India crashed out of the AFC U-22 Football Championship after suffering a 0-4 thrashing at the hands of hosts Oman in a must-win final league round match at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex, in Muscat, on Tuesday. According to a report in The Times Of India, the defeat meant the Indian colts not only failed to qualify for the final round of the AFC U-22 championship, but also lost out on a place in next year’s Asian Cup.
India finished their campaign with seven points from five matches, while Oman have 10 points from as many games. After a barren opening half, Hamood Saleh scored the first goal for Oman in the 54th minute followed by strikes from Faed Ibrahim (67th minute), Saleh Hadid (75th) and Mubarak Humaid (89th). After dominating the proceedings in the opening 45 minutes, the Indians lost the plot in the second half.
Meanwhile another TOI informs that MR Venkatesh has become India’s 28th Grandmaster. The 28-year-old Chennai lad bagged his third and final GM norm in Philadelphia international chess tournament and also finished runner-up behind India’s Abhijeet Gupta in the tournament.
Abhijeet Gupta beat IM Dean Ippolito of United States to win the Philadelphia event with 7.5 points which came from six wins and three draws. Venkatesh drew the final-round game with compatriot S P Sethuraman to score seven points. Venkatesh, born in 1985, already has a rating of 2506 and does not have to wait for his rating to complete his GM title. Making his mark as an agegroup champion more than 10 years ago along with his sister MR Sangeetha, Venkatesh’s rating graph has shown good progress recently.
Meanwhile a report in The Hindu says Prerna Bhambri served and stroked with energy in outplaying Natasha Palha 6-3, 6-2 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex here on Wednesday.
According to a report in TOI, Bombay Hockey Association (BHA) can go ahead with its election for the managing committee on August 11, as a petition before the Bombay High Court, seeking a stay, was withdrawn on Wednesday. Over 130 players had approached the High Court seeking stay to the election and a direction to BHA that it should consider the applications by the players to include them as members of the association.