Indian sports wrap, March 26: First batch of Indian shooters leave for Argentina World Cup

SHOOTING

Indian Shooters depart for ISSF World Cup in Buenos Aires

A first batch of 22 Indian Shooters, accompanied by 13 support staff, left in the early hours of the day for the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires to participate in the year’s first International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup (Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun) stage, competitions for which are set to begin on April, 03, 2025. 

A total of 35 Indian shooters will compete in all 15 medal events on schedule, including 12 individual and three mixed team events. Double Paris Olympics medalist Manu Bhaker is the only athlete to have made the cut in two individual events. The remaining squad members depart on March 29, 2025, given that their competitions begin in the latter stages of the tournament.

Barring a couple of exceptions, all shooters reported to a national camp organized by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting ranges in Delhi from March 14, 2025, for final preparations ahead of a double World Cup leg in South America, with Lima, Peru hosting the second, right after the season-opener at Buenos Aires.

The Indian team for the first two World Cup stages are a fair mix of youth and experience with as many as 16 Olympians in the squad, besides former world champions, world number ones and a double Olympic medalist in Manu. 

However, focus will also be on an exciting group of youngsters like Suruchi, Sainyam, Arya Borse, Sonam Maskar, Narmada Nithin, Ashi Chouksey and Bhavtegh Gill, who will all be looking to win their first individual ISSF World Cup stage medal.

– Team Sportstar

PARA WEIGHTLIFTING

Khelo India Para Games 2025: Pardeep Joon, Sahista shine in Powerlifting

The powerlifting competition came to an end at the Khelo India Para Games 2025 with former KIPG medallists making their mark on Wednesday.

Haryana’s Pardeep Joon, who had won gold in the first edition of the Khelo India Para Games in December 2023, lifted 194 kg in 107+ kg category to win his second gold medal of the Games. Hailing from a middle class family, Pardeep began his powerlifting journey in 2021 and worked hard to clinch a gold in the National Games and Khelo India Para Games 2023.

Other than Pardeep, Delhi’s Sahista also shone bright on the concluding day of the powerlifting competition as she converted her last edition’s silver medal to gold medal this year by lifting 81 kg in the 79 kg category. When she was a child, an injection caused infection which led to a permanent damage to her knee.

The men’s 107 kg saw Maharashtra’s Dinesh Bagade, who had won a bronze medal in the last edition of Khelo India Para Games, bagging the gold medal after lifting 157 kg. Tamil Nadu’s

Arunmoli Arunagiri also grabbed a gold medal in the women’s 86 kg category after recording a lift of 80 kg.

Meanwhile, at Indira Gandhi Stadium, the para table tennis competitions entered its business end. Haryana’s Ekta Bhyan secured gold in the Class 1 and 2 categories after she beat Deepika Ranj Ramanathan of Tamil Nadu 3-2 in a tough final on Tuesday night.

Ekta, has previously represented India at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics in the club throw event and is also a bronze medallist at the Asian Para Games in Club Throw.

The 39-year-old Ekta transitioned to table tennis two years ago after club throw was not included as a discipline in Paris 2024. Despite being a hard switch, Ekta feels she is moving in the right direction with the sport.

– Team Sportstar

GOLF

Indian Open golf championship: Ahlawat seeks redemption, Sharma eyes victory

A battery of champions, more than a dozen of them from around the world, will be flexing their muscles to hit their best shots and sink putts, but the home fans will look for a familiar face to lift the trophy in the $2.25 million Hero Indian Open golf championship that tees off at the DLF Golf and Country Club on Thursday.

Veer Ahlawat had risen to the challenge last time and finished runner-up to Keita Nakajima of Japan. SSP Chawrasia had won the title, for the second time, when the event was played at the same course for the first time in 2017. There will be 30 Indians this time, in a strong field of 138, and four of them will be amateurs, including Kartik Singh who had a memorable time during the International Series event in January.

Veer and Shubhankar Sharma, who are busy in the big league of the DP World Tour, were excited to come home, and play in front of friends and family. They exuded confidence to tune their all-round game in their attempt to deliver the best performance.

“Under par will be a top-10 finish this time,” announced the 28-year-old Shubhankar, even as he reminded one that the cut was applied at 1-under last time. A fabulous champion, Shubhankar turned professional when he was 16, and has made the cut every time in this event since 2015, with the tied seventh spot as his best finish.

Veer recalled that the first top-5 performance of his career in such an elite field, last year as the runner-up, had served as “a big confidence booster”.

“The course changes every year. It all depends on how they set it up. It is more intimidating this time. The rough is thicker. It is good to play a tough course,” said Shubhankar.

Veer conceded that he had not been getting good scores even though his game has been good. With his rich experience at a young age, Shubhankar was able to put things in perspective, and observed that playing around the world in a season, was like a marathon.

“Am slowly getting into the flow of things. Need to strike when you feel good,” said Shubhankar, as he talked about having equipment change in recent weeks to get his feel in sync with his game for better scores delving deeper into the point of having an Indian champion, Shubhankar said that it did not matter whether an Indian emerged champion on Sunday, as the overall golf scenario in the country was very healthy.

“We have more players and a lot of them are getting good scores. Anirban Lahiri and Gaganjeet Bhullar have won. I had a purple patch. Indian golf is on the rise. There will be many winners in the future,” stressed Shubhankar.

The first round tee-off will be from 6.25 a.m. The live television coverage on Euro-Sport will be from 1 p.m.

– Kamesh Srinivasan

TENNIS

Kriish Tyagi beats Yanki Erel in ITF Altevol-Waske tournament

Junior and qualifier, Kriish Tyagi did his confidence a world of good by fighting his way past seventh seed Yanki Erel of Turkey 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(2) in the first round of the $30,000 ITF Men’s tennis tournament at the Altevol-Waske Tennis Academy on Wednesday.

In the pre-quarterfinals, Kriish will play national championship runner-up Nitin Kumar Sinha.

– Team Sportstar

Sumit Nagal moves to second round in Challenger Napoli, Italy

Sumit Nagal beat Duje Ajdukovic of Croatia 7-6(6), 6-4 in the first round of the €181,250 Challenger tennis tournament in Naples, Italy.

Sumit will play top seed Luciano Darderi of Italy in the pre-quarterfinals.

– Team Sportstar

TABLE TENNIS

Ghosh qualifies for WTT Star Contender Chennai; Abhinandh falls short

India’s Anirban Ghosh scripted a facile 14-12, 11-7, 12-10 win over Carlo Rossi of Italy, seeded seven, in the final qualifying round of the WTT Star Contender Chennai at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Wednesday.

However, India’s P. B. Abhinandh went down fighting to third seeded John Oyebode of Italy 11-6, 10-12, 9-11, 7-11, 8-11.

Ghosh said it feels great to qualify for the main draw. “In Star Contender Goa last year, I was in the main draw, and in 2023, I lost in the qualifying round. My game has improved after I joined Raman TT High Performance Academy in Chennai (from 2020-2024). I will play freely as I have nothing to lose in the main draw on Thursday,” he said.

– K. Keerthivasan