Indian sports activities news wrap: March 9

Here are all the key updates, scores and outcomes of Indians from the world of sports activities on Saturday, March 9.

GOLF

Pranavi shoots 67 to occupy T-5 spot, Diksha playing cards 69 at Aramco Series

Indian golfers Pranavi Urs and Diksha Dagar shot positive rounds of 5-under and 3-under to be positioned Tied-Fifth and Tied-Sixteenth, respectively, on the primary day of the Aramco Team Series on the Feather Sound Country Club in Tampa, US.

Coming off strong Top-10 finishes in Morocco of their earlier outing, each the Indians had been inside putting distance of the leaders.

Pranavi, taking part in her rookie season, recorded a 5-under 67 however only one wanting the foursome pack of leaders at six-under.

Diksha, who started the day with a double bogey, picked up 5 birdies to complete at 3-under and was solely three behind the leaders.

Pranavi, taking part in with Bronte Law, the previous AIG Women’s Open winner, Sophia Popov and newbie Jim Boddy, additionally put herself in line for a crew win.

Along with their newbie, they shared the lead in crew standings with Team Pauline Roussin-Bouchard, the defending crew champions, who had Celine Hebron, Meghan MacLaren and newbie LuJain Omar Khalil, as teammates.

The crew occasion will end on the second day and if Pranavi and her crew win, she’s going to emulate Diksha, who had received within the Aramco Series London two seasons in the past.

Pranavi, winner of the Order of Merit on her dwelling Tour in 2022 with 5 wins, beginning on the tenth, parred her first three holes earlier than stringing 5 birdies in a row and turned in 5-under 31. A sixth birdie on the primary and yet one more one on the fourth noticed her rise to 7-under and into sole lead.

Then got here the frustration with a double bogey on the sixth, her fifteenth gap of the day. She ended at 5-under and one behind the leaders.

Pranavi, who fired a gap spherical of 67 (-5), mentioned, “It definitely feels great to get off to a hot start and I feel like I’ve been doing that quite often for the past four rounds now, but I just couldn’t quite finish it. Five-under was not bad and I will take it. I was really good off the tee today and that put me in good position to get good approaches, except for one which caused a double, but apart from that I have been hitting it good and putting has been good too.”

She was reasonably constant all through the day, lacking the golf green solely thrice, however on two of these events she managed to par.

Also she missed the greens in regulation solely twice and solely as soon as, on the fifth, it price her dearly with double bogey. She wanted 29 putts.

Diksha discovered each fairway however missed the greens in regulation on her final three holes, although she scrambled for pars every time. The begin for a double was her solely blemish.

“I started with a double bogey and then I had a bad bounce and went into the bunker. I couldn’t come on to the green. Then I four-putted. I didn’t think about that too much. I stayed calm and focused on every shot. I then gained very good momentum, and I had to fight for it. It was a good recovery and it turned out very well,” Diksha mentioned.

“I’m going to focus on one shot at a time because it’s going to be a different game due to the weather change. I’m going to ensure that I’m playing a good game.”

– PTI

Anirban Lahiri drops to Tied 31 in Hong Kong

Anirban Lahiri shot an underwhelming 1-over 71 and dropped to tied 31 within the Liv Golf Hong Kong match right here on Saturday.

Lahiri, the one Indian within the League, shot 4-under 66 on the primary day and was tied 11, however after his 71, he dropped down the leaderboard.

Lahiri had 4 bogeys towards three birdies on the Hong Kong Golf Club. His crew, Crushers, additionally dropped to tied fourth.

First-round co-leader Abraham Ancer birdied 5 of his ultimate eight holes for an eight-under 62 and took a five-stroke lead after two rounds. He shot 63 within the first spherical and now sits at 15-under 125 after the second spherical.

American Harold Varner III (64-66) and Spain’s Eugenio Chacarra (64-66), who shot second-round 66s, had been tied for second.

-PTI

SQUASH

Urwashi storms into Bristol Open semis

India’s Urwashi Joshi is one step away from her maiden Professional Squash Association ultimate, as she booked a semifinal spot in type on the University of the West of England the Bristol Open.

The 28-year-old rallied to beat higher-ranked Australian fifth seed Erin Classen September 11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 within the quarterfinals of the USD 3000 PSA Challenger occasion late on Friday.

World No. 153 Urwashi, semifinalist on the 2023 National Championships, will meet higher-ranked Breanne Flynn of Ireland within the last-four stage.

Meanwhile, Breanne, ranked 139 on this planet, eased previous fourth seed Colette Sultana (Malta) 3-0 in her quarterfinal outing.

– Team Sportstar

GYMNASTICS

Ace gymnast Dipa finishes 4th in Baku Apparatus World Cup

Star Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar completed a creditable fourth within the girls’s vault occasion on the ongoing Baku Apparatus World Cup within the capital metropolis of Azerbaijan. Dipa, who completed fourth within the vault occasion on the 2016 Rio Olympics, scored 13.716 factors within the occasion which concludes on Sunday.

Bulgaria’s Valentina Georgieva received the gold with a rating of factors forward of Korea’s Ok An Chang, who scored 13.783 factors.

Panama’s Karla Navas completed third with 13.733 factors.

Dipa was ignored of the Indian squad for the final Asian Games as she didn’t fulfil Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) standards of a top-eight end within the final 12 months previous to the Hangzhou continental occasion regardless of topping the trials.

Dipa, that point, was serving a two-year ban because of an anti-doping violation.

The ace Indian gymnast subsequent will likely be seen in motion within the ultimate leg of the World Cup in Doha, which is ready to be held from April 17-20. Earlier, one other Indian Pranati Nayak had received a bronze medal within the vault occasion on the FIG Apparatus World Cup in Cairo final month.

-PTI

TENNIS

SD Prajwal Dev loses doubles ultimate

SD Prajwal Dev in partnership with David Pichler of Austria was crushed 6-1, 7-5 within the doubles ultimate by Thomas Fancutt and Hunter Reese within the $41,000 Challenger tennis match in Kigali, Rwanda, on Saturday.

The champion crew collected 50 ATP factors and $2,140. The runners-up bought 30 factors and $1,250.

The outcomes:

$41,000 Challenger, Kigali, Rwanda

Doubles (ultimate): Thomas Fancutt (Aus) & Hunter Reese (USA) bt SD Prajwal Dev & David Pichler (Aut) 6-1, 7-5.

$15,000 ITF males, Kish Island, Iran

Doubles (ultimate): Matyas Fuele & Gergely Madarasz (Hun) bt Ishaque Eqbal & Adil Kalyanpur 6-4, 3-6, [10-6].

-Kamesh Srinivasan

POLO

Rajnigandha Achievers defeats Jindal Panther

Chris Mackenzie scored six targets to energy Rajnigandha Achievers to a 8-3 victory over Jindal Panther within the Sawai Man Singh Gold Vase polo match on the Jaipur Polo floor right here on Saturday.

In the ultimate on Sunday, Ranigandha Achievers will play Delta Polo.

Meanwhile, within the DG RVS Cup ultimate, 61st Cavalry beat Salvo 10-4.

The outcomes: Rajnigandha Achievers 8 (Chriis Mackenzie 6, Dhruvpal Godara 2) bt Jindal Panther 3 (Siddhant Sharma 2, Simran Shergill).

-Kamesh Srinivasan

BOXING

World heavyweight boxing sequence in Kochi in August

The World Heavyweight DJMC Series Boxing Championship will likely be held in Kochi in August and a few large names are anticipated.

“We will have a total of 10 bouts, seven professional and three amateur, and the event is likely to be held towards the end of August. All the amateur bouts will feature Indians,” mentioned Dunstan Paul Rozairo the chairman of DJMC which can organise the championship, on the occasion’s launch right here on Friday evening.

“We may have a couple of title bouts too. Once we finalise the boxers, we can announce the dates.”

Costa Rica’s Hanna Gabriels, the World girls’s heavyweight champion, was the large star on the championship’s launch operate right here.

The occasion, which will likely be collectively organised by the World Boxing Council and the National Sports Mission, is predicted to have boxers from 12 international locations.

-Stan Rayan

ATHLETICS

Walker Aarti breaks junior nationwide file

Haryana race walker Aarti broke the ladies’s 10,000m race stroll nationwide file whereas Odisha’s Bapi Hansda rewrote the lads’s 400m meet file within the 22 ^nd National Federation Cup junior (under-20) athletics championships right here on Saturday.

The outcomes (winners solely): Men: 100m: Dondapati Mrutyam Jaya (Odi) 10.67s. 400M: Bapi Hansda (Odi) 46.90s MR, OR 46.93. 1500m: Rahul Sarnaliya (Utd) 3:49.00s. 110m hurdles: Hariharan Kathiravan (TN) 14.09s. Discus throw: Ritik (Chd) 56.32m. Long leap: Mohd Atta Sazid (Har) 7.53m. Hammer throw: Prateek (Har) 68.16m. Decathlon: Piyush Raj (Bihar) 6187. 10,000m race stroll: Himanshu Kumar (Ukd) 41:55.00s.

Women: 100m: Sakshi Champlal (Gujarat) 12.09s. 400M: Dodla Sai Sangeetha (Tel) 55.13 secs. 1500M: Laxita Vinod Sandilea (Guj) 4:25.77s. 100m hurdles: Unnathi Aiyappa (Kar) 14.05 secs. Pole vault: V. Karthika (TN) 3.70m. Discus throw: Nitika Kumari (Raj) 50.17m. 10,000m race stroll: Aarti (Har) 47:21.04s NR, OR 47:30.94.

Friday’s outcomes: Men: Pole vault: Kuldeep Kumar (UP) 5.10m MR, OR 5.00. Shot put: Siddharth Choudhary (Raj) 19.08m.

Women: Long leap: Pavana Nagaraj (Kar) 6.01m.

-Stan Rayan