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The week in Indian sports

CHESS
Vijayalakshmi gets second IM norm
Hyderabad, July 27: After securing the first women's Grand Master's title, women's national champion S Vijayalakshmi won her second International Master's (IM) norm by winning a technically drawn game against compatriot Aarthie Ramaswamy in the penultimate round of the Wipro international chess tournament last week. Aarthie and Vijyalakshmi, roommates from Chennai, fought out a hard-pitched battle in a Ruy Lopez opening leading to a technically drawn end game but Aarthie was declared lost on time after prolonged confabulations involving arbirters, officials and players.

Winning by default, the 21-year Vijayalakshmi secured 5.5 points to grab her second IM norm in the men's category. Aarthie, who pleaded ignorance about the time rules, lost the game despite the end position pronouncing a technical draw. In the controversial game, Vijayalakshmi gave away a pawn to Aarthie in the opening to create active play and positioned her double bishop at advantageous flanks.

Aarthie retained the extra pawn till a rook ending was reached where Viji's 'b' passer swallowed her opponent's rook. But the position remained rather equal with Aarthie having of a queen to avoid a mate. Viji played some interesting moves at the hour of crisis and trapped Aarthie's knight. Theoretically, the resultant position was a draw but Aarthie lost on time. She had 40 minutes when the end position was reached but claimed a draw with only less than two minutes left on the clock. The arbiter asked her to continue and when she could not find the appropriate moves to retrieve her knight from attack she was declared lost on time.

The tournament was won by Kazak Grand Master E Vladimirov, who finished with a total of nine points, 1.5 points ahead of second placed Russian A Fominyh, who finished with 7.5 points. The best Indian finish went to K. Sasikiran, who was in sole possession of third place at 6.5 points. Despite her heroics Vijaylakshmi could only manage fourth position with a tally of six points.

ATHLETICS
National records tumble at Inter-State meet
Madras, July 30: Six national records were rewritten in the 40th Inter-State athletic championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on the first day. Punjab's Paramjeet Singh, who had broken the long-standing record of Milkha Singh, in 1998, in the 400-metre run, emerged the victor with a new record time of 45.56 sec, bettering his own 45.70 sec set at Calcutta. Tamil Nadu's Ramachandran, who finished second behind Paramjeet, also lowered the national mark clocking 45.63 sec. Both achieved the Olympic qualifying mark stipulated by the international body.

Shakti Singh, whose Asian championship record-breaking effort of 20.60m in the Bangalore domestic circuit meet is yet to be ratified, bettered his own mark of 20.09m, hurling the iron ball to 20.42 metres in his second attempt. Bahadur Singh of Punjab bettered his existing national mark while coming second with an effort of 20.01m.

Hammer thrower Jebeshori Devi of Bengal (58.36m), long distance runner Aruna Devi, also of Bengal, in 10,000m (34:30.2) and Neelam J Singh in the discus throw (62.49m) joined the AAFI men's 4x100 relay quartet (39.74 seconds) in the record-breaking spree.

In the men's 4x100m relay, the AAFI team of Thirugnanadurai, Rajiv Balakrishnan, Anand Menezes and Anil Kumar shattered the national record. Delhi (40.61 seconds) and Tamil Nadu (41.18 seconds) came second and third respectively.

The two meet records were established by long jumper Pramila Ganapathy of Karnataka (65.2 m) and the women's 4x100 relay quartet comprising the Bangalore campers (44.44 secs). But it was heartbreak time for Karnataka's Pramila Ganapathy as she failed to hit the Olympic long jump qualifying mark of 6.60 metres. With Anju Markose not competing, Pramila never even came close to her own personal best of 6.54. She won the competition with a leap of 6.52m.

Earlier in the morning, Aruna Devi of West Bengal played the perfect waiting game. She let Delhi Pusha Devi set the pace and then with 3,000 metres to go, pushed ahead to win the women's 10,000-metres in 34:30.2 seconds to break the old national mark of 34:33.93 in Poonam Taneja's name. West Bengal's K. Jebeshwari Devi, sporting a new hairstyle, heaved the hammer over a distance of 58.36 metres to break her own national mark of 56.56-metres.

The men's shot put saw Shakti Singh scream in joy as the metal sphere landed 20.42-metres away. Bahadur Singh finished second at 20.01-metres. It was the first time two men had thrown the spheroid over 20 metres.

India's fastest man Anil Kumar, who reached Chennai late on Friday night, anchored the AAFI team to a record-breaking victory in the men's 4x100-metres relay. Their time of 39.74 seconds broke the old mark of 40.14 seconds set by P. Baiju, Anand Shetty, Arjun Deviah and Anand Natarajan at Islamabad during the 1989 SAF Games.

On the second day, Orissa's Anuradha Biswal in women's 100-metres hurdles and Gurdeo Singh of Punjab in men's 20 km walk shared centrestage by setting national records. Bhubaneswar-based Anuradha hurdled her way to win in 13.44 seconds to better her own mark of 13.57, set in the Federation Cup in March at Lucknow. Her own meet mark was 13.62. Gurdeo Singh won the gruelling 20 km walk in one hour 25 minutes 21.7 seconds as he erased Charan Singh Rathi's record of 1:25:48.0 set at Delhi in 1990.

However, the showpiece event, the men's 100-metre sprint, failed to live up to expectations to the disappointment of the sparse crowd which had expected a record. Anil Kumar was first off the blocks but pulled up as Ajay Raj Singh made a foul start. The runners lined up again, and this time US-based Rajeev Balakrishnan got the initial lead. Kumar was third after Thiruganadurai in the first 70 metres. But he made up in the last 30 metres to win at 10.36 seconds, below his best of 10.21 set at the Bangalore meet earlier this month. Rajeev Balakrishnan was second.

Twenty six-year-old Bobby Aloysius (Kerala) set a new meet record clearing 1.84 metres in women's high jump but failed to clear the 1.88 m, the 'B' mark for the Sydney Games. She bettered her meet record of 1.81 metres set at Calcutta in 1998. Delhi's Geeta Manral achieved a double when she won the women's 800 metres timing 2:03.67. She had won the women's 1500 metres on Saturday.

BASKETBALL
Railways win Federation Cup
Vishakhapatnam, July 30: Punjab Police's domination in the Federation Cup basketball tournament continued as it emerged the team of this decade. Despite being on the decline, the champion side is still capable of powering its way to a title because of the presence of the towering Parminder Singh (Sr). Indian Army, kept out of the national championship and Cup titles for over a decade now, made its second attempt to ambush the rival in the tournament, but the Jalandhar team mixed its outside shooting with pivot game well to notch up its fourth consecutive title victory, winning 73-57 at the Port indoor stadium.

Indian Railways crushed Kerala 69-48 in the women's section to maintain its winning spree in the Cup.

The Armymen committed the same mistakes that other teams did against Punjab Police earlier. Slackness in defence at any time can be disastrous against the Punjab players. Punjab Police doubles up as the State team for the National championship and as the club team for the Cup. So the players are able to find their rhythm quickly.

The defending champions could manage only a slender 30-29 lead at half-time. Up to that stage Indian Army was very much in the game. Peter John was shooting well. Ball handler Sambagi Kadam set a good pace and passed well. Thambi and Sweeto Francis were also basketing well. It looked an even contest then.

It was only after the break that Indian Army allowed Parminder (Sr) to break loose and the Police team surged to a 43- 31 lead. In this period it also controlled the rebounds well. Both Parminder (Sr) and Tajender Singh manged to bottle up Phool Singh. It took some time for the Army's pivot to score again. But by then the champion side was ahead by 10 points.

Under pressure, the Army shooters spilled their shots. With neither outside basketing nor Phool's contribution working, the Services' champions slipped further down. A brief power failure and Indian Army's robust man-to-man defence, which sometimes resulted in serious fouls that went unnoticed by the referees, did not affect the defending champions.

Indian Overseas Bank, Madras, finished third in the men's section, beating Vijaya Bank, Bangalore, 67-45.

In the women's section, too, it was the second confrontation between Indian Railways and Kerala. The first one in a pool match was far better, in the sense that Kerala really hustled their rivals and even reduced the lead to just two baskets in the second half. It was a pretty tough game for the defending champion.

However, in the final, Railways took more precaution and overpowered Kerala with full court press. When Kerala's passing and quick drive were affected the team fell behind. There were not many long shots and the Railway players controlled the rebounds. At the other end, Meenalatha was hitting the hoop from every angle. A rough and tough girl, she withstood the jostling and baseketed steadily. Philomina and Arnika Gujjar converted well from far. By half-time Railways were ahead 38-21. Railways' pivot Ivy Cherian left with five fouls. Still there was no let-up in the champion team's attack.

Midway through the second half, Railways took a commanding 20- point lead and Kerala faded away. Ambily Thomas fought hard. She was actually the livewire of the Kerala side. But Kerala failed with its long shots, which led to its disaster. Andhra Pradesh finished third in the women's section, beating Tamil Nadu 60-50.

SOCCER
India fail to qualify for Asian under-19
Colombo, July 30: India's chances of qualifying for the final round of the Asian under-19 football championship lay shattered at Colombo's Sugathadasa Stadium when they lost to Pakistan 0-2 in a Group V match. In the three-team round-robin group, India beat hosts Sri Lanka 2-1 in the inaugural match but the defeat threw them out of the race.

Pakistan settled down quickly, going in for an early goal to boost their confidence. Shoukar Ali headed in to give Pak the lead in the seventh minute. India, coached by Rustam Akhramov, was at the receiving end for most part of the first half. They initiated some attacks through forwards Mohd Qaizer and Alex but the Pak defence stood firm. Pakistan scored their second goal shortly after half-time through Mohd. Riaz, who rose high up in the air to head home a corner kick taken by Zahir Abbas from the right. The defeat was the first India suffered at the hands of Pakistan at any level of the game in the last 10 years.

Earlier in the competition, India survived an early shock before settling down to carve out a 2-1 win over hosts Sri Lanka in the opening match. In the fourth minute itself the Indians were in for a setback when Chathura Maduranga gave the finishing touch to a snap pass by Nishan Chaminda. The reverse so numbed the Indians that they momentarily lost ideas, even came close to letting in two more goals at the half-hour stage. But unluckily for the Lankans, Chaminda missed a sitter, while S. Dharmapala's strike went wide off the post.

Chief coach Rustam Akramov's tutoring in the interval seemed to do wonders to the Indian squad which began to dominate proceedings in the second session. Better tactical play came into evidence and culminated in the 55th minute goal by Mohammed Qizer, who headed in the equaliser. The Lankans put up a determined effort to hold the Indians but five minutes from close, Kumar Sampson Singh scored the winning goal to trigger a mini celebration by the Indians on the field.

TABLE TENNIS
TTFI to tackle age-falsification problem
New Delhi, July 27: In order to curb the malady of age-falsification in domestic tournaments, the Table Tennis Federation of India decided to change the eligibility date from 31 December to July 1 with immediate effect. Speaking to journalists at the conclusion of TTFI's Executive Council and Special General Body Meeting, the TTFI's secretary general, Moolchand Chowhan hoped that the move will go a long way in foiling the designs of unscrupulous elements.

Over a period of time, it was observed that an unusually high number of players were born either in January or February, thereby just about beating the eligibility rule. The impact of the new rule will be seen when the new season begins with the Western India at Rajkot on August 10. The meeting also confirmed the dates of the National sub-junior, junior and senior championships this season. The National junior championship will be held at Bangalore from November 7 to 15, the National sub-junior meet at Chennai from December 8-15 and National championship at Cuttack from January 5 to 12, next year.

A proposal has been sent to the government to clear a team of four players - Soumyadeep Roy, Anal Kashyap, Poulomi Ghatak and Mouma Das - for participation in the second Children of Asia International to be held in Russia from August 4 to 13. There is also a proposal to send a team for the second World Youth Festival to be held at Budapest from August 18 to 21. Chetan Baboor and S. Raman, the two men in the draw for the Olympic Games in Sydney will be playing a tournament in Singapore from September 1. The Chinese contingent is also likely to take part in this tournament as part of its preparation for the Games.

Following the Olympic Games, the top 20 men and women of Asia will be seen in action in the Asia Cup table tennis championship to be held in Bombay from October 20 to 22. For the first time, 40mm balls will be used in the country. On the domestic front, the TTFI has decided to accept entries for Nationals and zonals as under: (a) The semi-finalist teams of the last nationals will have three extra entries; (b) The teams which finished between fifth and eighth positions in the last Nationals will have two extra entries; (c) The remaining states will be allowed one extra entry.

In the junior, sub-junior and cadet events, each State is permissible to have four entries in team events. In the senior Nationals, five entries are allowed. Further, one additional entry can be allowed at the discretion of the Technical Committee. Institutionals will be allowed to send 10 entries each in the men's and women's sections. Those receiving scolarship from the affiliated institutionals are also allowed to take part. After Calcutta, New Delhi is all set to have its `Centre for Excellence.' This table tennis academy will begin functioning under chief coach Manjit Dua early next month at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. Dua will be assisted by a couple of coaches from the Sports Authority of India.

Regarding the international tournaments to be hosted by India next year, the Commonwealth championship heads the list. This will be held at the Capital's Indira Gandhi Stadium from April 14 to 20. At the conclusion of the championship the teams will leave for Osaka in Japan to take part in the World Championship. The New Delhi edition will be the last such championship since it has already been decided to hold it as part of the Commonwealth Games.