hindustan_times_(chandigarh)(2013-06-21)_page34

1
SPOR T 06 HT Live Chandigarh, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 2013 www.hindustantimes.com PARMINDER CLAIMED FIVE WICKETS TO HELP CHANDIGARH POLICE BOWL HDFC OUT FOR JUST 50 RUNS. CII CRICKET CUP HT Live Correspondent [email protected] MOGA: A SAS Nagar-based crick- et coach was killed, while his wife was seriously injured, in a road accident that took place on the Moga-Ludhiana nation- al highway near Ajitwal, 14km from here, on Thursday. Harwinder Singh, 28, of Chandar village in Ferozepur district had been working as coach of the SAS Nagar- based Sher-e-Punjab Cricket Academy. Gulzar Singh, assistant sub-inspector of Ajitwal police station, said Harwinder and his wife were travelling by car to Chandigarh when an over-speeding bus of the Punjab Roadways collided with the car. “Harwinder died on the spot while Parminder Kaur was rushed to the civil hospi- tal, Moga, where the doctors referred her to Amritsar,” said the ASI. After the post-mortem, the body was handed over to the family. “A case has been regis- tered against bus driver Geja Singh of Sivian village on behalf of the statement of deceased’s father Karnail Singh,” the ASI added. HT Live Correspondent [email protected] CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh Police team thrashed HDFC Bank, while JW Marriott beat Kudos Chemie, to enter the final of the CII Cricket Cup at DAV Public School, Sector 8, here on Thursday. In the first semifinal match, the UT police batted first and raised a challenging total of 150 runs in the allotted 20 overs. While Satnam top scored for the side with 48 runs off 57 balls, it was Jaswinder’s whirlwind knock (47 runs off just 29 balls) that became the highlight of the contest. His innings included four hits to the fences and two towering sixes. For HDFC Bank, Om Bahadur and Harjinder Singh shared the bowling honours for claiming three wickets each. Gaurav Jaiswal and Amandeep Saggu also chipped in by picking up one wicket apiece. Chasing, the HDFC team was bundled out for a paltry score of 50 runs in 16 overs to suffer a hundred-run defeat.Amandeep Saggu was the leading run-getter for the losing side, scoring run-a-ball 22. For Chandigarh Police, Parminder bowled a brilliant spell to collect five wickets while yielding just five runs. Ramandeep completed the rout by walking away with two wickets. In the second match, the Marriott team was crowned winners on the basis of the net run rate (NRR) method after their match against Kudos Chemie was abandoned due to rain. Batting first, Kudos scored 94 runs for the loss of seven wickets in the given 15 overs. Rajeev top scored with 22 off 21 balls. For JW Marriott, Abhilash took three wickets for 14 runs while Mandeep Rai picked up two wickets for 16 runs. Replying, JW Marriott had knocked off 63 runs for the loss of four wickets in 7.4 overs when rain disrupted play. As per NRR, Marriott were declared winners by 12 runs. For the winners, Shahbaz Khan top scored with 37 runs off just 18 balls, inclusive of four boundar- ies and two sixes. For Kudos Chemie, Hussain took three wickets. The final match between JW Marriott and UT police will be played at DAV-8 on Friday at 10am. Brief scores Match 1: Chandigarh Police 150 in 20 overs (Satnam 48 Jaswinder 47), HDFC Bank 50 in 16 overs (Amandeep Saggu 22, Parminder 5 for 5) Match 2: Kudos Chemie: 94 for 7 in 15 overs (Rajeev 22 Abhilash 3 for 14, Mandeep Ra 2 for 16), JW Marriott: 63 for 4 in 7.4 overs (Shahbaz Khan 37) HT Live Correspondent [email protected] PANCHKULA: Harsh Gangwar returned a card of four-over- par 76 points, while Tavleen Batra finished with 13-over-par 85, to lead the respective boys and girls’ sections of Category A after round one of the inaugural tournament of the CGA Junior Circuit at the Panchkula Golf Course on Thursday. Nearly 73 budding golfers teed off on the opening day of the event. In boys’ Category A, Khush- manraj Singh shot six-over-par 78 to be placed second, while Anant Singh Alhahwat, at sev- en-over-par 79 was third. In girls’ Category A, Kianaat Singh returned a card of 93 to be placed second. In Category B, Jaiveer Singh Sandhu led the pack with six- over-par 78. He leads his nearest rival Vignesh Thakur by four strokes. Thakur finished the day on 82. Karandeep Kochhar was five strokes behind the leader, finish- ing the day on 11- over-par 83. Jaiveer had 10 pars and one birdie in his opening day round. In the recently concluded Southern Golf Challenge, Jaiveer had finished second. In the girls’ Category B, Sonell Malik led the field with a card of 84, while Precious Kelson, with a card of 112, was the leader in Category C. With a card of 84, Vausundhra Thiara led Category D, while Myra Jawanda scored 73 to finish atop the leaderboard in Category E. In the boys’ Category C, Aadil Bedi was leader with a three-over-par 75. Yuvraj Singh (82) and Harmanbir Singh Bajwa (85) were second and third, respec- tively. Arnav Jain led Category D with a card of 88. He was followed by Mandaar Singh Prashar at the second position with a day’s card of 90. Manjot Singh, who was lead- ing Category E, had a card of 51. Prize distribution will take place on June 21 at the CGA Golf Range. Haryana chief secretary PK Chaudhery will give away the prizes to the winners. Day 1: Harsh, Tavleen, Jaiveer capture lead Precious Kelson in action on the opening day of the CGA Junior Golf Tournament at the Panchkula Golf Course on Thursday. SANT ARORA/HT HT Live Correspondent [email protected] CHANDIGARH: Sohrab Singh with- stood a two-hour long contest, and a tough opponent in Nikhil Sandhu, to clinch the under-18 boys’ singles title of the Total Tennis Championship that con- cluded at Swami Ram Tirath School, Phase 4, in SAS Nagar, on Thursday. While the two players put up a close fight in the opening set, Sohrab lost focus at the crucial stage to let the game slip away. As a result, Sandhu pipped his opponent 7-5 to take lead. But the loss did not fluster Sohrab as he bounced back strongly in the next two sets. The gritty player rode on solid groundstrokes and boom- ing serves to win the second set 6-4, thus bringing the match on an even keel. In the third set, Sandhu raced to a 4-1 lead. But Sohrab played some exquisite shots to level the score at 4-4 all. In the last two games, Sohrab did well to keep his nerve, and won the set 6-4, to seal the deal in his favour. In another closely fought contest, Sidarth Goyal got the better of Akshit Chhabra 7-5, 6-3 to walk away with the top honour in the under-12 boys’ singles section. Akshit, however, made up for the loss by winning the under-14 trophy, beating Savneet 6-0, 6-4 in the process. Girls’ section Category E: Myra Jawanda (73); Category D: 1. Vausundhra Thiara (84), 2. Anya Bindra (104); Category C: 1. Precious Kelson (112), 2. Vanishka Sharma (124); Category B: 1. Sonell Malik (84); 2. Ashi Jain (90), 3. Muskanmeet (100); Category A: 1. Tavleen Batra (85), 2. Kianaat Singh (93); Boys’ section Category E: 1. Manjot Singh (51), 2. Aditya (53); Category D: 1. Arnav Jain (88), 2. Mandaar Singh Prashar (90); Category C: 1. Aadil Bedi (75), 2. Yuvraj Singh (82), 3. Harmanbir Singh Bajwa (85); Category B: 1. Jaiveer Singh Sandhu (78), 2. Vignesh Thakur (82), 3. Karandeep Singh Kochhar (83); Category A : Harsh Gangwar (76), 2. Khushmanraj Singh (78), 3. Anant Singh Alhahwat (79). RESULTS juniorgolf circuit Sohrab keeps Nikhil at bay, clinches under-18 title UT police, Marriott register victories to set up title clash THE CHANDIGARH POLICE TEAM THRASHED HDFC BANK BY 100 RUNS, WHILE MARRIOTT BEAT KUDOS ON THE BASIS OF NET RUN-RATE RESULTS (ALL FINALS) Under-12 boys’ section: Sidarth Goyal bt Akshit Chhabra 7-5, 6-3. Under-14 boys’ section: Akshit Chhabra bt Savneet 6-0, 6-4. Under-18 boys’ section: Sohrab Singh bt Nikhil Sandhu 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Akshit Chhabra in action during the Total Tennis Championship at Swami Ram Tirath School in Phase 4, SAS Nagar, on Thursday. The player had mixed fortunes on the concluding day of the event. Chhabra lost the under-12 final to Sidarth Goyal, but won the under-14 trophy by beating Savneet. HT PHOTO HT Live Correspondent [email protected] CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) has organ- ised an off-season camp for its senior team players at the PCA Stadium in SAS Nagar. The camp, which started last week, includes 13 pacers and five bats- men who are training under the supervision of former Indian fast bowler Harvinder Singh. The main objective of orga- nising the camp is to help the participating players maintain fitness and polish their bowl- ing skills before the start of the domestic season. The morning and evening sessions at the camp are being devoted to physical fitness and net practice, respectively. The players attending the camp are: Bowlers: Siddharth Kaul, Navdeep Singh, Beant Singh, Baltej Singh, Deepak Bansal, Harmeet Singh Barinder Singh, Maninder Singh, Khushpreet Singh Robin Dhillon, Siddhart h Sharma, Amritpal Singh Karan Ahluwalia. Batsmen Mandeep Singh, Ravi Inder Singh, Kunwarveer Raina, Love Kumar and Mohit Handa. PCA organises senior off-season camp for medium pacers & bastmen Press Trust of India [email protected] CHANDIGARH: Local golfers Abhijit Chadha, Sujjan Singh and Ajeetesh Sandhu did not get the best of the starts as the trio was lying down on the leaderboard on day one of the Worldwide Holdings Selangor Masters golf tournament in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, on Thursday. While Chadha returned a card of 74 to finish the day as tied 55, Sujjan was at the 79th place with the first round score of 75. With a scorecard of 84, Sandhu lying further below. Abhinav Lohan, playing in his first season on the Asian Tour, carded an even par 71 to end as the best Indian in tied 19th spot. Anirban Lahiri, C Muniyappa and Rahil Gangjee carded two- over 73 each to be placed tied 43rd. Thailand’s Pariya Junhasavasdikul rediscovered some of his best form to storm into early first round lead with a five-under-par 66. The 28-year-old, who has one Asian Tour title under his belt, snared eight birdies against one bogey and a double bogey at a sun baked Seri Selangor Golf Club to lead by one stroke from Korea’s Baek Seuk-hyun in the USD 400,000 tournament. Talented Malaysian amateur Gavin Green continued to show his promise with a measured 68 for joint third place alongside six-time Asian Tour winner Lin Wen-tang of Chinese Taipei and Australian duo Wade Ormsby and Adam Groom. Pariya has not hit top form in 2013 but his game clicked at Seri Selangor, which is playing hard and fast due to the dry conditions. After turning in 31, he dropped a double bogey on the third hole before bouncing back with three straight birdies for the early lead. Punjab bowlers hone their skills during the net session of the ongoing off-season camp at the PCA Stadium in SAS Nagar. HT PHOTO LOCAL GOLFERS FALTER AT MALAYSIAN EVENT Cricket coach dies in road mishap NEW DELHI: Young Indian boxer Sunil Kumar continued his impressive run at the China Open tournament by reaching the semifinals of the 52kg cat- egory in Guiyang on Thursday. By entering the last-four stage, the Bhiwani lad also secured the bronze medal for himself. Besides Sunil, who also had a bronze at the Konstantin Korotkov Memorial, rookies Ajay Kumar (56kg), Jaideep (75kg) and Manjeet Singh (+91kg) also made it to the penultimate round and have assured themselves of a medal. In the quarterfinals at Guiyang -- under the new ‘Ten- Point must-scoring system’ -- Sunil, a silver medallist at the inaugural China Open, was up against Artem Mirazaev of Russia. With his quick-fire jabs and swift body blows he put the Russian boxer on the back foot, right from the very start. Mirazev did well to squeeze in a few punches, but in the end it was Sunil who emerged triumphant on a split decision to march into the semi-finals of the tournament. He now takes on local lad Chang Young for a place in the finals. Ajay, 19, playing his first international competition, also assured himself of at least a bronze medal. He beat Filipino boxer Nico Magliquian in a split decision to advance into the semis, where he now takes on You Lunhai from China Middleweight boxer Jaideep also secured a semi-final spot by overhauling Kazakh boxer Chingiz Verdybekov. But the Indian contingent suffered early setbacks in the women’s division of the tour- nament. Pinki Jangra (51kg) Preeti Beniwal (60kg) and Neetu Chahal (75kg) all failed to make it past the quarterfinals after losing out to their respec- tive opponents. IANS Haryana boxer Sunil secures bronze medal in China Open

Upload: harsh-gangwar

Post on 06-Aug-2015

35 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Hindustan_Times_(Chandigarh)(2013-06-21)_page34

SPORT06 H T L i v e C h a n d i g a r h , F R I DAY, J U N E 2 1 , 2 0 1 3w w w . h i n d u s t a n t i m e s . c o m

PARMINDER CLAIMED FIVE WICKETS TO HELPCHANDIGARH POLICE BOWL HDFC OUT FOR JUST 50 RUNS.

CII CRICKET CUP

HT Live Correspondent■ [email protected]

MOGA: A SAS Nagar-based crick-et coach was killed, while hiswife was seriously injured, in a road accident that took placeon the Moga-Ludhiana nation-al highway near Ajitwal, 14kmfrom here, on Thursday.

Harwinder Singh, 28, ofChandar village in Ferozepurdistrict had been workingas coach of the SAS Nagar-based Sher-e-Punjab CricketAcademy.

Gulzar Singh, assistantsub-inspector of Ajitwal police station, said Harwinder

and his wife were travellingby car to Chandigarh whenan over-speeding bus of thePunjab Roadways collided withthe car.

“Harwinder died on thespot while Parminder Kaurwas rushed to the civil hospi-tal, Moga, where the doctors referred her to Amritsar,” saidthe ASI.

After the post-mortem, thebody was handed over to thefamily. “A case has been regis-tered against bus driver Geja Singh of Sivian village on behalfof the statement of deceased’s father Karnail Singh,” the ASIadded.

HT Live Correspondent■ [email protected]

CHANDIGARH: The Chandigarh Police team thrashed HDFC Bank, while JW Marriott beat Kudos Chemie, to enter the finalof the CII Cricket Cup at DAVPublic School, Sector 8, here on Thursday.

In the first semifinal match,the UT police batted first andraised a challenging total of 150runs in the allotted 20 overs.

While Satnam top scored for the side with 48 runs off 57 balls,it was Jaswinder’s whirlwindknock (47 runs off just 29 balls)that became the highlight of thecontest. His innings includedfour hits to the fences and twotowering sixes.

For HDFC Bank, Om Bahadurand Harjinder Singh shared thebowling honours for claiming three wickets each. GauravJaiswal and Amandeep Saggu also chipped in by picking up one wicket apiece.

Chasing, the HDFC teamwas bundled out for a paltryscore of 50 runs in 16 oversto suffer a hundred-rundefeat.Amandeep Saggu was the leading run-getter for thelosing side, scoring run-a-ball 22.

For Chandigarh Police,Parminder bowled a brilliantspell to collect five wickets whileyielding just five runs.

Ramandeep completed therout by walking away with twowickets.

In the second match, theMarriott team was crownedwinners on the basis of the netrun rate (NRR) method after

their match against KudosChemie was abandoned dueto rain.

Batting first, Kudos scored 94runs for the loss of seven wicketsin the given 15 overs. Rajeev topscored with 22 off 21 balls.

For JW Marriott, Abhilashtook three wickets for 14 runswhile Mandeep Rai picked uptwo wickets for 16 runs.

Replying, JW Marriott hadknocked off 63 runs for the lossof four wickets in 7.4 overs whenrain disrupted play.

As per NRR, Marriott weredeclared winners by 12 runs. Forthe winners, Shahbaz Khan topscored with 37 runs off just 18balls, inclusive of four boundar-ies and two sixes. For KudosChemie, Hussain took threewickets.

The final match between JWMarriott and UT police will beplayed at DAV-8 on Friday at10am. Brief scoresMatch 1: Chandigarh Police150 in 20 overs (Satnam 48Jaswinder 47), HDFC Bank50 in 16 overs (Amandeep Saggu22, Parminder 5 for 5)Match 2: Kudos Chemie: 94for 7 in 15 overs (Rajeev 22Abhilash 3 for 14, Mandeep Ra2 for 16), JW Marriott: 63 for 4in 7.4 overs (Shahbaz Khan 37)

HT Live Correspondent■ [email protected]

PANCHKULA: Harsh Gangwar returned a card of four-over-par 76 points, while TavleenBatra finished with 13-over-par85, to lead the respective boysand girls’ sections of Category A after round one of the inauguraltournament of the CGA JuniorCircuit at the Panchkula Golf Course on Thursday.

Nearly 73 budding golfers teed off on the opening day ofthe event.

In boys’ Category A, Khush-manraj Singh shot six-over-par78 to be placed second, whileAnant Singh Alhahwat, at sev-en-over-par 79 was third.

In girls’ Category A, Kianaat Singh returned a card of 93 to be placed second.

In Category B, Jaiveer Singh Sandhu led the pack with six-over-par 78. He leads his nearestrival Vignesh Thakur by fourstrokes. Thakur finished theday on 82.

Karandeep Kochhar was five strokes behind the leader, finish-ing the day on 11- over-par 83. Jaiveer had 10 pars and onebirdie in his opening day round.

In the recently concludedSouthern Golf Challenge,Jaiveer had finished second.

In the girls’ Category B,Sonell Malik led the field witha card of 84, while Precious

Kelson, with a card of 112, was the leader in Category C.

With a card of 84, Vausundhra

Thiara led Category D, whileMyra Jawanda scored 73 to finish atop the leaderboard

in Category E. In the boys’Category C, Aadil Bedi was leader with a three-over-par

75. Yuvraj Singh (82) andHarmanbir Singh Bajwa (85)were second and third, respec-

tively. Arnav Jain led Category

D with a card of 88. He was followed by Mandaar Singh Prashar at the second positionwith a day’s card of 90.

Manjot Singh, who was lead-ing Category E, had a card of 51.

Prize distribution will take place on June 21 at the CGA GolfRange. Haryana chief secretaryPK Chaudhery will give awaythe prizes to the winners.

Day 1: Harsh, Tavleen,Jaiveer capture lead

■ Precious Kelson in action on the opening day of the CGA Junior Golf Tournament at the Panchkula Golf Course on Thursday. SANT ARORA/HT

HT Live Correspondent■ [email protected]

CHANDIGARH: Sohrab Singh with-stood a two-hour long contest,and a tough opponent in NikhilSandhu, to clinch the under-18boys’ singles title of the TotalTennis Championship that con-cluded at Swami Ram Tirath School, Phase 4, in SAS Nagar,on Thursday.

While the two players put upa close fight in the opening set,Sohrab lost focus at the crucialstage to let the game slip away. As a result, Sandhu pipped hisopponent 7-5 to take lead.

But the loss did not fluster

Sohrab as he bounced backstrongly in the next two sets.

The gritty player rode onsolid groundstrokes and boom-ing serves to win the second set6-4, thus bringing the match onan even keel. In the third set,Sandhu raced to a 4-1 lead.

But Sohrab played someexquisite shots to level thescore at 4-4 all. In the last twogames, Sohrab did well to keephis nerve, and won the set 6-4,to seal the deal in his favour.

In another closely foughtcontest, Sidarth Goyal got thebetter of Akshit Chhabra 7-5, 6-3 to walk away with the tophonour in the under-12 boys’

singles section. Akshit, however,made up for the loss by winningthe under-14 trophy, beatingSavneet 6-0, 6-4 in the process.

Girls’ sectionCategory E: Myra Jawanda(73); Category D: 1. Vausundhra Thiara (84), 2. Anya Bindra (104); Category C: 1. PreciousKelson (112), 2. Vanishka Sharma (124); Category B: 1. Sonell Malik (84); 2. Ashi Jain(90), 3. Muskanmeet (100);Category A: 1. Tavleen Batra (85), 2. Kianaat Singh (93);

Boys’ sectionCategory E: 1. Manjot Singh(51), 2. Aditya (53); Category D:1. Arnav Jain (88), 2. MandaarSingh Prashar (90); CategoryC: 1. Aadil Bedi (75), 2. Yuvraj Singh (82), 3. Harmanbir SinghBajwa (85); Category B: 1.Jaiveer Singh Sandhu (78), 2.Vignesh Thakur (82), 3.Karandeep SinghKochhar (83); Category A :Harsh Gangwar (76), 2.Khushmanraj Singh (78), 3.Anant Singh Alhahwat (79).

RESULTSjuniorgolfcircuit

Sohrab keeps Nikhil at bay, clinches under-18 title

UT police, Marriott register victories toset up title clash

THE CHANDIGARH POLICE TEAM THRASHEDHDFC BANK BY 100 RUNS, WHILE MARRIOTT BEAT KUDOS ON THE BASIS OF NET RUN-RATE

RESULTS (ALL FINALS)Under-12 boys’ section: SidarthGoyal bt Akshit Chhabra 7-5, 6-3.

Under-14 boys’ section: AkshitChhabra bt Savneet 6-0, 6-4.

Under-18 boys’ section: SohrabSingh bt Nikhil Sandhu 5-7, 6-4,6-4.

■ Akshit Chhabra in action during the Total Tennis Championship at Swami Ram Tirath School in Phase 4,SAS Nagar, on Thursday. The player had mixed fortunes on the concluding day of the event. Chhabra lostthe under-12 final to Sidarth Goyal, but won the under-14 trophy by beating Savneet. HT PHOTO

HT Live Correspondent■ [email protected]

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab CricketAssociation (PCA) has organ-ised an off-season camp for itssenior team players at the PCA Stadium in SAS Nagar. Thecamp, which started last week,

includes 13 pacers and five bats-men who are training under thesupervision of former Indianfast bowler Harvinder Singh.

The main objective of orga-nising the camp is to help theparticipating players maintainfitness and polish their bowl-ing skills before the start of the

domestic season.The morning and evening

sessions at the camp are beingdevoted to physical fitness andnet practice, respectively.

The players attending thecamp are: Bowlers: SiddharthKaul, Navdeep Singh, BeantSingh, Baltej Singh, Deepak

Bansal , Harmeet SinghBarinder Singh, ManinderSingh, Khushpreet SinghRobin Dhillon, SiddharthSharma, Amritpal SinghKaran Ahluwalia. BatsmenMandeep Singh, Ravi InderSingh, Kunwarveer Raina, LoveKumar and Mohit Handa.

PCA organises senior off-seasoncamp for medium pacers & bastmen

Press Trust of India■ [email protected]

CHANDIGARH:Local golfers AbhijitChadha, Sujjan Singh andAjeetesh Sandhu did not get thebest of the starts as the trio was lying down on the leaderboard on day one of the WorldwideHoldings Selangor Masters golftournament in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia, on Thursday.

While Chadha returned a card of 74 to finish the day astied 55, Sujjan was at the 79thplace with the first round score of 75. With a scorecard of 84,Sandhu lying further below.

Abhinav Lohan, playing in hisfirst season on the Asian Tour, carded an even par 71 to end asthe best Indian in tied 19th spot.

Anirban Lahiri, C Muniyappaand Rahil Gangjee carded two-over 73 each to be placed tied43rd.

T h a i l a n d ’ s P a r i y a Junhasavasdikul rediscovered some of his best form to storminto early first round lead witha five-under-par 66.

The 28-year-old, who has oneAsian Tour title under his belt,snared eight birdies against onebogey and a double bogey at a sun baked Seri Selangor Golf Club to lead by one stroke fromKorea’s Baek Seuk-hyun in theUSD 400,000 tournament.

Talented Malaysian amateurGavin Green continued to show his promise with a measured 68for joint third place alongsidesix-time Asian Tour winner LinWen-tang of Chinese Taipei andAustralian duo Wade Ormsby and Adam Groom.

Pariya has not hit top formin 2013 but his game clicked atSeri Selangor, which is playinghard and fast due to the dryconditions.

After turning in 31, hedropped a double bogey on thethird hole before bouncing backwith three straight birdies for the early lead.

■ Punjab bowlers hone their skills during the net session of the ongoing off-season camp at the PCA Stadium in SAS Nagar. HT PHOTO

LOCAL GOLFERSFALTER AT MALAYSIAN EVENT

Cricket coach dies in road mishap

NEW DELHI: Young Indian boxer Sunil Kumar continued hisimpressive run at the ChinaOpen tournament by reachingthe semifinals of the 52kg cat-egory in Guiyang on Thursday.By entering the last-four stage, the Bhiwani lad also secured thebronze medal for himself.

Besides Sunil, who also had a bronze at the KonstantinKorotkov Memorial, rookiesAjay Kumar (56kg), Jaideep(75kg) and Manjeet Singh (+91kg) also made it to thepenultimate round and haveassured themselves of a medal.

In the quarterfinals atGuiyang -- under the new ‘Ten-

Point must-scoring system’ -- Sunil, a silver medallist atthe inaugural China Open, was up against Artem Mirazaev of Russia.

With his quick-fire jabsand swift body blows he putthe Russian boxer on the backfoot, right from the very start.Mirazev did well to squeezein a few punches, but in theend it was Sunil who emerged triumphant on a split decisionto march into the semi-finals ofthe tournament. He now takeson local lad Chang Young for a place in the finals.

Ajay, 19, playing his firstinternational competition, also

assured himself of at least abronze medal. He beat Filipinoboxer Nico Magliquian in asplit decision to advance intothe semis, where he now takeson You Lunhai from ChinaMiddleweight boxer Jaideepalso secured a semi-final spotby overhauling Kazakh boxerChingiz Verdybekov.

But the Indian contingentsuffered early setbacks in thewomen’s division of the tour-nament. Pinki Jangra (51kg)Preeti Beniwal (60kg) andNeetu Chahal (75kg) all failedto make it past the quarterfinalsafter losing out to their respec-tive opponents. IANS

Haryana boxer Sunil securesbronze medal in China Open