Aaron D’Souza became the fourth Indian swimmer after Virdhawal Khade, Sandeep Sejwal and Saurabh Sangvekar to qualify for the London Olympics, says a report in TOI. Aaron achieved the Olympic ‘B’ standard qualifying mark in the 200m freestyle event at the Singapore National Age Group Swimming Championships, clocking a creditable one minute 50.89 seconds in the final. He had clocked one minute 51.52 seconds in the prelims, well inside the FINA/Olympic Invitation Time of 1:51.59, the qualifying mark for the London Games. The Olympic ‘A’ standard time is set at 1:47.82.
According to a report in The Hindu, Kerala, boasting the likes of junior international stars like P.S. Jeena, Stephy Nixon and Soniya Joy, would have expected to cruise past Tamil Nadu in its opening encounter of the 26{+t}{+h}Federation Cup basketball tournament here on Wednesday. But surprisingly, the host women were forced to sweat and slog for a 47-31 victory at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium. At one stage towards the end of the third quarter, the host just had a two-point lead at 28-26.
Meanwhile, Mukesh Rawat of Uttarakhand Police scored double in the All India Police meet by winning 5,000m race on Wednesday. On the opening day, he had won 10,000m event.
In the 400mh, Joman PP (Kerala Police) triumphed with 54.04 secs while the discus throw honours went to Krishna KR Sharma (Bihar Police). Raminder Singh (CRPF) won the high jump.
In the women's category L Chaobachanu (CRPF) won the 5,000m race while the 400mh was won by Sapinder Kaur (Punjab Police). The pole vault event saw Barnali Rai (CRPF) leap 3.25m while the triple jump event was won by Anisha K Vijyan (CRPF).
According to a report in The Tribune, the sports ministry has drawn a concrete ‘action plan’ for the preparation of the Games scheduled to be held in London. According to Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken, till date 29 individual sportspersons in 5 disciplines and Indian Men’s Hockey team have qualified for participation at the London Games.
The ministry has identified 16 sporting disciplines for systematic and scientific training and their funding is being done by the ministry. According to officials in the ministry an ‘Operation Excellence for London Olympics 2012’ (OPEX 2012) project has been launched by the ministry with a view to prepare athletes and teams for London Olympics.
