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The week in Indian sports

WEIGHTLIFTING
Indians win three medals

Prague, July 12: Indian women bagged three medals, two silver and a bronze at the World junior weightlifting championships which concluded in Prague last week. Romi Devi claimed overall silver in the women 75 kg class, lifting 200 kg, and took bronze in clean and jerk, lifting 110 kg. She was fourth in snatch, with a lift of 90 kg. Liu Fang Hsiu of Chinese Taipei took overall gold by hoisting 210 kg.

In the women's 48kg , Tikana Gopal won silver in clean and jerk by lifting 90 kg but was pushed to fourth in the snatch where she could only manage fourth place with a total of 67 kg. She lost the overall bronze on body-weight as she was 390 grams excess to Mexico's Garcia Betsabe after they had identical totals of 157.5 kg. "I am disappointed to lose on body-weight. It has never happened before," she said. Tikana had a totalled 167 kg in the camp but missed 70 kg in snatch and 92 kg in clean and jerk. Chen Hsueh-Mei of Chinese Taipei took gold with 175kg and Peris Gemma of Spain won silver, lifting 160kg. Interestingly, world powerhouse China did not field a women's team.

In the plus 75 kg category, Geeta Rani finished seventh with a total of 195 kg; lifting 90kg in the snatch and 105kg in the clean and jerk. In the men's 69kg category , Gurcharan Singh was a poor 17th out of 29 competitors, managing only 260kg with lifts of 115kg in the snatch and 145kg in the clean and jerk.

MOTORSPORT
Narain, Parthiva win respective races

Indian champion Narain Karthikeyan was the cynosure of all eyes in Belgium when he beat the 32-strong grid involving top drivers from British and French Formula-Three circuits in an event hosted at the Formula-One circuit, Spa Francorchamps last week. Determined after his crash in the last race of the British Formula-Three championships, Narain's burning desire to win was evident in the qualifiers when he finished a creditable third. Narain positioned his Stewart Racing, Dallara Muegen, third on the grid with Frenchman Jonathan Cochet on pole and Japanese Takuma Sato ahead of him in second place.

Narain gave himself a steady start and made his first blinding pass when he overtook Cochet, who was seconded by Sato earlier. Narain's brilliant and dominant driving induced Sato to go into a huge spin at the first corner in the second lap. Narain, with no traffic ahead of him, raced away from the rest of the grid. He developed an unsurpassable lead of seven seconds in a matter of only three laps. Narain's performance and class was richly applauded. Also on the podium were Cochet and Matthew Zagarelli on the podium, who finished second and third respectively.

Meanwhile, there was more good news for Indian motor sport fans from Malaysia where young sensation Parthiva Sureswaran blasted his car to record his maiden victory in the 2'nd leg of the Formula Asia 2000 championship at the Shah Alam racing circuit last week. After securing pole position in the qualifying race, he maintained the lead throughout the next three races and finished with the highest tally of 73 points leaving his formidable rivals Wei Leong of Malaysia and Mark Goddard of Britain in second and third place with 62 and 49 points respectively. Pathiva created a new record with a qualifying time 1:29.009 seconds to earn the tag of the fastest Indian in Asia, erasing the old record of Narain Karthikeyan which was set in 1996.

BOXING
Army dominates Federation Cup
Chennai, July 15: The curtain came down on the Hotel Aadithya Federation Cup boxing championship without much fireworks at the Nehru Stadium indoor complex in Chennai last week. For the first time the gold medals went in different directions as not a single army outfit, including MEG, could field a strong contingent.

However, the domination of army pugilists under different units was inevitable, considering the number of finalists. At the halfway stage not a single team could get more than one gold medal. The army, through three gold medals in the heavy classes and one through Mangalam, finished on top.

J. Sandeep Kumar of Artillery (Hyderabad), rallied brilliantly to take the lightfly gold with a 8-6 verdict against Akil Kumar of Haryana, who looked rather subdued. Also in focus were V. Harikrishnan of India Red, Abdul Razak of MEG, R. Kannan and Md. Rasheed of Tamil Nadu. Akil's show lacked grace. The man who fought so well in the earlier rounds with good footwork and sharp punches was not sure of himself and was defensive. Sandeep picked up more points from the second round onward and by the time the fourth round came he was quite confident. Akil's effort to catch up failed.

Tamil Nadu's Kannan too disappointed the huge local crowed gathered here to cheer. S.K. Thappa of Assam Rifles swung into action quickly and Kannan was left behind as he could hardly throw any punch. He did not know how to tackle a boxer like Thappa whose swift movement and sustained attack gave him a clear edge. Blue eyed boy Mangalam of Army continued to be the blue-eyed boy of the judges. He got a standing count in the fourth round when Mahavir Singh of Delhi, stalking him throughout, stunned him with a solid right punch that made him buckle. Despite that Mangalam was declared winner in the bantam showdown with a 11-9 decision as the crowd booed.

Daniah of MEG, a tall man, did not do much and was mostly defensive. Yet Raju Chetri of Assam Rifles found it difficult to hit him for points. Finally, Daniah scraped through. Then came Venkatesh Harikrishnan's excellent exhibition of boxing skills against an experienced Kuttappa, who was in Cuba for training some time ago. In the first two rounds, Harikrishnan probed with a jab here and a punch there. But from the second round onward he showed his class. He moved away quickly and then moved in for the `kill'. In the third round he virtually toyed with his rival. Kuttappa had to chase to land his punches, but the India Red boy began to box like his brother Devarajan. With brilliant footwork and short and hard jabs Hari had reduced Kuttappa to a mediocre one. Hari even faked his punches and when Kuttappa was unsure he quickly moved in for his right that shook the confidence of the army boxer.

Manoj Panwar of Delhi did a clean job when he took on Abdul Razak of MEG in the light welter final. He was shorter than Razak, yet Panwar was right at the target and wrapped up the contest at 9-6. And then the crowd rooted for the local pugilist Mohammed Rasheed in the welter final. Rasheed did not fail his fans as he outclassed V.K. Tiwari of Artillery. Oozing confidence the tall and well built Rasheed hardly gave his rival any chance to take the initiative at any stage of the bout. Rasheed was so swift in his movements, Tiwari's attack ended in just wild swings, in the air.

The Tamil Nadu women boxers made a clean sweep by winning all the five gold medals on the final day and ended as team champion.

HOCKEY
Punjab and Sind Bank win Murugappa
Chennai, July 15: A golden goal it was that gave Punjab and Sind Bank the Gold Cup and the cash prize of Rs 60,000 in the Madras Cricket Club- Murugappa hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium last week. They beat Tamil Nadu XI 2-1. And the man who sent the hopes and aspirations of the Tamil Nadu team crashing into nothingness was Parminder Singh, who neatly deflected a crafty penalty-corner push by Sandeep Singh Ghuman into the boards after the teams went into the extra-time at 1-1. Tamil Nadu earned Rs. 40,000 for finishing runner-up.

Shocked as Punjab and Sind Bank was by a third minute goal, scored beautifully by Prabhakaran, the visiting team showed the resilience and fortitude to comeback to level and eventually take the cup. This perhaps underscores what experience and expertise means against the ephemeral sparkle and style of youth, which Tamil Nadu was during the tournament.

The Tamil Nadu players showed aesthetic touch, a pleasing approach, which appeared good enough to enmesh the tough PSB defence. The third minute goal from a splendid move initiated by Radhakrishnan only confirmed this. Radhakrishnan slipped down the line and crossed the ball. Cedric D'Cruz met the pass neatly and relayed the ball to Gopinath, whose push in gave Prabhakaran the gap to find the target. Delighted, understandably, the Tamil Nadu players were as did the supporters by the early success. And not many at that point would have envisaged a reverse for the home team.

So consistent and skilful was the frontline which dominated the exchanges that it looked as though PSB was only playing the second fiddle. Radhakrishnan prompted quite a few moves, assisted delectably by Karthik, Gopinath, and Vinod Kumar. In the mid- field, Muthukrishnan caught the attention, while the deep defenders Dixon and Karuppiah kept the rival attack under check. It must be said that Tamil Nadu frittered away a couple easy chances. A neat push by Karthik was driven well by Prabhakaran but the ball sailed over by inches. Not long after, Karthik fastened himself a loose ball but misdirected his shot.

Progressively PSB gained ascendency. Prompted brilliantly by the pivot, Sandeep Singh Ghuman, who exploited the wealth of his vintage years at the international level, PSB conceived a handful of forays. Not once did Sandeep put his foot wrong; strong in tackles and systematic in sparaying the passes, he was the man behind the outcome. Sanjiv Kumar, another veteran of class, kept the frontline busy with Lakwinder and Chandi accentuating the punch in the attack. Close on half time, Lakwinder Singh fumbled, missing an easy chance after a shot by Sanjiv beat the goalkeeper. But before half time, Sandeep Singh Ghuman produced the equaliser with a withering shot from a penalty corner.

Tamil Nadu had several phases of dominance in the second half too. Whenever Prabhakar surged there was panic in the rival defence. A powerful backhander by Vinod Kumar forced goalkeeper Maninder Singh to his wit's end, but the PSB custodian succeeded in keeping the score board at 1-1. A late rally by PSB with Lakwinder Singh missing the target pushed the match into extra- time, during which Parminder Singh exemplified the tenets of opportunism to create the telling moment of the contest.