Category: Sports

17-year-old Chandigarh wrestler Yashveer Malik won gold in the Khelo India Youth Games at Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex with a 6-2 win over Nishant in the boys’ 65 kg Greco Roman category on Monday.

2022 has been a good year for Yashveer Malik as he won a gold medal each in U-15 National Wrestling Championship and Sub-Junior National Championship and now another gold in the ongoing Khelo India Youth Games (KIYG). In May this year, he was selected in the Indian wrestling squad to represent the country in the upcoming Asian Cadet Wrestling Championship to be held at Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) from June 19 to 26.

Malik trains under Coach Darshan Lal at the Mani Majra Sports Complex in Chandigarh and usually plays in the 60-kg weight category. However, on Monday he bagged a gold medal in the 65-kg category. Malik attributes his success to his coach Darshan Lal who is an inspiration to him. Lal considers this gold medal an important one under his belt and praised Yashveer for his excellent technique and reach, which got him a place in this category. He also said that Yashveer is always eager to improve his skills and that the Asian Cadet Championship will be an important tournament for him.

Australian Minjee Lee won the U.S. Women’s Open by defeating the 32-year-old Mina Harigae at Pine Needles on Sunday to earn $ 1.8 million, the largest payout in the history of women’s golf.

Le, 26, won by four strokes, closing at an even-par 71 in the final round to finish at 13-under on the series and claimed the second major victory of her career after winning the Evian Championship in July 2021.

Lee, who entered the week with a world ranking of number 4, made an aggressive start to the match that gave her a big shot lead and was able to just finish the game to victory. All through the matches on Saturday and Sunday, Lee was ahead of Harigae by 30, 40, and even 50 yards or more.  Distance and ball-striking are what gave Lee success and she credited her longer drives to the extra time that she has been spending at the gym lately. Sunday’s victory makes Lee the first Australian after Karrie Webb to win the U.S Open after 21 years.

Lee expressed after raising the trophy that she had always dreamt of winning the U.S Open title and, now that she had fulfilled her dream, she was “speechless”.

Rafael Nadal defeated Norwegian Casper Ruud in straight sets on Sunday to win his 14th French Open trophy and record-breaking 22nd Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.

Nadal revealed after his 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 victory that he took an injection to numb his ailing foot for Sunday’s final. He said “The preparation was not ideal,” as he had a stress fracture of the rib and a prolonged foot pain caused by Mueller-Weiss syndrome, and that a doctor was with him throughout the match.

During the match-winning ceremony, Nadal expressed his gratitude to his family and support team for helping him, for without them, he would have retired long back. Nadal is expected to visit a specialist next week to undergo new treatment for his foot pain. If the new procedure is successful, he will play Wimbledon, a tournament that he loves dearly and would not want to miss. Rafael stated he wasn’t sure what the future holds for him but would keep fighting to keep going.

With 22 grand slam titles and 14, Roland Garros wins to become the oldest champion in the history of the tournament, Nadal is not only the ”King of Clay” but also the “King of tennis”.

Sakshi Malik grabbed her first international gold medal in nearly five years at the UWW Ranking Series event in Kazakhstan on Friday. The 2014 Rio Olympics wrestling bronze medallist Sakshi Malik was not bothered about her recent struggles and performed fearlessly and confidently to claim the gold.

Sakshi had been failing to perform well till the recent CWG trials and was frequently losing to young Sonam Malik in the 62kg category and could not even qualify for the Tokyo Olympic Games but on Friday she looked completely transformed as she fought her battles with utmost aggressiveness and confidence. The last time she won gold was in the 2017 Commonwealth Championship, even though she won two bronze medals at the Asian Championships in 2020 and 2022.

Her win started because of technical superiority against Kazakhstan’s Irina Kuznetsova, and later, she won big with a 9-3 win over Uzbekistan’s Rushana Abdirasulova.

As Mongolia’s Tserenchimed Sukhee lost out on her semifinal, Sakshi entered the final, where she held down Kuznetsova while leading 7-4, defeating the wrestler for the second time in the day. What stood out most was Sakshi’s double leg attacks and quickness, hardly giving any loose chances to her rivals.

On Friday, Indian Olympian Anjum Moudgil won a silver medal in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) at the ISSF Shooting World Cup 2022 held in Baku, Azerbaijan.

She won with a score of 406.5, playing while maintaining consistency throughout the event. However, she narrowly lost the gold to Denmark’s Rikke Ibsen by 16-12. This brought the total tally for India up to three.

Anjum qualified on Thursday for the top-eight ranking round with a 587 score out of 600, among 60 other shooters. She stood in fourth place, then finished second later with 406.5 to the Norwegian’s 411.4.

SAI tweeted, “Olympian @anjum_moudgil bags at @ISSF_Shooting 2022 World Cup, Baku. Anjum clinched SILVER in the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position with a score of 406.5. Many congratulations to Champ #IndianSports #Shooting”.

The world cup started on May 27 and saw Swapnil Kusale, Deepak Kumar, and Goldie Gurjar also win silver at the event, and a team of Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita, and Shreya Agarwal win a gold medal in women’s 10m air rifle, defeating Denmark by 17-5. India fielded a 12-member rifle squad in the World Cup that will end on June 7, 2022.

Indian men’s hockey team beat Japan 1-0 in the Asia Cup’s third-place play-off match to bag bronze on Wednesday in Jakarta. The young team, put up a lively performance with a bright start and a solid defense. On Tuesday, India failed to reach the final of the Asia cup 2022 following an exciting 4-4 draw against South Korea at the GBK Sports Complex Hockey Stadium.

In the seventh minute of the game Rajkumar Pal scored a field goal, smartly pushing it past the Japanese goalkeeper Takashi Yoshikawa. After a good early start, the Indian attack lost momentum as soon as they were out inside the opposition D. japan toiled hard in the last five minutes of the first quarter to get the equalizer and increased raids but India put up a firm defense to keep their lead intact.

In the second quarter, both teams had a few more chances but faltered in the final third. In the 48th minute, Japan gained three successive penalty corners but couldn’t break through the Indian backline. In the remaining minutes, India successfully defended their one-goal lead and claimed a podium position.

Indian men and women’s hockey teams leave for Lausanne to play in the inaugural FIH Hockey5s contest.

The Indian para badminton team performed excellently at the recently concluded Bahrain Para Badminton International Championships in Manama bagging a good tally of 23 medals, including seven golds. The centre of attraction was the promising doubles shuttler Manisha Ramdass who won two gold medals, while Pramod Bhagat and Tarun Dhillon also secured twin gold medals each.

 Manisha  and Bhagat got the better of Thailand’s Siripong Teamarrom and Nipada Saensupa 21-14, 21-11 to win the gold in mixed doubles. Manisha paired with Mandeep Kaur to claim another gold in girls’ doubles SL3-SU5 finals beating the Paralympian pair of Palak Kohli and Parul Dalsukhbhai Parmar 21-11, 21-11 in just 23 minutes.

Gaurav Khanna, the chief nationwide coach lauded the athletes and expressed his happiness with the way the players performed so well in successive events. He said there was still some work left to be done with the prime focus being on the players’ fitness. He added that many players have delivered excellent performances in recent tournaments. Expectations are high from athletes like Manisha Ramdass and others. The Indian contingent is all set to play  at the 4th Fazza Dubai 2022 Para Badminton International which will start on Tuesday.

On Friday, Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggananandhaa stuns the World Champion Magnus Carlsen again at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess tournament.

A 16-year-old Indian teenager won 12 points crushing Gawain Jones from England in the seventh round, he finished 6th after drawing with his compatriot P Harikrishna, who was 11th, and Vidit Gujrathi, who finished 14th. The Indian sensation precedent the one-move blunder from Carlsen and kept his odds alive till the knockout stage.

With the 40th move from Pragganandhaa, the match took a stunning twist by misplacing Carlsen’s knight on his previous move as Praggananandhaa checked with an attack on his back.

He said, “I am so thrilled about my game quality. I am missing some stuff, some tricks, and some tactics so I need to be sharper”. After the match, in an interview, Pragganandha revealed he was taking a school exam during the event

Praggananandhaa won again after defeating the Norwegian in February at the Airthings Masters. In the eighth round of the Airthings Master, he stunned World No 1, Magnus Carlsen, in an online rapid chess tournament.

On Monday, the teenager won with black pieces in 39 moves in a Tarrasch variation game to halt Carlsen’s run of three straight wins.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated the athletes of the Indian contingent that performed brilliantly at the recently concluded Deaflympics and said he would host the entire delegation at his residence on May 21. Prime Minister added that every athlete of the contingent is an inspiration for fellow Indians.

Deaflympics 2021 was held between May 1-May 15 at Festa Da Uva Main Pavilion in Southern Brazils city of Caxias do Sul. Around 2,100 athletes from 72 countries took part in the quadrennial event. The Indian contingent comprised 65 athletes, the largest ever sent by India in a Deaflympic event that competed in 11 sports, winning eight gold medals, one silver, and seven bronze. This was India’s highest medal tally at the Deaflympics. The most number of medals were picked by the shooting team-three gold and two bronze. India claimed the 9^th position in the medal table. The previous richest medal haul for India came in 1993 when they bagged five gold and two bronze at Sofia.

Five out of the eleven sports that India won medals in were shooting, badminton, tennis, golf, and wrestling. The remaining six sports that India took part in were athletics, golf, judo, karate, table tennis, and taekwondo. Jerlin Jayaratchagan won three gold medals at the event, making her the fiercest competitor from India.

Novak Djokovic, the No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player in the world, became the fifth man in history to reach 1,000 Tour wins after winning the Italian Open Semi-final against Norway’s Casper Ruud.

The other 4 men to have reached the historic milestone are Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Jimmy Connors, and Ivan Lendl. The 34-year-old Tennis champ had won his first tour-level match in 2004 and since then has emerged as one of Tennis’s all-time greats. The 20-time grand slam winner celebrated the occasion by cutting a cake that was presented to him by the tournament organizers. Djokovic won his 1,000th contest in 1,203 matches, making him the fourth-fastest to reach the milestone.

In his on-court interview with ATP, Djokovic thanked the tournament and the crowd for celebrating his achievement. He added that in the last couple of years he witnessed the celebration of the same milestone by Roger and Rafa and that he was eager to get to the milestone as well.

Djokovic, who is eyeing his first title of the season and what could be his 1001st win, will take on Greek world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the Italian Open final on Sunday.