Interim kabaddi body formed, elections soon
NEW DELHI: Telangana’s Kasani Gnaneshwar Mudiraj and Tejasvi Singh of Rajasthan were elected interim president and secretary-general, respectively of the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI) on Friday. The elections were held under the supervision of Delhi’s retired district and sessions judge Neeraj Kumar Gupta who was the retuning officer. SM Bali from the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) was the observer.
Last year, acting on a PIL filed by former international players, C Honnappa Gowda and S Rajarathinam, who alleged manipulation by long-time AKFI administrator JS Gehlot, the Delhi High Court appointed justice SP Garg (retd) as administrator to prepare the electoral college list for fresh elections. The court removed Gehlot and declared AKFI elections held in 2013 and 2017 as illegal.
The primary role of the newlyelected office-bearers, according to Justice Garg, will be to amend the AKFI statute as per the court’s direction. “Thereafter, the second round of AKFI elections will be held,” he said.
Aryaan Bhatia became the first Indian tennis player to fail dope test and has been put under provisional suspension, the National Anti-doping Agency (NADA) said on Friday.
The 16-year-old’s urine sample was taken during the Fenesta Open National Tennis Championship held here in October last year. The NADA had collected samples for the first time from tennis players during the championship.
The national doping watchdog also provisionally suspended seven other sportspersons last month for flunking dope tests. They are Sandeep Kaur (powerlifting), Ankit Gosai (handball), Jithu Thomas (volleyball), Yaiphaba (canoeing), Vishan Singh (kayaking and canoeing) and Shivam Kasana (cycling).
HALEP PIPS SVITOLINA
DOHA: Simona Halep won five games in a row in the deciding set of an astonishing match against Elina Svitolina in Doha on Friday to power through to the Qatar Open final.
Seemingly down and almost out at 1-4 in the third set, world number three Halep was roared on by a large and noisy set of Romanian fans to secure a remarkable 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 victory over the Ukrainian.
TSONGA LOSES
ROTTERDAM: Daniil Medvedev ended Jo-wilfried Tsonga’s seven-match win streak on Friday when the Russian triumphed 6-4, 6-2 in the Rotterdam Open quarter-finals.
Medvedev outlasted 33-yearold Tsonga in a 90-minute struggle to reach the semi-finals and a meeting with Gael Monfils, who took 69 minutes to advance to his second straight semi-final of the season with his 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.