Deepinder Hooda desires sports university in Haryana

Buoyed by the victory of Haryana's medal-winning sportspersons in the recent Asian Games and Common wealth Games, parliamentarian Deepender Singh Hooda now wants the central government to approve a sports university for the state.Hooda, who represents Rohtak and is the son of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said in a statement here that the university would be helpful in making the future of sportspersons brighter.Hooda said he would place the demand in parliament and also before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.The Haryana chief minister has already announced the setting up of sports academies in various districts.Hooda Jr said the state government had created a favourable atmosphere for sports.

He added that no talented player in the state would have to make any compromise in pursuing sports due to his economic condition.'Haryana players have again brought magnificence to the state and the country by exhibiting their sterling performance in the recently concluded Asian Games, after the Commonwealth Games,' he said.In the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games, Haryana players claimed 37 out of the 101 medals won by India. Out of the 38 gold medals won, 21 came from Haryana players.Several players from Haryana have made it big in events like boxing, wrestling, discus throw, athletics, shooting, badminton, kabaddi and others.

In the Asian Games at Guangzhou, Haryana players bagged five gold medals and 10 others.Their victory has brought them the moolah as well.Haryana players winning gold, silver and bronze medals in the Asian Games will be given cash rewards of Rs.25 lakh, Rs.15 lakh and Rs.10 lakh each respectively.Commonwealth Games medal winners were given a cash prize of Rs.15 lakh, Rs.10 lakh and Rs.700,000 each for gold, silver and bronze medals respectively. They also got cars ranging from Rs.350,000 to Rs.800,000, mobile phones and up to 101 kg of desi ghee.Haryana has over 350 sports stadiums in villages, blocks and towns.

CBI raids homes of Kalmadi aides

The Central Bureau of Investigation today conducted searches at 11 places, including at the residences of two top aides of Common wealth Games chief Suresh Kalmadi, in link with the alleged irregularities in a contract for the CWG result-update system. Cases were registered against OC Secretary General Lalit Bhanot and Director General V K Verma after the raids, official sources said.They said the searches started early this morning with regard to a Rs 107 crore contract struck with a firm for the results-update system for the Commonwealth Games. The searches were carried out in Gurgaon, Noida and the national capital, the sources said.

This is the third FIR in link with the alleged irregularities in CWG projects. The CBI has already registered two FIRs in connection with alleged irregularities in CWG projects and has arrested some former Games officials.This is the first time when premises of both Bhanot and Verma, both measured close to Kalmadi, were searched.While Verma has been questioned by the Enforcement Directorate a couple of times, Bhanot was also on their radar, the sources said.Verma claimed, "These allegations are absolutely baseless. Any suspicion on any individual is totally baseless because you should see this whole matter has been examined by so many high-level committees... several committees had examined the topic.”

"The whole thing was referred to the ministry. This whole presentation, the whole discussion took place in the executive board meeting of the CWG. So there has been complete transparency of every step taken in this case," he said.On November 15, two other close aides of Suresh Kalmadi T S Darbari and Sanjay Mahendroo were arrested for their supposed roles in the financial irregularities in the organisation of the Games.A few days later, the CBI arrested sacked treasurer of the Organising Committee M Jayachandran in connection with the alleged unskilled in the Queen's Baton Relay (QBR) in London last year.

New Delhi should be stopped from bidding for the Olympics over not paid bills claim Australian firm

India should not be allowed to bid for the Olympics and Paralympics because they have unsuccessful to pay millions of dollars to overseas firms involved in last month's Common wealth Games in New Delhi, claims Ric Birch the executive producer at the Opening Ceremony.Birch's Spectak Productions, which is based in Sydney and Los Angeles, is owed 15 per cent of its fees for creative direction, choreography, and design, which the Delhi organisers have so far refused to pay, he has claimed.Spectak are one of several foreign firms involved in the Games who claim that they are still waiting payment for the services they provided.

Switzerland-based Event Knowledge Services (EKS), a company who are a spin-off from the International Olympic Committee's move of knowledge service and who work with some of the biggest events in the world, are also payable money.Birch, the executive producer of the Opening Ceremony in Delhi who has worked with the Olympics stretching back to Los Angeles in 1984, also claims that 100 shipping containers of lighting, audio, pyrotechnic and staging equipment are stranded in India at the docks or at the main stadium as customs and the official freight supplier, Agility, refuse to process the necessary paperwork.

Sydney-based fireworks company Howard and Sons is also owed about $300,000 (£185,000) and is unable to export about $1 million (£618,000) of equipment used for the Closing Ceremony.Birch claimed that it was because of the fears in India over being accused in corruption that is causing the situation."Every single detail, every single word - its meaning, definition, its possible connotation - of every document and agreement is being minutely examined, checked, double-checked and triple-checked to ensure that no one can be accused of a wrongdoing," he said."People are scared that if they clear a bill, say, of an Australian contractor, they will be accused by the media of 'siphoning' money off to an Australian.

CWG scam: Kalmadi surfaces, says will response all CBI questions

After his Chinese halt, stained Common wealth Games Organising Committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Monday surfaced in the Parliament, even as he awaits his fate for his supposed involvement in various 2010 Delhi Games scam.Sureshi Kalmadi said he will give statement in Parliament on Commonwealth Games, and claimed he has not done anything wrong."I welcome the investigations (into the financial irregularities in the Commonwealth Games). I will give a statement in Parliament and I have met Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar today (Monday) and she said whenever the House runs I can make the statement," Kalmadi told reporters outside Parliament.

Kalmadi said the matter is sub judice but he wants to tell Parliament that he is not at fault and is ready to answer all the question of the federal investigative agency, IANS reported."The budget of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee was between Rs 1,500 crore and Rs 1,700 crore, but we only spent Rs 1,400 crore," he said."We were not involved in the construction work related to the Commonwealth Games. Our work was to organize the Games, including the finishing and opening ceremony," he added.Kalmadi is likely to be quizzed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the CWG overlays scam. Kalmadi also stares at a possible probe on the hands on the Enforcement Directorate and I-T authorities, according to Times Now.

Kalmadi returns to India at a time when three of his closest aides - TS Darbari, Sanjay Mohindroo and M Jayachandran - are behind bars for their alleged contribution in corrupt deals during the Queen's Baton relay in London last year.Meanwhile, feeling the heat of post-Commonwealth Games investigations, Suresh Kalmadi has virtually abdicated control over economic matters with three senior government officials on deputation forming an internal committee to vet pending contractual payouts. It is after this panel approves payments that either Kalmadi or his aide, secretary general Lalit Bhanot, sign on the cheques.

Asian Games 2010: Abraham Wins Ninth Gold for India

India’s Gold tally mounted to 9 at the 16th Asian Games today on Thursday when Joseph Abraham Wins Ninth Gold for India by smart the men’s 400 hurdles with a timing of 49.96.Earlier to this, Ashwini Akkunji won the eighth gold for India and created yet another history in the track and field event. She clinched the Gold in women’s 400m hurdles title at the 16th Asian Games, with a timing of 56.15 seconds.Earlier in the day, Tintu Luka won the bronze medal in the women’s 800 metres event of the track and field competitions. Tintu, who had a unsatisfactory finish in the New Delhi Common wealth Games, finished third with a timing of 2:01.36 seconds in women’s 800 metres event.



Kazhakstan’s Margarita Matsko bagged gold with her personal best timing of 2:00.29 secs while Chinese Truong Thanh Hang with a timing of 2:00.91 secs grabbed the silver.Mausam Khatri grabbed a bronze in the men’s 96kg freestyle contest here on Thursday and on gave the Indian wrestling dependent its third medal at the ongoing Asian Games. Khatri got the better of Jaegang Kim of South Korea 3-1 to grab the third position in a competition that just over 17 minutes.In Hockey event, Indian Team has bagged a bronze medal today in Men’s section by defeating South Korea one-nil.

In other events, Indian Boxer Vijender Singh along with four other compatriots including Vikas Krishan (60kg), Dinesh Kumar (81kg), Santosh Kumar (64kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) have stormed into the gold medal round in their respective categories.Indian Kabaddi team has also stormed into the final by beating Japan. Overall it was a good day for India at the 16th Asian Games in China. India is on 9th position in the medal tally with 9 Gold, 13 Silver and 29 Bronze in its kitty.China maintain to lead the medal table in the 16th Asiad at Guangzhou. According to latest reports, the hosts led the table with a haul of 178 Gold, 99 Silver and 89 Bronze. South Korea hold the second spot with a tally of 72 Gold, 59 Silver and 84 Bronze.

Asian Games Hockey

Spirited Pakistan will be facing an uphill task to clinch gold medal when they fight with giant-killers Malaysia in the Asian Games Hockey Tournament final at Aoti Hockey Center here on Thursday (today). Pakistan trained for the final after outclassing defending champions South Korea in the semifinal on Tuesday.Malaysia will play their first ever Asian Games final in 13 appearances ever since they made their debut in 1958, the year hockey was introduced in the quadrennial event. Pakistan’s forward line must fire against the aggressive and super-fit Malaysians who shocked favourites India with their dazzling and brilliant show in the semifinal and showed their ‘ambition’ of taking gold home.

Keeping in view their show, Malaysia will not be a ‘piece of cake’ for Pakistan. Their pacy hit-and-run game can be an worrying factor. Pakistan will also have work on their conversion in today’s game. Their penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas has disappointed in the competition so far.The Greenshirts, seeking salvation, last entered the Asiad final 20 years ago in Beijing when they won their seventh gold medal in the event, but a major title has eluded the former champions since the World Cup in 1994. Today Pakistan, once a dominant force in world hockey and winners of three Olympic titles, will also be carrying the heavy burden of an embarrassingly poor run in the last two major hockey events of the year.

The record four-time former world champions not working to a embarrassing last-place finish in the 2010 World Cup in New Delhi in March and then slumped to a disappointing sixth position in the Common wealth Games at the same venue last month. Such poor results had prompted critics to predict ‘yet another tsunami of defeats’ in the Guangzhou Asian Games. But Pakistan proved their critics wrong with a superb display of hockey. On their way to final, the Greenshirts beat Hong Kong 12-0, beat Japan 8-2, lost to India 2-3, beat Bangladesh 6-1 and beat South Korea 4-3 on penalty strokes.Pakistan are worried to make compensation after a disappointing year. Skipper Zeeshan Ashraf told reporters on Wednesday that Thursday’s game would be one of the most crucial for his team in recent times. “We need to win a big one to restore faith in our fans back home,” said Ashraf.

Asian Games Boxing: Indian boxers had a mixed day in China

Vikas Krishan and Dinesh Kumar successfully advanced into the finals with comfortable victories in the opening session of the Boxing event at the Asian Games on Wednesday. Two other boxers from India, Suranjoy Singh and Paramjeet Samota however had to resolve for bronze medal in China.The eighteen year old Krishan thrashed out Hurshid Tojibaev of Uzbekistan 7-0 to make his way into the title clash in the sixteenth edition of the Asian Games. The Indian will take on Qing Hu of China in the finals.Second up was Kumar who also had no serious problems in outwitting his opponent from Nepal, Deepak Maharjan 7-1. Kumar, by virtue of this win has set up a final clash with Elshod Rasulov of Uzbekistan.

The Common wealth Games gold medallists Suranjoy and Samota, on the other hand, had to settle with bronze after falling down in the final four encounter in contrasting manner.Suranjoy was beaten in an exciting contest by his Chinese opponent Chang Yong 5-6 whereas Samota was all at sea versus Zhilei Zhang before the referee stopped the match halfway through the round three and given the bout to the local favourite.Suranjoy was the first player to enter the ring for India in the men’s event and was 0-3 down versus Yong in the first round. However, the 24-year-old Manipuri, who has captured a total of seven international gold medals since April last year, bounced back with his trademark left hooks to level it at 5-5 in the next round.

In the final round, the tiny Manipuri, who is also known as 'Chhota Tyson', was unfortunate not to get points for some blows even as Yong did well to land the all-important scoring punch to just about edge past his challenger in the end.Next came Paramjeet Samota who was simply no match for the stronger and more determined Zhang, who never actually allowed his Indian opponent to attack. Paramjeet kept a shell-guard to counter that however Zhilei managed to go through his defence with great measure of ease before the referee called it off in favour of the local side boxer.

Asian Games 2010 Archery: Tarundeep Rai loses in Final

26-year-old Tarundeep Rai lost to South Korean Woojin Kim 28-28, 27-28, 29-28, 27-28, 27-29 in the Men's Individual Recurve final at the Asian Games on Wednesday.In spite of losing, the winner of the Arjuna Award conferred by the Government of India back in 2005 for his great role to the nation through his consistent and outstanding performances in the game of Archery, set his name in the annals of history by becoming the first Indian to bag a silver medal in the Men’s Single Archery event at the Asian Games in Guangzhou.The professional archer from India provided an important lead to his foe in the final set as the right hander shot an eight pointer in his first attempt.

In spite of the fact that he made changes in the following two attempts by winning nine points each however those did not prove enough in the end to stop the South Korean from capturing gold in the end.As a result, Rai who was placed 32nd in the Men's Individual Ranking at the Summer Olympics back in 2004 had to be content with a silver medal.The Indian who was also a member of the eleventh spot Indian Men's Archery Team at the Summer Olympics back in 2004, started his Asian Games campaign strongly with a comfortable win over Kien Trong Dao of Vietnam 5-1, which was followed by another win over Sian Chu Cheng from Malaysia 6-2.

One of the most famous sportspersons hailing from North-Eastern Indian then got the better of Jinhyek Oh of Korea 26-27, 30-26, 28-28, 29-27, 28-27 in the 8th round in China.Rai, who made his debut in International Archery at the age of 19, continued his inspiring form in the semifinal round as he once again did well to beat Taipei's Chia Chun Sung 29-29, 26-30, 30-27, 28-26, 29-28 to confirm his place in the final.Elsewhere, the other Indian in the fray, Rahul Banerjee who captured a gold medal at the Common wealth Games last month in New Delhi, finished his movement on a disappointing note as he could not even reach the final 8th round after the Indian surrendered without posing any major threat to Chun Chia Sung of Taipei 27-28, 24-25, 24-26.

Asian Games 2010: Somdev wins seventh gold for India

Somdev Devvarman clinched a remarkable singles gold medal in tennis while two bronze medals came from athletics, but the men's hockey team squandered an advantageous position to go down to Malaysia in a exciting semifinal in the Asian Games here Tuesday.Discus thrower Krishna Poonia, who won gold in the Common wealth Games, had to remain content with a silver with a throw of 61.94m.Pramila Ganapathy finished third in heptathlon with 5,415 points in the seven-discipline competition. Compatriot Susmita Singha Roy finished fourth, bagging 5,051 points.

In hockey, India lost to Malaysia through Muhamad Amin Rahim's golden goal. India were leading 3-2 with three minutes to go for the final hooter when Rahim scored the equaliser taking advantage of a defensive slip that proved costly for Jose Brasa's team.Malaysia scored through Abdul Jalil Tengku (32nd minute), Azlan Misron (49th) and Rahim (67th, 75th).The Indian goals came through Sandeep Singh (35th), Tushar Khandekar (37th) and Rajpal Singh (54th).Malaysia will now take on Pakistan for the gold medal.

Also, 16-year-old archery sensation Deepika Kumari could not live up to the expectations as she lost the bronze medal match 2-6 to Kwon Un Sil of North Korea in the women's individual recurve event.Earlier, Somdev's gold capped a successful tennis campaign and took India to the seventh spot in the medal's tally.Somdev dominated the 1 hour 22-minute title clash at the Aoti Tennis Stadium from start to finish as World No.40 Istomin dedicated a stream of errors and struggled with his serve, making as many as eight double faults.

NDMC plans to reward employees for Games triumph

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has decided to reward its employees who literally worked day and night to make sure the Common wealth Games were a success. The civic body plans to pay Rs 2,500 to each of its 11,000 'C' and 'D' grade employees. Welcoming the move of the welfare department of the NDMC, Mukesh Bhatt, a member of the council, said they will pass the proposal when it is discussed in the civic body's meeting to be held on Wednesday."We are in fact also proposing to include around 600 B category employees who also worked hard during the Games," he said.

The financial suggestion of the project is likely to be around Rs 2.75 crore which will be paid from the civic body's own funds. "This is not the first time it is happening. When the NDMC headquarters was inaugurated in 1983, the employees were given one week's salary as a reward," said a senior NDMC official.The 'C' and 'D' category employees consist of security guards, clerks, gardeners and cleaners who kept the New Delhi area clean during the Games.

"Common wealth Games 2010, an international multi-sports occasion connecting athletes from Commonwealth countries, have been organized recently during the month of October and some of the events were organized in NDMC area which was also the main point of attraction during the Games," reads the item on the meeting schedule which will be approved by the council members on Wednesday. Once the suggestion is accepted, the money will be sanctioned by end of December. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had also planned to issue letters of appreciation to its staffs for working hard for the Games.

Somdev-Sanam win Gold, Sania-Vishnu bag Silver

Somdev Devvarman on Monday became the first Indian to reach the men's singles final in the history of the Asian Games before winning the men's doubles gold with Sanam Singh but Sania Mirza and Vishnu Vardhan had to be content with a silver in the tennis competitions, here today.It was an extremely productive day for Somdev as he inched nearer to a historic singles gold after pipping Japan's Tatasuma Ito 6-2 0-6 6-3 in the semifinals to set up the summit-clash with top seed Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.Later, he and Sanam Singh combined superbly to win first gold medal for India in the tennis event in this version of the Games as the sixth seed pair shocked second seed Chinese Gong Maoxin and Li Zhe 6-3 6-7(4) 10-8 in the final.

However, gold eluded Sania yet again as she and Vishnu Vardhan, seeded sixth, lost the mixed doubles final 6-4 1-6 2-10 to second seed Taipei pair of Chan Yung Jan and Yang Tsung Hua.Somdev and Sanam's gold award feat assumes significance as India landed here without star doubles pair of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, gold medallists of the last version at Doha in 2006, who opted to play in World Tour Finals in London.Rohan Bopanna is also missing from the Indian line-up though he had failed to qualify for the World Tour Finals.Sania had yesterday settled for a bronze award in the women's singles. At Doha Games she had won a silver in singles and had won a gold in mixed doubles with Paes.

Somdev, a gold medallist at Common wealth Games, continued to be India's flag bearer in the men's singles.Before him, no Indian had managed to enter men's singles final and India had won only three bronze medals in men's singles in Asian Games.Leander Paes had won it in 1994 in Hiroshima Games and Mahesh Bhupathi and Prahlad Srinath had won it during 1998 Games in Bangkok.Earlier, on the day, in the baseline slugfest that lasted almost two hours, second seed Somdev pocketed the opening set against Ito, ranked 195, with a measure of comfort but was then blown off the court by the fourth seed Ito, who clinched the second 6-0.

Asian Games 2010: Indian wins 2 bronze in Greco-Roman

Common wealth Games gold medallist Ravinder Kumar and bronze winner Sunil Kumar Rana kept their date with destiny to win a award each in Greco- Roman wrestling at the Asian Games at the Huagong Gymnasium on Sunday. Rana pinned down his Thai challenger Sutep Oomchompoo to win by fall (5-0) in just six seconds to stamp his authority in the bronze medal bout. Earlier, Ravinder showed he was not an also-ran here to win against Indonesian Muhammad Aliansyah by points (3-1).A lot of hopes were pinned on both Ravinder and Rana and they did not disappoint the fans back home despite losing their first-round bouts in the morning.

In fact, the two Indians had very little time after their first bouts which they lost — Ravinder 1-3 to Nurbak Tengizbayev of Kazakhstan and Rana 0-3 to Yazgeldy of Turkmenistan — but proved themselves in the next to keep their hopes floating. However, the third Indian in the fray, Rajinder Kumar, bowed out without making it to the medal round.Ravinder fought well against Jihyun Jung of Korea in the second bout to make it to the repechage round for a bronze medal in the evening. The bout against his Korean rival was easy as the Railways matman came into his own to pin him down and log full three points, without conceding any to the Korean.

When he came for the repechage bout in the evening, Ravinder looked confident and reassuring to the sparse Indian crowd which cheered continually the moment he stepped on the mat. Within seconds, he picked a pair of technical points and by the time the first round was over, he had a lead of seven points to three.The second round seemed a mere procedure as the 21-year-old Indonesian could not extricate himself from the grip of the experienced Ravinder, who scored two more technical points in 18 seconds and made the bronze medal his own. “I knew after my second-round win that I will definitely take the medal here.

Asian Games 2010 Medal Tally: Vijay wins bronze

Armyman Vijay Kumar shot 583 out of 600 to win bronze in the centre-fire pistol event as Indian shooters continued to flounder at the Aoti sports complex on Thursday.For Gagan Narang, who was hoping to win his second individual award, it was a day of disappointment as he finished fourth in the men’s 50m rifle three position event. His aggregate score of 1261.8 was 0.5 less than bronze medal winner Qinan Zhu of China.As the rifle and pistol events came to an end, the talking point again was how the Indian shooters had come a cropper, unable to win a single gold medal.

This was a sport from which the Indians were supposed to reap a rich harvest, but barring the efforts put in by Vijay Kumar and Gagan, the rest have unsuccessful to live up to expectations.India has a rich history in the Asian Games when a certain Jaspal Rana won medals with ease for the country from 1994 to 2006. Having won three gold medals and a silver in Doha, Jaspal was even in the running for the most valuable player award.But times have changed. As the National Rifle Association of India managed to ensure Jaspal gave up shooting totally, the next generation of pistol shooters has not been able to repeat his feats.

On Thursday, Harpreet Singh shot a blank as a result of which India were unable to win a team medal.Vijay’s score of 583 was three points behind gold medal winner Byung Take Park of Korea. In contrast, during the Doha Asiad, Jaspal had shot a world record equalling 590 out of 600.“I am happy with my effort in Guangzhou as I won two medals. It has been a hard year for me and in the coming years, I can work harder and do better,” said Vijay.Back to Gagan, the rifleman was unlucky in what is virtually a season-ending event for him. Gagan shot 393 out of 400 in prone, 382 out of 400 in standing and a low 387 out of 400 in kneeling.

At one point in the final, Gagan had moved to the third position but was done in by a score of 8.3 points in the eighth shot. And that virtually sealed his fate as the leaders pulled away from Gagan. Before that, Gagan had shot only 9.5 points in the third effort in the final.It has been a long year for Gagan. Having done well in the World Championship and the Common wealth Games, expecting him to peak in Guangzhou was not easy.

Deepika qualifies for 2nd stage, leads team into last 16

Teenage archer Deepika Kumari led the Indian women's archery team into the pre-quarterfinals of the Asian Games contest with a creditable display, which also helped her qualify for the next round along with another promising youngster Rimil Buriuly.While more fancied compatriots Dola Banerjee and Laishram Bombayla Devi put up a flop show today.Jamshedpur-based Deepika, who was the best Indian archer in the Common wealth Games with a gold medal to her credit, entered the second stage by finishing seventh after shooting 1329.

Rimil stood 17th amongst 52 archers with 1298, but former world champion Dola and Bombayla exited after ending up at a distant 28th and 29th with 1270 and 1264 points respectively.Dola will continue to be part of the team which will take on Vietnam for a place in quarterfinals on Saturday.South Korea's Yun Okhee set a new Games record with a total of 1371.Deepika fired 326 over a distance of 70m, 333 over 60m, 323 and 347 over 50 and 30m. The Indian shot 64 ten pointers and 17 times hit the bulls-eye.Rimil shot 309, 325, 313 and 345 in that series and she had 47 ten pointers and 18 golden hits.

Dola brought in a unsatisfactory 313, 313, 296 and 342 while Bombayla did 320, 321, 296 and 333.Archery Association of India secretary Paresh Mukherjee was disappointed with the women's off target shooting which he described as "very poor"."We were expecting better show from them but it was not to be," he said.He pointed out that decision to include Dola in the team event, instead of Bombayla, was taken because she was the more experienced among the two."We hope she would be able to withstand the pressure (in the team event) though Bombayla did better in the individual occasion," he said.

Asian Games 2010 : Saina Nehwal enters quarter-finals

Saina Nehwal is used to hectic movement all the time. At the Asian Games, the Indian star skilled ‘boredom’ which, however, did not manifest itself on the badminton court as the second seed defeated Malaysia’s Cheah Lydia 21-15, 21-17 to enter the quarter-finals.After the match, Saina spoke of how the long wait to play her match was preying on her mind. “It was, indeed, very difficult for me to remain motivated for the last three days,” she said at the Tianhe Gymnasium.Saina feels she has a tougher job to do on Thursday when she runs into 12th seed Pui Yin Yip from Hong Kong in the quarter-finals. More than the player’s reputation, what worries Saina is the timing of the match --it is scheduled at 10pm local time.

“It’s a big worry because playing a game as late as 10 at night means it could be mentally draining because I will have nothing else to do the entire day,” said Saina.She, however, added that she had played late games — like she did in New Delhi to win the Common wealth Games gold. “That was a different impression and was not very late. Moreover, the home crowd support and the expectations were the motivational factors,” said Saina.Knowing Saina’s capabilities, the Indian shuttle queen should go flat out against the Hong Kong player. However, the Hyderabadi definitely lacked the usual verve which she treats her fans to.

After taking a runaway 6-0 lead in the first game, Saina conceded the first point to her Malaysian opponent. It was an unforced error when Saina tried to drop the shuttle close to the net. The tall and strapping Malaysian seized the chance that came her way in between and managed to stretch the Indian with some good winners. But Saina returned to her smashing ways to take the game at 21-15, in 14 minutes The second game went more or less in the same pattern as Saina conceded her first point after having led 6-0. Some line calls in the game also played their role as Saina seemed upset with them, but took them in her stride. Even the shuttle route seemed to drift, but she overcame it and surge ahead to 12-5.

Asian Games 2010 : Saina Nehwal enters quarter-finals

Saina Nehwal is used to hectic movement all the time. At the Asian Games, the Indian star skilled ‘boredom’ which, however, did not manifest itself on the badminton court as the second seed defeated Malaysia’s Cheah Lydia 21-15, 21-17 to enter the quarter-finals.After the match, Saina spoke of how the long wait to play her match was preying on her mind. “It was, indeed, very difficult for me to remain motivated for the last three days,” she said at the Tianhe Gymnasium.Saina feels she has a tougher job to do on Thursday when she runs into 12th seed Pui Yin Yip from Hong Kong in the quarter-finals. More than the player’s reputation, what worries Saina is the timing of the match --it is scheduled at 10pm local time.

“It’s a big worry because playing a game as late as 10 at night means it could be mentally draining because I will have nothing else to do the entire day,” said Saina.She, however, added that she had played late games — like she did in New Delhi to win the Common wealth Games gold. “That was a different impression and was not very late. Moreover, the home crowd support and the expectations were the motivational factors,” said Saina.Knowing Saina’s capabilities, the Indian shuttle queen should go flat out against the Hong Kong player. However, the Hyderabadi definitely lacked the usual verve which she treats her fans to.

After taking a runaway 6-0 lead in the first game, Saina conceded the first point to her Malaysian opponent. It was an unforced error when Saina tried to drop the shuttle close to the net. The tall and strapping Malaysian seized the chance that came her way in between and managed to stretch the Indian with some good winners. But Saina returned to her smashing ways to take the game at 21-15, in 14 minutes The second game went more or less in the same pattern as Saina conceded her first point after having led 6-0. Some line calls in the game also played their role as Saina seemed upset with them, but took them in her stride. Even the shuttle route seemed to drift, but she overcame it and surge ahead to 12-5.

Asian Games 2010 : Saina Nehwal enters quarter-finals

Saina Nehwal is used to hectic movement all the time. At the Asian Games, the Indian star skilled ‘boredom’ which, however, did not manifest itself on the badminton court as the second seed defeated Malaysia’s Cheah Lydia 21-15, 21-17 to enter the quarter-finals.After the match, Saina spoke of how the long wait to play her match was preying on her mind. “It was, indeed, very difficult for me to remain motivated for the last three days,” she said at the Tianhe Gymnasium.Saina feels she has a tougher job to do on Thursday when she runs into 12th seed Pui Yin Yip from Hong Kong in the quarter-finals. More than the player’s reputation, what worries Saina is the timing of the match --it is scheduled at 10pm local time.

“It’s a big worry because playing a game as late as 10 at night means it could be mentally draining because I will have nothing else to do the entire day,” said Saina.She, however, added that she had played late games — like she did in New Delhi to win the Common wealth Games gold. “That was a different impression and was not very late. Moreover, the home crowd support and the expectations were the motivational factors,” said Saina.Knowing Saina’s capabilities, the Indian shuttle queen should go flat out against the Hong Kong player. However, the Hyderabadi definitely lacked the usual verve which she treats her fans to.

After taking a runaway 6-0 lead in the first game, Saina conceded the first point to her Malaysian opponent. It was an unforced error when Saina tried to drop the shuttle close to the net. The tall and strapping Malaysian seized the chance that came her way in between and managed to stretch the Indian with some good winners. But Saina returned to her smashing ways to take the game at 21-15, in 14 minutes The second game went more or less in the same pattern as Saina conceded her first point after having led 6-0. Some line calls in the game also played their role as Saina seemed upset with them, but took them in her stride. Even the shuttle route seemed to drift, but she overcame it and surge ahead to 12-5.

CWG purchases approach under CBI scanner, investigate begins

After registering two cases in reports of scam in Common wealth Games projects, CBI is now probing supposed overpricing in purchase of furniture, air conditioners and toilet rolls during the sports show.CBI sources said the examination of the documents was being done after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) alleged discrepancies like inflated prices and bungling in purchase and renting of overlays including equipment worth several crores through tendering.They anti-corruption watchdog passed on reports from its Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs) of concerned ministries or departments and found substantive evidence to hand over the cases to CBI for further probe and logical finish of the cases.

The CVC had alleged in its report that there have been huge financial losses to the national exchequer while awarding contracts and claimed to have found alleged criminal conspiracy and financial bungling in some of the tenders and award of works.The CBI may further examine some of the officials of the CWG Organising Committee who were not cooperating and had a lackadaisical approach when approached by the CVC.The CBI would be looking into huge deviations that are alleged to have been made in purchase of air conditioners, furniture, kitchen equipment and creating temporary infrastructure for Commonwealth Games Village and other projects.

CBI had on November 15 registered two cases in link with contracts awarded to London-based A M Films and and AM Car and Van Hire limited at exorbitant rates for Queen's Baton Relay in London last year.It has also arrested two top aides of CWG OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi -- T S Darbari, former Joint Director General and Sanjay Mahendroo, former Deputy Director General.Both Darbari and Mahendroo were primarily suspended in the wake of reports of the CWG scam and later sacked. They are considered to be close associates of OC chairman Kalmadi.CBI said the first case was registered under different Sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act in relation to the award of contract to AM car and Van Hire Ltd.

CWG purchases approach under CBI scanner, probe begins

After registering two cases in reports of scam in Common wealth Games projects, CBI is now probing supposed overpricing in purchase of furniture, air conditioners and toilet rolls during the sports show.CBI sources said the examination of the documents was being done after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) alleged discrepancies like inflated prices and bungling in purchase and renting of overlays including equipment worth several crores through tendering.They anti-corruption watchdog passed on reports from its Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs) of concerned ministries or departments and found substantive evidence to hand over the cases to CBI for further probe and logical finish of the cases.

The CVC had alleged in its report that there have been huge financial losses to the national exchequer while awarding contracts and claimed to have found alleged criminal conspiracy and financial bungling in some of the tenders and award of works.The CBI may further examine some of the officials of the CWG Organising Committee who were not cooperating and had a lackadaisical approach when approached by the CVC.The CBI would be looking into huge deviations that are alleged to have been made in purchase of air conditioners, furniture, kitchen equipment and creating temporary infrastructure for Commonwealth Games Village and other projects.

CBI had on November 15 registered two cases in link with contracts awarded to London-based A M Films and and AM Car and Van Hire limited at exorbitant rates for Queen's Baton Relay in London last year.It has also arrested two top aides of CWG OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi -- T S Darbari, former Joint Director General and Sanjay Mahendroo, former Deputy Director General.Both Darbari and Mahendroo were primarily suspended in the wake of reports of the CWG scam and later sacked. They are considered to be close associates of OC chairman Kalmadi.CBI said the first case was registered under different Sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act in relation to the award of contract to AM car and Van Hire Ltd.

CWG purchases approach under CBI scanner, investigate begins

After registering two cases in reports of scam in Common wealth Games projects, CBI is now probing supposed overpricing in purchase of furniture, air conditioners and toilet rolls during the sports show.CBI sources said the examination of the documents was being done after the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) alleged discrepancies like inflated prices and bungling in purchase and renting of overlays including equipment worth several crores through tendering.They anti-corruption watchdog passed on reports from its Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs) of concerned ministries or departments and found substantive evidence to hand over the cases to CBI for further probe and logical finish of the cases.

The CVC had alleged in its report that there have been huge financial losses to the national exchequer while awarding contracts and claimed to have found alleged criminal conspiracy and financial bungling in some of the tenders and award of works.The CBI may further examine some of the officials of the CWG Organising Committee who were not cooperating and had a lackadaisical approach when approached by the CVC.The CBI would be looking into huge deviations that are alleged to have been made in purchase of air conditioners, furniture, kitchen equipment and creating temporary infrastructure for Commonwealth Games Village and other projects.

CBI had on November 15 registered two cases in link with contracts awarded to London-based A M Films and and AM Car and Van Hire limited at exorbitant rates for Queen's Baton Relay in London last year.It has also arrested two top aides of CWG OC Chairman Suresh Kalmadi -- T S Darbari, former Joint Director General and Sanjay Mahendroo, former Deputy Director General.Both Darbari and Mahendroo were primarily suspended in the wake of reports of the CWG scam and later sacked. They are considered to be close associates of OC chairman Kalmadi.CBI said the first case was registered under different Sections of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act in relation to the award of contract to AM car and Van Hire Ltd.

Asian Games 2010 medal tally, China rules

Asian Games 2010: Around 400,000 tickets were sold to public at the Asian Games to solve the difficulty of empty stadiums. The press conference was organized Monday on Guangzhou Asian Games. Olympic Council of Asia president Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah attended the conference and decided to print 400,000 tickets for sale.During two days of competition the stadiums remained empty and there were no tickets for pubic sale.

The same problem was skilled by New Delhi organizers of last month's
Common wealth Games when thousands of tickets were sold by organizers only few people turned up to watch the games. Director of the Guangzhou Asian Games ticketing center Yuan Yue said "There were a few competitions that were 'cold inside, hot outside',"."We are doing our very best to make as many tickets as likely available to the public."

The tickets were officially sold out at the website for the games and people interested in buying the tickets couldn’t find another way to get it. The online website showed that tickets were already sold out. There were 2.3 million tickets available for the games. Around 1million tickets were allotted for the residents of Guangzhou city, Chinese youth Olympic development programs, organizations in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Official says that ticket booths will be placed in many public places for the convenience of the people and there will be booths at the venues. More people will likely turn up as the competition moves to the finals. The 16th Asian Games are being held in Guangzhou from Nov 12 to 27.

Dull show by Indian shooters

Indian shooters put up a dull show on another windy day as they drew a blank for the third day in running with only pistol expert and Melbourne Common wealth Games hero Samaresh Jung coming up with something notable in the Asian Games on Wednesday.Bespectacled Jung, who earned the nickname 'Goldfinger' after grabbing a record five gold medals four years ago in Melbourne missed the men's 25m standard pistol shoot-off for the bronze by one point in a straight final to end 7th overall with 569 points from amongst 39 shooters.

But his two other teammates, Pemba Tamang and Chandrahas Chaudhary, performed very poorly, shooting only 550 and 549 out of 600 to end up 22nd and 23rd respectively and the combined effort cost India a team medal too as they finished fourth with 1668 points, well behind bronze winners North Korea's 1690, from eleven contestants.World women's prone position champion Tejaswini Sawant too put up a disappointing display and brought up the rear, finishing 23rd out of 45 shooters with a shocking 569 points in the women's 3-position rifle event.

Her teammate Lajjakumari Gauswami finished up a rung below her with the same score and Chetenpreet Kaur Nilon secured the 31st spot with 559.The Indian squad ended up a shocking 9th out of 12 competing teams with 1697 points. China won the gold wth 1733, South Korea the silver with 1728 and the bronze was claimed by Iran (1719).In the 25m pistol event, Jung fired 569 out of 600, an movement of ten points from his show in last month's
Common wealth Games in Delhi, with 13 scores of ten but missed the cut off for the third-place play-off by one point with four others logging 570. He finished seventh overall.

Yet one more boring day for Indian paddlers in Asian Games

India endured one more unsatisfactory day in table tennis competitions at the Asian Games with only the men's doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Subhajit Saha moving ahead to the pre-quarterfinals at the Guangzhou Gymnasium here today.The Common wealth Games gold medallist pair of Sharath Kamal and Saha lived up to their billing and took little time in outclassing Husain Albahrani and Mansour Alenezy of Kuwait 3-0 in their opening round encounter.

The Indian duo took just 12 minutes to get the better of Albahrani and Alenezy 11-7 11-4 11-4 and set up a clash against the Korean pair of Jungwoo Lee and Sang Eun Oh.If Sharath Kamal and Saha's match was a cakewalk, their compatriots Soumyadeep Roy and Anthony Amalraj were shown the door in the first round by Korean combination of Yuk Cheung and Li Ching.

Roy and Amalraj offered little fight as the Korean duo sent them packing (0-3) 5-11 5-11 7-11 in mere 13 minutes.India's challenge also came to an end in the mixed doubles event as the pair of Sharath Kamal and Kumaresan Shamini went down fighting 2-3 to Seiya Kishikawa and Ai Fukuhara of Japan in the pre-quarterfinals.Sharath and Shamini gave a tough fight to their opponents before bowing down 12-10 4-11 11-8 2-11 6-11 in their second round encounter which lasted little more than half-an-hour.

Ashish Kumar first Indian gymnast to succeed Asiad award

Ashish Kumar Tuesday became the first Indian gymnast to win a award in the Asian Games when he bagged a bronze in the men’s floor event.Kumar protected the bronze with an aggregate score of 14.92 behind gold winner Chenglong Zhang of China (15.40) and South Korean Soo Myun Kim, who won the silver (15.40).The Indian gymnasts’ movement here began on a sour note after their Russian coach Vladimir Chertkov left the team following a row with the deputy chef de mission over taking part in the Asian Games opening ceremony and supposed “discrimination and racist” bias in preventing him from marching with the Indian dependent.

The 19-year-old from Allahabad said he did not let the incident affect him and was focused on giving a good performance.“You need to have a trainer at such big events. But I did not think about the episode as I wanted to provide a fine performance and win a medal for the country. People were expecting a medal from me after I reached the final. I know that our coach must be happy to hear about my award,” Kumar said.“

Since the occasion was right after the Common wealth Games, we did not get much time to train. We could practice only for two weeks. I had the intuition of winning the award but I was not thinking about it. I am very happy.”Kumar last month also became the first gymnast from the country to win a medal in the Commonwealth Games, where he won a silver in men’s vault and a bronze in men’s ground.

Asian Games 2010: India's 1st gold medal

Guangzhou Asian Games 2010 medal tally: India's 1st gold medal. India captured its first gold in weightlifting in the 16th Asian Games on Saturday, November 13, 2010. Srinivasa Rao Balluri won the men’s 56 kg weightlifting event while his compatriot Sukhen Dey won the silver for the same event.Whereas, Gagan Narang, 27, the hero of the recent Common wealth Games in Delhi, won the silver award in the 10m air rifle individual event and then teamed up with Bindra and Sanjeev Rajput to add another silver in the team affair.

Narang, could not surpass the world record of 703.5 that he holds and shot a score of 700.7 (597+103.7) to clear up for silver behind China's Qinan Zhu (598+104).“The Chinese are always strong in shooting, but this is a sport where the contest is within yourself not the other guy,” said Narang.Meanwhile, ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal opened the game by beating Indonesia’s Adriyanti Firdasari in the women's badminton team event.

Nehwal, who captured gold last month at the Common wealth Games in New Delhi, won her match 21-16, 21-17, but not enough to thwart her team from going down 3-2 overall."I don't want to think much about it," said the 20-year-old from Hyderabad and the first Indian woman to win a Super Series title. "I just want to take one game at a time and do my best."

CWG scam: Kalmadi aides Darbari, Mahendroo arrested

Common wealth Games Organising Committee Chairman Suresh Kalmadi's close aides T S Darbari and Sanjay Mahendroo were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday evening for their suspected role in the enormous financial irregularities in the organisation of the Games.Darbari and Mahendroo were suspended primarily after reports of the scam started appearing in the media. Both officials were sacked later. Earlier in the day, the CBI registered two separate cases in the alleged irregularities in CWG, involving UK-based A M Films and former officials of the CWG Organising Committee on charges of forgery and dishonest in organising Queen's Baton Relay in London.

Immediately after registering the cases, the CBI carried out searches at four places in the national capital region with the office of CWG Organising Committee, agency officials said. The searches were conducted at the residence of sacked Joint Director General T S Darbari, deputy director-general Sanjay Mahendroo and Raj Singh, a Director-level officer in the OC, the officials said. CBI looks to be targetting some CWG Organising Committee members but is fully silent on the role of the top man, Suresh Kalmadi, the OC chairman whose signature was crucial to the payments finished.

The first case names London-based A M Car/Van Services and its owner Ashish Patel besides Darbari, Mahendroo and Singh under sections 468 (forgery of court records and public documents), 471 (Using forged documents as genuine), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act. The second case involves London-based A M Films, Patel, Mahendroo, Darbari and others under sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.As searches were on, the sacked officials were being questioned by the CBI about the Queen Baton Relay for which a impressive function was held in London.

Grapplers will do well at the Asian Games

Indian wrestlers have for all time put up a good fight at the Common wealth Games. With a tally of 23 Gold medals, 24 silver and 11 bronze over the history of the Common wealth Games, the numbers talk for themselves. The sport, which was given a miss at the 2006 Melbourne CWG, was taken back into the contest roster for the 2010 Delhi edition of the games. The Indian wrestling team had to face a speed breaker in the run up to the Delhi CWG. Though the entire controversy was really an ordeal, we looked at it very positively. We decided to hit back and hit back hard to ensure that the critics were silenced, and an array of 10 Medals at the end of the Games did exactly that.

Asian Games 2010

Delhi's medal rush has had a two-fold effect for Wrestling in India. One, it gave us a solid lift off, one that was direly needed ahead of the 2010 Asiad and two, it has made a country realize that its grapplers are indeed a force to reckon with and that they can be depended on to bring pride and glory to the country.

Though it was very difficult to do so, but owing to shoulder, neck and arm injuries, I had to give the 2010 Asiad a miss. Disheartening as it may be, I've decided to let the doctors speak this time around and ensure that I'm fully fit for the Olympic qualifications and to defend my title at the 2011 World Championship in Turkey next year.

As unfortunate as it is that I'm unable to join the team and carry the Tricolor at Guangzhou, I did have the chance to witness the team's camp at Sonepat and the rigorous training that my fellow athletes went through in preparation for the 2010 Asiad. Considering the challenge posed by wrestlers from Iran, South Korea, Japan and Mongolia, some of whom we have managed to beat at occasions before, the wrestling dependent has its task cut out for itself in light of facing formidable opposition.

Asian Games: Shooters bag first award

The stars of the 2010 Delhi Common wealth Games, Indian shooters, kick started their Asian Games campaign at Guangzhou on Saturday (November 13) on a promising note. Indian team of Gagan Narang, Sanjeev Rajput and Abhinav Bindra bagged a silver medal in the Men's 10 meter air rifle event. India lost the gold award to the Chinese shooting team.

Earlier today, in the 50 meter air pistol event, India's Amanpreet Singh, Commonwealth Games gold award winner Omkar Singh and Deepak Sharma failed to put up a winning performance. India finished 5th in the event with Korea winning gold in the event. In women's 10 meter air rifle event, India's medal view Tejaswani Sawant also failed to impress along with Kavitha Yadav and Suma Shirur.

The Indian men's badminton team were in action against Chinese Taipei in the round one of the team event. It started on a bad note with Arvind Bhat going down in the starter of the tie. Things weren't any better in the first of the men’s doubles ties as A Dewalkar and ST Aratukulam too lost to their fancied opponents.

However, in some hope, P Kashyap gave won a tight match in three games to keep India in the tie. Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal triumphed in the women's group event. In the women's tie between India and Indonesia, Saina gave India a winning start by beating Adriyanti Firdasari 21-16 21-17 in the first singles match in just 30 minutes. Saina was extremely good at net as she hit 16 winners to nine of her Indonesian opponent.

Olympic winner Bindra, Narang to lead India's charge

Led by Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra and Common wealth Games hero Gagan Narang, Indian shooters would look to take ahead their amazing CWG form into the Asian Games as the contest begin here tomorrow. Indian shooters had set the shooting range set on fire at CWG by wining 14 golds but the road would not be that smooth here as the field comprises some really hard customers.But shooters are likely to win the first medals for the country tomorrow in the Games, the biggest multi-discipline sporting event after Olympics.

Bindra will come face to face with Zhu Quinan, the man he beat to win Olympic gold in 10m air-rifle gold two years ago in Beijing while Narang would also be a competitor in the same field.Bindra and 2004 Athens Olympics champion Quinan, who beat the Indian in last month's CWG for the 10m air rifle gold, are expected to give the early fireworks on the first day of shooting at the Aoti Shooting range.The Indian duo would aim to stop the home favourite shooters Chinese from lifting the gold in the event for the fifth consecutive time but the challenge would be quite stiff.

Also in the fray is China's Cao Yifei, the 2010 Sydney World Cup winner, to make the contest a potentially hot one.The 27-year-old Narang, who stole the thunder from Bindra at the CWG with a four-gold haul, is going into the competition on a high while Bindra has gone off the boil a bit after becoming India's first Olympic individual champion two years ago.Narang is also in the running to pick up medals in the team competition in the 10m air rifle that will be held concurrently, with Bindra and Sanjeev Rajput being the other team members.

Narang would be eager to attain the gold in these Games after picking up three bronze medals in rifle competitions in Doha, Qatar four years ago.He had finished fifth in the air rifle event then but his recent run puts him as among the title-favourites.The Hybderabad-based Narang has the chance to become the most successful shooting medallist in these Games, having entered the 50m rifle prone and 3-position events too.But he knows the stiff task ahead of him with Chinese marksmen looking as a major threat.

Asian Games 2010: India Eyeing Big award Haul

The 16th Asian Games 2010 have been finally arrived. After the record success in Common Wealth Games, Indian athletes are eyeing big medal haul at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, which starts Friday (November 12). The finishing of Asian Games 2010 will be on 27th November.CWG 2010 has seen impressive performance by India and it raises hopes of an improvement at the Asian Games event. Indian finished second in the medals table with 38 gold medals in the CWG 2010 at New Delhi. Now, its time to show their talent at Asian Games 2010 but tougher contest awaits them in China.

In the previous Asian Games, four years ago, India stand eight in the medals table with 10 golds in its kitty. “The performance in Delhi has raised our hopes for the upcoming Asian Games. These are the same athletes who would be in action in Guangzhou and we hope to perform well,” Bhubaneswar Kalita, India’s chef-de-mission at the Common wealth Games, told reporters.The bulk of medals for India in the Asian Games are expected from Shooting, boxing and wrestling discipline, in which India has performed remarkably well in CWG.

According to reports, Gagan Narang, who won four gold medals in Delhi, will lead the shooting team. Commonwealth Games gold medallist and women’s badminton world number three Saina Nehwal is another hope for India. However, she will have to overcome fierce competition from the Chinese.On the darker side, Leander Paes, who won the two tennis gold medals – from men’s doubles and varied doubles in Doha is not participating in Asian Games 2010 and it will make it tough for India to win medals in this discipline.

In the Asian Games 2010, 476 gold medals are at stake and 45 countries from the largest continent on the planet are participating in the mega event. The games will be spread across 42 different sports for a period of 16 days. Guangzhou is the host city for the event. 3 other cities (Foshan, Shanwei and Dongguan) will also be co-hosting some of the events at this Asiad. Guangzhou has invested some 120 billion yuan into preparing for the 2010 Asian Games.

CWG award winners to get free tour packages

After offering the Common wealth Games medal winners and their companions free hospitality in the country's luxury trains, the tourism ministry has tied up with various stakeholders to provide complimentary stay at luxury hotels and tour packages.As announced during the Commonwealth Games 2010, the Union tourism ministry in association with the Rajasthan and Karnataka governments and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation has presented complimentary travel packages for the award winners and the coach or one companion to travel on the luxury trains including Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Maharaja Express and Golden Chariot.

All costs including travel, accommodation, food and tourism are covered in these trips which extends up to seven nights. The sportspersons can avail of these trips anytime up to March 31, 2012, depending upon the availability of accommodation and the choice of luxury train given by the medal winner. These incentives range from Rs 1.20 lakh to Rs 3.20 lakh per person according to the category of medals won.

The ministry has also tied up with the Hotel Association of India and announced hotel packages at 27 locations across the country at 48 member hotels like Taj, Oberoi, ITC, Leela for gold medal winners.In association with Indian Association of Tour Operators, the government has also offered winners a tour of the Golden Triangle including Delhi-Agra-Jaipur-Delhi. The tour includes hotel accommodation with breakfast, transport and sight seeing.

Flag waving problem for India, Pakistan

Pakistan have changed their flag-bearer for Friday's opening ceremony of the Asian Games, while arch-rivals India may follow suit.Pakistan had nominated wrestler Azhar Ali, a gold medallist at last month's Common wealth Games in New Delhi, to carry the flag, but the request was turned down at the final minute by the coaching staff. India have left it to shooter Gagan Narang to take a call on whether he feels comfortable to do the honours in the four-hour long ceremony since his event is scheduled to take place early on Saturday.

Pakistan's coaches declined to send Ali early to Guangzhou just to take part in the opening extravaganza since the wrestling contest begins only on November 20.The Pakistan Olympic Association (POA) quickly nominated field hockey captain Zeeshan Ashraf instead, ensuring there was no uncertainty like at the Commonwealth Games.Millions of live television audiences of the Delhi 2010 opening ceremony saw chef-de-mission Mohammad Ali Shah snatch the flag from weightlifter Shujauddin Malik just as the Pakistan contingent was entering the stadium.

The Pakistan government ordered an inquiry into the incident, but Shah, a provincial sports minister, claimed he was not aware that Malik had been asked to carry the flag.The weightlifters endangered to return home from New Delhi, but were persuaded to stay on by the country's Olympic officials. "There is no such misunderstanding this time around since we had announced back home that Ali would be the flag bearer," Pakistan's Olympic chief Mohammad Afzal said.
"The coach does not want to disturb the training of the wrestler and he did not allow Azhar to fly to Guangzhou for the opening ceremony."

Games work under inspection, PWD plans to reward engineers

Slammed for delaying work on the Common wealth Games projects there is an ongoing audit of their work engineers and officials who worked on Games 2010 may finally have a reason to cheer.The Public Works Department is preparing a Cabinet note to offer a cash reward, most likely a month’s salary, to its engineers and officials for working efficiently and helping the city successfully pull off the sporting show, said sources. “We have decided to reward them. To do that, a note detailing the proposal is being prepared. We hope to put it up for the state Cabinet’s approval soon,” said a top official.

Facing major work delays just two months before the October Games, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit had dangled a carrot in July, promising cash rewards for timely completion of projects. “Engineers will be rewarded suitably, preferably with one month salary, after the successful completion of the Commonwealth Games,” she had said then.The reward proposal was taken up after a government probe into the collapse of a foot over bridge near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium virtually handed a clean chit to PWD engineers who were supervising the work, said an official.

The move also follows complaints by engineers that the investigation into the Games works has stolen their moment of glory and if faults were being identified, then performers should be rewarded.In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month, the union of Central Engineering Services said unlike many other government servants, engineers worked up to 16 hours a day, even skipping weekly offs.“We, the engineering fraternity, were quite hopeful that while punishing the corrupt, you will also appoint a committee to identify and recognise the best performers who worked tirelessly,” the letter stated.

Railways releases Rs 75 cr of CWG sponsorship cash

While the Opposition is sharpening its attack on UPA government over alleged corruption and irregularities in Common wealth Games, railways has released Rs 75 crore as per its commitment as the lead support of the sporting event.While a senior railway ministry official confirmed that around Rs 75 crore was handed over to the sports ministry, eyebrows are being raised over the timing of the release of money. It could not be a accident that a major sum was handed over on Tuesday, a day top Congress leadership dumped "tainted" Organising Committee chairperson Suresh Kalmadi, argued a senior railway official.

Railways's no-confidence in the OC was reflected in the conclusion to route its sponsorship fee through sports ministry. After a series of allegations of corruption in organising the Games, an official said, "Railways had determined to pay the cheques to the sports ministry instead of the OC directly." Railways, the lead sponsor of the Games, had promised Rs 100 crore as sponsorship fee. In the rail budget, railway minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that the state-run carrier would be pay the OC Rs 100 crore after railways was declared the lead sponsor.

For the remaining Rs 25 crore, railways is considering adjusting the huge expenses it incurred on running special trains before and during the sporting event. Before the start of the mega event, railways ran a special exhibition train -- Commonwealth Express -- to generate awareness and celebrate the spirit of the Games. During the Games, it also spent a good sum on running special Taj Commonwealth Express between Delhi to Agra to ferry athletes and officials to visit Taj Mahal.

OC fails to make expected revenue from CWG

Sports Minister MS Gill on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that the Organising Committee (OC) of the Common wealth Games has failed to generate the expected revenue from the event.After spending a huge amount of taxpayers' money, the OC failed to achieve the target revenue of Rs. 1708 crore from the October 3-14 event."An amount of Rs. 1708 crore was expected to be generated through revenue by the Organising Committee but it could not be achieved," Gill admitted while giving accounts of the revenues generated by ticket sales, sponsorship and advertising.

"There were no earnings from advertisements as such. From the sale of tickets, OC earned 39.17 crore. From sponsorship amount, Rs. 114.15 crore was received against the contracted value of Rs. 375.05 crore and from international TV rights, Rs. 173.71 crore was received against the contracted value of Rs. 213.45 crore," Gill told the House. Asked to reveal the details of the total amount of funds spent and the sources from which the funds were mobilised and obtained including those from external agencies for conducting the Games, Gill said, "an amount of Rs. 1669.42 crore was given by the government of India to the OC as loan for the organisation of the Games, against the total approved amount of Rs. 1813.42 crore.

"In addition, Rs. 687 crore was given for Overlays (temporary fittings and fixtures) and Rs. 87 crore as grant for Timing, Scoring and Result System (TSR) had also been approved as a loan to the OC. Out of the above, Rs. 557.40 crore has been released for Overlays and Rs. 81 crore for TSR and Sports Equipment," the sports minister added.Gill also said the funds from the external agencies had been received in respect of sale tickets and sale of international TV rights."From the TV rights, USD 37,764,101 (equivalent to Rs. 173.71 crore) has been received till date which does not include USD 5.05 million (Rs. 23.23 crore) withheld as Tax deducted at source from the payments of Network Ten in Australia," the minister said.

Saina leads Indian shuttlers to Asiad

The Indian badminton team led by ace shuttlers Saina Nehwal and P Kashyap on Monday left for China, eager to defeat some tough challenges and replicate their Common wealth Games success, in the Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou from November 12 to 27.With a CWG gold behind her, Saina will be the cynosure of all eyes at the Asiad. The Indian ace said that it would be hard to repeat her performance in China, but she has set her eyes on the yellow metal.

"Asian Games is much tougher. The competition level in the Asian Games is very high compared to the Commonwealth Games. To add to it, the Chinese will be a great challenge in front of their fans," she said on the sidelines of a felicitation programme on Monday. "But I am quite prepared and will try my best. After CWG, till now I have seen a lot of improvement in my game. I am hopeful of a medal, possibly gold, because nothing is impossible," added the 20-year-old Hyderabadi.

Saina said as less than a month separated the October 3-14 CWG and the Asian Games, she rushed back to training after the Delhi event."The Commonwealth Games and Asian Games were very close to each other, so I did not waste time and went back to training as soon as possible. I took only a day's break after the Commonwealth Games," said Saina, who formally received the Rajiv Khel Ratna Award from Sports Minister M S Gill on Monday.

Commonwealth Games gold medal is one of my tall points: David

Winning the Common wealth Games women’s singles title in New Delhi has been one of the several career highs for world number one Nicol David of Malaysia, a title which had eluded her on three previous attempts.In her fourth attempt, after challenging in Squash’s maiden appearance in the Commonwealth Games in her home country in 1998 when just 15, David finally claimed gold when she beat England’s Jenny Duncalf, the world number two in a convincing straight games triumph in women’s final at the Siri Fort Complex in New Delhi last month.

“Winning the Commonwealth gold in India is one of my highest achievements so far. The fact that it’s in a multi-sport event, which means so much for Malaysia. That makes it even more important for me. It seemed the whole world was turning and spinning around me,” said David, who is looking to win her fourth Qatar Classic title in Doha, having won for three consecutive years from 2006 to 2008.And, she is ready to add more medals to her list of collections at the upcoming Asian Games.

The Asian Games take place in the Chinese city of Guangzhou from November 12. Low Wee Wern and Delia Arnold who are ranked 16 and 21 in the WISPA rankings will be part of the Malaysian team. Nicol is happy that the young players are doing well on the circuit.“It’s a fantastic success to have three players in the top 20. My concern is that they are young and the Commonwealth was a perfect preparation for us,” said Nicol.

Looking back at her performance this year and her own chances at the Asian Games, the world number one, who picked up a record-equalling fifth world title this year said: “It has been a busy year and I am happy the way it has shaped up. It was a great experience. I will try to bring back whatever I have learnt throughout the year and try to enjoy the Asian Games and remain focused.”

Foreign tourist arrivals increase 9.2 percent in Oct

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in India for the duration of the October 2010 grew 9.2 pct to 487,000 as compared to 446,000 during the month of October 2009 and 450,000 in October 2008, according to a information by Ministry of Tourism. Against the apprehension of decline in the FTAs in Delhi due to Common wealth Games, the FTAs at Delhi airport actually registered an increase of 5.1 percent in October 2010 compared to October 2009, the report said.

FTAs during the period January-October 2010 grew 9.9 percent to 4.32 million as compared to the FTAs negative growth rate of 6.7 at 3.93 million during January-October 2009 over the matching period of 2008.Foreign exchange earnings (FEE) from tourism grew 8.6 percent to 52.19 billion rupees during the month of October 2010 as compared to 48.06 billion rupees in October 2009 and 42.48 billion rupees in October 2008.

FEE during the period January-October 2010 grew 21.1 to 513.34 billion rupees as compared to FEE growth of 4.1 percent at 423.95 billion rupees during January -October 2009 over the corresponding period of 2008.Indian government has launched a scheme of visa on arrival (VoA) to attract more foreign tourists from January 2010 for citizens of Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore. During the period January - September 2010, a total number of 4,493 VoAs were issued under this Scheme.

Based on the information received from the Immigration authorities at Delhi airport regarding the FTAs at Delhi airport during 1st to 14th October, 2010 (Commonwealth Games period) the number of FTAs stood at 75606, according to the Ministry report.

Former Indian athletes open signature campaign to dirt free CWG row

Miffed by corruption, security issues and chronic mismanagement by sports administration in the Common wealth Games 2010, former Indian athletes on Friday launched 'Clean Sports India' signature campaign in New Delhi.They want the demand the central government to match India's drooping image sports authorities with the medals of athletes won in the Commonwealth Games.

Tom Alter, an executive member of 'Clean India Campaign' said that the cause of the campaign is to distance politicians and bureaucrats from the sports federation and bring in sportsmen."The three things in our letter which we want people to sign, first of all, that there should be consideration given to former sports people or present people to actually run sports. The whole issue of a sports law being implemented should be brought in.

The main issue being tenure, no one should be allowed to run a federation for more than, may be maximum," said Alter.Former athlete Ashwini Nachappa said that the sports have grown into a very huge industry and professionals should run it."We want every federation to put up their by-laws and their methods of doing things transparently on the website so that entire nation knows that this is how it is being done," said Nachappa.

The sportsmen who participated in the campaign include Murad Ali, former shooter, Sonika Kaliraman, wrestler, Mohinder Singh Gill, former jumper, Bhim Singh, former sportsperson and similar.As part of the ongoing investigation, over 200 officials from Income Tax department searched homes and offices of several people, including BJP leader Sudhanshu Mittal and other Games contractors.

Haryana Chief Minister Hooda honours CWG medalists

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced a slew of incentives for the medal winners from the state in Common wealth Games that concluded in Delhi previous month. On the occasion of the 44th anniversary of the construction of Haryana, Hooda said that he would enhance the cash award for medal winners from the state in this month's Asian Games and also announced the making of a 'Haryana Sportspersons Development Fund'.

The Chief Minister was addressing a gathering at Motilal Nehru School of Sports at Rai here where "Chak de Haryana, Chak de India" rally was organized to felicitate the medal winners and athletes from Haryana in the recently finished Commonwealth Games. The Haryana players had won 37 medals out of a total of 101 India had won in the Delhi Games. To add to it, half of the 38 gold medals won by India were grabbed by sportspersons from Haryana.


Enthused with the victory of Haryana athletes in the CWG, the Chief Minister honoured the medallist with cash awards of Rs. 15 lakh, 10 lakh and 5 lakh to the gold, silver and bronze medallists respectively and also announced cash rewards for the upcoming Asian Games.He said cash award of Rs. 25 lakh will be given to the athletes of Haryana who will win gold in the Asian Games while the silver and bronze medallists would get Rs. 15 lakh and the Rs. 10 lakh respectively.

Further inspiring the Haryana athletes, Hooda said cash awards of Rs. two crore, Rs. one crore and Rs. 50 lakh will be given to those players of the state who will win gold, silver and bronze medal respectively in 2012 London Olympics.He also announced that an amount of Rs. 51 lakh, Rs. 31 lakh, Rs. 21 lakh and Rs. 11 lakh will be settled for taking up development works in the villages of the gold, silver, bronze medal winners of CWG respectively.