Pune:

The picturesque Balewadi Sports Complex looked resplendent against the Baner Hillock, washed clean by the steady drizzle since afternoon. Yet, some 50 odd fans braved the pitter-patter to gather at the warm up ground as Indian quartermiler MR Poovamma went through her drills on the eve of Asian Track and Field Championships, on Tuesday evening.

As the chief coach Bahadur Singh watched keenly from a distance, another coach, N. Ramesh was busy explaining to a group of people how much it depends on the young 400 metres runner to lift the sagging morale of Indian athletics after the doping scandal involving six top female runners threatened to break the backbone of the sport.

“With all top female 400 metres runners including Ashwini and Mandeep being banned for doping, some felt India’s supremacy in Asia in this event would be over,” said Ramesh.

“We were once again able to build a team from the scratch that would be hard to beat in Asia. If Poovamma is our best bet, then equally talented are girls like Nirmala and Anu Mariam Jose.”

Having established herself as the top quartermiler of the country, Poovamma is placed second in the Asian lists for the season with her 52.75 recorded at Fed Cup at Patiala. For the record, No. 1 Japanese Haruka Sugiura, 52.52, is not competing here.

Poovamma should be a strong contender for gold; she had swept the three legs of the Asian Grand Prix series this season. Yulia Rakhmanova of Kazakhstan is expected to be her closest challenger. Gone are the days when India returned home with 10 gold medals from the Asian meet like they did in 1985 in Jakarta.

India are no longer considered an athletics superpower in the continent and in the last meet in Kobe, they managed to win only one gold through triple jumper Mayookha Johny.

Yet, in the 20th edition of the Championship beginning here Wednesday, India, being represented by a record number of 107 athletes, are expected to win a handful of medals. While the hosts have the luxury of naming three participants in each of the 42 events, the fact that as many as 21 events won’t see Asia’s current toppers would also definitely help the athletes from the home country. For being the hosts, India can expect to finish second or third in the medals tally, which has been dominated by the Chinese athletes for nearly 30 years now.

In the next one week, several Indians are expected to finish on the podium — Vikas Gowda (men’s discus), Sudha Singh (women’s 3000m steeplechase), MR Poovamma (women’s 400m), Kumaravel Prem Kumar (men’s long jump), Tintu Luka (women’s 800m), Renjith Maheswary (men’s triple jump) and Krishna Poonia (women’s discus). While all these are gold medal prospects, the likes of Mayookha Johny (women’s long jump and triple jump) and Arpinder Singh (men’s triple jump) are among other medal prospects.

The winners of gold medals in this meet would have the advantage of getting direct qualification for the World Championship in Moscow. Gowda is the top performer of the season among the participants with Iran’s 2012 London Olympic silver medallist Ehsan Hadadi deciding to skip the event in view of the Moscow World Championships in August.

Gowda’s 65.82m effort in April is the season’s second best among Asians after Hadadi’s 66.98m.

In women’s 3000m steeplechase, Sudha Singh is the clear favourite after her 9:45.60 effort in the National Inter-State Championships in Chennai early last month, which is a national record.

In the absence of last edition winner Minori Hayakari of Japan, Sudha’s contest for gold medal is likely to be with Ruth Chebet of Bahrain.

Sudha, the reigning Asian Games gold medallist, had finished second behind Hayakari in the last Asian Championships in 2011 in Kobe.

Krishna Poonia, the Commonwealth Games gold medallist and India’s most famous female athlete would be taking the field without much practice.

“I suffered an injury and could hardly practice after the Chennai nationals. I have to rely more on experience,” she said.

source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcullta-India / Front Page> Sport> Story / by Jaydeep Basu / Wednesday – July 03rd,2013

Bangalore :

Karnataka’s prolific run-getters CM Gautam and Robin Uthappa have been drafted into the India A squads for their home series against New Zealand A side to be held at Port Trust Diamond Jubilee Stadium in Visakhapatnam from Aug 31 to Sep 15.

Gautam, who finished the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy season as the third highest run-getter with 943 runs, has been picked to play a three-day (Aug 31) and a four-day game (Sep 5). Uthappa, who was in the Board President’s XI that played against the visiting Australia earlier this year, is selected to play the one-dayers.

An elated Gautam said it was an opportunity to make his presence felt. “It will be great to play against New Zealand in the longer version of the game. A couple of big scores can shape my dreams of making it to the India Test team,” said Gautam, who made his India ‘A’ debut against Australia in January in Chennai.

For Uthappa it will be the platform to work his way back to the Indian One-Day team. “I am looking forward to this assignment as an opportunity to stage a comeback to the Indian team. Playing well in these tournaments helps me get back into the reckoning,” said Uthappa, who scored an unbeaten triple hundred for KSCA XI in the Safi Darashah tournament. “I was expecting this call as I have had a good season in the domestic one-dayers and the last IPL season,” said Uthappa.

Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar will lead the unofficial Test team while Delhi batsman Unmukt Chand will lead the one-day team.

The series will be followed by a tour by the West Indies ‘A’ team, which plays all its matches in four venues in Karnataka – Bangalore, Mysore, Hubli and Shimoga – from September 17 to October 13.

The squads: Three-day & 4-day games: Abhishek Nayar (capt), Jiwanjyot Singh, Unmukt Chand, Vijay Zol, Manpreet Juneja, V Jagadish, CM Gautham (Karnataka), Dhawal Kulkarni, Imtiaz Ahmed, Aniket Choudhary, Shrikant Wagh, Jalaj Saxena, Rakesh Dhruv, Sarabjeet Ladda.

ODIs: Unmukt Chand (capt), Robin Uthappa (Karnataka), Aditya Tare, Kedar Jadhav, Mandeep Singh, Ashok Menaria, Sanju Vishwanath, Sachin Baby, Dhawal Kulkarni, Basant Mohanty, Sandeep Sharma, Shrikant Wagh, Rahul Sharma, Jalaj Saxena.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> Cricket> New Zealand / by Sunil Subbaiah, TNN / August 07th, 2013

Ashwini, who won the Commonwealth Games gold partnering Jwala Gutta, now has a new doubles partner in Pradnya Gadre of Maharashtra.

She launched the Banga Beats Indian Badminton League team from her home city but quite shockingly, wasn’t picked up by them. In the player auctions, it was Pune which bagged her for a sum of $25,000.

The IBL has decided not to have women’s doubles in the championships and as such, Ashwini will have to only depend on the mixed doubles apart from the women’s singles, if she is in the fray for that event as per the decision of her team.

But on a positive note, according to her, whatever controversy that has been generated, is good for Indian badminton. “Rubbing shoulders with top players will give us a lot of benefits. The experience of playing them will remove the psychological barrier when we meet them in bigger events. Also, the game in the country will get a big boost. Not often do big names come and play here. So people will get a very big opportunity to watch them in action. I am sure Indian badminton is poised for a big leap,” said Ashwini.

Championship preparation

With the World championships coming a lot before the IBL, she has a huge advantage at the moment as she can concentrate on doing well in a championship that matters the most. Certainly, a lot more than any national league or Grand Prix in the World.

“In the past few days, the IBL distraction did disrupt my training but now I am back on court and practising hard for the upcoming World Championships. I am training in Bangalore right now while my doubles partner, Pradnya Gadre is training in Hyderabad. We hope to put in some work together soon. Having played with each other earlier, we know our games well and combining with her should be no problem,” Ashwini said.

According to her, the preparation has been good and she is working on her fitness more than any other aspect. “I have always taken one match at a time. It does not make sense predicting things, so I am concentrating on the first round right now. We have a tough first round, let’s first clear it. We will be facing Damkjaer Kruse and Marie Roepke from Denmark and we have not played them earlier. So it is going to be a very important game for us,” said the shuttler who won the bronze in the 2011 World championships with Jwala to become only the second Indian to do so after the 1983 singles bronze that the legendary Prakash Padukone won way back in 1983.

“I am partnering Tarun Kona in the mixed doubles and there I think we will meet a Japanese pair – Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Miyuki Maeda – in the first round. Let’s see how it goes,” said Ashwini.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express/ Home> Cities> Bangalore / by S S Shreekumar / ENS – Bangalore / August 01st, 2013

Pegged at a base price of $50,000, Ashwini fetched just half of that when she was sold to the Pune Pistons, despite being among the icon players of the tournament.

While the IBL will pay her the differential, what irks Ashwini is that there was no communication about lowering the price. “I wasn’t informed about it. Even if there is no women’s doubles event, it doesn’t explain their actions because Jwala (Gutta) and I’ve been performing very well. In the mixed doubles arena, my partner Tarun Kona and I have the highest international ranking.”

Does that mean that she won’t be a part of the tournament? “I will keep my commitment to play the league, irrespective of whether they keep up their end of the bargain or not,” she says.

Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu, meanwhile, got their base price. “All icon players need to be treated the same. If you are calling a player an icon, it must have been based on performance, and Jwala and I have been performing consistently. There is no need to discriminate between players based on price,” she says.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Sports> More Sports / by Taniya Talukdar, TNN / July 25th, 2013