Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat, World Championship silver medalist Anjum Moudgil and Youth Olympics champion Saurabh Chaudhary won their respective National Shooting Trial events at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, in New Delhi, on Friday.
Rahi won the women's 25m Pistol T7 trial while Anjum emerged victorious in the women's 50m Rifle Prone and Saurabh quite unsurprisingly won the men's 10m Air Pistol T6 trials to extend their good recent run.
Rahi was unstoppable on Friday, first shooting a classy 586 in qualification to top it and then demolished the finals field with a 39, falling just one short of Hungarian Veronika Major's finals world record score of 40.
Annu Raj Singh of Air India was way behind with a 35.
In the other Olympic event final, Uttar Pradesh's Saurabh Chaudhary dished out another world-class performance with a 245.4 to win the T6 men's 10m Air Pistol final, falling short of his own finals world record score by 0.9.
Statemate Shravan Kumar was way behind, finishing second with a 243.9.
World number two women's 10m Air Rifle exponent Anjum Moudgil notched up a second victory in two days, winning the women's 50m Rifle Prone T7 trials after winning the T6 on Thursday. He shot 621.3 to emerge on top.
Srikanth pulls out of China Open, Korea Open due to knee injury
Ace Indian shuttler Kidambi Srikanth on Friday pulled out of the upcoming tournaments in China and Korea, owing to a knee injury that flared up after the World Championship last month.
The China Open World Tour Super 1000 is scheduled to be held at Changzhou from September 17 to 22, followed by Korea Open World Tour Super 500 (September 24 to 29) at Incheon City.
"Tough times. Will not be playing in the upcoming #ChinaOpen and #KoreaOpen due to knee injury. Hope to recover quick and get back in action soon!," he wrote on his twitter handle.
Srikanth, who had reached the final at India Open early in the year, had suffered a knee injury just ahead of the Sudirman Cup in May. He recovered to play in Indonesia, Japan and Thailand before featuring at the World Championships.
The 26-year-old from Guntur had lost to lower-ranked Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand in the round of 16 at the World Championships in Basel last month.
"After the World Championships, he couldn't train much due to the injury and so he decided to pull out," a source said.
Srikanth, who had won four Superseries out of five finals to become the World No 1 for a brief period, has been struggling to find his best form after being troubled by injuries and niggles in the last two seasons.
In the 24 events that the Indian played in 2018 and in 2019 so far, Srikanth bowed out at the quarterfinals stage or earlier in 21 -- ten of those being first or second-round losses.
"In the last eight to ten months, I haven't been able to train for a longer period," Srikanth, who is currently ranked 10th, was quoted as saying by the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
"I was getting injured and then coming back and training for a week or two and then playing a tournament, and then I'm pushing too much at tournaments and injuring myself again.
"I want to go back and train for a longer period, and I think if I can do that from now, for the next 12 months, I will be in good shape for the Olympics."
Former top 10 player H S Prannoy also was forced to withdraw from the two tournaments after being down with dengue.
Impressive showing from Shubhankar at KLM Open
India's golfer Shubhankar Sharma on Friday carded a solid four-under 68 in the second round to move to tied-14th and raise hopes of a top 10 finish at the KLM Open in Amsterdam.
Sharma handled the strong winds well with five birdies and just one bogey to move to six-under for 36 holes.
James Morrison (67) joined Callum Shinkwin (69) in shared lead at the top of the leaderboard.
Sharma closed the day with a nice birdie on 18th to go back with a positive feel.
Meanwhile, SSP Chawrasia had only a slim hope of making the weekend rounds despite a bogey free three-under 69 on second day. He is one-under 143 and the cut is likely to fall at two-under.
Gaganjeet Bhullar, who after 28 holes was one-over and staring at an early exit, made three birdies in a row from 11th to 13th to get to two-under and was on the bubble with five more holes to play.
With three shots between Sharma and the current leaders, the Indian who won two European title in 2018, could even hope to make a run over the weekend on this packed leaderboard.
There were four players at eight-under, including former Masters champion Sergio Garcia, who had two more holes to play. There were another seven players at seven-under.
Morrison capitalised on favourable Friday morning conditions to claim the clubhouse lead during the second round.
The Englishman was the only player to successfully navigate his way through strong winds on Thursday afternoon to sit two shots behind overnight leader Shinkwin at four under par.
Morrison has not won since the 2015 Open de España but has produced some of his best form this season in recent weeks, finishing in the top 30 in three of his last four events.
The course definitely played easier in the morning with less wind.
After the first round, Sharma was the best of the three Indians as he carded a two-under 70 that included a hat-trick of birdies here.
Sharma, playing in Europe for the first time since the 148th Open in July, had six birdies against four bogeys and he was Tied-26th on Thursday, while Gaganjeet Bhullar scored even par 72 and was Tied-65th and SSP Chawrasia had a disappointing 74 to be tied-100th.
FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in India in Nov 2020
The FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup, to be hosted by India, will be held from November 2 to 21 next year.
The age group showpiece event of the FIFA will be held in four cities across the country.
Last month, the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar has been provisionally confirmed as a venue, pending FIFA approval.
Kolkata, Navi Mumbai, Goa and Ahmedabad are in the running for the other three host cities.
India was announced as the host country in March this year.
Spain are the defending champions, having won the title of the biennial tournament in 2018.
As India has got automatic qualification as hosts, it is not entering the Asian qualification campaign in the AFC Under-16 Women's Championship which will be held in Thailand from September 15 to 28.
