Category: Sports

The India racketlon team beat Britain 137-101 to win its first-ever Nations Cup title in Graz, Austria. The tournament was held from August 23 to 29.

Racketlon is a combination sport in which the contestants have to play four racket sports: table tennis, badminton, tennis, and squash.

Captain Ashutosh Pednekar of the Indian Navy played a big role in giving the team its maiden victory over the weekend. The other competitors of the winning squad were Vikramaditya Chaufla, Adarsh Vikram, Sidharth Nandal, Varinder Singh, and Karan Taneja.

Chaufla, who had represented India in the World University Badminton Championships in 2012 bagged a silver in the singles C category. He later partnered with Karan Taneja to win a silver in the men’s doubles as well.

During the game, Hardik Pandya hit a sixer in the last over to give India a five-wicket victory over Pakistan. With 33 off 17 balls, Pandya scored 33 runs and claimed three wickets in his innings.

A total of two wickets have been taken by Mohammad Nawaz and Naseem Shah for Pakistan. It was a difficult start for Pakistan, but it managed to raise the score to 147. With four wickets each taken by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, and Arshdeep, Indian pacers were outstanding. Having won the toss, India opted to bowl first.

When India bowled, the senior seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar had the best figures of 4 for 26 with Ravindra Jadeja contributing 35 off 29 balls. During the chase, India’s former captain Virat Kohli scored 35 points off 34 balls. In Pakistan’s 2/27 match, Naseem Shah was the best bowler.

Nine Twenty20 Internationals have already been played between Pakistan and India, with India winning seven to Pakistan’s two. Over the previous five games, India had won four out of five, while Pakistan had won only one. The Dubai International Cricket Stadium will host the second meeting between the two teams.

Indian chess master, R Praggnanandhaa defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in the final round of the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, on Monday morning. However, the 17-year-old chess player stood the second position in the international chess championship since Carlsen had a better score based on previous games.

At the end of the regulation game, the score was tied 2-2 but Praggnanandhaa defeated Carlsen in the blitz tie-break.

Praggnanandhaa earned a name after defeating world champion Carlsen in an online chess match in February. Carlsen lost to Praggnanandhaa, who was only 16 then at the Airthings Masters’ rapid chess competition. Also, Praggnanandhaa defeated Carlsen at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess tournament in May this year. The Indian earned the reputation of becoming the youngest international chess master in history at the age of 10.

Praggnanandhaa’s performance in the FTX crypto cup was brilliant. His winning streak began after he defeated his opponent in the first game. The FTX Crypto Cup is a live chess championship event in Miami for the 2022 season of the annual chess circuit, the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. FTX crypto exchange is the organiser of the event. The prize money for each match victory is $7,500, and each match is played over four rapid games, with blitz tie-breaks if there is a 2-2 draw.

Antim Panghal scripted history as she became the first-ever Indian woman wrestler to claim gold at the U-20 world championships when she got the better of Kazakhstan’s Altyn Shagayeva 8-0 in the 53kg category final in the capital city of Bulgaria on Friday.

 In the tournament’s 34-year-long history, this is the first time that an Indian female wrestler has finished on top of the podium. Antim, who comes from Haryana’s Bhagana village in the Hisar district, put Shagayeva under her control with her leg attacks and takedowns to win the title of the world junior champion.

 The 17-year-old Antim, who is the youngest of four siblings, won all her matches by big margins, including her bout against European champion Olivia Andrich, whom she beat by technical superiority (11-0). “I didn’t know about the record. Only after winning the final did my coaches tell me that I have become the first-ever woman wrestler from India to win the championships. It’s a proud feeling for everyone. I am thankful to my parents for allowing me to pursue wrestling, especially my didi (sister Sarita, for always supporting and encouraging me. My target is to win an Olympic medal for the country,” said Antim after her victory.

In the quarters, Antim had defeated Ayaka Kimura of Japan and then Ukraine’s Nataliia Klivchutska (11-2) in the semis.

India proved to be the best federation at the 44^th chess Olympiad, and the award is a combined rank total of the open & women’s section. The USA claimed the second position.

Meanwhile, the India A team clinched the bronze medal in the final round.

The Closing ceremony of the Chess Olympiad 2022 was held in Chennai with the awarding ceremony for the team Winners and medalists, the best individual players, and the bestowing of the Gaprindashvili cup for the federation.

India, with a total of 34 match points and the best additional tiebreaks, lifted the Gaprindashvili cup, named after legendary chess player from Georgia, Nona Gaprindashvili. Even though India 1, USA, and India 2 got the same 34 match points, however, tiebreaks criteria went in favor of the India A team.

Meanwhile, the Indian women’s team created history at the 44th Chess Olympiad by clinching the first-ever medal for India in the women’s section

Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar congratulated Indian teams for their performance in Chess Olympiad 2022

“Congratulations to the teams on winning the medals in the open and women’s section at the #ChessOlympiad. Great to see India bestowed the Nona Gaprindashvili cup. Kudos to all our 7 individual medalists as well as participants from all over the world,” tweeted Tendulkar.

As the Indian contingent ends their campaign at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham, the player’s glorified nation’s name with an impressive medal count. Team India won medals in each of the six events and spectacularly bagged a total of 61 medals.

The total tally included 22 gold, 16 silver, and 23 bronze. This places India fourth out of 43 countries that have won medals at the Commonwealth Games, but it was the team’s lowest medal tally since 2006.

India finished fourth out of four teams, behind Australia (178), England (176), and Canada (92), losing out on the 101 medals it won in Delhi in 2010, the year the Games were held, including 38 gold and 27 silver.

In terms of gold medals, this was among the lowest performances by India since 1998, when the nation won just seven golds out of 18 total medals. The nation also won 22 in 2006, the same number it won this year.

The shooting was excluded from the Commonwealth Games for the first time since 1974, which may explain the dip in the medal tally. A little over a quarter of the medals that team India won at the event that occurs every four years came from shooting, before 2022.

On Monday, PV Sindhu and young Gun Lakshya Sen excelled in the singles badminton competition as India swept the gold medals for the first time at the Commonwealth Games.

A convincing straight-game win over Canada’s Michelle Li added yet another gold to India’s supporting icon Sindhu’s bulging collection. Against the world number 13 at the NEC arena in front of a packed crowd, India’s world number seven won 21-15, 21-12.

Later in the day, ranked 10th Lakshya Sen came from behind to defeat giant-killing Ng Tze Yong. The 20-year-old beat the world number 42 from Malaysia through 19-21, 21-9, 21-16. As with his prior two matches against world champions Yew Kean Loh and Kdambi Srikanth, he trailed for much of the first game but stayed close to the Malaysian.

Sen made it 19-18 from 16-19 before Yong earned a game point with back-to-back forehand winners. Following a grueling rally, he made a mistake with a baseline call, giving the advantage to Yong.

He said that it was stressful at the start but he had to work very hard. Yong also played a great tournament and he congratulated him as well.

It is raining medals for India at the on-going 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and the latest Indian sportspersons to win a medal at the event is boxer Nikhat Zareen. Zareen clinched the gold medal for India in the women’s 50kg light flyweight by winning her final bout comprehensively.

Nikhat won three of her bouts at Birmingham 2022 5-0 and one via RSC (referee stops contest). In the final bout, she got the better of Gold Coast silver medalist, Ireland’s Carly McNaul.

Earlier, Careen has won a gold medal at the 2011 AIBA Women’s Youth & Junior World Boxing Championships, another gold medal at the 2022 IBA Women’s World Boxing Championships and yet another gold medal at the IBA World Boxing Championships. The CWG gold medal is the fourth of Zareen’s career.

“I’m very excited to meet PM Modi; I took a selfie with him last time and want a new one now. Last time, I took his autograph on my T-shirt, now I’ll take it on my boxing gloves,” Nikhat Zareen said after winning Gold in 48-50kg flyweight.

Zareen was introduced to boxing by her father, Mohammad Jameel Ahmed and was inducted into the Sports Authority of India in 2009. Currently, she works as general banking officer at Bank of India since June 2021

On Sunday, India wins the mixed doubles gold medal at the Commonwealth Games. Indian table tennis legend Achanta Sharath Kamal defined age to team up with young Sreeja Akula as they comfortably beat Javen Choong and Karen Lyne of Malaysia 11-4, 9-11, 11-15, 11-6.

Barring a blip in the second game, Sharath and Akula pair was in complete control of the tie increasing the nation’s gold collection. In the earlier men’s doubles final, Sharath Kamal and Sathiyan lost to Paul Drinkhall and Liam Pitchford from England and settled for silver.

Meanwhile, the same day, Indian boxer Sagar Ahlawat captured the silver medal in the final of the Men’s Over 92kg category at Birmingham. Sagar settled for a silver medal after suffering a defeat against Delicious Orie of England via Win on Points 0-5. Despite coming in second to England’s Delicious Orie by unanimous decision, Sagar won silver in the men’s boxing super heavyweight category.

As the English boxer was always in contention during the first round, Sagar proved to be the superior boxer, winning 5 points as a result of the judge’s decision. After losing in the first round, Orie came back with a stunning comeback in the second round.

On Wednesday, Daniil Medvedev made a triumphant return in Mexico beating Australian qualifier Rinky Hijikata 6-4,6-3. Medvedev won the opening set with the first break of the contest. This was Medvedev’s first match in six weeks at the ATP hard court tournament in Los Cabos, Mexico.

The world number one player created a landmark for his career with the 250th match win of the reigning US Open Champion’s career. To this, he said, “Someone told me this a few days ago, otherwise I would have not known. That’s nice, a milestone in a way.” He further added that he aims for more victories, however, to have 250 is great, and will definitely strive to achieve a lot more.

Since June 23, Medvedev is participating in his first competition, when he was eliminated from the quarterfinals at Mallorca. Due to Wimbledon’s ban on Russian and Belarussian athletes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he was unable to attend.

Next up for Medvedev is Lithuania’s Ricardas Berankis, who defeated Argentina’s Facundo Bagnis 7-6 (7/4), 6-3. Felix Auger-Aliassime, a second-seeded Canadian, defeated Mexico’s Alex Hernandez 6-3, 7-5, advancing him as well.