Sports brief

AIFF appoints officials for junior girls national football tourney
CHANDIGARH: The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has appointed Match Commissioner,Referees Asseror and 20 match officials for the 9th Junior National Football Championship for Girls Under-19 being organized by the Chandigarh Football Association at the Punjab Engineering College Grounds here from July 15 to 30.According to a communication sent by AIFF general secretary Alberto Colaco to concerned state secretaries,D S Bisht would work as Match Commissioner andGopinath Pyne of Indian Football Association as Referees Assessor. The communication further added that the Match Commissioner and the Referees Assessor would decide and retain only 10 referees for quarter-finals,semi-finals and finals.The AIFF has also appointed 20 referees for the Junior Nationals.Those appointed as match officials are: Maria Rebello (Goa),Xavier George (Kerala),A Robinson (Tamil Nadu),Rajib Kumar Saikia (Assam),Sunil Dutt (Delhi),Ramesh Kumar (Chattisgarh),Uttam Sarkar (IFA),Rajiv Choudhary (SSCB),A John Jerome Edwin (TN),Keilyani Chanu (Manipur),GS Baiju (Kerala),Dwijendra M Sharma (Assam),Gautam Kalita (Assam),M Joychandra Singh (Manipur),Vikram Singh Bhandari (Delhi),Amal Kumar Kar (IFA),Ajit Dutta (IFA),Chitta Ranjan Singha (SSCB) and Durga Madhab Naik (Orissa).

Digvijay’s winning run continues
Ludhiana: Digvijay Singh Mehta of Chandigarh continued his fine run in the championship as he ended the challenge of Kshitij Kamal of Delhi with a 6-4,6-3 win to storm into the semi-final stage in the men’s singles category of the HTA-AITA Tennis Tournament being played at Harvest Tennis Academy,Jassowal on Wednesday. Mehta claimed the first set with a 6-4 margin before claiming the second set with a 6-3 margin to rally into the semi-final stage of the championship. In another quarter-final encounter in the same category,Saurabh Dilip Patil of Maharashtra ended the challenge of top seed Gurinder Singh of Punjab with a resounding 6-2. 6-0 win. Patil claimed the first set with a 6-2 margin before claiming the second set with a 6-0 margin to march ahead into the championship. In another quarter-final encounter,GP Prajnesh of Tamilnadu ended the challenge of Vishwesh Sinha of Maharashtra with a 6-0,6-2 win. Prajnesh claimed the first set with a 6-0 margin before claiming the second set with a 6-2 margin.