Preeja Sreedharan hitting top gear in Kenya

The dark clouds of uncertainty that hovered over India's distance ace have cleared. The steely determination that won India a gold and silver medal at the last Asian Games is back. Preeja Sreedharan, who is training alongside leading international prospects in Kenya, is slowly hitting top gear, says a report in The Times Of India.

Six weeks into her training in Eldoret, a backwater town that produced the likes of Kipchoge Keino and Cherono brothers, the Indian star hit a confident note as she targeted Olympics qualification marks. "I took part in the Discovery Kenya Cross Country race on January 22 and it was quite an experience. The field included several athletes who have won medals in the Olympics and World Championships and I finished 35th in a field of 130," Preeja told TOI from Eldoret, Kenya.

According to a report in The Hindu, Aditya Mehta offered glimpses of hitting form with an unfinished 134 against Yogesh Sharma on his way to a second win  in the round robin snooker league match of the Manish 79th National billiards and snooker championships here on Tuesday.

Drawn in a group from where he's expected to have a comfortable run into first round of the knock-out, Aditya took the first two frames without much fuss and provided sufficient spark to lift the snooker event from its mundane proceedings.

Andhra Pradesh's Lucky Vatnani, Chandigarh's Sumit Talwar, West Bengal's Brijesh Damani and RSPB's Shahbaaz Adil Khan, Siddharth Parikh, Durga Prasad and R. Girish, with three wins, entered the round of 32. Girish scored a thrilling black ball finish against Faisal on Monday.

Meanwhile, a four-member Indian team led by Tarun Sirohi will compete in the Snow Polo World Cup to be held at Tianjin, China, from Feb. 2 to 12. The top 12 teams in the world will compete in the tourney. The Indian team, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism, will play Hong Kong, US and South Africa in the league phase. The four best teams from each zone will make it to the quarterfinals.