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The week in Indian sports

FOOTBALL
Salgaocar win Millennium tournament
Pondicherry, June 19: Goa's Salgaocar won the first edition of the Millennium Invitational Football tournament in Pondicherry last week. They defeated State Bank of Thiruvananathapuram 1-0 in the final. The all-important goal was scored by Alvito D'Cunha, in the sixth minute of a well-contested final. The first prize for winning the tournament and the PPDIC cup, at the Indira Gandhi complex, was Rs.5 lakh.

A momentary misjudgment by goalkeeper Rajeev Kumar was enough to cost the Thiruvanathapuram team the match. Known for his safe hands and acrobatic style, it came as a surprise when Rajeev allowed Alvito's lob, from a pass by former India captain Bruno Coutinho's to the left flank, sail over his head. Clearly, he judged the ball to go over the bar but to his shock, it dipped into the corner of the net. As though that wasn't enough, an injury to captain Suresh Kumar in the 24th minute put a schemer on the bench. The sixth minute goal shifted the focus of the match to Bruno Coutinho to a large extent who took on the role of both midfield general and sharp shooter. By the end stages he hid himself in defence, which came under sever scrutiny by the SBT forward line. However, despite their best efforts SBT could not put a goal on the score-sheet and went down by that solitary sixth minute goal. The third place match was an insipid contest between defending National League champions Mohun Bagan and India Junior XI. It was won comfortably by Bagan with a 4-0 scoreline. They won a purse of Rs. Two lakh, while the juniors had to settle for Rs. Five lakh.

Despite winning the tournament Salgaocar rarely displayed the flair that has symbolised their unique blend of "Samba Soccer " on the Indian diaspora. In their quarter-final against Air India , the played out a safe 1-1 draw. Although they took the lead in the 56'th minute through Franky Barreto, parity was restored in the 77th minute when P.J.Jose equalised for the airmen. Both teams decided to play it safe subsequently to prepare for tougher battles ahead. Salgaocar came into their own against Karnataka police in their final league engagement by pumping four goals past their hapless rivals.

In the semi-finals they had to draw on all their resources to beat the strong Mohun Bagan team. In a pulsating contest, the Goans won 2-1. The match was tied at one goal apiece before Climax Lawrence scored the winner for Salgaocar in the final seconds of injury time. Climax had scored the first goal for Salgaocar as well to put them ahead in the 56th minute before Bagan equalised through Santos.

CHESS
Vijayalakshmi wins women's nationals
Mumbai, June 20: S Meenakshi of Tamil Nadu shocked defending champion and top speed S Vijayalakshmi of Indian Airlines to tie for the first place in the 13th and final round of the 26th women's National 'A' chess championship at Kalyan, 50 kilometres from Bombay, last week. However, Vijayalakshmi emerged champion on better tie-break score.

In the most sensational match on the final day, Vijayalakshmi and her younger sister Meenakshi fought bitterly. The game started with an irregular queen pawn opening and entered an interesting middle-game. The players castled on opposite sides and a keen battle arose. The centre was closed and both the players started attacking each other's king-side. Meenakshi's piece turned out to be better placed in the ensuing fierce attack and she systematically exploited her advantage. Meenakshi opened up the "h" file and also exchanged off Vijayalakshmi's fianchettoed king's bishop, the best defender of white's king.

The defending champion was forced to give up one pawn to divert Meenakshi's pieces from setting up a mating net. After that it was a very easy task for the younger sibling, who exchanged pieces and entered a minor piece ending. Vijayalakshmi resigned when she was forced into a lost king and pawn. But she managed to extend her two-year dominance of the national circuit.

The final match result came as shock as Vijaylakshmi had virtually assured herself of the winning the title outright going into the last day of competition. In the 12th round she had defeated under-18 girls champion R. Aarthie of Wipro to take her points tally to 8.5, a whole point ahead of her younger sister. However, Meenakshi too had won her match in round 12 by outplaying S. Sujatha and as a result was on 7.5 points going into the 13th and final round.

It was expected that Meenakshi and Vijaylakshmi will agree to a safety round on the final day and settle for a draw which would enable the former to gain the International Woman Master norm and emerge out of her pedigreed sister's shadow. But the youngster clearly had other plans and made the most dramatic entry into the big-league by upsetting Vijaylakshmi. She now joins Vijaylakshmi and two others - - Saheli Barua and Pallavi Shah - - who finished third and fourth respectively with 8 and 7.5 points, as part of the four-member Indian team for the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul in October.

TENNIS
Harsh Mankad falters at final hurdle
New Delhi, June 24: Fleet-footed Danai Udomchoke of Thailand underlined his supremacy with a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 win over India's Harsh Mankad in winning the third leg of ITF men's Satellite tennis tournament last week. An hour-long rain interruption failed to distract the Thai's attention as he finished the duel in an hour and five minutes, after the match was stopped at 6-4, 4-1 when heavy showers lashed the city in the afternoon. The back-to-back win for Udomchoke, following his Bangalore triumph, placed him at the top of the Indian ITF circuit, ahead of the Masters tournament being played this week.

Number two seed Mankad's hopes of making it to the Indian team for the July 21-23 World Group qualifying Davis Cup rubber, against Sweden at Bastad, received a minor jolt after succumbing meekly to the Thai player. Mankad's misery continued as he lost the chance of winning a consolation trophy when he and his partner Ajay Ramaswamy were beaten in the doubles final later in the day. Mankad and Ramaswamy lost 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 to the European duo of Barry Fulcher (England) and Gwanael Gueit (France), a sad end to Mankad's otherwise fine run throughout the week.

Mankad, who rallied from a set down twice in the initial rounds, faltered against Udomchoke - an extremely quick player with flashing forehand returns. Mankad, who lost to Udomchoke in the Bangalore final despite winning the first set comfortably, had the best chance to avenge his defeat, but it wasn't his day. After seven games went with the serves in the first set, Mankad put a volley wide to hand a crucial 5-3 lead to Udomchoke. A fighting Mankad pulled one back breaking the Thai in the ninth, but then failed to hold his own serve in the tenth.

Facing two break-points at 15-40, Mankad slipped while attempting to reach a forehand return from Udomchoke and merely ended putting the ball in the net. After winning the first set 6-4, Udomchoke went on the rampage and hit some whiplash forehand returns to unsettle the Indian. Udomchoke came up with a break in the fourth game to lead 3-1 and made it 4-1 before the downpour began, forcing the match to be stopped.

The players returned after an hour-long break and Mankad, who committed four double faults in the match, held his serve comfortably but his chance of fight back was all but over. The Thai sensation took a 5-2 lead and then earned two match points on Mankad's serve in the eighth game. Serving to save the match at 15-40, Mankad managed to take one point but Udomchoke engaged the Indian in a long rally on the left court before returning a forehand to right. This caught Mankad on the wrong foot, and his cross- court volley found the net.

ATHLETICS
Beenamol breaks Usha's 400m record
Kiev, June 22: K.M. Beenamol broke P.T.Usha's long-standing national record in the 400 metres for women at Kiev in the Ukraine last week. She won the 400 metres at an international meet, clocking 51.21 seconds, clipping 0.40 seconds of Usha's national mark set in Canberra, Australia in 1985. Usha continues to hold the national mark in the 100m, 200m and 400m hurdles. Beenamol has had an extremely fruitful domestic season and is finally beginning to perform to her true potential this year. At the Federation Cup in March this year, the Asian junior silver medalist had run a personal best of 52.08 seconds before bettering the mark in Kiev.

In the qualification race for the Sydney Olympic Games, Beenamol had already attained the basic criterion, that of 53.20 seconds for the 400m. Now the Railway employee has even bettered the 'A' standard of 52.20 seconds twice but is still shy of the norm laid down by the Amateur Athletic Federation of India, the impossible looking 50.71 seconds. In this year's world rankings, for the season so far, Beenamol is within the top 35, with her latest timing. No other Asian girl is close to Beenamol at the moment.

In other events at Kiev, Gurmeet Kaur improved her own record in the javelin while winning the event. She hurled the javelin to 57.96 metres to better her national record of 55.86 metres, set in Bangalore last year. In the Shot Put, Bahadur Singh reached 19.37 metres to take silver. National Shot Put champion Shakti Singh did not participate in the event due to an unspecified reason.

In other results, Ramachandran won the race 'A' in the 400m in 46.47 seconds, his best for the season, while race 'B' was won by Jata Shankar in 47.42 seconds. National record holder Paramjeet Singh, on a comeback trail after injury, came in third in the 'A' race, clocking 46.97 seconds. In one of the women's 400 metre races, Manjima Kuriakose clocked 54.36 seconds to take third place. Sprinters Anil Kumar (10.51s) and Rachita Mistry (11.57s) were fifth in the men's and women's 100 metre events, while K.J.Manojlal and K.C.Rosakutty were 12'th in the 800 metres with timings of 1:54.54 and 2:12.91 respectively.

In the men's javelin throw, Jagdish Vishnoi and Satvir Singh threw 72.68 and 69.34 metres respectively, well below their personal bests ; Pramod Tiwari managed a distance of 66.74 in the hammer throw while Asian Games silver medalist Anil Kumar threw 58.02 metres in the Discus throw.

In the 200 metres for men, Paramjeet Singh and P. Ramachandran were timed at 21.3 and 21.5 seconds respectively. In the women's section, Rosakutty completed the 400 metres in 55.2 seconds awhile Jincy Philip was timed at 56.1 seconds. National Discus champion Neelam J. Singh threw 58.62 metres, almost three metres below her personal best while compatriot Sugan Yadav had a best throw of 51.66 metres. The AAFI did not release their final positions in these events.

WEIGHTLIFTING
Kunjarani, Malleshwari ranked fifth
New Delhi, June 21: Kunjarani Devi and Karnam Malleswari of India have been placed fifth in the 48 kg and 63 kg categories respectively in the latest rankings announced by the International Weightlifting Federation after the World Championships at Athens. At Athens, Kunjarani, who has been ranked fifth among the top ten lifters of the century by the president of the international federation, lifted 180 kg. She improved on this at Osaka in the Asian championships where her lift of 182.5 kg might put her a few notches above. The top slot in the 48kg category went to Li Zhou of China.

Malleswari's lift of 225 kg at the Pusan Asian meet was a shade lower than her performance at Athens where she lifted 230 kg. Her ranking may go down. In the 63kg category, Chen Yui-Len of Taipei is ranked first. Malleswari had clinched one gold medal in he category at the Asian championships in Osaka earlier this year. In the 48 kg category, Sanamacha Chanu is ranked 13th. Chanu had claimed three gold medals in the snatch, clean and jerk as well as the overall categories at the Asian championships. Nandini Devi managed the 12'th slot in the 53 kg category.

In the 58 kg category, Neelam J. Laxmi is ranked 12th and Krishna Kumari 16th. Romi Devi, who lifted just 200 kg at Athens in the 75 kg section, is ranked 19th while in the 75 kg plus category Bharti Singh gets 27th place. The Indian men, however, failed to come up to the levels of their woman counterparts. The highest placing has been achieved by T. Muthu in the 56 kg category. He is ranked 22nd in the world.