The Hindu : Sport : Padukone’s advice to Advani

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Tuesday, Oct 02, 2007
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Sport - Sports : General

Padukone’s advice to Advani

BANGALORE: World billiards champion Pankaj Advani’s fight for recognition from the Government received support from an unexpected quarter.

Badminton legend Prakash Padukone said, “I support Advani’s decision not to accept the Ekalavya award.

“It is not right for the Government or anyone, to recognise such an achievement after he had been given the Arjuna award and the Khel Ratna award. Obliviously Advani has certain grievances and he had registered it by not taking the award,” Padukone said.

He also recalled similar treatment meted out to many sportspersons, including himself in the past.

“Let us accept this as a fact of life. We sportspersons cannot be bogged down by such irritants and should not allow it to affect our performances,” Padukone said.

Having said that, he offered a word of advice to Advani.

“Now that Advani has made his point, he should not get embroiled in this controversy further. He is a World champion and it is futile for him to get distracted by such issues and he should concentrate on his game and leave other things to the game’s administrators and others to take up his cause. He should move on” said Padukone.

Meanwhile, State Sports Minister, Alkod Hanumanthappa, said he was not fully aware of Advani’s achievements. “I have sought all relevant details and we would consider appropriate steps after doing that,” he said.

Infosys wins

Infosys bagged the team title with a 2-1 victory over Tata Consultancy Services in the Ventures inter-corporate badminton championship here on Sunday.

Srinath of Infosys won the men’s singles title beating Paul Rajan of TCS 21-18, 14-21, 21-13 while, Sangeetha Mary of HP emerged as the women’s champion with a 21-14, 21-18 win over Vidya Suresh also of HP. Sangeetha won the doubles title too partnering Nabha. Uma Shankar of Bosch won the Executive 40 plus singles title.

Deepak excels

Reva Institute of Technology defeated J.V. Institute of Technology by 63 runs in the M.S. Ramaiah inter-engineering college cricket tournament here on Monday. An unbeaten 70 by Deepak, with nine fours and one six, was the highlight of Reva’s innings.

The scores (30 overs-a-side): Reva IT 189 for five (Deepak 70 n.o.) bt JVIT 126; AMCEC 179 for eight bt YDIT 150; BMSCE 203 for five (Karan Rao 42, Nydruva 47) bt Ambedkar IT 107; BMSIT 111 lost to SBMJCE 113 for three (V. Bharath 58 n.o.); JSS Academy 148 lost to SIT (Siddaganga) 151 for four; BIT 242 (Bharath Kumar 55) bt Acharya IT 97.

Win for BEML

BEML (Earth Movers) snatched full points with a solitary goal win over ADFE in the super division football league at the Football Stadium here on Monday. The match-winner came in the 60th minute through Tikken Singh. A powerful shot by linkman Shyam saw ADE custodian Dilip parry the ball and Tikken Singh headed home the dropping ball for the all important goal.

Earlier, Thilak Memorial downed HMT 4-1 in an ‘A’ division clash. Christopher struck in the eighth, 28th and 83rd minutes for the winner, while Anil Chetri netted the other in the 50th. For HMT, Suren scored the lone goal in the 57th minute.

Badminton tournament

The sixth edition of the Union Bank all-India junior ranking and prize money championship will be conducted by the Padukone Sports Management at the Karnataka Badminton Association courts here from October 3 to 6. It is the third in the junior National circuit after the Krishna Khaitan championship at Chennai and the Kochi event.

A record 450 players will participate in the championship which carries a prize money of Rs. 2 lakh, said Prakash Padukone. The entry list includes some of the top juniors of the country including Guru Sai Dutt, Aditya Elango, Arun Nandaluri, Abhimnayu Singh (among senior boys) and Arundhati Pantwane, Ruth Misha and Monisha Vinayaak among senior girls. Guru Sai Dutt and Arundhati won the boys and girls’ titles respectively both at Chennai and Kochi. Raj Kumar of Punjab and Prajakta Sawant of Maharashtra are the seeds in the sub-junior boys and girls sections respectively.

The Chief Referee, Mr. Muhammed Ali of Tamil Nadu said the first day would be devoted for qualifying rounds and the main draw will begin from October 4. Unlike previous occasions, the qualifying round will have full fledged three set matches as per BAI’s directive, he added.

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