India File

Divya shines at WorldsMUMBAI: Junior National champions Divya Ramesh and Sachin Ratti experienced mixed fortunes in the World Junior Badm...

Divya shines at Worlds

MUMBAI: Junior National champions Divya Ramesh and Sachin Ratti experienced mixed fortunes in the World Junior Badminton Championship at Melbourne with the former moving into the third round of the girls8217; singles and the latter making a second-round.

Bangalore-born Divya, a product of Prakash Padukone8217;s Academy, trounced South Africa8217;s Lydia Godrej 11-4, 11-3, on Tuesday. Divya, who had shocked ninth seed Renee Flavell of New Zealand in the first round, will now face second-seeded Chinese girl Hu Ting, according to information available here today.

However, Punjab-born Ratti fell by the wayside. He was outpaced and outsmashed8211; 15-6, 15-4 in 28 minutes by Chinese number three Zhang Yang. Ratti, however, made the second round in mixed doubles with Divya.Prabhakar to get his dues

MUMBAI: THE Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI has decided to release the entire benevolent fund amount due to Manoj Prabhakar which it had withheld after the former Indiaall-rounder had retired from the game.Last month Prabhakar, whose match-fixing charges had raised a hue and cry in Indian cricket, had fired another bouncer by threatening to sue the Board for non-release of his benevolent fund.

Prabhakar, in a legal notice to the board, had warned that if it failed to release the funds within four weeks, he would 8220;initiate appropriate legal proceedings.8221; The notice said though Prabhakar retired from international cricket in March 1996, the Board has ignored several appeals for release of funds running into lakhs of rupees.

Zaheer champMUMBAI: Uttar Pradesh8217;s fifth-seeded Zaheer Ahmed and National champion R Sharmila of Tamil Nadu lifted the men8217;s and women8217;s singles crowns in the sixth All-India IOC Federation Cup Carrom Tournament at Begusarai in Bihar recently.

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Fifth seed Zaheer Ahmed of Kanpur, representing Life Insurance Corporation, got the better of unseeded K Radhakrishnan of Tamil Nadu 25-18, 4-25, 25-23 in the men8217;s final. K Radhakrishnan and BRadhakrishnan won the men8217;s doubles crown.

Women8217;s top seed Sharmila beat third seed Rashmi Kumari of Bihar 25-5, 25-3 in the singles final before partnering D Swarnalata to down Parimi Nirmala and Shilpa Joshi of LIC 25-9, 18-25, 25-10 in the doubles title-clash.

Equestrian squadNEW DELHI: Wing commander I S Lamba and Lt R Pattu have been selected for the 3-day event of the Equestrian Competitions at the Asian Games in Bangkok in December. The two service officers were the only ones among the eight probables to have a clear round in the Equestrian Federation of India conducted one day trial at RVC, Meerut on Tuesday.