SPORTS

SPORTS
IMPHAL FRIDAY 10 OCTOBER 2014
TRUGPU down MPSC, NEROCA lose to USA JNV Sports Meet kick starts
By Our Sports Repoorter
IMPHAL, Oct 9 : The Tiddim
Road Unique Gammy Players
Union (TRUGPU), Nambol
edged past Manipur Police
Sports Club (MPSC) by a
margin of 4 goals to three while
North Eastern Re-Organising
And Cultural Association
(NEROCA) lost to United
Sports Association (USA),
Khurai by 1-3 today in the
ongoing 9th Manipur State
League organised by All
Manipur Football Association
(AMFA)
under
the
sponsorship
of
MLA
Khumukcham
Joykishan
Singh at Mapal Kangjeibung,
Imphal.
In a thrilling match beMPSC (yellow) battle for the ball against TRUGPU
MATCH RESULT
MPSC 3 TRUGPU 4
NEROCA 1 USA 3
Today's Match on
10.10.2014 at 12.30pm
SSU VS FCK
at 2.30pm
ZFC vs AIM
tween TRUGPU and the po- the police team did not loosen unmarked Ksh Kanta who
lice team, Th Kiran of MPSC their game and after a series had no problem in slotting the
struck the opening goal in the of attacks the ball went to an ball home barely one minute
20th minute of
after the equalthe match after
iser
from
LEAGUE TABLE AFTER 9th ROUND
the
ball
TRUGPU.
P
W D L
G/F G/A G/D Pts
bounded off Team
On
the
9
6
2
1
22
16
+06 20
T R U G P U ' s SSU
other side, the
goalkeeper W NEROCA 9
TRUGPU
5
1
3
20
13
+07 16
Suraj.
team with one
USA
9
4
3
2
12
06
+06 15
T R U G P U MPSC
goal
down,
9
3
5
1
11
08
+03 14
then went on
changed their
9
4
2
3
12
07
+05 14
the offensive AIM
game plan and
4
2
3
15
13
+02 14
and L Ratan TRUGPU 9
went out in the
9
4
2
3
12
14
-02
14
attack repeatdid well to TRAU
9
4
1
4
15
12
+03 13
claim the equal- ` ZFC
edly raiding
the citadel of
iser through a NISA
9
3
2
4
11
13
-02
11
the
police
p o w e r f u l KLASA
9
2
1
6
06
16
-10
07
header in the NACO
team. Off such
9
1
3
5
06
15
-09
06
an attack, L
22nd minute.
FCK
9
1
2
6
05
13
-08
05
Ratan received
However,
a well directed
pass and managed to score
his second and the team's
equalizing goal in the 39th
minute.
Tied with two goals each
in the first half, TRUGPU
continued with the offensive
and L Deepak scored a brace
in the 69th and 82nd minute
Mary Kom, Sarita Devi to skip Natls
of the match to help his team
take a comfortable 4-2 lead.
Down by two goals, the
MPSC team fought back hard
and managed to reduce the
margin when K Priyokumar
found the net to bring his
team back into the match at 43. The third goal however
came too late as the final
whistle went off soon.
In the second match of the
day, Md Aasif of USA
opened his side's account in
the 26th minute of the match.
After break, NEROCA's
Th Ronald scored the equaliser in the 66th minute to tie
the score at 1-1.
Minutes later, a sharp
header from USA's Ch Risk
helped his side take a 2-1
lead. The NEROCA side
fought back to find the equaliser but all their attempts were
thwarted by the USA defenders.
Against the run of play,
Md Asif of USA rammed
home his second goal in the
83rd minute of the match to
register a convincing 3-1 win.
NEUFC crush
Assam XI 9-0
GUWAHATI, Oct 9 :
NorthEast United FC geared up
for the inaugural Indian Super
League with a 9-0 rout of
Assam XI in a practice match at
the Indira Gandhi Athletic
Stadium here today.
David Ngaihte gave the
lead followed by Sergio Koke
who doubled the lead before
Allen Deory scored a terrific
hat-trick to send NEUFC 5-0
up. Seimeinlen Doungel increased the lead to 6-0, Luis
Padilla bagged a brace to
make it 8-0 before Do DongHyun scored the final goal to
complete the rout for the John
Abraham co-owned franchise.
CM O Ibobi (C) and other dignitaries attending the inaugural function of JNV Sports Meet
By Our Sports Reporter
IMPHAL, Oct 9 : Chief
Minister Okram Ibobi today
inaugurated the 25th Navodaya
Vidyalaya Samiti National
Football Championship and the
17th Navodaya Vidyalaya
National Samiti National
Archery Meet 2014 at Khuman
Lampak indoor hall.
Both the meets were
jointly organised by the Regional Office, Shillong and
Jawahar
Navodaya
Vidyalaya, Khumbong under
the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Department of
School Education and Literacy, Government of India.
The inauguration function
was attended by Chief Minister O Ibobi as the chief guest
and Deputy Commissioner
NVS
Regional
Office,
Shillong, Dr NS Reddi as the
president.
Youth Affairs and Sports
and Tourism Parliamentary
Secretary M Prithviraj and
Vidyalaya Management Committee Chairman and State
Revenue Department Secretary K Radhakumar also
attended the function as
guests of honour.
Ibobi unfurled the JNV
flag and took salutes of the
participating contingents of
JNV students coming from
different parts of the country.
Delivering a speech, O
Ibobi said that lots of future
leaders
and
promising
sportspersons of the country
are studying in different JNV
schools.
The objective of setting up
JNV schools is to provide
quality education to needy
families in rural areas and opportunities for faster all round
development to enable them
to compete with their urban
counterparts.
He also said that JNV
schools have been providing
ample opportunities to the students for self development
and creative expression
through games and sports and
National level inter JNV
sports meets.
He further said that games
and sports constitute an inalienable part in modern
education as the state of people’s health can be measured
by the performance in games
and sports.
As such, all efforts are
being made in different coun-
tries to groom their prospective and talented youth by
giving all the opportunities,
incentives to enable them to
represent their countries at the
international level, he added.
He said that Manipur has produced many champion
sportspersons although it is a
tiny State.
In the recently concluded
Incheon Asian Games, State
sportpersons won three gold
medals and four bronze medals bringing laurels to the
State and country, he added.
Many other athletes from
the State also participated in
the said Games and the State
is proud of them, Ibobi said.
He also said that all the
participants of JNV sports
meet would enjoy good hospitality and support from the
sports loving people of
Manipur.
He also appealed them to
serve as ambassadors of
Manipur in spreading the
beauty and goodness of the
people to other parts of the
county. Apart from the release of a souvenir, the
function also witnessed presentation of cultural dance and
music by the students.
Djokovic, Federer enter QFs in Shanghai Masters
SHANGHAI, Oct 9
File: Mary Kom and Laishram Sarita Devi
JAIPUR: Oct 9 (Agencies)
When the senior national
women’s
boxing
championship begins on
Saturday, after a gap of almost
two-and-a-half years, the star
quotient will be missing. With
the World Championships lined
up next month, MC Mary Kom
and L Sarita Devi have decided
to skip the tournament. Gold
medalist at the recently
concluded Asian Games, Mary
has decided to rest a minor arm
injury, while Sarita wants to
spend time with family before
getting busy for the World
meet.
The Manipur Amateur
Boxing Association had sent
the entries of both Sarita and
Mary for the event to be held
in Raipur, the two star boxers
decided to stay away. “Mary
is nursing a right arm injury,
and it’s not possible for her
to participate in the nationals.
We have already named her
substitute,” Mary’s husband
Onlar, who will be travelling
with the Manipur team to
Raipur, told the news agencies on Wednesday.
Even Sarita, who courted
controversy by refusing to
accept her bronze medal at the
Asian Games, feels this rest
is necessary ahead of the
World meet in South Korea.
“I wanted to participate initially but am not completely
fit now,” Sarita explained.
Asian Games participant
Pooja Rani is also doubtful
for the meet.
Meanwhile, ahead of their
first national meet, the newly
elected Boxing India (BI) is
in a spot over the selection of
the match officials. The federation is yet to form a core
group of referees and judges
as all of them are still registered under the now
unrecognized Indian Amateur
Boxing Federation (IABF).
“It’s just a stop-gap arrangement. We have invited all the
match officials for the Nationals. Once we get
permanent membership (from
the world body, AIBA), we
will start the process of selecting the core group,” BI
secretary general Jay Kowli
said.
Caught in a tussle between
AIBA and IABF, boxing activities had come to a
standstill in the country but
with 32 units set to participate at the Nationals now, the
pugilists are hoping to make
every opportunity count.
Two-time defending champion
Novak Djokovic avoided being
the latest seed to lose at the
upset-hit Shanghai Masters,
rallying to defeat No. 85ranked Mikhail Kukushkin
6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in the third round
Thursday.
Roger Federer also advanced to the quarterfinals
with a routine 6-4, 6-2 win
over Roberto Bautista Agut, a
night after he saved five
match points and escaped
with a three-set win in the
second round.
Djokovic extended his 27match winning streak in
China, but it wasn’t easy
against
the
speedy
Kukushkin, who kept the topranked Serb running with
powerful forehands that repeatedly caught the lines and
impressive defense to extend
lengthy rallies.
Serving at 4-5 in the second set, a frustrated Djokovic
even lashed out at the chair
umpire after receiving a time
violation as he caught his
breath between serves.
After dropping that service
game to lose the set, the
seven-time major winner got
the early break in the third
and held on for the win. It
was the first set he’s lost in
seven matches this year in
China, including five at last
week’s China Open.
Kukushkin, a Russianborn Kazakh player who
entered the match with a 1-15
record against top-10 players,
had 35 winners to 27 for
Djokovic.
Federer avoided the dramatics of his opening match
over Leonardo Mayer of Argentina, which he finally won
7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7) after coming
back from a 5-2 deficit in the
third-set tiebreaker.
Federer, who will overtake
Rafael Nadal at No. 2 in the
rankings next week, played a
much cleaner match against
Bautista Agut, hitting 33 winners to just 21 unforced
errors. He had 57 unforced
errors against Mayer.
The biggest problem after
Wednesday’s match was the
recovery. The match ended at
12:30 a.m. local time and he
didn’t get to sleep until four
hours later.
Djokovic will next face
David Ferrer, who boosted
Novak Djokovic returns a shot against Mikhail Kukushkin
his chances of qualifying for
the ATP finals with a 2-6, 61, 6-2 win over Andy
Murray. Both Murray and
Ferrer are fighting to claim
one of the remaining spots in
the eight-man tournament
next month in London. With
the win, Ferrer will now pass
Murray into ninth place in the
standings, just behind Milos
Raonic in eighth.
Murray had played far
more tennis than the fresher
Ferrer in recent weeks, winning a title in Shenzhen and
making the semifinals of the
China Open. The Spaniard,
meanwhile, was coming off
two straight opening-round
losses.
Murray will now try to
build on his momentum over
the rest of the season to make
a push for London. Besides
last year when he was recovering from back surgery,
Murray has played in the season-ending championships
every year since 2008.
Sixth-seeded
Tomas
Berdych also reached the
quarterfinals, beating Ivo
Karlovic 6-3, 6-4.
The Czech player is the
only seed remaining on the
bottom half of the draw after
Nadal, Stan Wawrinka, Marin
Cilic, Milos Raonic and
Ernests Gulbis were all
knocked out. No. 13-seeded
John Isner also lost Thursday
to Spaniard Feliciano Lopez,
6-3, 6-4.
Berdych will next face
Gilles Simon of France in the
quarterfinals, while Lopez
takes on Russian Mikhail
Youzhny.
Federer plays French veteran Julien Benneteau, who
defeated Jack Sock of the
United States, 6-3, 6-4.
–– AP
Things will fall into place
slowly says Gouramangi
MUMBAI, Oct 9
Indian
defender
Gouramangi Singh is
confident that the mix of
top foreign players and
their
lesser-known
Indian
counterparts
would gel well gradually
to make Chennaiyin FC a
force to reckon with in the
Indian Super League
starting on Sunday.
“It’s a month now
that we have been training together.
Earlier there were 3foreigners in a team (Ieague), now there are
larger numbers. I would
say the quality of training or intensity is much File:
higher,” said the 28year-old central defender in
Mumbai on Thursday.
“But we are just training
now and the real thing will
start on the 12th. Things will
fall into place slowly. Let’s
see how things go in the first
couple of games.”
Gouramangi said he was
not really thinking about
whether he can be in the starting XI in a line-up that has
some top defeders such as
World Cup-winning Italian
great Marco Materazzi, who
is the team’s player-manager,
and ex-Paris Saint Germain
stalwart Bernard Mendy to do
the job. “I don’t think about
getting into the starting XI.
Moirangthem Gouramangi Singh
Everyone is pushing hard.
Let’s see on (October) 15th
who plays,” said the defender
from Imphal.
He was referring to
Chennayin’s opening league
clash against FC Goa in the
latter’s
backyard
—
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium at
Fatorda.
Gourmangi said though
more time would have been
better in preparing the team,
no one was complaining.
“I would love to have had
2-3 months training before the
tournament but it’s not the
case. We can’t be complaining about it,” he said.
–– Agencies
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