GOLF
Diksha, Tvesa, and Avani lead India’s challenge at LET Opener
The experienced Diksha Dagar and Tvesa Malik will be joined by rookie Avani Prashanth as the Indian women’s campaign on the Ladies European Tour (LET) kicks off this week at the Lalla Meryem Cup in Royal Golf Dar Es Salam.
Avani makes her professional debut after coming through LET Q-School. Meanwhile, Pranavi Urs, India’s highest-ranked player in last year’s LET Order of Merit (17th), will begin her season next week at the Aramco Series in Riyadh, joining Diksha, Tvesa, and Aditi Ashok. Pranavi, Diksha, and Avani will then head to Australia for a three-event stretch.
Diksha, who secured a top-10 finish at the 2024 Lalla Meryem Cup, will aim to improve on that result. Notably, Pranavi, tied-fifth last year, is skipping the event this time. Tvesa returns after a long absence, having last competed in 2019 when she finished T-41.
Avani, a winner on the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour and the LET Access Series while still an amateur, now embarks on a full LET season. She will be the first Indian to tee off from the 10th alongside Spain’s Blanca Fernández and Thailand’s Aunchisa Utama.
-PTI
Ahlawat gaining in confidence on DP World Tour, set for Qatar with Sharma
India’s Veer Ahlawat on Wednesday said he is finding his feet on the DP World Tour as he got ready to play for the fourth week in a row at the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters 2025.
The other Indian in the field is the more experienced Shubhankar Sharma.
Ahlawat, who started the year at Hero Dubai Desert Classic but missed the cut, has since figured in the weekend rounds of the Ras Al Khaimah Championships and the Bapco Bahrain Championships. He was T-27 in Ras Al Khaimah and T-49 in Bahrain.
Saying he is improving and gathering experience with each round, Ahlawat is focussed on making the best use of the opportunity he has got on the DPWT, where he reached by topping the Indian PGTI Tour.
The two Tours have an alliance by which the OOM (Order of Merit) winner in India gets a card to DPWT.
The previous two players who came to DPWT via this route were Manu Gandas and Om Prakash Chouhan, but they failed to retain the card.
“I want to play as much as I can and ensure I am back,” said Ahlawat, who played a lot of golf with Sharma, who has been on the DPWT Tour since 2018.
An interesting feature is the consistency Ahlawat is trying to get into his game. After missing the cut in Dubai, six of his last eight rounds have been under par and the two times he went over, he shot 1-over 73.
“I am learning each day,” said Ahlawat, who trains at the DLF Golf Academy and plays at DLF Golf and Country Club, where he finished T-2 at the 2024 Hero Indian Open.
Ahlawat plays his first round with China’s Jin Zihao, with whom the Indian played the last two rounds in Bahrain. Since they will be together in the second round, too, that will make it four in a row.
The third player in the group is England’s Calum Fitzgerald and they tee off in the morning at 7.25 am from the first.
Sharma’s start to 2025 has been disappointing having missed the cut in Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah. He returns to Qatar after having missed the cut in 2024. In his five previous starts in Qatar he has made the cut only twice with T-28 in 2021 as his best.
The field includes former champions Ewen Ferguson (2022), Antoine Rozner (2021), Jorge Campillo (2020), Justin Harding (2019), Eddie Pepperell 2018), Chris Wood (2013), Alvaro Quiros (2009) and Darren Fichardt (2003).
Last week’s winner Laurie Canter is in the field after overhauling Tyrrell Hatton in the International Swing Rankings, with Daniel Hillier, Alejandro del Rey, Marcus Armitage, Dan Brown and Pablo Larrazábal all able to claim the top spot this week.
-PTI
BADMINTON
Gnana to lead 17-member junior squad for badminton meets
National U-17 champion Gnana Dattu T will lead India’s 17-member squad at the the Dutch Junior International and German Junior badminton tournaments to be played in February and March this year.
The squad also includes junior world number six Raunak Chouhan, Adarshini Shri and doubles specialists Bhavya Chhabra and Param Chaudhary, among others.
India squad:
Boys Singles
Rounak Chouhan, Gnana Dattu TT, Suryaksh Rawat, Pranauv Ram N
Girls Singles
Adarshini Shri, Tanoo Chandra, Rujula Ramu, Tanvi Reddy Andluri
Boys Doubles
Bhavya Chhabra/Param Chaudhary, Mithilesh PK/Vishnu Kedar Kode
Girls Doubles
Pragati Parida/Vishakha Toppo, Anaya Bisht/Angel Punera
Mixed Doubles
Bhavya Chhabra/Angel Punera, Lairamsanga C/Vishakha Toppo.
The Dutch Junior International will be played in Haarlem, Netherlands from February 26 to March 2, while the German Junior will be held in Mulheim an der Ruhr from March 5-9.
The Indian contingent consists of four boys and girls singles players each, two boys doubles and two girls doubles combinations, and two mixed doubles pairs.
The squad was selected based on the BAI selection committee’s guidelines, granting direct entry to winners of the All India Junior Ranking Tournament (U-19) in Hyderabad, while the remaining spots were filled through selection trials held in New Delhi, featuring top-ranked players and semifinalists from the Hyderabad event.
Surya Charisma Tamiri had bagged the girls’ singles bronze medal in the 2024 German Junior, while Ayush Shetty had won the boys’ singles bronze medal a year earlier before going on to clinch the 2023 world junior bronze.
RMV Gurusai Dutt is the only Indian boy’s singles player to win the Dutch Junior International gold medal back in 2008 — the same year he also clinched the Commonwealth Youth Games gold and the world junior bronze medal.
– PTI
GOLF
IGF objects to IOA’s interference in IGU polls, says it recognises Brijinder Singh faction
The International Golf Federation (IGF) has strongly objected to Indian Olympic Association’s interference in the Indian Golf Union elections, and recognising the rival faction led by Harish Kumar Shetty, saying the IOA has “no jurisdiction” over the federation’s poll process.
The IOA had given recognition to the IGU led by Shetty while declaring the other body, headed by Brijinder Singh, void in a letter issued on December 30.
In a strongly-worded letter to IOA president PT Usha, IGF executive director Antony Scanlon, said the world body fully supports the election won by the Singh faction held on December 15.
Shetty and Singh held separate elections and AGMs under different Returning Officers (ROs).
The election of Shetty’s faction was conducted by retired Allahabad High Court judge OP Garg, while Singh was re-elected in polls conducted by retired Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, Rameshwar Malik.
“We write to object in the strongest terms to your interference and that of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in the recent Annual General Meeting and election of office bearers of our National Federation member, the Indian Golf Union (IGU),” Scanlon wrote in his letter.
“The IGF have found no reason to question the legitimacy of the IGU Annual General Meeting and election of the office bearers held on 15 December 2024 at Tamarind Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (where Singh was elected president) and believe they were held in accordance with their constitution and the procedures of the National Sports Development Code of India, 2011.
“As such, we recognise and fully support the office bearers announced by the Returning Officer HJ Rameshwar Singh Malik and ratified by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. We contend that neither the IOA nor you as President of the IOA has any jurisdiction over the IGU Annual General Meeting nor its electoral process.” The Sports Ministry has also pulled up the IOA for recognising IGU elections won by the Shetty-led faction.
Scanlon said the Shetty-led faction’s election was “non-constitutional and invalid”.
“We find it extraordinary that the IOA would actively undermine the IGU electoral process and facilitate a faction holding a non-constitutional and invalid alternate Annual General Meeting and elections at the premises of the IOA.
“Additionally, that your interference then extended to wrongly recognising this faction’s elections and in turn to undermine the credibility of the constitutionally and fairly-elected IGU executive,” the letter read.
“Therefore, the IGF-recognised executive body of the IGU, in accordance with Article 28 of the Olympic Charter, remains the member body for golf affiliated to the IOA. As such to recognise another executive body, not affiliated to the IGF, is in direct contravention of the Olympic Charter. We strongly implore you to immediately rectify this matter.” Scanlon also hit out at the IOA for removing golf from the ongoing National Games roster.
“Notwithstanding your spurious intervention in the electoral process of the IGU, we are also extremely disappointed with your decision to remove golf from the programme of sports at the 38th All India Games.
“It is regrettable that your actions serve to punish the athletes for political purposes and in direct conflict with Article 27.2.2 of the Olympic Charter whereby the role of an NOC is ‘to encourage the development of highperformance sport …’ “This decision does nothing but discourage high-performance golf athletes in India. As such, the IGF implores you to reconsider this decision and to place the athletes’ interests above those of personal and political interests,” he wrote in the letter, which was also marked to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
“The IGF is guided by and believes strongly in the values of Olympism and as such it is regrettable that we find ourselves in disagreement with the IOA and that you choose to act without mutual understanding and respect for the Olympic Charter and for our athletes and National Federation.
“As such we have been compelled to copy the International Olympic Committee on this letter so as they are aware of your inappropriate actions,” Scanlon added.
– PTI
CRICKET
Telangana CM felicitates G. Trisha after U-19 World Cup heroics
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy felicitating G. Trisha, player of the tournament and player of the final in the Women’s World Cup (under-19) cricket championship in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy felicitating G. Trisha, player of the tournament and player of the final in the Women’s World Cup (under-19) cricket championship in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy announced a cash incentive of Rs 1 crore to G. Trisha, who was the ‘player of the tournament’ and ‘player of the final’ in the recently-concluded Women’s World Cup (under-19) cricket championship which India won in Kuala Lumpur.
This gesture was made when Trisha called on the Chief Minister at his Jubilee Hills Residence here on Wednesday.
Revanth Reddy congratulated Trisha and hoped she would continue to bring laurels to the country.
The Chief Minister also announced a cash incentive of Rs 10 lakhs each to Dhruthi Kesari, who was also a member of the victorious Indian team, trainer Shalini and head coach Nooshin Al Khadeer.
Telangana Ministers P. Srinivas Reddy, Chief Secretary to the State Government Mrs Shanti Kumari, Advisor to Telangana Government (Sports) A. Jitender Reddy were also present.
V V SUBRAHMANYAM