Grapplers disappoint

Indian freestyle grapplers disappointed on the final day of the World Junior Wrestling Championships as they failed to go the past second round in Sofia,Bulgaria.

Indian freestyle grapplers disappointed on the final day of the World Junior Wrestling Championships as they failed to go the past second round in Sofia,Bulgaria. Dinesh Kumar 66kg,Ajit Singh 84kg and Surjeet 120kg,who won their opening bouts with relative ease,all lost to Azerbaijan opponents in the next contest of their respective weight categories to crash out of the competition. Devender Kumar,however,made it to the third round of the 55kg category before going down to Armenia8217;s Artak Hovhannisyan in a closely fought duel at Arena Armeetz. India finished at the 11th position in the freestyle team rankings with 14 points,which were dominated by Russian wrestlers 64 followed by Iran 52. Only,96kg grappler Satywart Kadian who won bronze,returned with a medal.

Gayakwad finishes seventh

Ace Paralympic swimmer Sharath Gayakwad finished 14th in the 50m Freestyle finals at the IPC World Swimming Championships in Montreal,Canada. Sharath,clocked 30.02 seconds at the event held on last day of the week-long Championships. He was India8217;s sole representative at the Swimming World Championships organised by the International Paralympic Committee IPC,had participated in 200m Individual Medley,100m Breastsroke,100m Butterfly and 50m Freestyle competitions. He began his campaign at Montreal with the 200m Individual Medley and finished 10th. He finished 7th in the 100m Breastsroke. After missing the 100m Butterfly,he was 14th in the 50m Freestyle .

Bolt for Zurich

Organisers of Weltklasse say 19 world championships gold medalists will compete at the Diamond League meeting in Zurich next week. Usain Bolt leads a 100 meters lineup on Aug. 29 featuring the top six finishers in the worlds final at Moscow last week. High jump world champion Bohdan Bondarenko heads an entry that includes the top eight in Moscow. Ethiopian rivals Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba 8211; the women8217;s world champions over 5,000 and 10,000,respectively 8211; will race over 5,000. Weltklasse stages the first half of the season-ending Diamond League finals. Brussels hosts the remaining events Sept. 6 at the Van Damme Memorial meet.

Thomas award undeserved

Former hurdler and Athletics Federation of India8217;s selection panel head G S Randhawa has protested the Dronacharya award to be conferred on K P Thomas and questioned the Keralite8217;s claims of mentoring stars like Anju Bobby George in a letter to the Sports Ministry. 8230;the Athletics fraternity in India is surprised rather shocked to learn that K.P. Thomas is selected to receive Dronacharya Award this year. This year the Dronacharya Award will be given to a person who has never attended any National Coaching Camp or gone with the Indian athletes to take part in any major International Athletics Championships, he explained.

Kush wins gold at Youth Asiad

Kush Kumar won India8217;s first gold medal at the second Asian Youth Games after defeating Malaysia8217;s Mohammad Syafiq Mohd Kamal in the men8217;s singles squash competition. Chennai-lad Kush won 11-9 5-11 11-9 11-7 against the Malaysian in the summit clash to cap off an impressive undefeated run in the quadrennial event. In table tennis,India8217;s Abhishek Yadav settled for a bronze medal after losing his semifinal clash against China8217;s Zhendong Fan 2-4 in the men8217;s singles competition. Yadav went down 4-11 13-11 13-11 4-11 8-11 5-11 in 44 minutes to his higher-ranked opponent. This is India8217;s fourth medal in the ongoing edition of the Games after M Kavita Devi and T Lalchhanhima had won a bronze each in girl8217;s judo and boy8217;s weightlifting category on the first day of the competition.

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