News Briefs: February 2009

Rich Haul for India in Special Olympics
The Indian contingent has returned a rich haul of seven gold, eight silver and two bronze medals at the Special Olympics World Winter Games, held from February 7-13, in Idaho, USA. The medal winners are -
Gold: Megha (3 golds in Alpine Skiing - Novice Giant Slalom, Novice Slalom, Novice Super), Pinky Sunil (Snow Shoeing-25m Race), Paras Bhatia (Snow Boarding-Glide), Ninad Prabhakar (Snow Boarding-Glide) and Men's Floor Hockey.
Silver: Jewan Mishra (Alpine Skiing-Novice Slalom); Shaivender Singh (2 silver in Alpine Skiing - Novice Giant Slalom and Novice Super), Ruchika Shah (Snow Shoeing-25m Race), Rizwan (Snow Shoeing-25m Race); Brijesh (Snow Boarding-Glide), Kaushal Manek (Snow Boarding-Glide) and Women's Floor Hockey.
Bronze: Reena (Alpine Skiing-Novice Giant Slalom) and Rajender Kumar(Snow Boarding-Glide).

Leander & partner succumb at last hurdle
Leander Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy ended runner-up at the ABN Amro World Series Tournament at Rotterdam. The second seeded pair was beaten by Daniel Nestor / Nenad Zimonjic in the final. Hereunder are complete details -
1st rd: beat Christopher Kas / Philip Kohlschreiber (Germany) 7-6, 5-7, 10-3
2nd rd: beat Igor Andreev (Russia) / Marcin Matkowski (Poland) 6-2, 7-6
SF: beat Julien Knowle (Austria) / Andy Ram (Israel) 6-2, 7-6
Final: lost to Daniel Nestor (Canada) / Nenad Zimonjic(Serbia) 2-6, 5-7

Randhawa finishes joint second
Golfer Jyoti Randhawa settled for the joint second place at the Maybank Malaysian Open Golf tournament in Kuala Lumpur recently. He finished the course with 16-under 272 with three other golfers - Prayad Marksaeng, David Horsey and Miles Tunnicliff . Anthony Kang of USA won the title with a score of 17-under 271.

Bopanna makes dent in the doubles

Rohan Bopanna is also emerging as a good doubles player at the ATP Circuit. Last year he achieved some encouraging success in the circuit and this year he is all set to garner more glory for himself and the country. He and his new partner Jarkko Nieminen of Finland has developed a good understanding between them and started scalping big guns of the Circuit. Their biggest success came in the SAP Open, at San Jose, USA when they outwitted world number one Mike and Bob Bryan of USA in the second round. In the next round they again got the better of another seeded pair and made it to the final. Though they lost in the final but their performance set the ball rolling for them as a pair. Below is their performance card in the SAP tournament -

1st round: beat Rajeev Ram / Bobby Reynolds (USA) 6-2, 6-4
2nd round: beat (1) Bob Bryan / Mike Bryan (USA) 6-4, 4-6, 10-5
SF: beat (4) Stephen Huss (Austria) / Ross Hutchins (GB) 3-6, 7-6, 10-5
Final: lost to Tommy Hoss (Germany) / Rodek Stepanek (Czech) 2-6, 3-6

Sania's comeback effort

After a lean last year, Sania Mirza now looks more focused and determined to make her presence felt in the women's singles circuit. She has given an indication of her efforts when she brushed aside two seeded players and stormed into the final of PTT Pattaya Open tournament, played in the Pattaya City in Thailand from February 9 to 15. However she couldn't win the title but the way she played in the tournament promised for a good season ahead. First she scalped 4th seed Tamarine Tanasugarn in the 3rd round and then Magdalena Rybrikova, the 8th seed, in the semi final before going down to top seed Vera Zvonareva in the final. Hereunder is the sum-up of her performance in the tournament -

1st round: beat Nicha Lertpitaksinchal (Thailand) 7-6, 7-5
2ns round: beat Vitalia Diatchenko (Russia) 6-4, 6-0
QF: beat (4) Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) 7-5, 6-4
SF: beat (8) Magdalena Rybrikova (Slovakia) 6-4, 5-7, 6-1
Final: lost to (1) Vera Zvonareva (Russia) 5-7, 1-6

An International Boxer found guilty for doping
Manjit Singh, a bronze medallist in Commonwealth Boxing Championship in Liverpool in 2007, has been suspended by Indian Boxing Federation for two years after failing a dope test. He was tested positive for a banned steroid at a National camp in April last year and the IBF asked him to return the silver medal he won at the National Championship.

Lackluster performance in Federation Cup
Sania Mirza's absence in the Federation Cup Tennis tournament felt badly as Indian team relegated to Group II of the Asia-Oceania Zone after their lackluster performance in the competition. Indians didn't win a tie during the group phase of the Asia / Oceania Zone Group I tournament, held in Perth, Australia from February 4-7, 2009. Rushmi Chakravarthi and Bhambri sisters - Ankita & Sana, represented India in the competition.
India competed in Group I along with Australia, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Korea, New Zealand, Thailand and Uzbekistan. India was drawn in Group A along with Indonesia, New Zealand and Uzbekistan for the league phase. India lost all her three ties in the league phase and again went down to Taipei in the relegation play-off.

West Zone wins Duleep Trophy
West Zone lifted their 17th Duleep Trophy title defeating South Zone by an overwhelming margin of 274 runs in the five-day final held in Chennai from February 5-9, 2009. West Zone's off-spinner Ramesh Powar claimed 10 wickets for 187 runs in the match. The brief scorecard is as below -
West Zone: 459 all out (A Rahane 165, B Thaker 73, W Jaffer 69; S Sreesanth 3/108) and 417-8 dec. (P Patel 131, A Rahane 98, R Pawar 50*; S Sreesanth 2/59)
South Zone: 199 all out (S Badrinath 100*; R Powar 3/47, R Pawar 3/73) and 403 all out (R Uthappa 94, Murali Vijay 63, S Badrinath 59, Dinesh Karthik 75; R Powar 7/140)

CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award for Gundappa Viswanath

The President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Mr Shashank Manohar presented the annual awards for 2007-08 season at an Award function held in Mumbai on February 18.
The elegant batsman GR Viswanath who was chosen for Col. CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award, was given a trophy, citation and a cheque of Rs 15 lakh. Virender Sehwag was presented the Polly Umrigar Trophy for outstanding performance in international cricket.
The BCCI also presented special awards to Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award and Padma Shri), Harbhajan Singh (300 Test wickets and Padma Shri) and Maharashtra Cricket Association (best overall performance in the 2007-08 season). Hereunder are other award winners -

Madhavrao Scindia Award for best domestic batsman (1 lakh): Cheteshwar Pujara (Saurashtra)
Madhavrao Scindia Award for best domestic bowler (1 lakh): Sudeep Tyagi (UP)
MA Chidambaram Trophy for best U-15 cricketer (Rs. 50,000): Ankit Bawne (Maharashtra)
MA Chidambaram Trophy for best U-17 cricketer (Rs. 50,000): Mandeep Singh (Punjab)
MA Chidambaram Trophy for best U-19 cricketer (Rs. 50,000): Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (UP)
MA Chidambaram Trophy for best U-22 cricketer (Rs. 50,000): Rahul Dewan (Delhi)
MA Chidambaram Trophy for best woman cricketer (Rs. 50,000): Mithali Raj (Railways)
MA Chidambaram Trophy for best junior woman cricketer (Rs. 50,000): MD Thirushkamini (Tamil Nadu)