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Sports Shorts: Bhaker-Anmol win air pistol mixed gold

Last updated on: March 27, 2018 15:50 IST

A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday

Manu Bhaker and Anmol after their mixed air pistol gold at the ISSF Junior World Cup on Tuesday

IMAGE: Manu Bhaker and Anmol after their mixed air pistol gold at the ISSF Junior World Cup on Tuesday. Photograph: ISSF/Twitter

Manu Bhaker and Anmol paired up to secure India's seventh gold medal at the ISSF junior World Cup by winning the mixed 10m air pistol event with a qualification world record in Sydney on Tuesday.

Genemat Sekhon bagged an individual bronze medal in the junior women's skeet, shooting a 36 in the final.

 

In the mixed 10m air rifle event, 17-year-old Shreya Agrawal and 19-year-old Arjun Babuta completed the podium in third place, finishing with 432.8 points, while their country-mates Elavenil Valarivan (18) and Tejas Krishna Prasad (20) finished fourth with 389.1.

Bhaker and Anmol dominated the event from the very start and entered the final with the highest qualification score and a new junior qualification world record.

They finished with a 5.6 advantage on their closest rivals, China's Liu Jinyao and Li Xue.

The two Indian youngsters dominated the final match since its very first series, progressively building a gap between them and their closest rivals. They eventually finished with 478.9 points, just 1.8 points away from the current world record.

Previously, Anmol and Bhaker also set a new Junior Qualification World Record with 770 points.

The silver and bronze medals were both awarded to China, as Liu Jinyao (20) and Li Xue (18) finished in second position with 473.3 points, while Wang Zhehao (19) and Xiao Jiaruixuan (15) took third place with 410.7.

A second Indian team, comprising 18-year-old Gaurav Rana and 19-year-old Mahima Turhi Agrawal, finished at the feet of the podium, leaving the final at the 38th-shot mark with 370.2 points and fourth position.

Finishing 11.2 points away from the fifth place because of a dry-fire shot — and also suffering a 1.0-point reduction — Australia's Hans Ben Hummer (18) and Sascha Kroopin (16) took the sixth place with a final score of 320.9.

Overall, India are now in second place with 18 medals, including seven gold, while China continued to lead the tally with 22 podium finishes, including eight gold medals.

IOC chief to meet newly-elected members of IOA in April

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach will meet the newly-elected members of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) Executive Board during his brief visit to India next month.

HE Sheikh Ahmad Al Sabah, President ANOC and President OCA, will also be visiting India between April 18 to April 20.

Bach and Sheikh Ahmad will have a potential meeting with Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on April 19. This will be followed by a meeting with the Members of IOA Executive Board led by President Narinder Dhruv Batra and Secretary General Rajeev Mehta.

While turning India into a major challenger in world sports and powering India's performance at the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games will be key talking points of the meeting, Batra is also expected to express IOA's preparedness to host multi-discipline sporting events in the near future.

“While I cannot divulge or speculate what will be discussed during the meetings with the Indian Government and Sports Minister, the IOA would certainly convey ourreadiness to host big-ticket multi-discipline events in India and would like to discuss how we can effectively work towards achieving IOC's Olympic Agenda 2020 strategy,” Batra said.

After taking over as the IOC President in 2013, Bach had visited India for the first time in 2015. However, this will be the first time that he would be meeting the newly-elected Board Members of IOA.

UK agency says no doping data lost in weekend cyber attack

Cyber attackers targeted British sport's anti-doping agency over the weekend without gaining access to any data, it said in a statement on Monday.

London-based UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) holds the test details and medical records of thousands of athletes, ranging from soccer players to high-profile Olympic medallists.

"Over the weekend UK Anti-Doping was made aware of a cyber attack affecting our systems. We can confirm that no data has been lost or compromised," the statement said.

"We took the necessary steps to investigate and resolve the situation. No core activity, including our testing programme, has been impacted.

"We are satisfied that we have appropriate levels of cyber security in place, and we continually review our systems and measures to ensure they are of a very high standard," the agency added.

UKAD did not say where the attack was suspected to have originated or who might be behind it.

The Independent newspaper reported that staff had been sent home on Monday, with all of UKAD's electronic systems taken offline.

Cyber security researchers warned in January of indications that Russia-based hackers might be planning attacks against anti-doping and Olympic organisations following Russia's exclusion from last month's Pyeongchang Games.

Those Games in South Korea were subjected to a cyber attack during the opening ceremony but Russia dismissed allegations Russian hackers were involved.

A Russian hacking group known as Fancy Bear was blamed for an Olympics-related hack in 2016, when the World Anti-Doping Agency said the group was responsible for stealing and publishing confidential medical information about athletes.

Western governments and security experts have linked Fancy Bear, also known as APT28, to a Russian intelligence agency and have blamed it for operations including an attack on the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 U.S. elections.

Moscow has repeatedly denied its involvement in these intrusions.

Police arrest former university boss of convicted ex-USA Gymnastics doctor

Police have arrested a former MichiganStateUniversity dean who supervised ex-USA Gymnastics physician Larry Nassar before the sports doctor was arrested and convicted of sexually abusing female athletes, the county sheriff said on Monday.

"William Strampel is currently lodged at the InghamCounty jail," Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth told Reuters.

Wriggelsworth declined to say on what charges Strampel, 70, was arrested until the defendant was arraigned at a court hearing scheduled for Tuesday.

A jail website listed the former dean of MichiganState's College of Osteopathic Medicine as an inmate there but gave no other information.

The Detroit Free-Press newspaper reported that he faces multiple charges, at least one a felony.

An attorney for Strampel, who has been on medical leave from the university since December, could not be reached by Reuters for comment on Monday evening.

Michigan State University President John Engler said in February he was moving to revoke tenure for Strampel for failing to enforce 2014 guidelines created for Nassar in treating young athletes after complaints of sexual misconduct against him.

The college has been criticised for its handling of complaints about Nassar stretching back for years.

MichiganState terminated Nassar in September 2016 for his failure to follow those protocols, including having another person present when he performed the procedures.

Numerous women said they were assaulted even after the guidelines were put in place.

Nassar was sentenced in February to up to 125 years in prison after some 200 young women testified about decades of abuse at his hands.

He had already received a sentence up to 175 years in a neighboring Michigan county, and was sentenced to a 60-year federal term for child pornography convictions.

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