A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
I want a room full of medals before retiring, says Chirag Shetty
Anahat Singh seals berth for World Junior Squash C'ship after topping selection trials
A civil war and the menace of militancy has prevented them from playing many matches in run up to the FIFA Under-17 World Cup but then Iraq have proved that they can conquer odds and perform well.
Stephen Constantine has first hand knowledge of how difficult it is to wake up India from its soccer slumber but the Englishman insists he can make a difference at his second attempt or he would not have accepted the offer.
The 20-year-old's top prize, however, did not translate into an Olympic quota for India as Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil have already secured the maximum two berths available per country in last year's World Championships.
The team of Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed and Heena Sidhu won India a bronze medal in women's team event of 25m pistol of the 17th Asian Games in Incheon on Monday. South Korea won gold while China took silver.
Uruguay are all but assured of a place at the 2014 World Cup finals after Edinson Cavani led the twice champions to a 5-0 away rout of Jordan in the first leg of their qualifying playoff on Wednesday.
The Saudi Arabian Football Federation has apologised after its national team did not properly observe a minute's silence for the victims of the London attacks before the start of a World Cup qualifier in Australia.
India have won the Asia Cup six times, Sri Lanka five, and Pakistan have won it just twice. As the 14th edition of Asia's own trophy gets underway on Saturday, Rajneesh Gupta presents the numbers on the 13 editions so far.
Manju fights off initial family resistance, financial constraints to be country's top race walker
2019 became a 'Year to Remember' in Indian sports for trailblazing performances in Olympic disciplines
The Indian football team broke a 12-year-old jinx of not winning a match away from home as they beat lower ranked Cambodia 3-2 in an international friendly in Phnom Penh.
The Indian trio shot a total of 17 to beat Poland's Joanna Iwona Wawrzonowska, Julita Borek and Agnieszka Korejwo who scored 7 at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
Spain strolled to a 4-1 win at home to Israel, while Italy survived some first-half scares on the way to a 2-0 win and Ukraine registered a 1-0 home win over Ukraine in an action-packed game.
The 25-year-old from Punjab threw a personal best of 64 metres to finish second in Group B in the qualifying round.
In the 21 editions of the World Cup over 92 years featuring 79 nations, there have still been only eight winners and only 13 have made it to the final. Spain were the last to join the elite group of champions in 2010 after France in 1998 and Argentina in 1978.
Asian Games gold medal-winning javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Tuesday donated a total of Rs 3 lakh to the central and Haryana state relief funds to combat the coronavirus pandemic in India. Chopra is currently in self-isolation at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) in Patiala after flying back from a training trip in Turkey.
She threw a distance of 63.72m in the women's discus throw at the National Inter-State #Athletics Championship to punch her ticket to the Games.
Indian wrestlers have been highly impressive at the global level in run up to the Tokyo Olympics and at least three of them are genuine medal contenders at the Games.
Jan-Fiete Arp (8th minute), Nicolas Kuehn (62nd) and Sahverdi Cetin (90+2) netted for the winners, while Ibrahima Soumah got the lone goal for Guinea in the 26th minute in the final Group C match at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium.
IMAGES from the FIFA World Cup opening match between hosts Russia and Saudi Arabia at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow
Hima Das missed the Asian Championships mark on the final day of competition
Khushbir Kaur clinched the silver medal in the 20km race walk before 400m runners Rajiv Arokia and M R Poovamma grabbed a bronze each in the men's and women's 400m respectively while Manju Bala secured a bronze in women's hammer throw to add to the growing medal tally from track and field events.
Minerva Punjab FC will take on Indian Super League side Jamshedpur FC on April 2 in the inaugural Super Cup football tournament which begins in Bhubaneswar on March 31.
A picture of a Socceroos fan holding up a sign saying, "Give us a public holiday", was widely shared on social media.
Chinese Super League clubs started to return to training on Monday, two months after the league's originally scheduled start date of February 22 but still some time before the new season is likely to begin. While mid-April was previously touted as a possible date for the CSL's return, the positive test returned at the weekend by former Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini may well have pushed that back.
When Russia and Saudi Arabia meet on Thursday form will be irrelevant as the world's biggest sporting festival explodes into life in Moscow.
While the venue for the senior national team is fixed, a lot also depends on the state governments as far as organising the camps for the U-16 outfit and U-17 women's side are are concerned.
European powerhouse France rallied from a goal down to hand a 5-1 drubbing on Honduras and qualify for the knockout stage as group toppers in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Guwahati.
But how much has the national team actually improved?
Goa on Saturday joined Kochi and Navi Mumbai as one of the venues to host next year's FIFA U-17 World Cup after it received the green signal from a high-level delegation of football's world body. A 13-member FIFA delegation alongwith the Local Organising Committee (LOC) today made an inspection to ascertain the readiness of Goa to host matches and training sessions at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2017. Following the visit, LOC and FIFA experts expressed their satisfaction with the work which has been put in at the venue and ratified Goa as the third venue to host the event after Kochi and Navi Mumbai.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
71-year-old Sven-Goran Eriksson won 18 trophies with various clubs in Sweden, Portugal and Italy, between 1979 and 2000, and became the first manager to win league-and-cup doubles in three countries.
Afghanistan registered a thumping 202 runs victory over New Zealand to move into the Super League semi-finals of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in Christchurch on Thursday.
Indian U-17 team's performance was more of hype than actual achievement on the field.
Competing in his first Olympics, Chopra took just a few seconds to make to the final round, to be held on Saturday, sending the spear well past the qualifying mark of 83.50 metres during the Group A qualifications.
India's Shiva Keshavan registered a respectable 25th place finish on his maiden entry into the Luge World Cup finals at the Olympic Sliding Center in Lake Placid in New York, on Saturday.
