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A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Friday
Indian shuttler HS Prannoy has jumped six places to be at 17th position in the latest BWF world rankings thanks to his US Open Grand Prix Gold title triumph.
Parupalli Kashyap, who reached his first final at US Open in more than two years after recovering from multiple injuries, also gained 12 places to be at the 47th spot.
Sameer Verma, who has qualified as the fourth Indian for the World Championship, jumped four spots to be 28th in the standings.
With Prannoy improving his position, India have four men in the top-20.
Kidambi Srikanth, who clinched back-to-back titles at Indonesia and Australia, is the highest ranked Indian at number 8.
Ajay Jayaram is ranked 16th, while B Sai Praneeth is 19th spot after losing a place.
In the women's category, PV Sindhu remained 5th while Saina Nehwal dropped a spot to be world number 16. They are the only two Indians in the top-25.
In mixed doubles, Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy dropped three places to lie at the 20th spot. There were no Indian pair in the top 25 in men's or women's doubles.
Manoj, 2 others enter final of Czech boxing tourney
Boxer Manoj Kumar (69kg), along with two other Indians, advanced to the finals of the Grand Prix Usti Nad Labem boxing tournament in CzechRepublic.
Manoj defeated Kristian Cholinsky to enter the final.
Also advancing to the final were Satish Kumar (+91kg) and Manish Panwar (81kg). While Satish defeated Adam Kolarik of the Czech Republic, Manish got the better of a local favourite in Kamil Hladky.
However, Ashsih Kumar bowed out in the quarter-final after losing to Germany's Artem Harutyunyan.
Earlier, World Championships bronze-medallist Shiva Thapa (60kg) had also entered the final.
Harikrishna breezes past Swiss GM Studer
Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna bounced back from successive draws to outclass local star Noel Studer in the fourth round of the Biel Chess Festival, in Biel, Switzerland, on Friday.
The world number 20 Indian, playing with white pieces, started on a dominating note and took the attack to his opponent from the word go. He seemed to be in a hurry to wrap up the proceedings and his aggressive game caught the Swiss player off-guard who skittled under pressure to concede the game in a mere 24 moves.
"I had prepared an interesting idea in French defence and my pawn gambit on the 20th move brought me into an advantageous position and complicated the game for my opponent," the 31-year-old from Guntur said after the game.
The win not only was Harikrishna's first in the campaign but also saw him retain the joint second position with a total of two and a half points.
He will be now up against Hungarian Grand Master Peter Leko in the fifth round of this single Round-Robin tournament.
Ethiopian athlete Bayo banned after attacking coach
Ethiopian steeplechaser Chala Bayo has been banned for two years after he attacked and punched his coach on learning that he was not selected in the squad for next month's world championships.
Bayo competed in the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where he failed to get past the heats.
Bayo confronted Yohannes Mohammed, Ethiopia's deputy 3,000m steeplechase coach, at an event in Addis Ababa where the 40-member squad was announced.
"Chala was incensed, he punched Yohannes in the eye and fled," Sileshi Bisrat, spokesman of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF), said.
"He has since been on the run as police are searching for him."
Ethiopia's squad for the world championships which start on Aug. 4 includes Tirunesh Dibaba, a triple Olympic distance champion who will run the 10,000m in London. Mare Dibaba will defend her marathon title.
Mohammed Aman, 800m world champion 2013, and Rio Olympics marathon bronze medallist Tamrat Tola were also included, but triple Olympic track champion Kenenisa Bekele, the second-fastest ever marathon runner, was not named in the squad.