Indian sports wrap, July 26: Punjab FC signs Croatian Midfielder Filip Mrzlijak

FOOTBALL

Punjab FC on Friday announced the signing of Croatian midfielder Filip Mrzlijak, its first foreign signing ahead of the upcoming 2024-25 season.

The Croatian player last featured for Croatian top-flight club, HNK Gorcia.

The 31-year-old was born in Zagreb and primarily plays as a defensive midfielder. He graduated from the Dinamo Zagreb Academy which has produced the likes of Luka Modric, Mateo Kovacic, Vedran Corluka, Josko Gvardiol, Dejan Lovren, Niko Kranjcar and many others.

He signed his first professional contract with Dinamo Zagreb before being sent on loan to Radnik Sesvete in Zagreb. He played three seasons for Croatian top-flight club, Lokomotiva and then later spent five years in Romania playing for Pandurii Targu Jiu, Astra Giurgiu and Dinamo Bucuresti. He then played two seasons for Russian club FC Ufa before signing HNK Gorcia.

Filip represented Croatia in all age group categories from Under-14 to Under-21. He represented Croatia in the 2013 FIFA U20 World Cup and 2012 UEFA U19 Championships.

Speaking about the signing, Technical Director of Punjab FC, Nikolaos Topoliatis said, “We are excited to have Filip in our ranks for the upcoming season. He is an experienced campaigner who has played in Europe at the highest level of youth football. He will add steel to the midfield and be a leader in and out of the field.”

-Team Sportstar

OLYMPICS

Past Olympic medal winners felicitated in Chennai

On the day of the Opening Ceremony of the Paris Olympics, the past Olympic medal winners were felicitated in a function on Friday.

The five Olympians in hockey honoured were Vasudevan Baskaran, Muneer Sait, Charles Cornelius, V. J. Phillips, and Krishnamurthy Perumal. At the function, each was presented with an award plaque and a gift cheque. 

“The current Indian men’s team is respected and well regarded around the world. The best prepared team is Indian men’s hockey. It has to be at the podium (at the Paris Olympics),” said Baskaran, at a function, organised by SharonPly.

Justice M. Jaichandren, Former Judge of the High Court of Madras, was the chief guest of the event. 

-Team Sportstar

GOLF

Bogey free Vidhatri cruises to two-shot lead in 10th leg of Hero WPGT

Vidhatri Urs cruised ahead of the field with a bogey free 3-under 69 in the second round of the 10th leg of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour at Prestige Golfshire in Bengaluru on Friday.

The newly-minted pro, who already has a win in her three pro starts, indicated that she was about to add to that as she took a two-shot lead over the up-and-coming pro Jasmine Shekar (74-72), who was searching for her maiden success.

Vidhatri, who shot 3-over 75 with three bogeys and no birdies on the first day, reversed that with three birdies and no bogeys with Jasmine as her playing partner.

On a day when play was delayed because of rain, Vidhatri parred her first four holes and then found her first birdie on the fifth.

She added 10 pars after that to be 1-under after 15 holes. She then added birdies on the 16th and the 18th for a steady and superb round of 69.

Jasmine had four birdies and four bogeys in her 72 that followed her first round effort of 74.

Sneha Singh, last year’s Hero Order of Merit winner, had a six-shot improvement on her first round score of 77. She carded 1-under 71, the only round other than that of Vidhatri that was under par.

Sneha was tied third at 2-over 146 and four behind the leader.

Hitaashee Bakshi, the first round leader, slipped back to tied third with a second round card of 78 with just one birdie against one double and five bogeys.

Sneha and Hitaashee were tied for third with Khushi (74-74) and Amandeep Drall.

The experienced Amandeep, who slipped after a first round 72, had four birdies against six bogeys and one double bogey for a second round 76.

Rhea Jha (76-73) was seventh, while Saanvi Somu (78-72) was the top amateur in the eighth spot.

Another amateur Mannat Brar (74-77) was tied for ninth with Neha Tripathi (73-78), who is coming back from an injury.

A total of 27 golfers made the cut at 161 in the Rs 13 lakh event and the prominent players to miss the cut included Durga Nittur.

-PTI

BRIDGE

Indian pair makes final in U-16 event of World Youth Transnationalbridge championship

The pair of Viha Gahrotra and Gia Gupta made it to the final of the under-16 pairs event but could not make the steep climb to the podium in the World Youth Transnational bridge championship held recently in Wroclaw, Poland.

The six-member Indian team, with Jashith Narang, Prakhar Bansal, Ananya Mehta and Rashee Mohanka being the others, had the 15-year-old Anshul Bhatt as the non-playing captain.

Anshul, who had won three gold medals in the same championship in Italy in 2022 and had thus won the “Bridge personality of the year” award, trained the six players in partnership with the accomplished bridge coach Priya Sinha.

“Concentrating on building intuition for the game, self-discovery through practice, and most importantly, fun learning environment is crucial to bring bridge back to the living rooms of India,” said Anshul, who had conducted a BootCamp for 50 students, and runs a weekly bridge club for the students at his Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai.

– Team Sportstar

PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

Col Kabilan Sai Ashok to become youngest Indian to be appointed as a boxing official in Olympics

Former international player Col Kabilan Sai Ashok will become the youngest Indian to officiate in the Olympic Games after he was appointed as Referee Judge for Paris 2024.

The 32 year-old Sai Ashok is only the fourth Indian since 1904 to officiate at the Olympic Games and he is the first Indian to have represented the country as a player and an official at a World Championship.

Sai Ashok, who works as Boxing Administrator at the Army Sports Institute in Pune, is also the first Indian become the President of World Military Boxing Council.

He also holds the record of being the only Indian referee to have been fast tracked from 2STAR to 3STAR status.

The last Indian to officiate at the Olympics was back in 2012.

-Team Sportstar

TENNIS

ITF women’s tournament: Vaidehi Chaudhari outplays Kovaleva in quarters

Vaidehi Chaudhari sustained her good run and outplayed Anastasia Kovaleva 6-1, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the $25,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Friday.

In the semifinals, Vaidehi will play Tatiana Prozorova.

Second seeds Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth missed four match points and were beaten 1-6, 6-4, [17-15] by the Swiss pair of Remy Bertola and Luca Margaroli in the doubles quarterfinals of the €148,625 Challenger tennis tournament in Zug, Switzerland.

The Indian pair won 25 ATP points and €1,750.

– Team Sportstar

MOTORSPORT

Rally of Coimbatore: Drivers ready to set the stages on fire

After a good round of testing at the tricky terrains in both Coimbatore and Kethanur, the drivers are now ready to set the stages on fire in the Rally of Coimbatore, the third round of the Blueband FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) on Saturday.

The participants were quite pleased with the Coimbatore stage (SM Agro on the L&T bypass road). “It’s smooth and fast flowing compared to last year. Thanks to the overnight rains,” said the experienced Musa Sherif, who will read the pace notes for INRC driver Karna Kadur.

“The drivers are going to be quick and it can be anybody’s game but I expect the second day at Kethanur to be tough as there are some rough sections,” he added.

The other top contenders echoed similar sentiments.

Coimbatore City Police Commissioner V. Balakrishnan flagged off the rally from the Jenney’s Residency on Friday.

-Rayan Rozario