Short Corner — Chandigarh

Martina Hingis, Venus advanceTop seed Martina Hingis overcame a long rain delay and third seed Venus Williams was aided by showers as bot...

Martina Hingis, Venus advance
Top seed Martina Hingis overcame a long rain delay and third seed Venus Williams was aided by showers as both advanced to the US Open Tennis quarter-finals on a downpour-disrupted yesterday. Rain delayed the start for two hours and 40 minutes, halted play four more times and led to Mary Joe Fernandez slipping on a slick court and hurting her right quadricep muscle in a 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 defeat. Australian Open champion Hingis had more trouble waiting out storms for hours than she did in beating 10th seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 6-4, 7-5.

Great expectations
While 900 million Indians await with great expectation the outcome of the general elections which got under way with the first phase of voting on Sunday, similar sentiments are anticipated when the national cricket team troops out tomorrow at the Kallang Oval to test its skills against West Indies for the Singapore Challenge Cup.

Coe’s record goes
Kenyan star Noah Ngeny, who had tried and failed to break several world records this season, broke the longest standing men’s track world record the 1000m, in Reiti today, running a time of 2min 11.96sec. The 20-year-old, who took 1500m silver at last month’s World Championships, broke Sebastian Coe’s mark of 2:12.18 set in Oslo in 1981 – the last world record belonging to the Briton.

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Dalbir shines
Dalbir Singh claimed three silvers and salvaged Indian men lifters’ prestige in the ongoing Asian Weightlifting Championship at Wu Han (China). The strongest man of India, Punjab Police Inspector Dalbir Singh lifted a total of 362.5 kg in the over 105 kg category to finish overall runners-up in this event. Dalbir lifted 165 kg in snatch and 197.5 kg to total 362.5 kg and emerge one of the strongest men of Asia.

Hockey camp
India’s preparations for the Junior World Cup Hockey 2001 is set to broaden at the base when a second camp, comprising 30 Indian Junior B boys, commences at Balewadi, Pune, on September 15. The camp will be conducted by Clarence Lobo of Tatas, and will supplement the 30-strong India A camp, under National coach CR Kumar, at SAI, Bangalore.

Border tipped
Former Australian cricket captain Allan Border will be named as Australia’s interim national coach but remains undecided if he wants the job permanently, Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported today. Border will guide the Australians through a three-week tour of Zimbabwe next month after World Cup-winning coach Geoff Marsh steps down following the current tour of Sri Lanka.

Omar says he is considering becoming a party to JK statehood case in SC

India3 hr ago

Omar Abdullah, former and current CM of Jammu and Kashmir, plans to join the legal fight for restoring statehood to the UT. He believes his experience makes him best suited to understand the drawbacks of being a UT. The case, with multiple petitions from citizens, was last heard on October 10.

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