INDIAN FOOTBALL
Mohun Bagan sails past Classic FA to clinch RFDL 2024-25 title
Mohun Bagan Super Giant clinched the Reliance Foundation Development League (RFDL) 2024-25 title after sailing past Classic Football Academy 3-0 in the final.
Pasang Dorjee Tamang scored a hat-trick to hand the Mariners the triumph in the ultimate fixture held at the Reliance Corporate Park in Mumbai on Monday.
In the 8th minute, Tamang drew first blood when he smashed in one from the edge of the box to find the top right corner. Tamang soon scored his second, capitalising on a mistake from the Classic FA defence to make it 2-0.
In the second half, Tamang completed a hat-trick to help the Mariners seal the victory. The Mariners’ RFDL victory comes on the back of their senior team famously clinching the Indian Super League Double — League Shield and Cup.
Their U-15 side also claimed the trophy in the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) Kolkata region.
-Team Sportstar
TENNIS
India loses to Iran, finishes 12th in WJT
The Indian boys went down 1-2 to Iran in the play-off match for 11th place in the Asia-Oceania WJT under-14 tennis championship in Kuching, Malaysia, on Monday.
Japan won the title beating Kazakhstan 2-0 in the final.
The top four teams, with Korea and Hong Kong as the third and fourth teams, qualified for the World Group competition to be staged later in the season.
The results (play-off for 11th place):
Iran bt India 2-1 (Makan Motlagh lost to Kaustubh Singh 3-6, 1-6; Ramtin Boroujeni bt Paranjay Siwach 6-2, 3-0 (retired); Ramtin & Makan bt Viraj Choudhary & Kaustubh 6-1, 6-3).
The final placings:
1. Japan, 2. Kazakhstan, 3. Korea, 4. Hong Kong, 5. China, 6. Australia, 7. Chinese Taipei, 8. Thailand, 9. Indonesia, 10. New Zealand, 11. Iran, 12. India, 13. Singapore, 14. Pakistan, 15. Uzbekistan, 16. Sri Lanka.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
CHESS
Vaishali, Divya start with wins at FIDE Women’s Grand Prix
On a day that saw top seed Koneru Humpy being held to a draw by compatriot and fifth seed R. Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh proved the lone winner for India at the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix chess at Amanora-The Fern in Pune.
Divya, who is playing in her home State of Maharashtra, won against Bulgaria’s Nurgyul Salimova. The opening round also saw the fourth player from the host, D. Harika, going down to second seed Zhu Jiner of China.
Except for the Humpy-Vaishali encounter, all the games produced decisive results, with Batkhuyag Munguntuul of Mongolia and Polina Shuvalova of Russia posting victories.
The results (first round):
Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mng) bt Salome Melia (Geo); Zhu Jiner (Chn) bt D. Harika; Alina Kashliskaya (Pol) lost to Polina Shuvalova (Rus); Nurgyul Salimova (Bul) lost to Divya Deshmukh; R. Vaishali drew with Koneru Humpy.
Second-round pairings: Melia v Humpy; Divya v Vaishali; Shuvalova v Salimova; Harika v Kashlinskaya; Munguntuul v Zhu.
Content Source: sportstar.thehindu.com