Former India hockey player and coach M K Kaushik on Saturday died after battling COVID-19 for the past three weeks.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
The upcoming non-fiction series Break Point will give fans an insight into his fractured but successful professional pairing with doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi, revealed Leander Paes, on Friday.
The controversy stoked by marathon runner O P Jaisha took an interesting turn with Indian athletics contingent's middle and long distance coach Nikolai Snesarev, on Thursday, asserting that she herself had said no when asked by him if she would need personalised refreshment during the race in the Rio Olympics.
Nikhat Zareen, Lovlina Borgohain, Nitu Ghanghas and Saweety Boora will look to bag gold at the Women's World Boxing Championship.
Reader Kuku Dubey sent us a picture of Anju George from Doha.
Former recipients of the Arjuna award on Tuesday lamented that its dignity has been lowered and the government is now 'throwing' the honour away.
Taking note of the 'indigent circumstances' in which former athlete Santhi Soundarajan has been living, the Sports Ministry has sanctioned an assistance of Rs 60,500 to fund her NIS Diploma Course at the SAI Centre in Bengalore.
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza feels the five medals that the team has managed to grab at the ongoing Asian Games is a pretty good performance given that the country did not come with the best unit.
Besides the duo, 2017 World Weightlifting Champion in the 48kg category, Saikhom Mirabai Chanu and former Asian Games gold medallist tennis player Somdev Devvarman were conferred with the Padma Shri award.
Reader Ashok Kumar Sharma sent us a picture of Jaspal Rana from Doha.
Santhi Soundarajan is keeping a close eye on South African athlete Caster Semenya's gender test result, hoping to get back her silver medal she won in the 2006 Doha Asian Games.
Somdev Devvarman inched closer to a historic tennis gold at the Asian Games as the gritty Indian overcame a stunning second-set lapse to tame Tatsuma Ito and seal a place in the men's singles summit clash in Guangzhou, on Monday.
Reader Arsalaan Baharde sent us this picture from Doha.
Reader Jinesh Ahamed sent us this picture from Doha.
India, on Tuesday, clinched a maiden Asian Games medal in Sepaktakraw despite its men's regu team losing to defending champion Thailand in Pelambang.
Reader Amit Singhal sent us pictures of Isha Lakhani and Shikha Uberoi from Doha, Qatar.
'To the youth, I will say work hard. One minute of work will not get you anything. I have worked hard for the past 20 years, 2002 was the first time I won a gold medal.'
Pankaj Advani has set his eyes on a golden double at the 2006 Doha Asian Games
It was gold rush for India on the opening day of the South Asian Games with the country's wrestlers, swimmers and weightlifters showing their regional dominance by making a near clean sweep of top honours on Saturday. India clinched 14 gold and five silver medals on a highly productive day to top the medals tally with an overall count of 19.Sri Lanka, despite having a higher overall medal count of 21, occupied the second spot in the table owing to alesser tally of gold medals (4). Wrestlers were the stars for India, grabbing as many as five gold medals followed by the swimmers who clinched four gold and three silver medals. The weightlifters added three gold medals to the tally after the cyclists had opened India's account with two gold and an equal number of silver medals in the morning. Three women and two male grapplers finished on top of the podium as the proceedings went on expected lines on the opening day of the competitions.
O P Jaisha and Kavita Raut, India's best distance runners and medallists at the Asian Games in the past, found themselves out of depth in the women's marathon at the Rio Olympics and finished way behind in the 150-plus field on Sunday.
Saikhom Mirabai Chanu will start as overwhelming favourite to clinch the top prize in women's 48kg category at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast next month.
Reigning World champion Pramod Bhagat continued India's fine showing at the Tokyo Paralympics with a gold medal in the badminton SL3 class event, in Tokyo, on Saturday. The 33-year-old Bhagat, who is also the world No. 1 and current Asian champion, scored a 21-11, 21-16 win over Japan's Daisuke Fujihara in the first SL3 class semi-final, which lasted 36 minutes.
Asian Games medal winner Fouaad Mirza called for financial help in popularising equestrian in India, saying the government can take a cue from European nations such as the United Kingdom and Germany.
A strong Indian archery contingent will look to grab all the 10 gold medals on offer when they open their campaign with the qualification round in the 12th South Asian Games at the Jawaharlal Sports Complex Polo Ground on Friday. Former world No 1 and India's Olympic medal hope Deepika Kumari will lead the country's charge in the women's recurve section along with another Olympian in Laishram Bombayla Devi, who will be joined by Madhu Vedwan and Laxmirani Majhi who won the national ranking final last month. Asian Games silver medalist Tarundeep Rai will look to defend his title in the individual recurve section, which will also have the experience of Jayanta Talukdar besides the youngster duo of Binod Swansi and Gurucharan Besra.
Hurt at missing out on Padma Bhushan award for the second year in a row, 16-time world champion cueist Pankaj Advani says he does not know what he needs to do more to receive the coveted civilian honour.
China's two-time Olympic badminton champion Lin Dan, one of the sport's greatest singles players, announced his retirement on Saturday. The 37-year-old, who won the Olympics singles titles in Beijing in 2008 and the 2012 London Games, has won all the sport's major titles, including five world championships' gold medals.
India's sole luge athlete, Shiva Keshavan has qualified for the Winter Olympics to be held in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi from February 7 to 23.
"Every time Garang touched the ball, he made something happen. The kid's exciting. Everyone can see that. Everyone is buzzing," said Slater, now a media analyst.
The star-studded shooting squad was expectedly on target, while the track-and-field athletes continued their golden run as India held on firmly to the top spot by remaining way ahead of competition on the sixth day of the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati
BCCI's decision to not send Indian teams for the Asian Games drew sharp criticism from the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) on Saturday, which accused the influential cricket board of treating the sport just as a business venture.
Six athletes from the track and field, shooting and weightlifting disciplines were on Wednesday inducted into the Target Olympic Podium Scheme, with the Sports Ministry including discus thrower Seema Punia and leaving out seasoned shooter Gagan Narang.
Sri Lanka bid to sweep New Zealand and reach WTC final
Lakshya Sen said the win against reigning All England Champion Li Shi Feng gives him confidence and belief in the Olympic qualification year.
Nikhat made short work of Brazil's Caroline De Almeida to notch up a dominant 5-0 win.
He was a talismanic midfielder who played the game on his own terms with fitness being key to his success
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
'Historically, Qatar has done wonders as I don't think this will ever be possible with the new format of the World Cup.'
His mere presence causes hysteria and pandemonium in the Land of the Rising Sun and he has no tennis equal in a continent heaving with 4.427 billion inhabitants, yet self-effacing Kei Nishikori thinks he is simply 'one' of the best players in Japan.
