Panic struck the Indian camp at the World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan just hours ahead of the official weigh-in and draw on Sunday, as two of its team members found their names missing from the list of registered entries but the confusion was sorted out just in time.
Six Indian men's team players -- skipper Manpreet Singh, striker Mandeep Singh, defenders SurenderKumar, Jaskaran Singh, drag-flicker Varun Kumar and goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak -- have tested positive after reaching Bengaluru for the national camp, scheduled to start on August 20.
'However, this time it looks like that is not working.'
As many as six Indian boxers entered the semi-finals of the 41st Giraldo Crdova Cardin Memorial Boxing Tournament in Havana, Cuba.
India has just 28 Olympic medals to its credit since making a debut back in 1900.
Experienced drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh returned to India's men's hockey team, which also features debutant Jaskaran Singh, for the tour of Australia, starting May 10.
Indian boxers continued to pack a mighty punch at the World Championships, as Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) entered the pre-quarter-finals with contrasting victories in their respective second round bouts, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Friday.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday
A first-round defeat in the Commonwealth Games hit him so badly that Indian boxer Manpreet Singh lost the will to continue before psychatric sessions at NIS Patiala revived his confidence and "guided" him to a silver medal at the just-concluded Asian Games.
The impressive show of the Indian pugilists continued at the Asian Games as Vikas Krishan and Manpreet Singh assured themselves of bronze medals in the men's ring and Preeti Beniwal scored a dominating win on the debut day of women's boxing at the mega sports event in Guangzhou on Sunday.
The mega event begins November 28 and will conclude on December 16 at the city's Kalinga Stadium.
Indian men's hockey team fired in a goal two minutes from the final hooter through Ramandeep Singh to pull off a 3-2 win over France and begin their FIH World League semi-finals campaign on a winning note in Antwerp.
India bounced back in style to beat title holders Australia 3-1 via a shoot-out after both the teams were locked 2-2 at the end of regulation time.
'It is just an excuse to say that the Centre has run out of money.' 'Pruning these schemes would mean hard time for the people of India.'
Varun Kumar converted a penalty corner in the 24th minute to hand India the lead before Simranjeet Singh (55th) scored a diving field goal from skipper Manpreet Singh's brilliant pass to secure full three points for the five-time champions.
With the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games being postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sardar feels the Indian team will get some time to work on its grey areas and unearth new talent.
India's cricket selectors did a volte-face on Thursday when they brought in seniors to replace youngsters for the ODI series in Sri Lanka and Champions Trophy. It was not surprising that Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh made a comeback and making way for them were Robin Uthappa, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Pathan and Manpreet Singh Gony.
A special episode of 10 Ka Dum on Sony Entertainment Television saw the appearance of Laxmi, a eunuch, who came, played and won every heart in the audience.
Goals by Raghunath and Deepak Thakur gave Indian Oil Corporation a 2-0 victory over Indian Airlines in the final.
The Indian team support staff also wore the black arm bands.
Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is among the 20 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna Awards, who will be honoured by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Manpreet Singh punched Kyrgyzstan's Bekzod Turgunov to submission in a 91kg quarter-final bout to join three other Indians in the semi-finals of the Asian Boxing Championships in Bangkok on Wednesday.
India's ace forward SV Sunil and midfielder Manpreet Singh have been ruled out of the upcoming Asian Champions Trophy due to their respective injuries. While Sunil still carries the wrist injury from Rio Olympics during India's encounter against Canada, Manpreet has recently picked up a groin injury. "Manpreet's is a repeated groin injury. Though it is manageable at this stage, it should not become chronic hence we decided to keep him back here for rehabilitation. Sunil and Raghunath (who is recovering from an elbow injury) will also be in SAI while the team is away in Malaysia," confirmed Chief Coach Roelant Oltmans.
India defeated Malaysia 2-1 in the men's hockey Pool A match to make the semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast, on Tuesday. Drag-flick specialist Harmanpreet Singh scored both the goals in a thrilling match.
The court posted the matter for hearing on October 22.
Hockey legend Ashok Kumar reckons India would have won a medal had the Olympics been held this year but the break in momentum will make a big difference now that the Games are pushed to 2021.
India began the opening quarter with a structured attack. It was striker SV Sunil who took the team's first potential shot on goal in the opening minute but was well defended by New Zealand goalkeeper Richard Joyce.
India are now atop the leaderboard with five points from two games, but the Manpreet Singh-led side conceded a point to the Netherlands after drawing (during the regulation time) the second match of the contest on Sunday.
India easily defeated Malaysia in the quarter-finals to make the grade.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Monday.
Defending champions Jaypee Punjab Warriors eked out a close 1-0 win over Ranchi Rays to register the maiden victory at home in the fifth edition of the Hockey India league, in Chandigarh, on Thursday.
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) is planning to have India and Pakistan play their home and away matches in Europe if the arch-rivals face off in the Olympic qualifying tournament for a berth at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
A dominant India hammered arch-rivals Pakistan 5-1 with SV Sunil striking twice in a round-robin league match of the Sultan Azlan Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh on Tuesday. The highlight of the match was four fantastic field goals from India while the other came from a penalty corner conversion. After their scrappy win over Canada in the last match, the Indians rose to the occasion and looked more organised and purposeful against Pakistan. It took India just four minute to take the lead through Manpreet Singh, who scored with a fierce reverse shot from a tight angle after being fed by Sunil. But Pakistan equalised three minutes later when skipper Muhammad Irfan (7th minute) converted the second of their successive penalty corners. India restored their lead in the 10th minute through Sunil, who scored with a deft touch off Manpreet's shot from outside the circle.
"The start has been good. In the tournament, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Argentina and Australia are some of the best teams. We have started off well and need to keep the momentum going and continue with same energy," Sardar said on Thursday.
After remaining unbeaten in their first three matches of the tour, World No.5 India were handed a lesson in hockey by the Kookaburras with Blake Govers (15th, 60th minutes) and Jeremy Hayward (20th, 59th) finding the net twice each.
Mandeep Singh struck twice as a below-par India struggled past minnows Russia 4-2 in the first-leg of the two-match hockey 2020 Olympic Qualifier, in Bhubaneswar, on Friday.
SV Sunil's oodles of experience came in handy as his 59th minute strike enabled India to pip a gritty Wales 4-3 in their second Pool B encounter at the Commonwealth Games, in Gold Coast.
Asian Games champion India quelled the threat of Iran 29-19 to win the second Kabaddi World Cup.
The investigating officer of the Delhi police, in the remand application, had sought custodial interrogation of the accused saying it was required to identify the persons to whom the alleged siphoned off money was transferred and to ascertain the purpose of creating the shell companies.
India defeated China 4-1 in their last pool match to mantain a clean slate going into the quarterfinals of the junior men's Asia Cup hockey tournament, in Kuantan, on Tuesday.