimi Noh of the United States carded a 67 on Sunday to finish in fourth place, seven strokes behind the winner.

Hye-Jin Choi of South Korea shot a 62 and finished tied for fifth, nine shots off the pace.

– PTI

Yuvraj Sandhu finishes as top Indian at T-13 in Macau

Yuvraj Sandhu registered another fine result as the Indian finished in tied 13th place at the USD 1 million SJM Macao Open at Macau Golf and Country Club on Sunday.

The Chandigarh pro played some fine golf over the weekend with rounds of 64-68 after rounds of 71-67 on the first two days. He totalled 10-under 270 to finish as the top Indian.

Sandhu had three birdies against one bogey in yet another solid round.

Last week Sandhu finished tied 4th at the Mercuries Masters and before that was tied 6th in the ADT.

Among other Indians Ajeetesh Sandhu (71-67-70-66) was 6-under and finished T-29th, while Saptak Talwar (70-68-72-68) and Khalin Joshi (68-72-70-68) were both 2-under for the week and tied for T-42nd place.

SSP Chawrasia (69-68-69-74) finished at even par and was T-50th.

Thailand’s Rattanon Wannasrichan finished a solid week with a round of 66 and won wire-to-wire at 20-under and by two strokes over fellow countryman Gunn Charoenkul (67). The third place also went to a Thai player, Poosit Supupramai (64) at 16-under.

Miguel Tabuena of the Philippines shot 63 and John Catlin with 65 were tied for fourth place.

– PTI

Tamburlini wins third title of season after Diksha misses cut

Swiss golfer Chiara Tamburlini fired a round of 69 (-3) to win the Wistron Ladies Open – Taiwan by four strokes after India’s Diksha Dagar missed the halfway cut at Sunrise Golf and Country Club on Sunday.

With rounds of 66-73-68-69 she totalled 12-under 276 and beat Yu-Sang Hou (68) of Taiwan by four shots.

Perrine Delacour of France (67) was third, Spain’s Maria Hernandez (68) and Italy’s Elena Virginia Carta (68) were at tied fourth place. Also tied for fourth with them were Nastasia Nadaud of France and South African Nicole Garcia.

Dagar missed the cut at the halfway mark.

Both Tamburlini and Delacour are entered for the next event, the Hero Women’s Indian Open, at the DLF Golf and Country.

Tamburlini had one birdie and one bogey on the front nine and her three birdies in a row from the 11th saw her seal the title beyond doubt.

Tamburlini grabbed her third win of the season and tightened her grip on the Order of Merit and Rookie honours. She had earlier won the Joburg Ladies Open and the Lacoste Open de France. This is her third title of the season.

Third-placed Perrine Delacour won the Dormy Open in Helsingborg earlier this year.

– PTI

EQUESTRIAN

India Clinches Double Podium as Iran tops AEF Cup CSIY-B Overall Standings

India celebrated a double podium finish in the overall standings at the AEF Cup CSIY-B, held at Surge Stable in Bangalore. Indian riders Surya Aditya and Avik Bhatia secured the silver and bronze medals, respectively, while Iran’s Yazdan Mollaafzal took the top spot, displaying consistency and precision across both rounds.

Surya Aditya, who had earlier secured the silver medal in Round 1 on Saturday, maintained his strong form to claim the overall silver in the competition. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Avik Bhatia made an outstanding comeback after finishing 8th in Round 1 by grabbing silver in Round 2. His impressive performance in Round 2 helped him secure the bronze in the overall standings. Avik completed a clean jumping run in 86.43 seconds, which was faster than Iran’s Yazdan Mollaafzal, but penalties incurred for touching obstacles during the jump-off affected his final placement.

On Day 2, Avik initially led the jumping event, but it was Yazdan Mollaafzal who ultimately claimed the gold medal with a flawless, penalty-free performance in the jump-off, clocking in at 60.32 seconds. Cambodian rider Menglong Rinda completed the podium in Round 2, finishing the course in 79.58 seconds with 4 penalty points.

The final overall standings saw Surya Aditya and Avik Bhatia secure second and third place, respectively, marking a proud achievement for India.

– Team Sportstar

HOCKEY

Naval Tata Academy wins over Guru Gobind Singh Sports College in the Nehru sub-junior hockey tournament

Anish Dungdung (3) and Patras Hassa (2) stepped it up in the second half to help Naval Tata Academy, Jamshedpur, to a thumping 8-3 victory over Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow, in the semifinals of the Steelbird 41st Nehru sub-junior hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium on Sunday.

Sukhu Guria, Afridi and Premchand Soy scored the other goals for the winner which led 4-3 at half time.

In the other semifinal, Madhya Pradesh Academy, Bhopal, beat St. Mary’s High School, Samtoli, Simdega, Jharkhand, 4-1 after a barren first half.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Siddhant, Divji wins ITF Portugal tournament title

Doubles champions Divij Sharan and Siddhant Banthia.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Second seeds Siddhant Banthia and Divij Sharan beat Diogo Marques and Alejandro Alvarez 6-1, 6-3 in the doubles final of the USD 25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament in Sintra, Portugal, on Sunday.

It was the 44th doubles title in the professional circuit for the 38-year-old Divij and the tenth doubles title for the 24-year-old Siddhant.

The duo did not drop a set in winning the four matches while emerging champions.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Srishti Kiran selected for Asian team for Copa Cosat tennis event

Srishti Kiran.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Srishti Kiran is the only Indian player to be selected by the Asian Tennis Federation (ATF) for the Asian under-12 girls team to compete in the Copa Cosat tennis event in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, from November 11 to 16.

The team of four boys and four girls with a reserve player in each squad was selected by the ATF on the basis of the performance of the players in the under-12 team competition held in Kazakhstan.

The captains of the two teams will be announced soon.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

FOOTBALL

Super League Kerala: Dorielton Gomes scores in stoppage time to help Forca Kochi hold Kannur Warriors to 1-1 draw

An injury-time goal by Brazilian forward Dorielton Gomes helped Forca Kochi FC force Kannur Warriors FC to a 1-1 draw in the Super League Kerala at the Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Sunday night.

The equaliser came much against the run of play. The equaliser came just as Kannur was ready to celebrate a win, which would have helped it regain the lead in the league table. As Dorielton raced into the box in injury time, Kannur goalkeeper P.A. Ajmal charged out and stopped him but he could not make a clean job of it and the ball spilled out.

A Kochi player made another attempt but this time Kannur defender Aswinkumar blocked the shot but Dorielton took the rebound and quickly scored to help the home side share points.

Earlier, midfielder Pragyan Sundar Gogoi gave Kannur the lead in the 17th minute. The move began from the left with Munmun Timothy sending a nice cross to Adrian Sardinero inside the box. With a Kochi defender in front of him, Sardinero quickly relayed the ball to Pragyan who sent home a fine left-footer. A home defender desperately put a foot out to stop the effort and the deflection confused the goalkeeper S. Hajmal and he watched helplessly as the ball settled into the left corner.

Stung by the deficit, Kochi fought hard. The home side advanced through the right flank and sent a stream of crosses into the box but goalkeeper Ajmal pulled off some fine saves and the visiting defenders also did a fine job in thwarting all the attacks.

With one of the floodlight towers going off, the match had a forced break for some 10 minutes around the 80th minute which delayed the finish.

Kannur is now level with Calicut FC at the top of the six-team league table with 13 points but the latter has a superior goal difference while today’s point helped Kochi climb over Thiruvananthapuram Kombans and move to the third spot.

-Stan Rayan