Jeev milkha Singh might be recovering from the flu that he picked up from his son but the Indian ace golfer isn’t letting that take a toll on his game. “Beware of the sick golfer,” said Jeev to The Times Of India, mentioning what he had to improve to return to winning ways. “I have to tidy up my short game,” he said, as he made his short journey from the putting area to the driving range at the DLF Golf & Country Club. I have no complaints with my ball-striking but ultimately all that matters is how you perform on the greens,” he added.
There will also be the added home pressure when he steps out for the opening round of the 1.8m euros Avantha Masters on Thursday, but his goals were set for the year, not this event alone. “I want to get back into the World top 100. And I want to win again,” said the 40-year-old, whose last of three European titles came in 2008.
Meanwhile, Indian hockey's former technical adviser Ric Charlesworth, who had a controversial stint with the team, still expects his former wards to qualify for London Olympics during the qualifiers starting on Saturday. "India still has some very exciting players and can play some fabulous hockey but perhaps they are not consistent enough and they haven't planned well enough for a long time," the Australian said, according to a report in The Tribune.
India had a mixed luck in badminton as Ajay Jayaram shepherded the Indian men's team to a 5-0 whitewash of host Macau in Thomas Cup but the women failed to make a wining start as they lost 2-3 to Malaysia in the Uber Cup (Asia Zone) tournament on Tuesday, says a report in The Hindu.
Meanwhile, according to a report in The Hindu, Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran was held to an easy draw by Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan in the seventh round of the ‘A' group of Aeroflot international open chess tournament here. Sasikiran took his tally to four points after the draw and will need a good finish now in order to save important rating points.
Vidit Gujrathi kept himself in contention for his final Grandmaster norm settling for a quick and easy draw with Ivan Salgado Lopez of Spain. Amongst other Indians in the fray in the seventh round, S.P. Sethuraman played out a draw with Abhijeet while B. Adhiban achieved the same result against Alexander Ipatov of Russia.
Anisa Sayyed did well in the final round as she beat Olympic quota holder Rahi Sarnobat by 1.6 points in the 25-metre women's sport pistol in the 12th Kumar Surendra Singh shooting championship at the Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Tuesday, says a report in The Hindu. After conceding a one-point lead to the young Rahi who shot 584 in qualification, Anisa shot 15 tens in the 20-shot final to nose ahead and win.
In men's air pistol, Amanpreet Singh showed his class as he won the gold with a 1.5-point margin. However, it was the 22-year-old Engineer Amit Kumar Pilaniya who stole the show as the shot up from No.7 to take the silver with an impressive 102.5 in the final.