Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Para-athlete Anandan Gunasekaran clinched his third gold and javelin thrower Shivpal Singh added another for the country as India continued their fine showing at the ongoing 7th CISM World Military Games, in Wuhan, China, on Thursday.
Christian Coleman showed again he is the man to beat in the 100 metres as he cruised to victory at the US Nationals and World Championship trials with another sub-10 second run on Friday. World silver medallist Coleman, who holds the year's fastest time of 9.81 seconds, won the final in 9.99 seconds after clocking 9.96 in the semi-finals.
The athlete who hails from a village near Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, finished on top in 800 the metres in Doha and has now set her eyes on doing well at the World Athletics Championships.
The 30-year-old Indian clocked 4 hours 7 minutes and 55 seconds, which was 26:57 seconds behind the timing of gold medallist Matej Toth of Slovakia.
Semenya is confident she can make the switch after clocking a personal best of 23.49 in 200m to move closer to the 22.80 time needed to qualify for Tokyo. Semenya says she has a long history in the 200m and had it not been for a lack of coaching in South Africa's rural Limpopo province, she might have made a career out of the distance.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
The spotlight will be on Neeraj Chopra and Hima Das while Dutee Chand would look to prove a point when India's track and field athletes begin their campaign in the Asian Games in Jakarta on Saturday.
Sprinter Hima Das extended her sensational run by claiming her fifth gold of the month as she returned to her pet 400m competition with a season-best time of 52.09s
The US-based Tejaswin Shankar said he is in his off-season and not in jumping shape yet.
In the absence of Paralympic gold medallist Devendra Jhajharia, Sundar, who had been disqualified from his event in Rio 2016 due to technical reasons, found redemption and took home the gold medal and the tag of world champion with a personal best throw of 60.36m.
Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar, who missed out on an Olympic medal by a whisker in Rio de Janeiro recently, on Sunday showered praise on Thangavelu Mariyappan and Varun Singh Bhati for winning gold and bronze in the Paralympics. "You have achieved something what I could not. I would have loved to meet both of you in person," Dipa said in her congratulatory message.
Scientific studies as well as anecdotal evidence suggest that Nike's Vaporfly running shoes, equipped with super-springy foam soles encasing a carbon-fibre plate, can increase running efficiency by between 4% and 6%. The shoe has also raised question at World Athletics, the sport's governing body, which looks set to review its rules for elite racing in light of technological advances while allowing recreational runners to wear what they want.
"Winning a medal at Tokyo 2020 is the target," the 23-year-old Sandeep said.
Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce powered her way to 100 metres gold on Sunday to become the first person to win four gold medals over the distance at the athletics world championships.
Whatever its apprehensions and concerns about the regime of the Rajapaksa clan, India must be ready with unconditional assistance when Colombo asks for it. Because it will, observes Aditi Phadnis.
Asian Games gold-medallist Indian heptathlete Swapna Burman said she will leave no stone unturned to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but achieving the qualification standard will be a tough task.
Swapna Barman's claim to fame before landing in Jakarta was as the athlete with 12 toes but the 21-year-old will return home having forged a new identity after winning India's first Asian Games gold in the heptathlon.
Hima won in 23.25 seconds though the race had a mediocre field with most of the competitors representing clubs of CzechRepublic. Nonetheless, she is inching closer to her personal best of 23.10
Born with six toes on each foot, Swapna is stubborn from childhood, said the secretary of the Jalpaiguri District Athletics Association Ujjal Das Chowdhury, who has followed Swapna's career from close quarters.
Shivpal returned home from South Africa just a few days before the suspension of international flights. He is currently at NIS Patiala, where he is training indoors because of the nationwide lockdown.
Star India grappler Vinesh Phogat won her second consecutive gold in 53kg
Biju Menon tells Divya Nair/Rediff.com how he transformed himself to play a 73 year old character, one of his most challenging and satisfying roles as an actor.
Ethiopian Shura Kitata won a thrilling London Marathon as a stunned world record holder Eliud Kipchoge faded late in the race
Discus throwers Seema Punia and Navjeet Kaur Dhillon opened India's medal hunt in athletics at the 21st Commonwealth Games, clinching a silver and bronze respectively on Thursday.
David Brown, the world's fastest totally blind sprinter, has been accompanied every step of the way by his guide Jerome Avery but the coronavirus outbreak has forced them apart for the first time in six years of training and racing together. Many runners can continue training more or less as usual in this time of social and physical distancing but it is not so easy for those without sight, who run in tandem with their guide, their adjoining hands tethered by a 30cm (12 inch) band.
Akeem Bloomfield announced himself as the latest 'next big thing' from Jamaica
Dina Asher-Smith seized her golden opportunity to win the World Championship 200 metres on Wednesday and become the first British woman to claim a global sprint title.
World junior champion Hima Das has been ruled out of the upcoming World Championships due to a nagging back problem.
Javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra will have to wait another year before chasing India's first Olympic track and field medal in Tokyo but the delay may turn out to be a blessing in disguise, the 22-year-old said. The Commonwealth and Asian Games champion, seen as one of India's best medal prospects at the Games, spent the whole of 2019 recovering from an elbow operation on his throwing arm.
Defending champion Seema Punia settled for a bronze in the women's discus throw event in the Asian Games in Jakarta on Thursday.
Neeraj Chopra, on Saturday, became the first Indian javelin thrower to claim a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, with a season's best effort of 86.47m in the final, in Gold Coast.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Neeraj Chopra, on Sunday, won a gold in the Savo Games in Finland with an impressive performance, beating his Chinese Taipei rival Chao-Tsun Cheng as the duo warmed up for an Asian Games showdown.
World championship favourite Noah Lyles stormed to the year's second fastest 200 metres, 19.65 seconds, as he returned to competition at the Paris Diamond League meeting on Saturday. Reigning World champion Ramil Guliyev of Turkey was more than three-tenths of a second adrift in 20.01 and Canadian Aaron Brown finished third in 20.13.
India's Asian Games gold medallists Tejinder Pal Singh Toor and Jinson Johnson crashed out in qualification at the World Athletics Championships, in Doha, on Thursday.
Sharad and Bhati participated in the T-42 category of men's high jump event.
Neeraj is currently ranked fourth in the new rankings of the international federation.
Unheralded Bhawana Jat qualified for the Tokyo Olympics in the 20km race walk event after pulling off a shock win with a national record time at the National Championships in Ranchi on Saturday. The 23-year-old athlete, who hails from a poor farmer's family at Kabra village in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district, clocked 1 hour 29 minutes and 54 seconds, well inside the Olympic qualification time of 1:31:00, to win the gold.
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