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The week in Indian sports

MOTORSPORT-- RALLYING
Abhilash triumphs in Birla Wild Run

Calcutta, April 28-29: The controversial national rally season got under way in Calcutta last week. P G Abhilash of Chettinad Sporting Club from Tamil Nadu started off his campaign for the national title confidently by winning the Birla Tyres Wild Run Rally 2000. This was the first leg of the eight-leg National Motor Rally Championship. Abhilash, a businessman from Thrissur in Kerala, had city-based experienced rallyist Yogesh Gupta as his navigator. They had a minimum penalty time of two hours seven minutes and nine seconds.

Abhilash was closely followed by B S Pruthvi, also from Tamil Nadu, who finished with a penalty 2:80.49 seconds. Sandeep Sharma from Delhi was third, with a penalty time of 2:17.20 seconds.

Though JK Tyres withdrew its team at the last minute, they sponsored six competitors, including Pruthvi and Sandeep Sharma. Abhilash was also sponsored partly by JK. The performance of Abhilash and Pruthvi was all the more creditable as they emerged winner and runner-up from the Group 'N' driving partly modified cars. Commenting on his performance Abhilash said, " I am really thrilled to win. This is the best performance of my career so far. The route here is a test for both man and machine. It's quite tough and slippery. I enjoyed it thoroughly."

Despite the successful staging of the rally, all is not well with the sport in India. The first rally of the season got under way in the backdrop of the Federation of Internationale de Automobile FIA stripping the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India of all powers, and transferring it to the newly established Motor-Sports Association of India MAI in Bombay. The decision was taken by the FIA after its meeting in Paris on April 5. The MAI was set up last August by Nazir Hoosein (a vice-president in the FIA as a representative of the FMSCI).

The decision saw two-time defending national rally champions MRF Tyres withdraw from the championship this year; citing differences with the FMSCI. In a hard-hitting statement FMSCI chairman Vijay Mallya called the FIA's decision "most surprising and unwelcome". Claiming that the FMSCI has been in existence for 28 years and has the support of over 57 motorsport clubs in India, Mallya fumed that foreign organizations will not be allowed to dictate the future of Indian motor sport and its development.

MOTORSPORT - FORMULA-3
Narain Karthikeyan finishes fifth

London , May 2: India's Narain Karthikeyan finished fifth in the third leg of the British Formula three racing season and collected eight valuable points. The Coimbatore driver's points tally has now shot up from 12 to 20. He is now fourth in the points' table behind teammate and leader Tomas Scheckter of South Africa, Antonio Pizzonia of manor motor-sport , Andy Priaulx of Renault Elf - Britain and Mathew Davis also of Renault Elf - Britain.

An almost capacity crowd gathered to watch the closely fought race on the 2.356 miles long Oulton Park track. It was a reasonably quiet 18 lap race for the field of 26 cars, but for championship leader Pizzonia and Karthikeyan, who clocked the first and second fastest lap timings respectively. Karthikeyan, starting fifth on the grid, had a sedate start and remained in that position as fourth placed Mathew Davis never allowed the Indian ace to pass him. Karthikeyan played it safe, but kept increasing the distance between himself and the man following him, Italian Gianmaria Bruni, from half a second in the beginning to 4.5 seconds by the end of the race.

Phil Spender, managing director of Narain's sponsors Ford India said, "I am pleased with Narain's progress. He looks much fitter now that when I last saw him in India. We are focussing strongly at the qualifiers at Donnington Park next week." Ford's racing manager Bruce Jenkins said , "I am happy Narain has taken eight valuable points to go one place up in the championship. It is very important to continuously earn points, no matter how many."

Earlier Narain had managed to take fifth position on the starting grid for the race despite having to make a pit stop in the second lap of the first qualifying when his front wings were damaged at the cascade corner. In the second session an aggressive Narain went all out to improve his ninth position and inside the first 12 minutes he advanced his "Dallara" to seventh. With just 10 minutes to go for the end, Narain advanced to fourth place. However, an extremely fast lap by Andy Priaulx in the closing stages saw Narain slip to fifth. Former Formula I champion Jackie Stewart, who witnessed both races, was happy to see Narain improve his position and felt the youngster could have done much better, but for the unfortunate accident.

HANDBALL
India win South Asian Championships

Dhaka , May 2: India won both the men's and women's titles at the second South Asian Handball championships in Dhaka. In both the finals, India overcame hosts Bangladesh. The men's team won 22-14. The match was much tougher than expected and the hosts gave the defending champions a scare before going down. The Indian women won 19-14 after leading 11-7 at half-time.

India had been in dominant form throughout the tournament and established their credentials as the superpower of the sport in the region. India had won the title in the first edition in Jaipur in 1996.

India's John Joseph and Usha Nandini were declared best players in men's and women's sections respectively.

But , India will take part only in the women's and junior men's and women's sections of the Asian handball championship to be held at China, Bangladesh and Iran respectively later this year. The men's team will be sent to Hong-Kong for an invitational international tournament to be held there in July, Handball Federation of India secretary general S M Bali said in a release.

India will however participate in both sections in the Commonwealth Championships at Nairobi in October this year, he said. Meanwhile, India will stage the third South Asian championship, slated for next year if Pakistan withdraw from hosting the event, the release added.

BADMINTON
Gopichand qualifies for Olympics

New Delhi, May 4: National badminton champion Pullela Gopichand qualified for the Sydney Olympic Games in September 2000. The International Badminton Federation announced a list of 162 players as automatic qualifiers for the Olympics, leaving 10 spots vacant. The qualification was based on April 30 rankings.

The National Olympic Committees will be expected to advise the IBF whether the eligible players are being entered or not by May 26. The 'definitive' list of 172 players will be released on July 28. The seedings will be based on the August 31 rankings while the draw will be made on September 7. The badminton events of the Games begin on September 16.

From the originally planned field of 29 entries each in singles and 19 pairs each in doubles, the tally has swelled to 32 each in singles and 20 pairs each in three doubles events, following the detection of 'duplicate' qualifiers. In all there were 22 places vacant because of players doubling up in various events. Twelve of these slots have been filled up. Theoretically, vacancies can arise from now on due to pull-outs or further duplication while filling up the vacant 10 slots. 26 countries are represented in the current list comprising 80 men and 82 women. Gopichand made it as the 24th qualifier in the men's chart in which he is ranked 34th.

Meanwhile, national women's champion Aparna Popat is among the reserves for the games. After her three-month ban by the IBF for using a banned substance, her ranking has slipped from 28th on March 30 to 54th at the moment.

Aparna had taken a medicine for a virus she was suffering from during the Uber Cup in Delhi which contained the banned substance. Despite the IBF's contention that the former World junior runner-up had taken the substance by "mistake" , the mandatory ban was imposed on her for three months. As a result of the ban, Aparna faces the almost certain prospect of being denied the chance to compete at the Olympics. Executive president of the Badminton Association of India Prakash Padukone had accepted responsibility for the entire episode, saying that the BAI hadn't provided the players with " adequate information" about such substances.

GENERAL
Tax exemption for sports associations

New Delhi, May 4: After exempting all donations to the Indian Olympic Association from taxation in the Union budget for 2000-01, the Finance Ministry has extended the benefit to all recognised national sports associations in the country. The move fulfills a long standing demand of the federations who argued that the benefit should be given to them as they are responsible for conducting championships at both national and state level.

The move has been welcomed by sports bodies who have been struggling to attract sponsorship. In a statement both IOA president Suresh Kalmadi and secretary General Randhir Singh said that the 100 per cent tax exemption on donations made by corporate bodies to the national federations will give a boost to sports associations in the country. "The Indian sports fraternity expresses its gratitude to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha for his magnanimity by extending the tax benefit to national federations," they said in a statement.

The decision comes in the wake of a historic memorandum of understanding signed between the IOA and the Confederation of Indian Industry late last month to promote Olympic sports in the country. The MOU called for a joint effort on the part of the IOA to "encourage , support and guide through mutually agreed plans of cooperation to promote sports in India".

The MOU is expected increase sponsorship of sports by CII members, development of sports infrastructure and co-operation between the corporate sector and national sports federations. CII will also support the IOA in organising the Afro-Asian Games in New Delhi next year and also support the holding of the 2006 Asian Games if the city wins its bid for the event. CII President Rahul Bajaj had said that the CII and IOA will jointly try to pursue policies to promote sports in the country. Kalmadi said that the two organisations will follow up the recent report submitted by the K P Singh Deo committee, set up to plan the strategy for winning gold medals in the 2006 Asian games and 2008 Olympics.

PREVIEW
Sailing nationals this week

Bombay, May 7: The national Sailing Championships will be held at the Naval Sailing Club in Colaba, in south Bombay, from May 9-13. The championship is being organized by the Yachting Association of India which is celebrating its 40th year of formation. It will have races in four categories of boats - - optimist, cadet, seabird and enterprise.

The races will be conducted in the vicinity of the Sunk Rock Light House in Bombay Harbour. The length of the course for each race is approximately seven nautical miles. A total of seven races will be held during the championship and the final results are to be decided by the best-of-six with each sailor or team allowed to discard their worst result in the regatta.

At the Asian Sailing championships Indian yachtsmen won six gold, nine silver and six bronze medals. At the junior level, India won two gold and three bronze medals at the World Championships. At the national level 12 yachtsmen have been conferred with the prestigious Arjuna award and two have been awarded the highest award in India sports - - the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. With such a rich pedigree this week's nationals should make for fascinating contests on the water.