India File

National chess for juniorsAHMEDABAD: Small in stature and age, but big in the game of 64 squares, top stars of Indian chess will be seen in ...

National chess for juniors

AHMEDABAD: Small in stature and age, but big in the game of 64 squares, top stars of Indian chess will be seen in action when the Centurion Bank 11th National Chess Championships for boys and girls under-12 and under-14 commences at the Indian Institute of Management hall here from May 24 to June 1.

Addressing a press conference here today, RK Nagpal, assistant, vice- president, Centurion Bank, said that this was for the first time that a commercial bank was sponsoring the tournament. They would also sponsor four entries from Gujarat.

Kahlon wins

CHANDIGARH: Top amateur golfer of India, Harmeet Kahlon, won the 11th Panasonic Open golf championship which concluded at Saujana Golf and Country Club in Kuala Lumpur today. According to a fax message received here today, Kahlon, who is working in Oil India, had scores of 76, 73, 73, six over par in the three-round tournament. The Chandigarh golfer annexed the title with a solitary stroke over RahizamRamli of Malaysia by firing a birdie on the last hole.

PSCB honour

NEW DELHI: Reigning men8217;s and women8217;s badminton national champions P Gopi Chand IOC and Aparna Popat, along with 64 other outstanding sportspersons belonging to different oil companies, have been honoured by the Petroleum Sports Control Board.

The awardees include former national badminton champions Dipankar Bhattacharjee, Rajeev Bagga, Sandeep Dhillon ONGC, national table tennis champion Chetan Baboor IOC, Arjuna awardee and former national women8217;s champion Niyati Shah, Arjuna awardee IM Abhijit Kunte IOC, winner of Singapore Amateur golf championship Harmeet Kahlon and Vandana Agarwal. Bagga and Arjuna awardee Dhillon received the special awards for handicapped.

Karandikar leads

CALCUTTA: Sanjay Karandikar of Maharashtra was leading the field with four points after the fourth round of the fourth national chess tournament for the blind being held at Uttarpara.

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Sankar Chakraborty of Bengal,Kamalbir Singh of Delhi and S S Sundar Murti of Chennai were jointly in the second position with three points each.

AAFI standards

NEW DELHI: The Amateur Athletic Federation of India AAFI has fixed qualifying standards for the coming Asian Track and Field Championships to be held at Fukuoka Japan from July 19 to 22.The final selection trial will be held at Chennai during the Federation Cup Athletic Championships from July 1 to 3. Any athlete qualifying during the national athletic circuit meets could also be considered provided the athlete maintained his or her place, AAFI secretary Lalit Bhanot said.