Archives for 2018

The fourth leg of the 3×3 Basketball League (3BL) will be held here on July 21 and 22.

The fourth leg will see the addition of Canada’s Bikramjit Gill, joining the Indian and international basketball players in 3BL including Leandro Souza de Lima, Inderbir Singh Gill and Kiran Shastri who will be putting on their best show.

The Chennai round will witness a very tough and intriguing competition between Delhi Hoopers and Ahmedabad Wingers, the top two teams post the third round.

Mumbai Hustlers and Chennai Icons will also come strong in the second half of the league to possibly secure a top rank position.

The fourth round could be a game changer for Chennai Icons as well as for Mumbai Hustlers.

Junior shuttlers drew mixed response for India on the opening day of the Asia Junior Badminton Championships here on Wednesday.

In the men’s singles affair, Kiran George, 16th seeded, survived narrowly in the first game before hammering his Malaysian opponent Chong King Lingin in the second game to register a 24-22, 21-16 victory.

However, in another men’s singles match, Aman Farogh Sanjay went down against tenth seed Indonesian, Karono Karono 16-21, 21-16, 17-21 after putting up a good fight.

But what had overshadowed other Indian wins was the men’s doubles match in which the two Manipuri boys — Manjit Singh and Dingku Singh — put up a wonderful resistance to overcome their Indonesian rivals Muhammad C. Chaniago and Helmi Abu Hanifa 22-20, 23-21.

Earlier in the women singles, Dipti Kutty, Medha Shashidharan and Kavipriya Selvam found easy opponents in their respective matches as the trio moved into the next round.

While India No.7 Dipti defeated Kazakhstan’s Aisha Zhumabek 21-18, 21-13, Medha thrashed Iya Gordeyeva, another shuttler from Kazakh, 21-9, 21-10.

On the other hand, Myanmar’s Seng Jar Nan failed to put up a fight before Kavipriya as she was hammered 5-21, 8-21 by the junior Indian.

In the women’s doubles match, Nafeesah Sara Siraj and Medha succumbed before China’s Guo Lizhi and Yijing Li 9-21, 18-21.

There was however, complete disappointment from the mixed doubles matches as India lost all the three affairs on Wednesday.

The first Indian pair comprising Srikrishna Sai Kumar and Srishti Jupudi failed to maintain their winning momentum as they lost to Indonesia’s Muhammad Juan Elgiffani and Windi Siti Mulyani 21-17, 13-21, 15-21.

In the second match, India’s Orijit Chaliha and Preerthi Konadam lost to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Chieh and Cheng Yu Pei 15-21, 18-21.

Another Chinese Taipei pair — Wu Guan Xun/Teng Chun Hsun — gave India the third jolt as they registered a 21-17, 21-13 win over Edwin Joy and Nafeesah.

Two Indians – a ramp model and a student – are all geared up for an all-women South Pole expedition to be led by a septuagenarian Guinness World Record holder Briton Janice Meek starting end December, the duo said on Wednesday.

Madhabilata Mitra of Kolkata and Tanvi Buch from Mumbai, sitting alongside Meek, beamed with excitement while sharing the details of the expedition, christened “Polar Maidens”, with the media here.

Mitra, a ramp model, and mountaineering instructor seemed awestruck at the opportunity.

“I can’t believe that I am going to the land of igloos, sledges where the days and nights are six months long and I am overwhelmed.”

According to Mitra, an instructor at Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling, anybody can undertake such adventures if he or she has loads of self-belief.

“When our mind and soul guides us even physical pain seems to be nothing.”

Sharing her excitement, 24-year-old Buch said: “This is an unexpected opportunity and I just seized the chance as this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

A third-year student of Natural Resource Conservation in the University of British Columbia, she would be the youngest Indian to ski to the South Pole if she successfully completes it.

Meek, the 74-year-old adventurer, is “proud of herself to show that age is no barrier”. The other members of the five women team are Denise Martin from Canada, Ailene Crean from Ireland and Caroline Geraerts from Britain.

“Being the driest, windiest and coldest place on Earth, South Pole is the Holy Grail of explorers,” said Meek who has skied to the North Pole twice.

Geraerts is a breast cancer survivor and Crean is iconic explorer Tom Crean’s granddaughter.

About the training required for such a dangerous trek, Meek revealed:”If one can be on their feet for long and have a strong core, they can do it. Just eat well, exercise well and be determined.”

The team will train in Scotland in September.

“On December we will fly from South America and after reaching Antarctica we will be taken to a special camp called Union Glacier, and from there we will head for the magnetic pole. We will only leave our footprints and try to make it the greenest expedition,” Meek said.

According to her, once the entire team gets acclimatized, they will begin skiing with the help of their guide and it will take more than 20 days to cover the 140 miles from a safe zone to reach the South Pole.

“The expedition will inspire a whole new generation of women from our country to take more challenges. Tanvi and Madhavi shall be the face of India in global extreme sports from now,” said Ankita Mitra, Director, KolEevent, a city-based event management agency that is associated with ‘Polar Maidens’.

Seven new events will be included in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board has said.

The IOC on Wednesday approved the addition of monobob and freestyle ski big air, as well as dynamic mixed team formats including short track mixed relay, a ski jumping mixed team event, mixed team aerials and a snowboard cross mixed team event, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The additions reflect our continued commitment to making the Olympic Games programs more youthful and gender balanced,” said IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell.

A record number of women athletes are expected to participate in the Games, with the female quota being increased from 41 to 45.44 percent.