Indian sports wrap, January 2: Lakshya Cup returns, Bihar excels in Rugby7s

Indian sports wrap, January 2: Lakshya Cup returns, Bihar excels in Rugby7s

Some of the best air rifle shooters, including the newly crowned national champions, Shahu Mane and Ananya Naidu, will be in action in the 15th Lakshya Cup Shooting Championship to be hosted at the Karnala Sports Academy in Panvel on January 4 and 5.

Former world No. 1 Divyansh Singh Panwar and two other Olympians Arjun Babuta and Sandeep Singh will be part of the competition, which was started in 2008 by Olympic finalist and world record holder Suma Shirur, who has the distinction of winning the Arjuna and Dronacharya awards for her rich contribution to shooting.

“We aim to recognise talent, reward excellence and provide a platform for shooters to showcase their skills at the highest level. This tournament is not just a competition, but a celebration of hard work, dedication and the spirit of sportsmanship,” said the High Performance Director of the Lakshya Club, Suma Shirur, when she addressed the media on Thursday.

“We value Lakshya Club’s contribution to Indian sport. We remain committed to supporting the growth of Indian sport,” said the Managing Director of RR Global, a company that has been supporting the competition since 2017.

Gender equality was first introduced in this competition right from the first edition, with men and women shooting the same number of shots, an idea that was eventually adopted by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) in 2017.

The field will have past champions and others with rich international achievements, including Rudrankksh Patil, Shriyanka Sadangi, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Kiran Jadhav, Hriday Hazarika, Ashi Chouksey, Deepak Kumar and Meghana Sajjanar.

After the qualification process on the first day, the finals of juniors will be held at 2 p.m. and the seniors at 3.30 p.m. on January 5.

-Team Sportstar

Bihar Under-14 girls beat Odisha 10-5 on Thursday to win the Rugby Sevens Championship at the 68th National School Games at the Pataliputra Sports Complex in Patna. Maharashtra finished third.

Meanwhile, Bihar’s boys gave Maharashtra a taste of the humble pie with a score of 50-0.

Sanjay Kumar, Assistant Director of Sports at the Students and Youth Welfare Directorate distributed the trophies.

Earlier, at the U-19 championship, Bihar’s girls had won the first place, while the boys team had secured the second place. In the U-17 competition, both the boys and girls teams had emerged champions.

-Team Sportstar

A few more top stars have confirmed their entry for the $2 million International Series golf tournament to be played at the DLF Golf and Country Club from January 30 to February 2.

Paul Casey joins Bryson DeChambeau, Anirban Lahiri and Joaquin Niemann, who had confirmed their entry earlier.

Champions Carlos Ortiz, Harold Varner III, Mito Pereira and Sebastian Munoz will be the other leading golf players competing in the first ever International Series event in India.

“We are confident that the course will offer the world’s best a stern test. We are looking forward to welcoming India’s golf fans and sports fans from all over the world,” said Aakash Ohri, the Joint Managing Director of DLF.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

Maxim Zhukov beat Dhakshineswar Suresh 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $30,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the Indore Tennis Club on Thursday.

Maxim, who had earlier beaten second seed Ramkumar Ramanathan in straight sets, will play Samir Banerjee of the USA in the quarterfinals.

Samir beat Dev Javia in straight sets, while qualifier Sidharth Rawat went down in three sets to Egor Agafonov.

Yuvan Nandal, Vishnu Vardhan, Chirag Duhan and Aryan Shah also bowed out, bringing the curtains down on the Indian challenge in singles.

However, three Indian pairs made it to the doubles semifinals, including Parikshit Somani and Dhakshineswar Suresh who edged out Yuichiro Inui and Sidharth Rawat 12-10 in the super tie-break of the quarterfinals. Parikshit and Dhakshineswar had earlier knocked out top seeds Egor Agafonov and Grigoriy Lomakin in straight sets.

-Kamesh Srinivasan