1. Bhaskar Ganguly Appointed AIFF Ombudsman by Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on Saturday stayed the order of the Delhi High Court allowing all AIFF elected committees to function on a regular basis, a release issued by the federation stated. This will effectively allow Praful Patel to continue in his role as the president of the AIFF. The AIFF release stated that Supreme Court also appointed SY Qureshi, former Chief Election Commissioner of India and former India football captain Bhaskar Ganguly as the Ombudsman to formulate the AIFF constitution within eight weeks.
Earlier, the Delhi High Court had set aside the election of AIFF president Praful Patel, who was last year elected as the president for a four-year term, his third successive tenure. The court set aside the elections saying they were held without following the National Sports Code. It also directed that fresh elections be conducted within a period of five months.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Najmi Waziri also appointed former chief election commissioner (CEC) SY Quraishi as an administrator to look into the functioning of the AIFF. The courts’ order came on a plea by advocate Rahul Mehra contending that the elections of the federation were held contrary to the National Sports Code. Patel, former civil aviation minister, was elected for the post in December last year along with the Executive Committee for the term 2017-2020 after the high court had vacated a stay on elections.
2. Leander Paes and Purav Raja won Knoxville Challenger men`s doubles title.
Indian tennis duo of Leander Paes and Purav Raja lifted the Knoxville Challenger title after clinching a fighting win in the finals of the men`s doubles event here last evening.
The top-seeded pair fought hard in two consecutive tie-breakers to defeat the American-Australian duo of James Cerretani and John Patrick Smith 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 in the summit showdown of the USD 75,000 hard-court event at the indoor Goodfriend Tennis Center.
It is Paes and Raja`s first-ever title after joining forces in August this year.
Earlier, Paes won three Challenger-level titles this season pairing with Canadian Adil Shamasdin and American Scott Lipsky.
Raja, before partnering with Paes, had sealed the Bordeaux Challenger title with Divij Sharan besides making it to the summit showdown of the Chennai Open.
3. Shagun Chowdhary crowned National Womens Trap champion at 61st National Shooting Championship.
Shagun Chowdhary today bagged a national champion crown when she won the womens trap event at the 61st National Shooting Championship here.
Representing ONGC, Chowdhary, the first Indian woman trap shooter to win an Olympic berth, overcame the challenge from Punjabs Rajeshwari Kumari to prevail 41-38 in the final. Defending champion Shreyasi Singh, representing Bihar, finished third with a final round score of 29 on day two of the competitions.
The day began with Shreyasi leading the qualification round. She went on to top the list of qualifiers with a score of 72, while Chowdhary, with 67, qualified third and Rakeshwari shot 62 to qualify in fourth place for the six- woman final. N Nivetha of Tamil Nadu, who was also one of the finalists in the senior womens trap, won the Junior Womens title in the same event shooting 37.
She got the better of Shefali Rajak of Madhya Pradesh in a shoot-off after both had ended the final on the same score. Delhis Soumya Gupta came in third with 26 to claim the bronze medal.
Overall, it was a good day for the states of Punjab and Madhya Pradesh as Rajeshwari led a team comprising Sukhreet Kaur and Inaya Vijaya Singh to claim the womens team trap gold, while Madhya Pradesh won medals both in the senior and junior womens team events besides Shefalis individual silver.
In the mens trap event, former world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu continued to lead the qualification field at the end of day two of the competition, shooting 73 out of 75.
Indian internationals -- Zoravar Singh Sandhu and Kynan Chenai -- were also in line for qualification, standing at third and fourth respectively with scores of 71.