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Railways favouritesJABALPUR: Railways will begin as overwhelming favourites to win for the 17th year the 50th Senior National women's hock...

Railways favourites
JABALPUR: Railways will begin as overwhelming favourites to win for the 17th year the 50th Senior National women8217;s hockey championship which begins on the natural surface of the Ravi Shankar Shukla stadium on Monday.

The 16-time national champions, however, suffered a setback a few months ago when a determined Haryana comprising mostly school girls annexed the Federation Cup at Tirupati. With over 13 players in the Indian squad, the champions found it hard to cope with the red-clay ground in Tirupati and gave way to Haryana girls. Haryana lost to Railways in the final of the last nationals, on turf, at Chennai.

However, a new rule which disallows juniors and sub-juniors from taking part in the Senior National, would be seen as a blessing for the outfit. Haryana, Orissa, Bihar and Manipur all have depended on juniors. If the rule is implemented strictly, it would be a big blow to these states and it would also affect the charm of the 11-day tournament.

Saarcbasketball
GUWAHATI: The inaugural South Asia Basketball Championship for men will be held here from March 26 to March 30. The championship will see seven teams Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India in action.

Bengal top pool
MALDA: Holders Bengal topped the Group P quater-final league table as they remained unbeaten when they defeated Orissa 3-0 in their last league match of the 22nd sub-junior National football championship for the under-16.Bengal earned nine points from three matches while Orissa secured one point from two matches.

Venkat leads
HYDERABAD: J Venkataramana upset fourth seed SK Rathore to emerge sole leader with five points at the end of the fifth round in the GTB All-India Open FIDE rated chess tournament at the Arya Vysya Sangam.Top seed P Konguvel was held to a draw by SC Subramanian while V Koshy beat K Visweswaran.

Ashok champ
MUMBAI: Seventeen-year-old Ashok Kumar continued the season8217;s fine run by winning theClassic Stripes Western India Amateur Golf Championship with a runaway margin of nine strokes at the 6, 189-yard, par-70 Bombay Presidency Golf Club Course.

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Supriya supreme
CHENNAI: Maharashtra8217;s Supriya Balasekar drubbed Tamil Nadu8217;s Divya Rajan 9-2, 9-1, 9-4 on her way to the last eight stage of the India Cements National squash championship at the Madras Race Club courts on Sunday.

Results Men8217;s PQF: Ritwik Bhattacharya Delhi bt L K Agnihotri SSCB 9-2, 9-0, 9-0; Dheeraj Singh Raj bt Milan Khurana SSCB 9-7, 4-3 conceded; Bikram Uberoi Mah bt R S Brar SSCB 9-1, 9-2, 9-2; Anuj Kalia SSCB bt Saket Wali Mah 9-6, 9-0, 9-0; Manish Chotrani Mah bt Vasanth Williams TN 9-4, 9-3, 9-2; Gajendra Singh Rathore bt Anshul Manchanda Mah 3-9, 9-4, 9-4, 9-7; Bala Murugan TN bt A S Chonkar SSCB 10-9, 9-7, 9-1; Navneet Narain SSCB bt Mihir Kapoor Mah 9-2, 9-2, 9-3.

Women PQF: Anaheta Dhalla Mah bt A Swarnalakshi TN 9-1, 9-0, 9-2; Supriya Balsekar Mah btDivya Rajan TN 9-2, 9-1, 9-4; Priyanka Yadav Mah w.o Amrita Vincent TN; Anjali Ponni Rajkumar TN bt Rashna Patnayak Mah 9-0, 9-2, 9-0.