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The week in Indian sports

FOOTBALL
Bangladesh pip India to move into final round
Jamshedpur, June 27: India's hopes of reaching the final round of the ninth Asian youth (under-16) football championship came to a crushing end, as they went down 0-1 to Bangladesh in a vital Group-IV league match at the JRD Tata sports complex last week. The hosts missed many chances and even muffed up a penalty before Bangladesh striker U l Karim struck the all-important goal barely two minutes before the final whistle to propel his team to the next stage of the tournament, scheduled to be held in Vietnam in September.

Karim scored the goal with a neat placement, following a gem of a pass from right half Masood Alam, to seal the fate of the Indians, who only needed only a draw to book their ticket to Vietnam. India finished their engagements in the four-team group with six points, one less than Bangladesh.

The Indians also got a penalty in the 25th minute after Bangladesh custodian M N Rahman committed an infringement on an onrushing Nabi inside the dreaded area. Rahman, however, made amends as he dived to his left to save Indian skipper Amjad Ali Khan's spot kick. Bangladesh, under pressure for most of the 90-minute exchange, came close to scoring in the 37th minute, but Mohammad Alam shot into the cross-piece, and hit the rebound straight into Rahman's hands.

India pounced on their opponents from the start, maintaining their domination right through the opening half, but Bangladesh slowly regrouped in the later session, and seized the initiative in the last quarter of an hour.

The campaign promised much for the Indians but ended in great disappointment. They lived up to the tag of being tournament favourites by demolishing arch-rivals Pakistan 6-0 in their first league encounter. In their second match against Sri-Lanka, the Indians kept up the momentum and won by a comfortable margin of 3-0. After Bangladesh were held to draw by Pakistan, all India had to do was draw their game against Bangladesh but failed to achieve the desired result.

TENNIS
Harsh Mankad wins ITF Masters
New Delhi, June 30: Harsh Mankad celebrated his call-up to the Indian Davis cup team for the World Group play-off tie against Sweden by winning the ITF Satellite circuit Masters title in Delhi last week. After having lost to Thailand's Danai Udomchoke in the final of the previous two legs, at Bangalore and Delhi, the second-seed made amends by overcoming the Thai 6-3, 6-1 in only 48 minutes.

The 20-year-old's consistent performance over the month-long circuit, in which he made the two other finals and one semi-final, saw him clinch 31 ATP points, including a bonus of three for finishing overall second on the circuit. The Thai had little to play for going into the final as he had already assured himself of the maximum possible 36 points on the circuit with his entry into the final itself. The Thai's loss was only in monetary terms, as Harsh collected 800 US dollars for his effort where as Udomchoke had to be satisfied with the runners-up cheque for 600 US dollars.

It was clear during the match that the 295th ranked Thai had little interest in playing a long match and run after balls. However , Mankad had to be on the lookout as the Thai had shown the uncanny ability to bounce back in the earlier legs of the circuit. Harsh got his first break in the eighth game, breaking the Thai to love. He wound up the set in the next game with an ace after fighting back from being two break points down. In the next set the writing was on the wall for the Thai as he lost his serve in the first game itself and the Indian romped home after that, dropping only one game more in the match.

The doubles final was well-contested and went the distance before Kunj Majumdar of the USA and Vikrant Chadha of India beat the experienced pair of Mustafa Ghouse and Vishal Uppal of India 6-3, 2-6 and 6-3. The circuit proved to be quite beneficial for Indian players as they accumulated 74 of the 146 ATP points on offer during the month. After Harsh Mankad the highest tally for an Indian player was for Sandeep Kirtane with 18 points. Overall, 13 Indian players garnered ATP points from the month-long challenger circuit.

SAILING
Sandeep Srikkanth is national Laser Full Rig champ
Hyderabad, July 3: Eighteen-year-old Sandeep Srikkanth caused a major surprise by lifting the national championship in the Laser Full Rig category at the National Laser championships in Hyderabad last week. The six feet, eight inch lad, who represented India in the World Youth championships at South Africa and Finland, finally made it to the big league at the historic Hussain Sagar Lake with a stellar performance.

Going into the final day the battle was between five-time and defending national champion Nitin Mongia and the in-form Rajesh Choudhary. Mongia, who started the championship in supreme form by claiming the first two races, had only himself to blame for not clinching the title as he faltered in the next two to let his rivals move into contention. Going into the final race of the seven-race regatta, he had to win the contest and hope that Choudhary did not finish better than third to assure himself of a record sixth crown. On the final day though, the Chennai-based Srikanth continued to show the consistency that had helped him to two second places in the last two rounds and won his first race of the week.

However, it appeared that Choudhary had won the crown as he finished second. But events changed dramatically as Mongia lodged a protest against Choudhary claiming that he collided with him during the race. After long deliberations, the protest committee upheld his appeal and disqualified Choudhary. This elevated Mongia to the runner-up slot but it proved to be most benificial to Srikanth, who now had the least penalty points (15) of all the competitors and won the national title.

Despite the disappointment of missing out on the Full Rig title, Choudhary had the consolation of winning the Laser Radial Rig title. The Radial Rig, which is raced with the same hull as a full rig but a two feet smaller sail, will be raced for the first time at the next Asian Games in Pusan in 2002. The Laser Class Association of India is encouraging this class as they believe it suits the medium built Indian sailors perfectly and is the country's best hope for a medal at the Asian Games. Choudhary is the in-form sailor in this category for India, having won the "Sail the Gulf 2000", in Doha in March this year, which attracted 48 competitors from 16 countries including the sport's powerhouses such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada. He had little trouble taking this crown at the nationals, winning five of the six races he took part in to leave the competition miles behind.

Nitin Mongia too did not leave the nationals empty-handed. The portly sailor, whose brother Aashim is the national Enterprise champion and won the Arjuna award last week, won the OK Dinghy class with ease. Nitin has recently moved to this category as he believes it presents him with his best chance to claim a medal at the Asian Games.

ATHLETICS
Neelam J Singh and Jebeshori Devi set national marks
Nagercoil, July 1: Neelam J. Singh improved upon her own national record in the Discus throw at the first domestic circuit meet of the second phase of the double periodisation programme being followed by the Amateur Athletic Federation of India. Neelam, who has been in stunning form for the last two years and has already achieved the qualification norm for the Sydney Olympics, hurled the discus to a new mark of 61.37 metres, improving her own national mark of 60.28 metres which she had established at Travancore last year. Her form in the first part of the season had been disappointing but after returning from Kiev after a training cum competiton period she seems to have recovered her best form.

Neelam's effort was preceded by Jebeshori Devi in the hammer throw as she too eclipsed her own national mark by over one metre as she hurled the iron ball to 57.86 metres on her first throw itself, which bettered her previous mark of 56.56 which she had recorded at the circuit meet in Hissar earlier this year. Even her third throw of 56.82 metres bettered her old mark. The 22-year-old Jebeshori is a product of the National Sports Talent scheme and Sports Hostel, Manipur, and has been a consistent performer on the circuit.

Among the men, national champion Shakti Singh, who has already achieved the qualification standard in the Shot Put for the Olympics, won both the Shot Put and the Discus Throw with efforts of 19.84 metres and 55.62 metres respectively. Bahadur Singh was in second place in the Shot Put with an effort of 19.70 metres but did enough to make the 'A' grade mark for the Olympics.

On the track, the results were mediocre owing to the mud track which had been further affected by the overnight rain. As a result, none of the athletes made any headway towards achieving the qualification norms. In the 300 metres for men, Gulab Chand won a keen race with a superb burst in the final 200 metres in a time of 8:28.71 seconds. Anil Kumar won the 100 metres in 10.76 seconds. Sanjay Kumar Rai won the Long jump with a distance of 7.39 metres while Satvir Singh pipped team-mate Jagdish Vishnoi in the javelin throw, claiming gold with an effort of 76.74 metres. Ishtiaq Ahmed won the Hammer Throw with a distance of 66.68 metres.

WRESTLING
Punjab boys, Haryana girls clinch freestyle titles
Bangalore, June 27: Punjab and Haryana dethroned Delhi from the pedestal as champions in the freestyle events of the both the boys and girls' section at the conclusion of the 21st junior National wrestling championship at the Sree Kanteerava stadium in Bangalore last week. However, Delhi had the satisfaction of bagging the honours in the Greco Roman event for boys, a consolation title which it ascertained with a thumping margin.

Delhi hogged 77 points in the Greco Roman style, with Maharashtra a distant second with 64 points. Haryana finished third (54 points). In the freestyle event for boys, Punjab had a tally of 65 points as against Delhi's 59, with Haryana a close third (57 points). In the women's section, Haryana, despite reversal in the final bout of the day, tallied 63 points to Punjab's 56. Manipur with gold in the 63 kgs and plus-68 kgs, nosed ahead of Kerala with 63 points, which had a silver besides two bronze, that it won on Monday, tallied 62 points.

International Sandeep Rathi of Delhi scored a creditable come from behind victory over Naveen of Haryana for the 97 kgs gold. Naveen it was who attacked initially and was up 3-0 after the first 'dong' of three minutes. But Sandeep using all his experience, garnered points to be tied 3-3 at the end of the regulation time (six minutes). In the sudden death, Sandeep managing a `leg hold' effected a flip over his back to send Naveen flat on his back. Sandeep did a somersault in celebration, for winning the gold that looked lost to him.

On the distaff side, Haryana had won the gold in the first two bouts. Seena Jain made little effort in getting the better off of Farhat Bano (MP) for the 46 kgs gold and Neha Rathi pulled off a creditable win over Gujarat's Nayana Rana. She got the verdict in the sudden-death after Rathi levelled the scores in the final seconds of the regulation period. Kerala's Jisha Sebastian and Haryana's Monica Dhaiya promised much but could not deliver as the fleet-footed Manipur girls scored decisively effecting falls within the first three minutes itself.