Indian sports wrap, March 13: Olympian Raiza Dhillon headlines India squad for Junior Shooting World Cup

SHOOTING

NRAI names 36-member team for Junior World Cup in May

Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon will headline the 36-member Indian junior squad announced by National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) for the upcoming first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun, scheduled in Suhl, Germany, from May 19-27, 2025.

The squad will participate in 15 events including three mixed team events.

Raiza will be part of the 12-strong Shotgun squad and two stars from the Peru worlds, Mukesh Nelavali who won five golds (and two bronze medals) and Divanshi, who won a double gold including a win in the women’s 25m pistol individual event, will be back to hopefully do an encore.

Suhl, a traditional hub of the junior Shooting circuit, has been a launchpad to many Champions in the years gone by and the Indian juniors will be closely watched with an eye on Los Angeles 2028.

“We have a home junior world cup coming up in September and the juniors will be looking to impress with an eye on that as well. We are confident of our future stars, they are under the eagle eyes of experienced coaches and are very well supported by the Government. We expect a top finish,” added Shri. Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo, President, NRAI.

– Team Sportstar

TENNIS

ITF: Nitin Kumar beats fourth seed Dev Javia in pre-quarters

Nitin Kumar Sinha beat fourth seed Dev Javia 6-4 6-3 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament at the CLTA Complex on Thursday.

In the quarterfinals, Nitin will play Stefan Vujic of Australia who beat sixth seed Siddharth Vishwakarma for the loss of six games.

Madhwin Kamath, Manish Sureshkumar, Ishaque Eqbal and Karan Singh were the other Indian players to make the quarterfinals.

– Team Sportstar

ITF junior: Aarjun Pandit fights past Prakaash Sarran in quarterfinals

Second seed Aarjun Pandit had to fight his way past Prakaash Sarran 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the ITF junior tennis tournament at the Tennis Project, Baliyawas, on Thursday.

In the semifinals, Aarjun will play Aashravya Mehra. The other semifinal will be between top seed Sehaj Singh Pawar and Vraj Gohil.

In the girls section, Aishwarya Jadhav, Harsha Oruganti, Aakruti Sonkusare and Diya Ramesh made the semifinals.

– Team Sportstar

ITF: Ankita Raina-Priska pair beats Indonesia’s Dang-Yang in doubles quarters

Ankita Raina in partnership with Priska Nugroho of Indonesia beat the top seeds Yiming Dang and Yidi Yang in the doubles quarterfinals of the $40,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Shenzhen, China, on Thursday.

In the $30,000 women’s event in Thailand, second seed Shrivalli Bhamidipaty lost tamely in the singles pre-quarterfinals to wild card Anchisa Chanta, but made the doubles semifinals in partnership with Vaidehi Chaudhari.

– Team Sportstar

GOLF

Vani claims third successive win despite two closing bogeys

Vani Kapoor was not at her best in the end, but her 1-over 73 in the third and final round was enough to fetch her the winner’s cheque of Rs. 2,00,000 with an overall 1-over 217 in the sixth leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at the DLF Golf and Country Club on Thursday.

It was the third title on the trot for Vani, and she matched the efforts of Vidhatri Urs in sweeping the title from the 9th to 11th legs in the last edition. Vani also jumped to the top of the Order of Merit, a position she had achieved in three successive years from 2014 to 2016.

Vani had four birdies, but had to endure a double bogey and three bogeys. In fact, she finished with two successive bogeys.

However, amateur Anvvi Dahhiya who was challenging Vani competently, dropped a double on the 18th to give Vani, who had led by two shots overnight, the victory by a three-shot margin. Vani took her earnings to Rs. 8,54,000 so far, pushing Sneha Sngh to second spot at Rs. 7,82,567.

The first round leader Lavanya Jadon who had the best card of 2-under 70, shot a three-over 75 this day to clinch the third place, one shot ahead of Sneha Singh who had won two titles earlier this season.

Amateur Keya Badugu shot the best card of the day, 1-under 71 and placed sixth behind Gaurika Bishnoi.

– Team Sportstar

Kolkata Challenge: Om Prakash Chouhan joint lead with Vidal after first round

Om Prakash Chouhan shot a superb six-under 66 to be in joint lead with Spaniard Quim Vidal after the first round of the $300,000 Kolkata Challenge at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) in Kolkata on Thursday.

Among other Indians, four-time DP World Tour winner S.S.P. Chawrasia, playing on his home course, returned a 67 to be tied-third along with compatriot Dhruv Sheoran.

Syed Saqib Ahmed and Mohammed Azhar carded an identical 69 to be joint-ninth as five Indians remained inside the top-10.

Om Prakash Chouhan, a former winner who earned a spot on the DP World Tour in 2024 as a result of being the 2023 PGTI Order of Merit winner, gathered eight birdies, including two long ones, and two bogeys.

Joshua Grenville-Wood made a hole-in-one on the 13th  during his round of 70 to be placed tied-23rd.

– Team Sportstar

CRICKET

HCA to announce sub-committee to address concerns with Telangana Cricket Association

The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) announced that it will appoint a sub-committee to understand and address the concerns of the Telangana Cricket Association (TCA). HCA’s Apex Council, in a press release on Thursday, said that a seven-member team will be formed in compliance with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) order dated 11.07.2021.

This comes after the Bombay High Court directed the BCCI to resolve the issues between TCA and HCA earlier this week. “We do not understand the role of the BCCI in all this. You passed an order in July 2021 and today we are in March 2025, yet no decision is taken. Why can’t you ensure that your order is duly complied with? You have to be conscious about your order and ensure it is taken to its logical end. You can make them sit across the table and resolve the dispute, ” a division bench of justices had remarked.

Four years ago, BCCI denied TCA’s request to become an associate member of the central cricket body. Instead, it directed HCA to collaborate with TCA to ensure the growth of cricket in the state of Telangana doesn’t get affected. However, no action was taken to follow BCCI’s directive.

– Team Sportstar

Para-Athletics

India tops medal tally in World Para Athletics GP, 3-time Paralympic champion Vanessa clinches gold

Three-time Paralympic champion long jumper Vanessa Low of Australia lived up to her top billing as she easily clinched gold in T61-64 class while India’s Paris Games medallist Preethi Pal bagged a bronze in T35-38 class 200m race on the concluding day of the World Para Athletics Grand Prix here on Thursday.

India finished on top of the medal tally with a total haul of 134 — 45 gold, 40 silver, and 49 bronze. Around 150 Indians had competed in the Grand Prix while around 100 were from other 19 countries.

Vanessa, one of the few top stars taking part in the three-day event, cleared a distance of 4.96m in her third attempt, to stand on the top of the podium.

Zhanna Fekolina, a Neutral Paralympic Athlete, and India’s Bhavani Munniyandi took home the silver and bronze respectively with efforts of 4.13m and 3.51m at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here.

-PTI