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Wijetilek, Palekar oustedBANGALORE: India's Ajit Wijetilek and Mangresh Palekar lost to seeded players in the pre-quarterfinals of the As...

Wijetilek, Palekar ousted
BANGALORE: India’s Ajit Wijetilek and Mangresh Palekar lost to seeded players in the pre-quarterfinals of the Asian Badminton Confederation Championship. The 22-year-old Wijetilek went down 15-9, 1-15, 11-15 to Malaysian Lee Tsuen Sep. Wijetilek had defeated Bahrain’s A Rahim 15-0, 15-10 in the first round and Japanese No 1 Fumikho Machida 15-13, 11-15, 15-12 in the second round.

Palekar beat Malaysia’s Ong Heng Chi 15-0, 15-1 in the opening round and Chinese Taipei’s Liao Chun Yi in the next. But in the pre-quarters, he lost to Chinese former World No 1 Dong Jiong 4-15, 9-15.

In men’s doubles, India’s Jaseel P Ismail and Vincent Lobo lost to Jenny Gan and Chong Meng of Malaysia 7-15, 2-15 in the second round.

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Players boycott
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu State badminton championships at Ambattur came to a dramatic halt on Saturday with players boycotting the event which had reached the quarter-final stage.

Protesting the style of functioning of the Tamil NaduBadminton Association (TNBA), the players decided to pull out after a last-ditch talks between them and the TNBA officials collapsed.

The Tamil Nadu Badminton Players Welfare Association (TNBPWA), in a letter dated August 29 to TNBA secretary Ashok Bajaj, had specified their grievances with a request to set right matters, including substantial hike in prize-money, more tournaments and the general functioning of the governing body.

Azad in panel
NEW DELHI: Former India cricketer Kirti Azad will make his debut as senior selector of the Delhi Ranji Trophy team for the year 1998-99. Madan Lal, who served as chairman of the selection committee a few years ago, makes a comeback into the DDCA selection panel.

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The list of selection committees for Ranji Trophy, Cooch Behar (u-19) and Merchant Trophy (u-16) were announced by DDCA sports secretary Sunil Dev here today.

Sunil Dev wll be the chairman of all the three committees. Surinder Khanna gets back into the Ranji panel as selector-cum-manager whileRakesh Shukla will be the coach.

Natl volleyball
CHENNAI: The Senior National Volleyball Championships will be held in Chinsura (West Bengal) from December 24 to 31. This was decided at the executive and annual general meeting of the Volleyball Federation of India here today, according to a press release from the VFI.

Karnataka and Kerala will host the first and second legs of the National League during the last week of January ’99 while the third leg will be played either in Ahmedabad, Surat or Kerala during the last week of February ’99.

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Calicut will host the Federation Cup in the first week of May ’99 while the National Beach Volleyball Championship will be hosted by Karwa (Karnataka), the dates of which will be notified by the Karnataka Association later.The Junior Nationals will be held in Macharial (Andhra Pradesh) or in Perinthalmanna (Kerala) from Jan 21 to 25, ’99.

Parikh wins
AURANGABAD: Vilay Parikh of Gujarat shocked top seed Tamil Nadu player M Chandran in the fourthround to remain as the joint leader in boys’ section of the National Sub-Junior chess here today.

Parikh won all the games he played so far to remain on top with four points from as many matches along with M R Venkatesh of Tamil Nadu and P Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh.

H-1B $100,000 entry fee explained: Who pays, who’s exempt, and what’s still unclear?

Explained1 hr ago

The White House's decision to impose a $100,000 entry fee on H-1B visa holders has sparked worry among Indian tech workers and students. While uncertainties remain about its implementation and exemptions, major tech companies have cautioned employees against traveling. The policy could lead to a shift towards other visa categories and potentially change the STEM immigration pipeline.

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