1. PV Sindhu wins Gold at Korea Open Superseries Competition.
PV Sindhu became the first Indian badminton player to lift the title in Korea after she beat Nozomi Okuhara in the women’s singles final at Korea Open Superseries in Seoul on Sunday. This was her third Super Series title and second this year. In a rematch of the World Championships final which was won by Okuhara, Sindhu avenged her loss from Glasgow and won the Korea Open Superseries final 22-20 11-21 21-18 and claimed the title.
Sindhu and Okuhara played a neck-to-neck first game before the Japanese dominated the second game. Sindhu and Okuhara were once again playing a tense third game before Sindhu began edging ahead. Okuhara tried making a comeback late in the third game but Sindhu held fort.
The Indian defended Okuhara’s smashes and came up with her own powerful shots to keep a slender lead. Okuhara saved one match point before surrendering the game 21-18 and eventually the title.
Ajay Jayaram was the first Indian to reach the final of Korea Open in 2015 and Sindhu became the second one but went one step ahead of Jayaram by winning the title. Sindhu began the match with net play and Okuhara looked a little uncomfortable. The Indian took a small lead but as the game progressed, Okuhara was looking more confident. At the break in first game, Okuhara led 11-9 after a strong net game.
Sindhu, who had relied on down the line smashes and then net drop shots, changed it to long cross-court shots. She was trailing afte the break but quickly levelled up things. It was a point-by-point tussle between the two as it went neck-to-neck till 17-17. Sindhu then faultered by committed unforced errors and Okuhara had two game points when a shot went wide. The Japanese could hav claimed the game but Sindhu, with some luck, saved both match points before taking the game 22-20.
The match took a different shape in the second game. Okuhara stepped up her net game by returning Sindhu’s drop shots. Her returns were quicker from the net which disturbed Sindhu’s plans. Okuhara’s stunning net play forced the players to not get involved in long rallies and Sindhu took time to adjust to this change. Okuhara led 11-6 at the break. But, it was no different story as Sindhu kept falling behind. She looked tired as Okuhara continued to make her cover every part of the court. The number of unforced errors increased and Okuhara ran away woth the game.
2. India win four medals in Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games.
Indian opened its medal account in style by grabbing one gold, two silver and one bronze through track and field athletes on the third day of fifth Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, in Ashgabat on Monday.
Purnima Hembram bagged the lone gold in the women’s pentathlon event as she collected aggregate 4062 points from five events.
Tejinder Pal Singh Toor and Sanjivani Jadhav won a silver medal each in men’s shot put and women’s 3000m respectivley while Neena Varakil took a bronze in women’s long jump.
Tejinder sent the iron ball to a best distance of 19.26m which he came up in his third attempt to bag the silver. Ivan Ivanov of Kazakhstan won the gold with a Games Record throw of 19.60m.
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Sanjivani, on the other hand, clocked 9 minutes 26.34 seconds to win the silver in women’s 3000m race. Mohammed Alia Mohammed of United Arab Emirates won the gold with a time of 9:25.03s.
In women’s long jump, Neena took the bronze with a modest leapt of 6.04m. Olga Rypakova of Kazakhstan and Thi Thu Thao Bui of Vietnam won the gold and silver respectively with efforts of 6.43m and 6.36m.
With the four medals won today, India is now at 11th spot in the medals tally, which is led by hosts Turkmenistan (26 gold, 21 silver, 12 bronze).
India is being represented by 203 athletes in 15 sports disciplines in the Games, touted as the second biggest multi-sporting event of the continent after the Asiad.
3. BCCI nominates MS Dhoni for Padma Bhushan award.
The Indian cricket board has nominated Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the country`s third highest civilian award -- the Padma Bhushan -- for his contribution to the game.
A senior BCCI official confirmed that the Board has only sent one name for the Padma awards this year and it was a unanimous decision to nominate India`s most successful captain.
"Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been nominated by the BCCI for the Padma Bhushan award. It was a unanimous decision by the members. He has been one of the greatest names in contemporary cricket and the most appropriate choice of the Indian cricket board," BCCI acting president CK Khanna told PTI on Wednesday.
Dhoni`s credentials are impeccable and as the only Indian captain with two World titles (2011 50-over World Cup and 2007 World T20), the BCCI did not have to ponder over likely names.
"He is one of our greatest ODI cricketer with nearly 10,000 runs in ODIs. Not many players have played 90 Test matches. There is no one better than him, who could have been nominated," Khanna added.
The BCCI has not sent any other nominations for the Padma awards this year. The 36-year-old has scored 9737 runs in 302 ODIs besides 4876 runs in 90 Test matches. He has also played 78 T20 Internationals, notching up 1212 runs.
He has 16 international hundreds (6 in Tests and 10 in ODIs) along with 100 international half-centuries.
As a wicketkeeper, Dhoni has held 584 catches across formats (256 in Tests, 285 in ODIs and 43 in T20 Internationals). He has also effected 163 stumpings.
4. India announced first ever 21 member squad for the FIFA Under 17 World Cup.
India’s U-17 World Cup 21-man squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 was announced on Thursday.
India are in Group A alongside USA, Colombia and Ghana and are definite underdogs going into what will be their first-ever participation in a FIFA?tournament. However, coach Luis Norton de Matos believes the side are equipped to deal with the challenge.
“We believe that we are prepared for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. We have worked hard and made progress, but at the same time we go directly to a high level competition against some of the best teams in the world,” said de Matos.
“We will fight to win each match even if there is only five percent chance of winning. We will not give up and nothing is impossible in football. We plan to show the world that we are on the same page as them”, he added.
In order to prepare for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017 in India, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) organised tours for the India U-17s wherein the side faced Macedonia, Serbia and Benfica amongst others.
They also took part in a four-nation tournament in Mexico where they lost against Mexico and Colombia, but held Chile to a 1-1 draw despite being reduced to ten-man.
“Against Chile and Macedonia we registered good results but the FIFA U-17 World Cup will be a competition and competitions are different from friendly matches”, Matos informed.
“However, the level of the players is very high and we plan to give it our all once the FIFA U-17 World Cup kicks-off”, Matos quipped.
The 21 man squad is as follows:
GOALKEEPERS: Dheeraj Singh, Prabhsukhan Gill, Sunny Dhaliwal
DEFENDERS: Boris Singh, Jitendra Singh, Anwar Ali, Sanjeev Stalin, Hendry Antonay, Namit Deshpande
MIDFIELDERS: Suresh Singh, Ninthoinganba Meetei, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Abhijit Sarkar, Komal Thatal, Lalengmawia, Jeakson Singh, Nongdamba Naorem, Rahul Kannoly Praveen, Md. Shahjahan
FORWARDS: Rahim Ali, Aniket Jadhav
India will take on USA in their first group game on October 6th at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.