Sport - Football

Tiruchi has a cakewalk

TIRUCHI: Tiruchi blanked Ramanathapuram 5-0 to enter the pre-quarterfinals of the State youth football championship for the A.G. Subbaraman Trophy here on Saturday.

Tiruchi took an early lead with Devarajan scoring in the third minute. Tiruchi players Hari Shanmugasundaram and Vinoth made full use of their opponent’s weak defence and scored in quick succession to put Tiruchi 3-0 up by half-time.

The host continued its dominance in the second half, Mohammed Habib and Selva Kumar netting a goal each.

The results: First round: Tiruchi 5 (Devarajan, Hari Shanmugasundaram, Vinoth, Mohammed Habib, Selva Kumar) bt Ramanathapuram 0; Pudukottai 4 (Ilavarasan 2, Rajapandi 1, Kumaran 1) bt Theni 0; Erode bt Villupuram 5-4 (penalty shootout).

The host Periyar University crushed Kurukshetra 5-0 and entered the semifinals of the all-India inter-university women’s football tournament in Salem on Saturday.

Other results: Madurai Kamaraj 1 drew with GNDU (Amritsar) 1; TNPESU 0 drew with Punjab 0.

Madurai’s Dusthageer Ibrahhim went into sole lead with eight points after the eighth round of the all-India FIDE-rated Open chess tournament at the Adithya Institute of Technology in Coimbatore on Saturday.