Vijender will not miss Khel Ratna ceremony

Olympic bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh don't want to miss a life time opportunity that is Khel Ratan ceremony on 29 August at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. It may be recalled that Vijender was selected for Khel Ratan. In order to be present at the ceremony, Vijender has postponed his departure for the World Championships by a couple of days.

In fact, he had to depart for WC on August 27 with his nine member team but now he will fly on the night of August 29. Indian Boxing Federation (IBF) has allowed him to attend the ceremony along with team's assistant coach Jaidev Bisht who is to be awarded Dronacharya award the same day. Now Bisht will departure on the night of August 29.

In fact IBF had requested to held a separate award ceremony for these two but they didn't get any positive response from the sports ministry. So the IBF allowed the sportsmen to attend the ceremony themselves. It may be recalled that Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virendra Sehwag didn't attend the same kind of award ceremony for some reasons and had to face criticism.

Vishnu booked seat for quarterfinals

Vishnu Vardhan, top-seed in the ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament, outplayed his British rival Max Jones 6-1,3-6, 6-3. This win get him the quarterfinals' berth. Vishnu won the first set with classic game and lost the second one.

But he bounced back in the third set to register a deserving win. He will take on Rupesh Roy in the last eight. Rupesh Roy won his match against Manuja. After the win Vishnu said that he was not up to the mark and it will take some time to adjust on the court.

He felt the balls heavy and attempted to just play his game. “I like playing Rupesh. We have played a lot right from the junior days. He makes you play so much more and is a tough competitor,” said Vishnu as he viewed the quarterfinal outing.

India still in the race of semis'

BOSTON: Indian women's hockey team registered a convincing win over Chile. After this 3-1 win over Chile, Indian team is still in the race of semifinal at the Women's Junior Hockey World Cup here. For India Poonam Rani scored two goals in the 28th and 62nd minute. Roselin Dung Dung joined Poonam and scored a point in the 68th minute.


The first goal of the match was scored by Andrea Greene in the 15th minute for Chile. With this win, India now have six points but are behind England, Australia and Korea in the six-team Pool E. The Indians had gone down to England by a solitary goal in their pool opener.


In Sunday's match, Chile took the initial edge but the persistent Indians won the game with a strong comeback in the second half. The Chileans earned several penalty corners in the first half but apart from Andrea's strike, Indian goalkeeper Jasdeep Kaur did well to save all.

Gagan three steps away from top 200

NEW DELHI: Indian golfer Gaganjeet Bhullar's stunning performance is to take him to the top 200 world ranking. In addition to this, he is at seventh place in the Asian Tour Order of Merit.


Thanks to his maiden winning performance in Asian Tour title in Jakarta last month followed by back-to-back victories. However, Bhullar could not win the Brunei Open recently. As of now, he is at 203 world rankings. Among the other names from India, Jeev Milkha Singh tops the chart with 41 world golf rankings while Jyoti Randhawa captured 164th ranks.


Nevertheless, Bhullar is well ahead from US-based compatriot Arjun Atwal (310) and Delhi pro Shiv Kapur (422). Bhullar also continued to climb the Asian Tour Order of Merit ladder, occupying the seventh place, thanks to the USD 150,366 he earned from 10 events.

Thai stalwart Thongchai Jaidee leads the Order of Merit chart with USD 749,290 against his name, while Randhawa (246,745) is placed third in the list.