In Brief

Sethi Player of the Year'CHENNAI: Former World champion Geet Sethi of India has bagged the coveted Fred Davis Award, having been adjudge...

Sethi Player of the Year8217;

CHENNAI: Former World champion Geet Sethi of India has bagged the coveted Fred Davis Award, having been adjudged as billiards8217; Player of the Year 1998-99 by the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association WPBSA.

Besides Sethi, Englishmen Mike Russel and Chris Shutt, had been nominated for the award.

Kanetkar up

BANGALORE: Nikhil Kanetkar has reached his career best badminton world ranking of 62, as per the latest International Badminton Federation IBF rankings, based on his performances at the US Open and German Open.P Gopi Chand has been placed 35 and Aparna Popat 26.

Other Indians in top 200

Men: Abhinn Shyam Gupta 70, Sachin Ratti 125, Ajit Wijetilek 143; Women: Neelima Choudary 72, Manjusha Kanwar 89, B R Meenakshi 91, P V V Lakshmi 313.

Shuttlers ousted

BANGALORE: The Indian challenge at the four-star Danish Open badminton ended with Gopi Chand, Aparna Popat, Nikhil Kanetkar and Neelima Choudhary losing theirsecond round matches.

Gopi lost to World champion and World No 1 Sun Jun of China 9-15 5-15. Nikhil engaged Indonesian opponent Marleve Mainaky World No 11 in a tough two-setter, losing 10-15 13-15. Aparna lost to Huang Chia Chi of Chinese Taipei in three games 4-11 11-4 6-11. Popat was up 4-0 in the decider. Neelima lost to Engelina of Indonesia 2-11 6-11.

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The Indian team will leave for England, where they will play practice games and train with the English and Swedish teams.

New sports policy

BANGALORE: The centre would come out with a new Sports policy, Union sports minister Ananth Kumar said. The policy8217;s thrust areas would be promotion of sports among scheduled tribes, women and the disabled. It would also consider the need to open more Sports Authority of India centres.

Asia Cup uncertain

MUMBAI: The fate of the Asia Cup hockey, scheduled in Pakistan in November, remains uncertain after the announcement of emergency there. IHF had earlier requested a change in venue, andKuala Lumpur was reported to be the alternate choice. Meanwhile, Punjab and Sind Bank8217;s agile forward Baljit Singh Chandi, Punjab Police captain Ramandeep Singh Grewal and Central Railway goal-keeper Arun Gurung were included in the Asia Cup prabables list. The camp already has 24 probables and begins on October 19 at Bangalore.

Live race telecast

PUNE: For the first time in the history of horse racing in India, the Pune races will be beamed live to an inter-venue betting centre.

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Beginning tomorrow, the Pune races would be telecast live to the Mahalaxmi race course in Mumbai. Mumbai races too would be telecast to the Pune course this season. The telecast will be gradually extended to other centres like Bangalore, Mysore, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Delhi, he added.

Cronje backs out

JOHANNESBURG: South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje backed out of a coaching deal with Glamorgan in order to be available to play for South Africa. Cronje had a written agreement to coach the club in 2000and 2001 but has been released by the county.

Nemov wins two

TIANJIN: Russian gymnast Alexei Nemov won the World Championship in the floor exercises and on the pommel horse on Friday night Compatriot Svetlana Khorkina watched two Chinese set high scores on the women8217;s uneven bars and then beat them with a daring performance including cross-handed twists upside town on the top bar.

Khorkina gained the night8217;s best score 8212; 9.837 8212; to 9.825 for Huang Mandan and and 9.812 for Ling Jie.