Page 30 - Sports

Max wins Dutch GP to equal Vettel's F1 record with 9th straight victory

Runaway Formula One leader Max Verstappen won a rain-marred Dutch Grand Prix on Sunday to equal Sebastian Vettel's F1 record of nine straight victories. The Red Bull star clinched his third straight victory from pole position at the Zandvoort track, with veteran Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso finishing second and picking up a bonus point for the fastest lap. Alpine driver Pierre Gasly crossed the line in fourth place behind Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, but the Frenchman moved up to third because Perez was given a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The chaotic race was held up for 40-minutes by a late red flag after Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu crashed. It restarted with a rolling start on Lap 65 of 72, in a race that featured multiple tire swaps as changing weather conditions played havoc with strategy calls. The race restarted with Verstappen ahead of Alonso, Perez and Gasly. After two laps behind the safety car, Verstappen comfortably pulled away for his 11th win

5 years later, Punjab govt to give cash awards to over 1,800 sportspersons

The Punjab government will give away cash awards to 1,807 sportspersons who have been waiting for it for more than five years, an official statement said on Sunday. The state's sports department has prepared a list of these medal winners who have been deprived of cash prize money since 2017, it said. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will facilitate 1,807 sportspersons with a total prize money of Rs 5.94 crore at the opening ceremony of the second season of 'Khedan Watan Punjab Diyan' at Bathinda on August 29. Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer said it came to the notice of the Punjab government that there were many sportspersons in the state, who despite winning medals, did not receive cash prize money for the last five years. Mann directed the sports department to prepare a list of these sportspersons and give them their due rewards. The sports department prepared the list of players from the year 2017 till now, whose total prize money was Rs 5.94 crore. These players brought

PM Modi hails relay team for qualifying into World Championship finals

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed the Indian men's 4x400m relay team that shattered the Asian record to qualify for its maiden final round of the World Championships and said this was truly historic for Indian athletics. The Indian men's 4x400m relay team shattered the Asian record in a stunning race, clocking 2 minutes and 59.05 seconds, to qualify for its maiden final round of the World Championships in Budapest on Saturday. The Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh finished second in heat number one behind the USA (2:58.47) to make it to the final. In a post on X, Modi said, "Incredible teamwork at the World Athletics Championships! Anas, Amoj, Rajesh Ramesh and Muhammed Ajmal sprinted into the finals, setting a new Asian Record in the M 4X400m Relay." "This will be remembered as a triumphant comeback, truly historical for Indian athletics," he said. The top three finishers in each of the two heats and the n

India should shine in world of sports, providing encouragement for that: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said India should shine in the world of sports for which he has been providing encouragement, but it should particularly do well in hockey, football, kabaddi and kho-kho as these are games rooted in its land. In his monthly radio broadcast 'Mann Ki Baat', Modi said sports is one area where the country's youth is continuously achieving new successes. India displayed its best-ever performance in the World University Games held in China, he said, noting that this time "our players won 26 medals in all, out of which 11 were gold medals." Since 1959, the total number of medals was only 18, he said. During the broadcast, Modi also interacted with some young sportspersons who won medals at the World University Games. He spoke to Pragati, a resident of Uttar Pradesh who won a medal in Archery; Amlan, a resident of Assam who won a medal in Athletics; Priyanka, a resident of Uttar Pradesh who won a medal in Race Walk; and Abhidanya, a resident of ...

Men's 4x400m relay: India breaks Asian record, qualifies for Worlds final

The Indian men's 4x400m relay team shattered Asian record, clocking 2 minute 59.05 seconds to qualify for its maiden final round of the World Championships here on Saturday. The Indian quartet of Muhammed Anas Yahiya, Amoj Jacob, Muhammed Ajmal Variyathodi and Rajesh Ramesh ran a stunning race to finish second in heat number one behind USA (2:58.47) to make it to the final to be held on Sunday. The earlier Asian record of 2:59.51 was in the name of Japanese team. The top three finishers in each of the two heats and the next two fastest qualify for the final.

Prannoy bags maiden bronze at World Championships after losing in semis

HS Prannoy's dream run at the World Championships ended after he lost in three games to world number 3 Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in the men's singles semifinal to sign off with a bronze, extending India's record of having at least one medallist in the showpiece since 2011. The 31-year-old Prannoy squandered an opening game advantage and a 5-1 lead in the second as Vitidsarn, a three-time former world junior champion, dished out better defence and attack to win 18-21 21-13 21-14 and seal a second successive final spot. Notwithstanding the loss, it was a brilliant achievement for Prannoy as he became only the fifth Indian men's singles player to win a World Championships medal. Kidambi Srikanth (silver), Lakshya Sen (bronze), B Sai Praneeth (bronze) and Prakash Padukone (bronze) are the other medallists in men's singles. Two-time Olympic medallist PV Sindhu won five singles medals, including a gold in 2019, and Saina Nehwal (silver and bronze) claimed two, while the women's doub

Opening day rush: World Cup tickets app and website crashes for 40 minutes

The much-delayed sale of tickets for the ODI World Cup began on Friday but fans had a tough time booking them with the official website not working for a good 35 to 40 minutes. The opening day of ticket sales was reserved for non-India matches, including the warm-ups. However, the process stared at 8 pm local time and soon after fans complained of the 'Bookmyshow' application crashing amid a mad rush to book the tickets. 'Bookmyshow' is the ticketing partner for the World Cup beginning October 5. "This is really frustrating - after such a delayed announcement of ticket sales, if the basic systems infrastructure is not in place, it speaks very poorly of the mighty BCCI and ICC. Events like these are organised world over and systems like lotteries and ticket queues are common. Why are those not in pace for such a large event," Delhi-based fan Atirav Kapur told PTI on Friday. Half hour into the ticket sales, the website started working but by then a chunk of the fans had lost their ..

Infosys announces women tennis top seed Swiatek as global brand ambassador

Infosys said that it will now work closely with Swiatek's team to build an advanced data analytics and video dashboard by leveraging artificial intelligence

I think people will start to notice Indian chess: R Praggnanandhaa

Humble to the core, teen sensation R Praggnanandhaa was far from realising the enormity of his achievement in the FIDE World Cup but reckoned his incredible run could force people to "start noticing" Indian chess. It needed the sheer brilliance of Magnus Carlsen to stop the 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa's march as he finished second best after losing in the final on Thursday. "I feel very good to be in the finals, today I didn't win, but it's normal in chess," Praggnanandhaa told PTI from Baku hours after he finished runner-up. "No, not yet, but I guess it will at some point," he said with a smile when asked if he understood the magnitude of his feat. Praggnanandhaa put up a valiant effort in the final and held world No. 1 and five-time world champion Carlsen to a draw in the two classical games before going down in the tie-break. As he shook hands with the Norwegian GM, Praggnanandhaa was surrounded by a group of children asking for his autograph. "I think it's good for the game an

Indian chess is having a moment. Pragganandhaa in World Cup final is proof

India now has 83 Chess Grandmasters, and going by the peerless Viswanathan Anand's reckoning, this generation will dominate for a decade or two

Cricketers laud Praggnanandhaa on runners-up finish in Chess World Cup

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen defeated India's grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa to clinch the title of International Chess Federation World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan on Thursday

Infosys ropes in Rafael Nadal as ambassador, match analysis tool in works

IT services company Infosys on Thursday announced a three-year partnership with Rafael Nadal, onboarding the global tennis star as ambassador for the brand and Infosys' Digital Innovation. To mark Nadal's first-ever collaboration with a digital services company, Infosys and Nadal's coaching team are developing an AI-powered match analysis tool, the Bengaluru-headquartered company said in a release. This personalised tool will be available in real time to Nadal's coaching team to simultaneously track insights from his live matches, when he is back on tour, along with historical data from his earlier matches. The company release announced the partnership, saying "Infosys onboards tennis icon Rafael Nadal as ambassador for the brand and Infosys' Digital Innovation." According to Infosys, Nadal is a perfect embodiment of what it takes individuals or business leaders to evolve and continually navigate their next. Globally acknowledged as one of the legends in sports, he also has had t

A monumental triumph: PM Modi lauds U-20 World Championships medalists

Reigning Junior World Champion Antim Panghal defeated Ukraine's Mariia Yefremova 4-0 to win a gold medal in the women's 53kg weight category

Indian air pistol team clinches first bronze in World Championship

The Indian men's 10m air pistol team, comprising Shiva Narwal, Sarabjot Singh and Arjun Singh Cheema won the country its first medal -- a bronze -- in the ISSF World Championship, which got underway here on Thursday. Their aggregate score of 1,734 was nine points adrift of Germany, who clinched the silver medal. China took the gold medal in the event. Narwal shot 579, Sarabjot 578 and Cheema 577 to aggregate 1,734 points. The World Championship also serves as the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification tournament. The Chinese team of Zhang Bowen (587), Liu Junhui (582) and Xie Yu (580) took the top podium with an aggregate of 1749 points, while the German team, comprising Robin Walter (586), Michael Schwald (581) and Paul Froehlich (576) bagged the silver medal with an aggregate score of 1743. However, none of the three Indian shooters could make the eight-player final and are not in contention for individual medals.

Difficult to focus on wrestling when sports' future is at stake: Bajrang

After calling off the protest, we wanted to give 100 per cent to training, but how is that possible when we got to know Brijbhushan's people could run the federation again, says Bajrang Punia

Tennis: Novak Djokovic wins first singles match in the US since 2021

Novak Djokovic had a short night in his first singles match in the U.S. since 2021, beating Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Wednesday in the Western and Southern Open after the Spaniard retired early in the second set with a lower back injury. The second-ranked Djokovic won the first set 6-4, then two points into the second set, Davidovich Fokina hunched over in pain following his return and ended the match after 46 minutes. "Kind of a mixed emotions tonight," Djokovic said. "Really like Alejandro. Get along really well off the court. We train with each other while in Spain. He told me he has a lower back issue that appeared yesterday. It's unfortunate." Djokovic, 36, lost in doubles on Tuesday in his return to the country after missing events because of COVID-19 vaccine restrictions. It's his first appearance in Cincinnati since 2019. The 2020 Western & Southern Open was played in New York due to COVID-19. It was Djokovic's first singles match since losing to Carlos Alcaraz in the

US Open 2023: Marin Cilic, Denis Shapovalov out due to knee injuries

Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, and Denis Shapovalov will miss the tournament this year because of knee injuries. Cilic used his title in Flushing Meadows and runner-up finishes at Wimbledon in 2017 and the Australian Open in 2018 to reach as high as No. 3 in the ranking. But the Croatian has fallen to No. 121 this week after playing in just two matches none in Grand Slam tournaments this year. Shapovalov hasn't played since a fourth-round loss at Wimbledon to Roman Safiullin on July 9. He had reached the semifinals there two years earlier for his best Grand Slam result. The Canadian wrote in a social media post Wednesday that he had done everything possible to be healthy for the Aug. 28 start of play but that his knee needed more time. "That grand slam energy, especially in NYC, is unlike anything else and I'm really going to miss playing in front of the amazing fans there this year!" he added, along with an emoji of a broken heart. Shapovalov's best U.S. Open finish

Manchester City win UEFA Super Cup, beat Sevilla in a penalty shootout

Manchester City marked its first appearance in the UEFA Super Cup by beating Sevilla 5-4 in a penalty shootout on Wednesday to add another piece of silverware to its vast haul under manager Pep Guardiola. After a 1-1 draw in regulation time and then nine successful spot kicks in the shootout, Nemanja Gudelj struck his attempt against the crossbar to hand City victory inside Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis. It was a 15th trophy won by City in Guardiola's reign that started in 2016 and made up for the loss to Arsenal in a penalty shootout in the Community Shield 10 days ago. "The manager made it so clear to us before the game how much he wants to win this trophy," City midfielder Jack Grealish said about the annual match between last season's winners of the Champions League (City) and Europa League (Sevilla). "You want to win everything anyway but that gave us more of an urge. This club has never won it. It's a brilliant feeling. Youssef En-Nesyri's towering header gave Sevilla the lead

Cabinet approves MoU on Cooperation in sports between India and Australia

The arrangement is aimed at providing reciprocal benefits to accredited and trusted exporters of both the signatories in the clearance of goods by the Customs authorities of the importing country

Selection for int'l events responsibility of sports federations: IOA to HC

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on Wednesday told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that the selection of sportspersons for participation in major international events is the responsibility of national sports federations. The IOA was responding to a petition filed by three boxers over they not being selected for the upcoming Asian Games in China's Hangzhou. Pugilists Amit Panghal, a World Boxing Championship silver medallist, Rohit Mor and Sagar Ahlawat had moved the high court last month against the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) and others after they were left out of the Indian squad for the Asian Games to be held from September 23 to October 8. They had petitioned against the BFI's evaluation process for the selection of the Asian Games squad. The petitioners had alleged that the BFI had changed the selection criteria for national coaching camps, world championships and Asian Games in violation of the National Sports Development Code of India (NSCI)-2011. The petitioners