Indian sports wrap, September 6: Three Indians in contention for gold medals at World Wushu Championship

WUSHU

India shines at World Wushu Championship in Brazil

India has had a strong show at the 17th World Wushu Championship in Brazil so far with three women entering the finals and two men advancing to the knockout stages.

In the women’s category, Aparna showcased brilliant skills, defeating Tharisa Dea Florientina from Indonesia in 52 kg category to secure her place in the final, according to a release shared by Wushu Association of India.

Aparna will next face Ngo Thi Bhuong Nga from Vietnam in the gold medal bout on Sunday.

In 60kg category, Kareena Kaushik displayed exceptional strength and strategy to overcome Nathalia Briquesi Silva from Brazil in her semifinal clash. She will battle against China’s Xiaowei Wu for the title.

Shivani stunned Ekaterina Valchuk from Russia with her dominant performance and confirmed her spot in the 75kg final, where she will battle with Shahrbano Mansouriyaan Semiromi from Iran.

Among men, Sagar Dahiya entered the semifinal after a commanding show in 56kg category and will face Carlos Baylon Jr from Philippines for a place in the final on Sunday.

In 75 kg, Vikrant Baliyan will compete in the quarterfinal against Gensheng Jin from China, aiming to join his teammates in the medal rounds.

– PTI

SQUASH

Veer to be top seed at PSA Challenger

Veer Chotrani in the men’s section and Amina El Rihany of Egypt in the women’s event will be the top seeds in the second PSA Challenger of the HCL Squash Indian Tour to be staged at the Otters Club in Mumbai from September 8 to 12.

Suraj Kumar Chand, Rahul Baitha, Om Semwal, Ayaan Vaziralli, Yusha Nafees and Gurveer Singh will be the other Indian players in the men’s event offering USD 9,000 prize money.

The other players will be from Egypt, Malaysia, Japan, France, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Kuwait, Iran, Malta and New Zealand.

Akanksha Salunkhe will be seeded second in the women’s event which will also be offering USD 9,000 prize money. Tanvi Khanna, Shameena Riaz, Anjali Semwal, Nirupama Dubey, Janet Vidhi and Tanishka Jain will be
some of the other Indian players. About a half dozen more Indian players are also scheduled to figure in the women’s draw, including Sanya Vats and Unnati Tripathi.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

Nafees, Rudra clinch U-19 titles at Indian Junior Open

Yusha Nafees and Rudra Singh clinched the boys’ and girls’ under-19 titles respectively at the Indian Junior Open Squash Championships.

Nafees, who was part of India’s bronze medal-winning squad at the Asian Junior Team Championships earlier this year, rallied to defeat Rachit Shah in a five-game thriller to secure the top prize at the Rajasthan Squash Academy.

In the girls’ U-19 final, Rudra got the better of Vyomika Khandelwal in straight games.

– PTI

TABLE TENNIS

Focus on Manush Shah, Payas Jain as UTT Ranking event returns to Delhi after 13 years

The spotlight will be on defending champion Manush Shah and local favourite Payas Jain when the second UTT National Ranking Table Tennis Championships return to the capital after 13 years on Sunday.

The absence of top paddlers Manav Thakkar, G Sathiyan and Sreeja Akula has not dimmed the scale of the competition, which has drawn close to 3,000 entries across 12 categories — surpassing the 2,587 entries at the season opener in Vadodara.

The championships will open with the men’s and women’s singles, where Shah (RBI) and Anusha Kutumbale (Railways) — winners in Vododara — will look to extend their winning form.

Manav, India’s only men’s player in the world top-50, and Sathiyan are recovering from injuries ahead of the Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar next month, while Sreeja, the lone Indian woman in the top-50, has opted out to focus on the continental event.

Their absence opens up the field for emerging talents to make a mark.

Manush will face tough tests from Jain, who will enjoy home support. He had reached the semifinals at Vadodara. Then there are Sudhanshu Grover and Yashansh Malik, who have the wherewithal to beat the best in business on a given day.

Among women, Anusha will face strong competition from Diya Chitale, runner-up Swastika Ghosh, Yashaswini Ghorpade and Taneesha Kotecha.

Harmeet Desai, SFR Snehit and Akash Pal also add depth to the men’s draw, while a new crop of Under-19 talent — Ankur Bhattacharjee, Divyansh Srivastava, P.B. Abhinand and Syndrela Das will aim to make an impression.

The junior sections (U-17, U-15, U-13, U-11) will once again showcase the sport’s grassroots strength.

– PTI

MOTORSPORT

Classy Rahil Pillarisetty wins Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open race

Notching his third win in five starts in the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open class, Hyderabad’s Rahil Pillarisetty (RACR Castrol Power1) extended his lead on the points table in the third round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the Madras International Circuit in Chennai.

The day’s other winners in the National championship included Rajender Beedani (MAI Racing) from Hyderabad in the Stock 165cc (Novice) category, and Chennai’s Jagathishree Kumaresan (One Racing) who won a truncated Girls (Stock 165cc) race.

Meanwhile, Raj Kumar (Motul Sparks Racing) from Coimbatore, topped the Stock 165cc (Novice) race and Mohamed Mikhail (Mad Rabbit Racing) from Thiruvallur, won a close contest in the Stock 301-400cc (Novice) race while Venkatesh Iyyappan (Rookies Racing) took the honours in the Pro-Stock 200cc Open race that saw fraction of a second separating the top three.

– Team Sportstar

MORE SPORTS

CISF recruits 332 athletes

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has played a significant part in strengthening the Indian sports ecosystem by recruiting 332 athletes, including 179 women, in its largest ever drive for sports appointments.

With all of them being national level medallists, and more than 75 per cent of the athletes in the 18-22 age group, the CISF hopes to groom them to reach the podium in the Commonwealth Games in 2030 and the Olympics in 2036.

From 14,000 applications and 10,000 appearing for the trials conducted at 16 locations including Guwahati, Chandigarh and Bhopal, the CISF was able to prune the best candidates which includes 18 international gold medallists. The whole process had started in May, and the appointment letters are being sent to the athletes.

With such a drive, the CISF aims to raise 34 new teams of men and women in several disciplines including archery, tennis, badminton and cycling. The first focus will be to top the medals table in the All India Police Games.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

SHOOTING

Bhowneesh, Neeru stay top

Bhowneesh Mendiratta continued to stay on top in men’s trap with 99 out of 100 after four rounds in the fourth National shotgun selection trials at the Bhucho Village shooting range in Punjab.

Vivaan Kapoor and Zoravar Singh Sandhu followed with 95 each, While Shardul Vihan and Kynan Chenai had shot 93.

Shapath Bhardwaj, Jaswinder Singh and Lakshay Sheoran slipped to 92, after having fared better in the first two rounds.

In women’s trap, Neeru Dhanda continued to be in the lead with 92, and was followed two points adrift by Aashima Ahlawat. Kirti Gupta, Rajeshwari Kumari and Sabeera Haris were on 89, while Preeti Rajak was on 86.

The fifth round will be followed by the final for the top six on Sunday.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

GOLF

Pranavi Urs makes modest start in Aramco Houston

Pranavi Urs of India got off to a fair start in the Individual segment of the Aramco Houston Championship, carding an even par-7 in the opening round at the Golfcrest Country Club.

Fellow Indians Avani Prashanth and Tvesa Malik shot identical 73s to be tied-56th.

– PTI

Annika win second leg of US Kids Golf India Local Tour

Annika Chendira once again emerged as the standout performer, winning the second leg of the US Kids Golf India Local Tour at the Classic Golf and Country Club in Gurugram.

After carding a three-under 69 to clinch the opening leg, Annika returned an even-par 72 on Friday to edge out Aanya Dandriyal by one stroke.

– PTI

Shubhankar’s struggles continue, makes early exit in Ireland

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma shot another disappointing round on the second day to make an early exit from the Amgen Irish Open at the Palmer North Course.

Sharma shot 7-over 79 to follow up on his first day score of 6-over 78 at The K Club.

This took Sharma to a total of 13-over par on the DP World Tour event.

– PTI

Saptak Talwar makes cut in Poland

India’s Saptak Talwar shot a one-over 71 in the second round of the GAC Rosa Challenge at the Rosa Golf Club to comfortably make the cut at the Hotel Planner Tour event.

Talwar, who had missed the cut at last week’s Dormy Open after a run of eight successive cuts made on the Tour, sits tied-48th with a two-round total of two-under 138 (67-71) at the par-70 course.

– PTI

HOCKEY

Amandeep hat-trick takes Roundglass to top

A hat-trick by penalty corner specialist Amandeep Singh helped Roundglass Academy to a 5-0 victory over Surjit Academy, Jalandhar, in the Punjab hockey league at the Balbir Singh Senior International Stadium.

Gursewak Singh and Gurwinder Singh scored the other goals for Roundglass to put the team on top of the table with 14 points.

SAI, Sonipat, was in the second place with 12 points following its 5-0 victory over Ghumanhera Risers.

SDAT Academy, Tamil Nadu, bounced back from being 0-2 after three quarters to prevail over SGPC Academy, Amritsar, 2-1 in the shoot-out after finding the target twice in the fourth quarter.

J Arun was the hero for the winner, as he converted two goals in the shoot-out including a penalty stroke, after having scored one in the fourth quarter.

Goalkeeper S Karthikeyan made four saves for the Tamil Nadu team that included thwarting three penalty strokes. Skipper Jagjit Singh alone managed to find the target for the Amritsar team in the shoot-out.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Niki Poonacha wins Challenger title

Niki Poonacha, in partnership with Pruchya Isaro of Thailand, beat Jason Jung and Reese Stalder 6-4, 6-7(2), [10-8] in the doubles final of the $160,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Shanghai, China, on Saturday.

The champions collected 100 ATP points and $7,960. The runners-up got 60 points and $4,600. It was the 19th career doubles title for Niki, and the first of the season.

In the $30,000 ITF men’s event in Thailand, top seed S Mukund set up a final against third seed Dominik Palan of Czechia, by outplaying qualifier Dong Ju Kim of Korea 6-1, 6-2.

-Kamesh Srinivasan

CRICKET

KSCA Secretary’s XI inch closer to victory against Gujarat in Thimmappiah Memorial Cricket Tournament

KSCA Secretary’s XI inched closer to victory, skittling out Gujarat for 138 in the first innings and then reducing the visitors to 195 for seven in the second (following on) on the third and penultimate day of their KSCA Dr. (Capt.) K. Thimmappiah Memorial Cricket Tournament encounter at the Kini Sports Arena here on Saturday.

Gujarat started the day from an overnight 73 for five, but speedster M. Venkatesh scalped five wickets (5/53) in the first essay, including the last four batters. 

By the time the rain stopped play, Gujarat had lost seven wickets in the second innings too, with 40 runs still required to make Secretary’s XI bat again.

-Team Sportstar

Published on Sep 06, 2025