Indian sports wrap, December 7: PSPB beats beats Railways Sports Promotion Board in Nehru Cup final

Indian sports wrap, December 7: PSPB beats beats Railways Sports Promotion Board in Nehru Cup final

Two penalty corner conversions by Gurjinder Singh in the fourth quarter helped the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) to a 2-0 victory over Railways Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) in the final of the SNBP 60th Nehru hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium here on Saturday.

The champion team was presented Rs.5,51,000, and the runner-up got Rs.2,51,000.

The umpire of the match, RV Raghuprasad, who has officiated in the Olympics World Cup and Asian Games, was presented the ‘best umpire of the decade’ award in memory of Gian Singh and given Rs.50,000.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Second seed Rishitha Basireddy beat the top seed Aoi Watanabe of Japan 6-2, 7-5 in the girls final of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the Deccan Gymkhana on Saturday.

It was the third singles title in a row in three weeks for Rishitha, who had earlier won the tournaments in Guwahati and Delhi.

In the boys final, Aaron Gabet of France beat Arjun Rathi 6-4, 6-4. Arjun had won the title last week in Delhi.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Mahika Khanna beat Sunira Thapa of Nepal 6-2, 7-6(4) in the girls final of the ITF junior tennis tournament in Pokhara, Nepal, on Saturday.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Second seed Stephanie Visscher of the Netherlands beat Tanisha Kashyap 6-1, 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Stellenbosch, South Africa, on Saturday.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Anshu, the daughter of Paralympian and Asian Games silver medallist shot putter Virender Dhankhar, hurled the shot to a new national mark as she bagged the under-18 women’s gold medal in the National junior athletics championships at the Kalinga Stadium here on Saturday.

A boxer-turned-shot-putter, Anshu, hailing from Sonepat, achieved the feat with a mark of 16.85m in her second attempt. “After my shot was rejected, I managed with the one given to me,” said Anshu.

Asian under-20 silver medalist Amanat Kamboj broke the 12-year-old meet record while claiming the under-18 gold. Amanat, born to athlete parents, unleashed a nice and flat throw to 52.89m in her first attempt before facing some issues with her release.

Vineeta Gurjar rewrote her personal best in the women’s 1500m.

Asian under-20 silver medallist Vinod Singh won the gold by clocking his personal best 29:43.39.

Prachi Devkar, the South Asian gold medallist in 3000m, made her 5000m debut memorable by winning the title with 17:22.79.

Abhinaya Rajarajan shattered Rashmi Sheregar’s nine-year-old meet record (11.89) as she equalled Dutee Chand’s under-18 National record of 11.62 in 2013 in the heats.

-Y.B. Sarangi

Services dominated day two of the Senior National Wrestling Championship at the Koramangala Indoor Stadium here on Saturday, claiming six of the ten Greco-Roman golds on offer.

Of the six, Vinayak Patil had the toughest bout, in the 67kg final against Haryana’s Anil. The 23-year-old, a bronze medallist at the U-23 Asian Championship in June this year, eventually came through 2-1, stonewalling every spirited effort from Anil.

-N. Sudarshan