Welcome to ESPN India’s daily blog, where we aim to bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports: from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.
June has plenty of sporting action taking place – which you can find listed out in ESPN India’s sporting calendar.
Anshu Malik suffers shoulder strain during training, WFI seeks status report from wrestler
Anshu Malik, who will represent India at the Paris Olympics, has suffered a shoulder strain during training, forcing the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to seek a status report from the wrestler. Anshu had won a silver medal at the recent Ranking Series event in Budapest in the women’s 57kg, losing the final to China’s Kexin Hong.
The 22-year-old Anshu had qualified for the Games by winning a gold medal at the Asian Olympic Qualifier in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in April.
After the Budapest event, Anshu returned to her centre — Mirchpur academy in Haryana — and a week back suffered a strain on left shoulder.
“During a practice session, she suffered strain and as a precautionary measure, she stopped training. She also underwent an MRI and there is nothing to worry. The scan is clean. Two days back she started training again,” Anshu’s father and coach Dharamveer Malik told PTI. “We will leave for Japan for a training camp in a few days,” added Dharamveer.
WFI President Sanjay Singh told PTI that in a day or two they will have clarity.
“We have been told she has begun light training. We have asked for a status report for clear position. The coaches are saying that she is alright. We will know exact details in two days’ time,” he said.
NSFs have time till July 8 to change the nominations.
Chess: Praggnanandhaa beats Giri, Gukesh draws Alireza in Superbet Classic Round 4
R Praggnanandhaa finally broke through and scored a hard-earned victory over Dutchman Anish Giri in the fourth round of the Superbet Classic chess tournament in Bucharest, Romania. World Championship challenger D Gukesh, playing with black, had little trouble holding off Firouzja Alireza of France to a draw on a day when Fabiano Caruana scored his second victory in the tournament at the expense of wild-card Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania.
Caruana became the sole leader and also got back to number two in live world rankings. Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi’s hunt for an elusive victory continued for the fourth day running as he was held to a draw by Wesley So of Romania while Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan also signed peace with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the 10-player round-robin tournament.
With five rounds still to come in the super-tournament, Caruana leads the tables with three points out of a possible four and the Indian duo of Pragg and Gukesh are a half point behind.
Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Nepomniachtchi and Alireza are all sharing the fourth spot on two points each whiel Giri and Abdusattorov are on 1.5 sharing the eighth spot. Local boy Deac Bogdan-Daniel is in the last spot on one point and has some catching up to do.
Sindhu looks forward to Olympics
Here’s PV Sindhu, looking forward to the Paris Olympics – saying it’s ‘important to be perfect‘.
Sable focused on eliminating mistakes ahead of Olympics
3000m steeplechase runner Avinash Sable wants to make amends for mistakes he has committed in the last few years and deliver a memorable show at the upcoming Paris Olympics with a different approach.
“I committed mistakes in the last two years. I had gone with good fitness in the two world championships (2022 and 2023) but could not do well at both. I want to make amends, hope that this Olympics will be my best,” Sable said.
“I contracted COVID-19 twice before the Tokyo Olympics. Then, last year also I committed mistakes. Every year, I used to start my steeplechase running season very early in April or May. But when I wanted to check myself at the last minute, I found myself not being able to compete. This is why I am starting my competition season late this time. I am doing different this time. I will start peaking only this month. If I start peaking early, people (competitors) will take notice of me,” said Sable who has a personal best of 8:11.20.
Before the National Inter-State, Sable ran just one 3000m steeplechase event — at the Portland Track Festival on June 8 in the USA where he trains.
“I have come here after full training and so I decided to run here as a kind of repetition. In the first kilometre, I was just running along with others. In the last few laps I pushed a bit say 75 to 80 per cent of my full speed. In the Paris Diamond League on July 7, I may not go all out and peak there, but I will get a chance to test myself for the Olympics. After that I would want to do high altitude training in Europe and then join the team on July 25. So preparation has been very good.”
He said he was focussing on the last kick and he was able to test himself here during the race.
“Mid race is not difficult but last kick is important and necessary.”
Asked about the two 5000m and one 10000m races he had earlier this year, he said, “…my focus was not on those events. It was just for doing some competition.”
On the 3000m steeplechase scene globally, he said, “The steeplechase field is quite good, there are Soufiane El Bakkali (of Morocco) and Lamecha Girma (of Ethiopia). But this year in the DL steeplechase runs, I haven’t seen anything spectacular so far.
“It will be a technical race and I am ready for that. Let us see what happens.”
What’s on today?
What happened yesterday?
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Cricket: India beat South Africa to lift the T20 World Cup.
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Cricket: Kapp, Luus score fighting half-centuries after India post record total
