CHENNAI: At the World Junior Squash Championships which concluded in Houston, India boys finished sixth and the girls seventh in the team events. The boys lost to England 1-2 in the match for fifth position, while the girls beat New Zealand 2-1 in the clash for the seventh - both matches going to the decider.
India results:
Boys: India lost to England 1-2 (Shaurya Bawa bt Yusuf Sheikh 3-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-7; Yuvraj Wadhwani lost to Bailey Malik 11-5, 9-11, 8-11, 14-16; Ayaan Vazilalli lost to Dylan Roberts 11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 7-11).
Girls: India bt New Zealand 2-1 (Shameena Riaz lost to Ella Lash 7-11, 12-10, 13-11, 4-11, 4-11; Nirupama Dubey bt Anabel Gemmell 9-11, 11-6, 11-4, 8-11, 11-9; Unnati Tripathi bt Ella Hill 11-4, 11-3, 11-6)
Aakash in sole lead
Candidate Master Aakash G regained the sole lead with five points at the end of the seventh round of the 21st Tamil Nadu IM Norm Closed Circuit chess tournament held in Chennai. In the Grunfeld defense, the leader tamed IM Slizhevsky Alexander by cornering his king to a forced mate in 41 moves. Aakash now needs two points from the remaining two rounds to obtain his maiden IM norm.
In a Sicilian game, GM Manik Mikulas saddled his rooks and bishops to rip open Uriintuya Uurtasaikh’s castled king to score a fluent win after 42 moves. N Lokesh adopted Caro Kann defense against FM Daaevik Wadhawan but failed in the later part of the middle and gave up the fight in vain.
MOP wins
MOP Vaishnav College for Women ball badminton won the YMCA Buck Memorial inter-collegiate Sports Festival held at YMCA college, Nandanam. Totally seven teams took part in the event, MOP, SRM IST, JBAS, YMCA, SA Arts, Ethiraj and WCC. In the final MOP defeated SRM IST 33-35, 35-32, 35-30. Earlier, in the semifinal MOP had blanked JBAS 35-17, 35-28.
Vigesh scalps six
Offie V Vigesh’s 6 for 35 came in handy for Pudukkottai to hammer Ariyalur by 128 runs in a TNCA inter-districts Under-16 tournament for the PR Thevar Trophy.
Brief Scores:
Thiruvallur 151 in 46.4 ovs (S Tarun 30, S Logesh Ram Sankar 3/16) bt Tenkasi 62 in 38 ovs (RS Sujith 4/7).
Namakkal 228/10 in 47.5 ovs (MG Nithilan 57, SR Pawan Kishore 40, A Vikas 30, Abhilash 3/48) bt Cuddalore 140/9 in 50 overs (Jeevandharan 39, AS Aswin Adhav 3/27).
Nilgiris 176 in 50 ovs (SU Muhammed Raseen 66, A Crispin Samuel 44) lost to Dindigul 180/6 in 41.1 ovs (SP Dhashwin 61 n.o, N Sasikumar 40).
Pudukkottai 213/8 in 50 ovs (GS Kousik 63, R Vijay Balaji 33, R Karthikeyan 35 n.o) bt Ariyalur 85 in 29 ovs (V Vigesh 6/35).
Tirupattur 74 in 39 ovs (S Abhishek 4/9, T Muthu Krishnan 3/24) lost to Virudhunagar 75/5 in 18 ovs (Mohammad Sadaan 4/38).
Kancheepuram 287 in 48.4 ovs (Sreenath Kumar 109, Sushruth M Srivatsan 45, R Balamurugan 5/44) bt Kallakurichi 215/6 in 50 ovs (Bharani Selvan 40, N Deva 56).
Salem 153 in 50 ovs (S Pugal 32, T Sanjay 34, KS Pranav Aadithya 3/37, N Ragavan 3/17) lost to Coimbatore 156/8 in 41.1 ovs (N Ragavan 41, N Ritvik 36, A Anish Duke 4/42).
Mayiladuthurai 198 in 49.5 ovs (M Srivatsan 44, AV Nadhin Prakash 4/43) bt Dharmapuri 183 in 47.3 ovs (B Tharun 43, Akash 46, J Diwagar 3/37).
Tirupur 140 in 43 ovs (G Yagav Sri Santh 78, V Arun 3/29) bt Tirunelveli 128 in 44.5 ovs (S Arish Rahul 3/16).
Theni 105 in 43.2 ovs (R Daksh Anirudh 33, RN Krithick Kannan 3/21) lost to Krishnagiri 107/2 in 28.1 ovs (B Sudhersan 60 n.o).
Kanyakumari 238 in 47.3 ovs (R Riyan Dhas 126 n.o, J Jebas Thiraviam 3/59) bt Thoothukudi 89 in 34 ovs (MG Aadhith Retnesh 4/10).
Thiruvarur 149 in 43.1 ovs (S Barath 30, S Yashraj 40, SV Harikesh 3/22) bt Thanjavur 109 in 43.4 ovs (S Arya 34, S Yashraj 3/22, S Senthil Murugan 3/26).
Erode 217/7 in 50 ovs (Nitheesh Kumar 92, Ridam Kumar 40) bt Perambalur 55 in 31 ovs (S Mohammed Rafan 5/11).
Nagapattinam 128 in 44.2 ovs (P Santhosh 3/19, Pranav Rapo 4/32) lost to Madurai 129/5 in 43.4 ovs (M Ashwath 30 n.o).
Chengalpattu 266 in 48.2 ovs (S Appurva Kumar Sahoo 97, S Rohith Jayapandi 35) bt Ramanathapuram 88 in 31.4 ovs (G Devesh 4/21).
Villupuram 155 in 48.2 ovs (S Jaya Adhithya 53) bt Karur 100 in 32.2 ovs (S Jaya Adhithya 3/11).