Date:10/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/10/stories/2008081055711500.htm

Sport - Sports : General

Four players, including Thej, share the lead

HUBLI: Four players including Grandmaster norm holder M.S. Thej Kumar of South Western Railway shared the top position by securing 4.5 points after the fifth round in the individual matches of the 21st all-India Railway chess championship here on Saturday.

Points tally (after fifth round): M.S. Thej Kumar (SWR), A. Shankar (SR), Mari Arul S. (SR), Vikas Sharma Punjab (NR) — 4.5 points; Arjun Tiwari (WR), Soumyaranjan Mishra (CR), Laltu Chattarjee (ER), Arindam Mukherjee (ER), B. Ramana Babu (ECoR), B.T. Murali Krishna (SR) — 4; Prakash Ram (NR), Abhishek Das (SWR), J. Venkata Ramana (SCR), Shashikant Kutwal (WR), Amardeep S. Bartakke (WR), K. Gunasekaran (ICF), Syed Anwar Shazuli (ICF), Pradip Ghosh (ER), Manish Joshi (WR), Jagjit Singh (CLW) — 3.5; T.J. Sureshkaur (ICF), Gurpreet Singh Pal (NR), Aravinder Preet Singh (NR), Ashley Das (WCR), C. Nataraj (ICF), Amit Kumar Medda (SER), S.C. Subramaniam (SR), Pankaj Joshi (WR) — 3.

Venkatesh advances

K.Y. Venkatesh downed fellow Karnataka player G.H. Tulasidhar 21-6, 21-7 to progress in the dwarfs category of the seventh senior and junior National badminton championship for the physically challenged in Bangalore.

The results: Dwarfs category: K.Y. Venkatesh (Kar) bt G.H. Tulasidhar (Kar) 21-6, 21-7; C.V. Rajanna (Kar) bt N.T. Prakash (Kar) 21-9, 21-7; Santosh Kumar Mishra (Bih) bt N.T. Prakash 21-11, 21-11.

Standing lower below waist (STL–1): Pramod Bhagat (Ori) bt Sanjeev Kumar 21-6, 21-11; Nurul Hussain Khan (Ori) bt Sunil (Har) 21-13, 21-18; K. Gopinath (Kar) bt Prem Kumar (U’chal) 21-8, 21-8; Himagiri Yernagula (AP) bt Ranjeet P. Gohil 21-4,21-9; Siddana S. Sahukar (Kar) bt Sahayian Bulbul (WB) 21-6, 21-9; Himagiri Yernagula (AP) bt Siddhana S. Sahukar(Kar) 21-15, 19-21, 21-14.

Standing lower below waist (STL–): Amarendra Behera (Ori) bt T. Elan Chelian (TN) 21-6, 21-11; A. Sreekanth Reddy (AP) bt Surjeet Singh (Kar) 21-9, 21-10; M.B. Ananth Kumar (TN) bt M. Laksmaiam (AP) 21-11, 21-9; S. Raghuram (AP) bt Divesh Kumar Pathak (Bih) 21-7, 21-8.

Standing lower below waist (STL–3): B. Anand Kumar (Kar) bt Sunil (Har) 21-7, 21-6; Vijay Rao Sindhe (Kar) bt Bikram Keshari Dalai 21-12, 21-19; A. Keshav Reddy (AP) bt Md. Azeem Khan 21-18, 21-12; Narendra Kumar (Kar) bt P. Somashekar 21-5, 21-6.

SJIHS in final

St. Josephs Indian High School (SJIHS) defeated Bishop Cottons 4-0 in a T. Shanmugham Memorial hockey tournament semifinal in Bangalore on Saturday.

The final will be played on Monday.

The results (semifinals): SJIHS 4 (Roshan, Ameen, K.P. Somanna, Ajay) bt Bishop Cottons 0; ASC Boys 2 (Pavan, Srikanth) bt St. Germain’s HS 1 (Karthik).

South wins title

South Zone defeated Central Zone 2-1 in the final of the SAI inter-region hockey tournament in Bangalore on Saturday.

The results: final: South 2 (Nilesh, Nithin Thimmaiah) bt Central 1 (Janardhan Gupta). Third-place play-off: ABSC 2 (Uday Bara, Chandan Aind) bt East 1 (Gaindra Tigga).

Football selection camp

The Karnataka State Football Association will conduct a selection camp for under-16 boys to select the state team for the 31st Sub junior national football championship to be held at Mahilpur (Punjab). Eligible players should report with valid certificates at the Bangalore Football stadium at 7.30 a.m. on August 11.