P.V. Sindhu Wins; Kidambi Srikanth out of All England Badminton Championships
World champion P.V. Sindhu made an impressive start at All England Badminton Championships but compatriots Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap suffered early exits after losing their respective opening round men's singles matches.
The Indian women's duo of Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy and the men's doubles a pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also progressed to the second round with straight-game wins.
Olympics silver medallist Sindhu gave a good account of herself as she beat world No. 32 Soniia Cheah of Malaysia.
Mar 17, 2021
England beat India by Eight Wickets in Ahmedabad
In Cricket, England defeated India by eight wickets in the third T20 match in Ahmedabad to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Chasing a target of 157 runs set by India, England comfortably made 158 for two in 18.2 overs. For the visitors, Jos Buttler was the highest scorer with an unbeaten 83.
Earlier, riding on skipper Virat Kohli's valiant knock of 77 runs, India had scored 156 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. For England, Mark Wood took three wickets
Murali Sreeshankar Sets National Record, Qualifies for Tokyo Olympics
When long jumper Murali Sreeshankar first broke the national record in September 2018 with an 8.20 m jump at the Open Athletics Championships in Bhubaneshwar, it was expected that he would soon achieve the Tokyo Olympics qualification mark of 8.22 m. Events and a couple of years passed by but Sreeshankar wasn't able to attain the target.
In 2019, at the Doha World Championships, his best jump was 7.62 m. He didn't even enter the final round and finished a disappointing 22nd. It is at this point, the 21-year-old quit the national camp and trained under his father S Murali, a former international triple jumper and someone who had coached Sreeshankar since he started developing interest in the sport.
For almost three years, Murali Sreeshankar had been battling disappointment, frustration and questions on his ability.
In 2021, the long jumper silenced them all, qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics with an 8.26m jump that evoked a rare scream from the usually mild-mannered athlete on Day Two of the Federation Cup.
Mar 16, 2021
Manika Batra Crashes Out of Olympic Qualifying Event
Manika Batra's run at the World Singles Qualification Tournament, an Olympic qualification event in table tennis, came to an end after she suffered a 4-1 defeat to Monaco's Xiaoxin Yang in the women's singles knockout stage-I semi-final match in Doha.
Achanta Sharath Kamal and Gnanasekaran Sathiyan also exited after suffering losses in their respective men's singles second round matches.
The Indian paddlers will now shift their focus to the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament, which is scheduled from March 18-20 in Doha.
Mar 15, 2021
Bhavani Devi First Indian Fencer to Qualify for Olympics
Tamil Nadu's CA Bhavani Devi has become the first-ever Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympic Games.
The sabre fencer secured a spot in the World Cup in Hungary after the hosts lost in the quarter finals of the team event, allowing South Korea to progress to the semifinal.
This enabled Bhavani Devi to qualify for the Olympics through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) Method, due to her world ranking.
In the 2010 Asian Championship in the Philippines, she bagged a bronze medal.
Her first international gold medal came in Tuscany Cup in Italy in 2014.
Bhavani became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the senior Commonwealth Fencing Championship, in Canberra, in 2018.
Mar 14, 2021
Goa to Host 2021 AFC Champions League Group E Matches
Group E matches of the AFC Champions League (ACL) will be hosted in Goa, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Group E includes FC Goa, who became the first Indian club to directly qualify for the group stage of Asia's premier club competition by virtue of finishing at the top of the table in the Indian Super League (ISL).
Goa will be competing against Iranian club Persepolis, who finished runners-up in 2018, and Qatar's Al Rayyan SC along with a qualifier from the playoff matches. The matches will be held from April 14 to 30. However, specific stadiums for the matches are yet to be announced.
The West Region matches, which are scheduled to take place between April 14-30, will see Saudi Arabia host Groups A and D in Riyadh as well as Group C in Jeddah, with the matches in Group B to be staged in the United Arab Emirates city of Sharjah, while India, whose representative FC Goa are poised to mark the nation's debut in Asia's premier club competition, will host Group E.