BOXING

Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation

The Union Sports Ministry on 24 May 2013 gave its approval for a grant of 309.56 Lakhs rupees to Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation, Imphal for construction of gymnasium hall and procurement of gym equipments for the foundation. The grant will be disbursed from the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF). The grant will be released in installments on fulfillment of certain conditions that is required by NSDF Scheme. Mary Kom Regional Boxing Foundation is looking forward to create facilities at the new site allotted to it by the State Government of Manipur. Before this National Sports Development Fund released funds of 492 lakh rupees for Usha School of Athletics, Kozhikode, Kerala, for laying an 8 Lane Synthetic Track of international standard with supporting facilities.

Limassol Cup held in Cyprus

Indian boxers won the 2013 Invitational FXTM International Limassol Boxing Cup held in Limassol, Cyprus on 19 May 2013. They won 10 medals which included four gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals which ensured them the first rank. Indian boxers won the tournament on the European circuit for the first time.

Indian boxers performed in the following way:

• Reigning national champion Madan Lal (52kg) beat Ayigah Dodsi from Belgium to bag the flyweight title.

• Gold medallist at the 2009 Youth Olympic Games V Durga Rao (56kg) beat German Dieter Dier to bag his very first international medal on the senior tour.

• Mandeep Jangra (69kg) beat Victor Vega Blanco of Spain in a completely one sided affair to bag the welterweight title.

• Super heavyweight boxer Praveen Kumar (+91kg) won the fourth gold for Indiabeating Beguerni Hamza from Algeria.

• Manoj Kumar (64kg), Olympian Dinesh Kumar (91kg) and Sukhdeep Singh (75kg) won a silver medeal each.

• Earlier in the tournament, Anil Kumar (60kg), Jagroop Singh (81kg) and L Devendro Singh (49kg) reached the semi-finals and claimed a bronze medal each.

Senior National Women’s Boxing Championship 2013

Pugilist Preeti Beniwal on 22 May 2013 bagged the gold medal in Senior National Women’s Boxing Championship.

In the event held at Khatima, uttarakhand, Preeti out-punched Manipur’s Y Sandhya 22-9 in the final of the 60kg category.

Preeti Beniwal was born on 25 December 1987. She hails from Hisar. Her father Subey Singh is a boxing coach. Her elder sister is married to famous Indian Boxer Akhil Kumar. Preeti is employed with Haryana Police as sub inspector.

Preeti Beniwal’s Boxing Career

• Gold in 58th All India Police Women Boxing Championship, Pune, Maharashtra from 2010-04-06 to 2010-04-10.

• Gold in 4 N.C. Sharma Memorial Federation Cup Women Boxing Champioships 2008-09 at Nainital, Uttarakhand.

• Gold in 9th Senior Women National Boxing Championships at St. John’s College,, Agra from 2008-11-02 to 2008-11-07

• Gold in Trg.-cum-compet Canada, 2008

• Gold in Women Open Boxing Tournament Hanoi, 2006

VARIOUS

Thanthi TV-Asia Pacific Championship

The men’s and women’s finals of the Thanthi TV-Asia Pacific under-21 beach volleyball championship were won by Indonesia and Australia respectively. The final matches were played on 19 May 2013 at Marina beach in Chennai. In women category, The Australian pair of Mariafe Artacho and Jessyka Ngauamo defeated Japan’s Chiyo Suzuki and Satono Ishitsubo 21-11, 21-12. Mariafe and Jessyka’s all-round performance enabled an easy victory for Australia. The pair was exceptional and brilliant with smashes and blocks. The Australian pair didn’t have any trouble in both sets. Japanese women were not upto the mark. They made far too many errors at the net. They seemed unable to give their best.

In the men’s final, Indonesia’s Mohammad Ashfiya and Rendy Verdan beat Vladislav Pustynnikov and Sergey Bogatu of Kazakhstan 21-16, 19-21, 15-10. Although Kazakhstan players were playing together for the last five years at the International level, Indonesians played very aggressively against them. India lost in the quarterfinals but three teams managed a berth for the World u-21 championship to be held in Umag, Croatia from June 20 to 23. India-1 (Rajkumar & Yogaraj) & India-2 (Shankar & Mahesh Kumar) in men, and the women’s India-1 (R. Deepika & S. Eshwari) team made the grade. The top six teams in men and women will go to Croatia.

FIBA Asia 3×3 Basketball Tournament 2013

Indian women basketball team won gold in inaugural FIBA Asia 3×3 basketball tournament 2013 in Doha on 17 May 2013. India defeated Mongolia 21-14 in the final play-off. Mongolia had defeated Turkmenistan in the semi-finals. In the 3×3 format, this is the third consecutive gold medal of India. It won gold at South Asian Beach Games in Sri Lanka as well as Asian Beach Games in China in 2012 in the same format. In the Indian team, Geethu Anna Jose, Anita Pal Durrai, Manisha Dange and Pratima Singh were the key players. Indian team won all six games in the tournament. India was placed in the Group B. Geethu Anna Jose won the title of Best Player of the Tournament. India defeated Qatar 21-5 in the quarterfinals and Hong Kong 21-8 in the Semi-finals.

Commonwealth Championship

India on 10 May 2013 finished their candidature in the tournament with a record haul of 2 Silver and 7 Bronze in the 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships that concluded in New Delhi. One silver medal on behalf of India was won by Soumyajit Ghosh and Mouma Das in the mixed doubles event, and the other one was won by the men’s team earlier in the tournament. Indians represented the country in atleast six of the eight tournaments that included doubles too, but didn’t turned up to be successful in securing a gold medal for the country. At the same time, Singapore delivered the best and claimed gold in every category except the women’s individual competition. Mo Zhang from Canada pulled off the gold from Singapore’s world no 27 Mengyu Mu by securing a 4-3 win in the finals.

Volleyball Champions

Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka emerged volleyball champions at the 18th National Games for the Deaf at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Bangalore on 28 April 2013. Andhra Pradesh defeated Tamil Nadu 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 in the men’s final while in women’s category Karnataka defeated Andhra Pradesh 25-10, 19-25, 15-7 to win the title.

The 18th National Games for the deaf took place after a 17-year gap. It was participated by 21 Indian states.

IAAF World Challenge Meeting 2013

At the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Jamaica, Kingston, US-based discus thrower, Vikas Gowda clinched Gold on 5 May 2013 with the throw of 61.38 metres. He defeated Jamaicans Jason Morgan and Fedrick Dacres with throws of 60.96 and 59.30 metres respectively. Both these Jamaicans finished at the second and the third positions. In the 100 metres sprint, US’s Tyson Gay recorded 9.86 and secured the top most position. In women category, the best performance was that of US Gia Lewis-Smallwood with 62.41 metres. The IAAF World Challenge meeting in Jamaica was organised at the Kingston’s National Stadium.

Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award 2013

Somdev Devvarman, the winner of two gold medals at Asian Games in Guangzhou as well as singles gold medal in Commonwealth Games in India was recommended for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award 2013 by All India Tennis Association (AITA). Somdev Devvarman had formed Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) along with Mahesh Bhupati and Leander Peas.

Somdev Devvarman played a very important role in placing India at the World Group in Davis Cup. The Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali, on the other hand was recommended for Arjuna award, apart from Rushmi Chakravarthi, a women’s tennis player of India. Nandan Bal’s name was recommended for Dronacharya award. For the award of Dhyan Chand life time achievement, Vijay Amritraj was recommended.