Big win for Greenland International School

Patna, July 5, 2011: Greenland International School and Ram Mohun Roy Seminary moved into pre-quarterfinals of the Smriti Cup Gunjar Devi under-17 cricket tournament at the Moinul Haq Stadium here.

Greenland International School crushed Litera Valley School by 10 wickets while and Ram Mohun Roy Seminary thrashed MF Academy by 53 runs.

Pratyush (Greenland) and Priyanshu (RMR Seminary) were declared man of the match in their respective matches.

Brief scores: Litera Valley School: 48 all out in 16.1 overs (Nazis Akhtar-10-, Pratyush-4/9, Aman-3/60). Greenland IS: 49 for no loss in12.5 overs (Sanchit Kiran-17 not out, Vedant-26 not out).

RMR Seminary: 102 all out in 18.4 overs (Priyanshu-15, Raja-41, Shailesh-18, S Ahmad-4/24, Md Washir-2/23, Faizan-2/32). MF Academy-49 all out in 14.4 overs (Sohrab-11, Laxman-3/2, Priyanshu-5/9).

Subham is Bihar U-17 chess champion

Patna, July 3, 2011: Shubham of Bhagalpur clinched the Bihar state U-17 championships title with 5 points at the end of as many rounds at the Moinul Haq Stadium here on Sunday.

Rishi Shankar of Patna got the second position with 4.5 points.

In the girls’ U-17 category Kumari Srishti won the crown with 2.5 points. Aditi, who also earned 2.5 points, was declared runner-up on progressive points.

In the boys’ U-7 section, Harsh Raj of Patna won the title with 3 points while Garima Gaurav of Purnia claimed the girls’ title with 3 points.

SN Singh, assistant manager, Central Bank of India, gave away the prizes. All Bihar Chess Association’s secretary Arvind Kumar Sinha and other office-bearers were present in the closing function.

Shrishti and Aditi share lead in chess

Patna, July 1, 2011: Kumari Shrishti and Aditi Aditya shared the lead with 1.5 points each at the end of the second round of the Bihar state girls’ under-17 chess championship at the Moinul Haq Stadium hall here.

In the boys’ section, five players Nilesh Shankar, Rishi Shankar, Shivam Verma, Shubham and Kumar Gaurav were jointly leading the table with 2 points each after the end of the second round.

Results: Girls’ (after second round): Kumari Shrishti (1.5) drew with Aditi Aditya (1.5); Garima Gaurav (1) bt Shrishti (0).

Boys’ (after second round): Nilesh Shankar (2) bt Vikas Kumar Diwedi (1); Rishi Shankar (2) bt Sonu Kumar (1); Shubham (2) bt Anagmani (1); Kumar Gaurav (2) bt Alok Priyadarshi (1); Shivam Verma (2) bt Saurabh Anand (1); Mithilesh Kumar (1.5) bt Avinash Kumar (0.5); Kumar Sambhav (1) bt Anirvan Choudhary (0); Praveen Kumar (1) bt Amit Kumar (0); Rakesh Raushan (1) bt Amit Kumar Singh (0) and Amaruddin Ansari (1) bt Swetank Raj (0).

Devpriya Jaiswal, Aman Kumar in semifinals

Patna, July 1, 2011: Devpriya Jaiswal and Aman Kumar (both Bihar) and Vishu Prasad (Delhi) moved into the boys’ under-18 singles semifinals of the AITA talent series third leg tournament at the Patliputra Colony courts here.

In the boys’ under-16 singles, Shree Krishna (Bihar), Adarsh Anand (Bihar) and Ayush Joshi (Delhi) occupied their places in the semifinals.

Results: Boys’ under-18 singles (quarterfinals): Devpriya Jaiswal bt Ayush Joshi 6-0, 6-0; Aman Kumar bt Sourabh Raghuvanshi (MP) 6-3, 6-4; Vishu Prasad bt Shree Krishna 6-1, 6-2.

Boys’ under-16 singles (quarterfinals): Shree Krishna bt Siddharth Anand (Delhi) 6-0, 6-1; Ayush Joshi bt Ritwik Bhriguvanshi (Bihar) 6-1, 6-1; Adarsh Anand bt Vivek Kumar (Bihar) 6-1, 6-0.

Rahul, Tarundeep dropped from Indian archery squad

Kolkata, July 12, 2011: The Archery Association of India (AAI) dropped Rahul Banerjee of Railways and Tarundeep Rai of Services from the squad named for the World Cup III and IV due to below par performance in the 46th world archery championship which concluded in Turin Sunday.

In a press release, the secretary general of the AAI, P.N. Mukherjee, said the two would, however, get a chance to appear in the trials for the 17th Asian archery championship in September.

He also said the women’s recurve team, consisting of Deepika Kumari. L. Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro, and Jayanta Talukdar who earned India Olympic quota places, would participate in all international tournament from now onward.

The AAI also released the teams for the World Cup Stage II (Ogden, August 1-6) and Stage IV (Shanghai, September 5-10). Two youngsters, Atanu Das and Prativa Bora, have been included in the squads.

The Indian squad returned from Turin this morning and was given a warm welcome at the SAI, Eastern Centre. Later State sports minister, Madan Mitra, also met the team members and congratulated them for getting India four Olympic quota places.


The contingent:

Recurve men: Jayanta Talukdar (SPSB), Thupuvoyi Swuro (Nagaland), Atanu Das (SPSB) and Vishwas (Services). Women: Deepika Kumari (SPSB), L. Bombayla Devi (Railways), Chekrovolu Swuro (Nagaland) and Prativa Boro (Assam).

Compound men: C. Srither, Ch. Jignas (both Services), Ritul Chatterjee (AP) and Kh. Ratan Singh (Services). Women: Jhano Hansdah (Jharkhand), Gagandeep Kaur (Punjab), Manjudha Soy and Namita Yadav (both Jharkhand).

Arcgery Association of India Press release

Indian recurve women team loses in final, settles for silver

Kolkata, July 10, 2011: The Indian recurve women’s team lost to Italy 207-210 in the final of the world championship at Turin on Sunday. The team, consisting of Deepika Kumari, Chekrovolu Swuro and Laishram Bombayla Devi, had one point lead at half way stage from where the former world champion took charge and won, according to an Archery Association of India Press release.

Maiden entry into the final did weigh heavily on the minds of the Indians. The presence of Deepika Kumari, the reigning world cadet individual champion won in 2009, did not inspire the Indians as the three shot a very poor third end for a score of 50 points out of 60. The Italians turned the table on their rivals with a fine round of 55 that not only neutralized India’s one point lead but gave the team a whooping four-point lead that stood the team well.

The Indians had the best round of 54 in the final end yet the team fell short by three points as the Italians celebrated the world title.

The Indians shooting order was Deepika, Chekrovolu and Bombayla.

Italy won silver at Beijing 2001 and won the world title in 1999 in Riom, France. They had met the Indians seven times before with a small advantage of 4-3 on the head to head clash. The last two encounters were in favour of the Italians, with wins at the Porec 2010 and Shanghai 2009 World Cup. The only positive the Indians carried into the final was their dramatic semifinal victory that dethroned World champion and favourites, Korea.

According to reports received from Turin, the two teams appeared quite nervous on the field. The shots by the six competitors were not as fluent as usual. After the first end, the scores for each team were quite low, 51-50 for the Indians.

The first 10 by Italy was scored at their tenth shot! But with two arrows out of the yellow in the second end, they still trailed by one at the half-way mark (102-103).

After two opening 8s by Guendalina Sartori and Jessica Tomasi to start the third end, the former world champion Natalia Valeeva showed the way to her teammates with a 10. The Italians were back on track with 10-9-10 after that. As their opponents Deepika Kumari/ Chekrovolu Swuro/Bombayla Devi only had a 50-point series at that time, the local team reversed the score to lead by four (157-153).

Tension was at it height in the last end! Before the last three arrows, the Indian team came back to three points and even two points after the Italian Sartori scored an 8. The last but one arrow was a 9 for each team and the gap remained. As the Bombayla finished with another 9 for her team, Valeeva needed an 8 to win. The experienced Italian thudded a 10 to give gold to Italy (210-207)!

Jayanta Talukdar earns India one Olympic quota place

Kolkata, July 8, 2011: India ’s Jayanta Talukdar earned India an Olympic quota place from the men’s individual recurve event of the world archery championship in Turin, according to a Press release of Archery Association of India.

The Indian, who was seeded fifth in the elimination round of the event began his campaign from the third round match against 28th ranked Antti Tekoniemi of Finland and won by six points to four. This victory earned him a quota place.

Talukdar was one of the eight individuals to win a quota place in the men’s section. Earlier, the Indian women’s team also gave India three quota places thus a total of four berths are with India .

Talukdar failed to sustain the motivational level high in search of the coveted title and lost to 44th ranked Jeff Henckels of Luxembourg 5-6. After sharing five sets, the match went into one-arrow tie-break shot in which Talukdar hit a 9 and his rival got a 10.

Earlier, Tarundeep Rai, who was also in the third round, went down to Athens Olympic gold medallist Marco Galiazzo of Italy but not before giving a tough fight. Rai, who was ranked a lowly 62nd as against 19th ranked Italian, lost the first set at 25-27, tied the next 27-27 before winning the third set 29-28. The Indian went into lead by winning the fourth set 29-28. Rank bad shooting in the final set meant Galiazzo won it at 27-22 to tie the points at 5-5. The tie went into tie-break where both shot 10 points each. But the Italian was declared the winner because his arrow was closer to the centre.

The third Indian Rahul Banerjee, ranked 72nd, lost to 41st ranked Japanese Hideki Kikuchi 6-4.

In the women’s section, both Deepika Kumari and Laishram Bombayla Devi failed to go past the third round. The ninth ranked Deepika lost to 41st ranked Natalia Lesniak of Poland 5-6. The 15th ranked Bombayla went down to 18th ranked Miranda Leek of the U.S. 3-7.

Indian women’s team qualifies for London Olympics

Kolkata, July 6, 2011: History was created at Turin, the venue of the ongoing world archery championship, where the Indian women’s recurve team of Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro, not only booked the three Olympic quota places but outscored defending champion Korea in the semifinals by 216 points to 212 to make its maiden entry into the final, according to a Press release of the Archery Association of India.

Never before an Indian women’s team ever entered the final of a world championship. The best so far was fourth place finish by an Indian women’s team at the 2005 Madrid Worlds when the Indian men’s team moved into the final and settled for silver.

It could have been a wonderful day for Indian archery but for the first round loss suffered by the Indian men’s recurve team, comprising Rahul Banerjee, Tarundeep Rai and Jayanta Talukdar, at the hands of China in the first round. India lost by a point, the score being 216-215 in favour of the winner.

Despite the loss, India had another chance to qualify when the Olympic Games host Great Britain also moved within top eight. Since the host gets three berths in the London Games, two best first round losing teams got another chance to play-off. There too India came a cropper.

Overwhelmed by the Indian ladies’ show, Prof. Vijay Kumar Malhotra, President, Archery Association of India proudly conveyed his heartiest congratulations to Indian women’s team of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro for confirming three quota places for 2012 Olympics in London and for entering the final of the World Championship for the first time in the history of Indian archery.

“It was really a wonderful performance by the Indian contingent and the recurve Women’s team deserves special appreciation because of its commendable victory over World Champion Korea in the semi-finals. I am personally very happy to hear the good news in a day and wish them all the very best for bringing more glory and laurels for the country in the World Championship,” Prof. Malhotra said.

Indian women trailed France by two points in the first end of six arrows (51-53) in the first round clash. Two teams tied 54-54 in the second end while France took a commanding lead at the end of third end (56-54) for a total of 163-159. in the final end of six arrows, the Indian team exploded to gather a whooping 57 points as against France’s 50 to end the match at 216-213.

It was a stroll in the park for the Indians in the quarterfinals against Denmark winning the contest at 203-197 to come face to face with world champion Korea. Undaunted by the towering presence of Koreans, the Indians shot the arrows like champions to lead the first end with a score of 55-53. Korea won the second end at 54-53. Thereafter further success eluded the Koreans as India won the second end 52-51 and the final end 56-54 for a total of 216-212.

India will play Italy in the final on July 10. Italy outplayed China 221-213 in the semifinals. Korea and China will play for the bronze medal.

In the men’s team final, Korea will take on France while Mexico and Italy will fight it out for the bronze medal.

In the mixed doubles, the Indian pair of Jayanta Talukdar and Deepika Kumari lost to Poland in the quarterfinals after winning against Ukraine in the first round.

World champion Korea, China, Italy and Ukraine assured themselves of full six quota places, three in men and as many in women’s section. Italy, France, the USA and Mexico made it to London from the men’s section while India, Denmark, Chinese Taipei and Russia qualified from the women’s segment.

Indian men finish 10th, to play China in first round

Kolkata, July 5, 2011: India on Tuesday drew one of the top Asian countries China as its first round rival in the team knockout event of the world archery championship at Turin (Italy), according to a Press release of Indian Archery Association.

At the end of the FITA round qualification, the three Indians, Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee, returned an ordinary total of 3939 points which gave them only the 10th place.

India’s first round opponent, China finished seventh with 3982 points.

In the individual qualification, Jayanta Talukdar earned a creditable fifth place finish with a total of 1354. Tarundeep Rai and Rahul Banerjee were rather disappointing ending 62nd (1296) and 72nd (1289) places respectively.

The highlight of Indians show was Talukdar’s score of 343 out of 360 points in the 70m distance which gave him an overall first position.

Indian women archers finish 4th in qualification

Kolkata, July 4: The famous threesome of Indian women’s recurve team, consisting of Laishram Bombayla Devi, Deepika Kumari and Chekrovolu Swuro, gave India a flying start to the world championship by qualifying a creditable fourth with a total of 4005 points at Turin (Italy), according to Archery Association of India Press release.

Deepika, 17, was the best among the three Indians. She finished the four-distance qualifying round with a total of 1343. This enabled her finish ninth in individual ranking. Bombayla was 15th with 1336 and Chekrovolu was 26th with 1326, according to information received here.

Ki Bo Bae of Korea topped the ranking with 1389 followed by her country mate Jung Dosami with 1361.

The higher an archer is placed in the qualifying round, the better her chances of meeting a less calibre opponent in the first round. The same rule applies in the team championship as well.

Defending champion Korea topped the team qualifying round with a total of 4088 points. China was second with 4027 and Italy was third with 4012.

In the race for Olympic quota places, the Indian women will play 13th placed France in the first round of the team elimination. France finished the qualifying round with a total of 3932. A first round win will give India three places for the London Olympics.

Indian Public School, SK Puri XI post wins

Patna, June 28, 2011: Indian Public School, Danapur and SK Puri XI registered comprehensive victories in the Smriti Cup Gunjar Devi cricket tournament at the Moinul Haq Stadium here. In the first match, Indian Public School tames DLC Dhanbad by 15 runs while SK Puri XI trounced SIS Ranchi by 56 runs.

Brief scores: Indian Public School, Danapur: 145 for 8 off 20 overs (Kumar Abhishek 57, Anand Singh 31, Manish 10, Pintu Modi 2 for 27, Sanjay Singh 2 for 30).

DLC Dhanbad: 130 for 8 (Karan 27, Sanjay Singh 21, Manish 3 for 14, Anand Singh 2 for 36). Man of the match: Abhishek Kumar.

SK Puri XI: 136 for 5 (Anagmani 43, Dinesh Kumar 44, Nishant Sen 2 for 20).

SIS Ranchi: 80 all out (Aditya Swarup 23, Mahendra 14, Prince 2 for 12, Anagmani 2 for 15, Ritesh 2 for 19). Man of the match: Anagmani.

Photo caption: Indian Public School, Danapur team poses for a group photograph after winning their match in Patna on June 28, 2011.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

Ritwik moves into quarterfinals

Patna, June 28, 2011: Ritwik Bhriguvanshi of Bihar entered the quarterfinals of the boys’ under-16 singles defeating Abhilash Nair of Uttar Pradesh 6-2, 6-3 in the third leg of the AITA talent series tournament at the Patliputra tennis courts here.

Nishat Iqbal (WB), Siddharth Anand (Delhi) and Ayush Joshi (Delhi) also made it to the last eight grades.

Results: Boys’ under-16 singles (pre-quarterfinals): Nishat Iqbal bt Nilay Mishra (Bihar) 6-2, 6-1; Siddharth Anand bt Parth Agarwal (Delhi) 6-2, 6-3; Ayush Joshi bt Sumit Kumar (UP) 6-0, 6-2.

Boys’ under-18 singles (pre-quarterfinals): Sourabh Raghuvanshi (MP) bt Hajari Prasad Chaurasia (UP) 6-1, 6-2; Devpriya Jaiswal (Bihar) bt Parth Agarwal (Delhi) 6-2, 6-3; Ayush Joshi (Delhi) bt Armaan Banerjee (UP) 6-1, 6-2.

Third leg of AITA talent series begins

Patna, June 27, 2011: The third leg of AITA talent series began at the Patliputra Colony courts here. In the first round, Ravi Tomar (Uttarakhand), Parth Agarwal (Delhi), Armaan Banerjee (Uttar Pradesh) and Nishat Iqbal (West Bengal) won their respective matches to enter the second round of the boys’ under-18 singles.

Results: Boys’ under-18 singles (first round): Ravi Tomar bt Suraj Rawat (UP) 6-1, 6-2; Parth Agarwal bt Nilay Mishra (Bihar) 6-0, 6-1; Armaan Banerjee bt Ashish Sharma (UP) 6-1, 6-0; Nishat Iqbal bt Ankesh Anand (Bihar) 6-2, 6-3.

Boys’ under-16 singles (first round): Vishal Vivek Kumar (Bihar) bt Vikas Pal (UP) 6-4, 7-6; Adarsh Anand bt Ravi Tomar 6-2, 6-1; Nilay Mishra bt Tejas Advait (Delhi) 6-4, 7-5; Sanoj Kumar (Bihar) bt Amartya Rai (UP) 6-4, 6-3; Shree Krishna (Bihar) bt Yash Raj Sharan (Bihar) 6-2, 6-3; Abhilash Nair (UP) bt Syed Shahbeaaz Ahmed (Bihar) 6-1, 6-0; Ritwik Bhriguvanshi (Bihar) bt Basu Jaiswal (UP) 6-2, 6-3 and Sumit Kumar (UP) bt Suraj Rawat (UP) 6-2, 6-3.

Balia Cricket Academy, Allahabad Public School move into next round

Patna, June 26, 2011: Balia Cricket Academy and Allahabad Public School chalked out victories in contrasting styles in their respective matches of the Smriti Cup Gunjar Devi inter-school cricket tournament at the Moinul Haq Stadium here on Sunday.

Balia Cricket Academy registered one-wicket victory over J Roy Physics Classes while Allahabad Public School crushed Dhanbad Coaching Academy by 7 wickets.

Kirti Yadav of Balia Cricket Academy and Vipin Kumar of Allahabad Public School were adjudged man of the match.

Brief scores: J Roy Physics Classes: 133 for 8 off 30 overs (Santosh Kumar 40, Sonu 22, Rahul not out 25, Deepak 3 for 23, Kirti Yadav 3 for 7). Balia Cricket Academy: 136 for 9 off 29.5 overs (Kirti Yadav 37, Arun Kumar 21, Abhishek 17, Manoj 3 for 15, Sonu 2 for 25, Prabhash 2 for 28).

Dhanbad Cricket Academy: 68 off 25.5 overs. Allahabad Public School: 69 for 3.

Photo caption: Balia Cricket Academy boys and man of the match Kirti Yadav pose for a group photograph in Patna on June 26, 2011.

Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

Alliance Cup T20 cricket from July 13

Patna, June 26, 2011: Alliance Cup T20 cricket tournament will begin at the Moinul Haq Stadium here from July 13. The tournament is being organized by Alliance Club.

Club secretary Niraj Kumar Pappu said 32 teams would take part in the league-cum-knock out format tournament. Dr MK Sinha and Santosh Tiwari had been nominated chairman and organising secretary of the tournament, he said.