Sports Shorts: ATK pump in five past Hyderabad in ISL

Former champions ATK got off to a flying start at home, slamming five goals past debutants Hyderabad FC, in the Indian Super League clash at the Salt Lake stadium, in Kolkata, on Friday.

ATK probably sealed the deal in the first 45 minutes itself after taking a 3-0 lead, with David Williams scoring in the 25th and 44th minutes.

ATK star Fijian recruit Roy Krishna also got his name on the scoresheet in the 27th minute before Edu Garcia completed the 5-0 humiliation, striking twice in the 88th and 90th minutes.

The Antonio Lopez Habas-coached side thus returned to winning ways in emphatic fashion after suffering a 1-2 reverse in their opening game in Kerala on October 20.

The home side pressed hard from the start and it was Michael Soosairaj who returned unlucky in the 19th minute when his shot ricochetted off the far post from 15-yards out.

Finally, they got a well-deserved lead when Javier Hernandez sent an excellent through ball towards Williams, who took one touch and then beat the goalkeeper to give ATK the lead in the 25th minute.

Putting them in total control, Roy Krishna got the second when Williams came down the left flank to set up the goal.

Inducted in place of the disbanded Pune FC, Hyderabad were punished for playing too open and conceded a third goal before the break.

It was Jayesh Rane who played a through ball to Williams straight down the middle and the latter made a clean move to bring up his second goal, beating the goalkeeper.

It was left for Edu Garcia to come into the act and he struck a double with two minutes left on the clock to give ATK a stupendous start at home.

Joshna stretched in World squash opener

Joshna Chinappa had a tough time against unseeded Haley Mendez of the United States before winning her opening match at the CIB PSA women's World Squash Championship, at the Great Pyramids, in Cairo, on Friday.

The Indian won the match, played late on Thursday, 9-11, 12-10, 8-11, 11-6, 11-6.

The 12th seeded Joshna admitted she was a touch nervous at the start and with Haley playing well things turned tough. However, she showed her fighting qualities to catch up and dished out a steady game towards the end to make it a comfortable finish.

Sunayna Kuruvilla, another India, went down in the first round to Nele Gilis of Belgium.

Sunayna started off well, winning the first game but thereafter it was the Belgian all the way. Nele won 8-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-5.

The Egyptian men's Open is also being held simultaneously and the interest for India is Vikram Malhotra and Saurav Ghosal campaign in it.

Ghosal has a bye into the second round.

Earlier Ramit Tandon went down in the opening round to Leo Au of Hong Kong 5-11, 7-11, 2-11.

Military Games: Boxer Deepak in final, race walker K T Irfan misses medal 

Indian boxer Deepak entered the men's light-flyweight final but Olympian K T Irfan missed out on a bronze medal after finishing fourth in the 20km race walk event at the seventh CISM World Military Games, in Wuhan, on Friday.

Deepak out-boxed Azerbaijan's Alizada Salman in the 49kg semi-final bout for a 5-0 verdict. He will face Kazakhstan's Zhussupov Temirtas final on Saturday.

In the men's bantamweight class, Chirag (56kg), however, lost 1-4 to Mongolia's Kharkhuu Enkh Amar in the semi-finals.

Earlier, Irfan clocked 1:25:09 seconds to finish the race in fourth spot.

China's Xu Hao clinched the gold with a timing of 1:22:18s, while the silver and bronze medals went to Ukraine's Shumik Victor (1:23:18s) and Slovakia's Uradnik Miroslav (1:24:16s) respectively.

Irfan, who has a personal best as well as National record of 1:20:21s, which he registered during his 10th place finish in 2012 London Olympics, has already qualified for next year's Tokyo Summer Games after finishing fourth in the 20km event of the Asian Race Walking Championships in March.

The 29-year-old Irfan had clocked 1 hour 20 minutes and 57 seconds to better the Tokyo Olympics qualification standard of 1 hour 21 minutes.

Indian sprinter Jinson Johnson qualified for the men's 1500m finals with a timing of 3:56.17s in heat 2 of the preliminary round.

The Indian quartet of Jithu Baby, Harsh Kumar, Jabir Madari Palliyalil and Kunju Muhammed Puthanpurakk also made it to the men's 4x400m relay final after clocking 3:13.17s in the preliminary round on Friday.

In tennis, Sriram Balaji lost 3-6, 4-6 to China's Zhang Zhi Zhen in the men's singles semi-finals.