TODAY IN BANGALORE : ■ BDFA Super Division league, BEML versus CIL, Bangalore Football Stadium, 4pm ■ ‘A’ Division league: ISRO versus AGORC, National College grounds, 1.30pm

MERITORIOUS: Bangalore’s AbhishekJha has excelled this season

JHA STANDS ATOP LG MERIT LIST

Bangalore lad AbhishekJha’s LG All-India Ama-

teur event might have cometo a disappointing end but arunner-up finish ensured hisascent to the top of the LGOrder of Merit list. Withthree titles this season, Jhahas a slender six point leadover his nearest contender-Gagan Verma. Manav Das isin third spot with a total 241points with Vikram Ranaclose behind him. Jha, whoendured a rough patch in themiddle of the season afterwinning the season-opener,got back to winning ways inPune, where he registered acomfortable win. Another

win in Noida and a secondplace finish at the All-Indiahave helped him overtakeGagan Verma. Gaganclinched his maiden title atthe LG Southern India Ama-teur Championship in Ban-galore but is yet to find hisway back into the winner’scircle after that. Both Gaganand Vikram Rana have beenselected to represent Indiathis week at the South AfricaAmateur Championship.LG Order of Merit List(Top-5): 1. Abhishek Jha: 2662. Gagan Verma: 260 3. Manav Das: 241 4. Vikram Rana: 234.55. Rashid Khan: 226

Linares (Spain): World ChampionViswanathan Anand played out a draw withLevon Aronian of Armenia and slipped tofifth spot in the ninth round of Magistral Ciu-dad De Linares Chess tournament here.

Having lost to Aronian from a position ofstrength with white pieces, Anand could do

little as black and thegame petered out to adraw. GrandmasterAlexander Grischukremained a full pointclear of nearest rivalsafter settling for aquick draw with WangYue of China.

The Russian tookhis tally to a very im-pressive six points outof a possible nine. The

second spot is now shared by Magnus Carlsenof Norway, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine andAronian who all have 5 points each whileAnand is a half point adrift of this lot.

Sharing the sixth spot now are the re-maining three players, Lenier Dominguez ofCuba, Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan andWang Yue.

Barring Grischuk’s quick draw, it turnedout to be a pretty exciting day as Carlsenbounced back in the event with a fine victo-ry over Dominguez. In the other game of theday, Ivanchuk played out a draw with Rad-jabov.

For Anand, playing simple was the key asthe Indian ace did not give many chances.Aronian stuck to his Catalan opening and itwas routine theory wherein Anand sacrificeda pawn temporarily to maintain the balance.

The pieces got traded in a heap and all thequeen side pawns had changed hands inquick time. The game lasted 30 moves.

Ivanchuk faced the Schielmann systemfrom Radjabov in the Ruy Lopez and couldnot do much with his white pieces. TheUkrainian stood a little better in the middlegame but his advantage was neutralised onceRadjabov got the typical central break-through. The peace was signed in 30 moves.Results round 9: Levon Aronian (Arm, 5)drew with V Anand (Ind, 4.5); LenierDominguez (Cub, 3.5) lost to Magnus Carlsen(Nor, 5); Wang Yue (Chn, 3.5) drew withAlexander Grischuk (Rus, 6); VassilyIvanchuk (Ukr, 5) drew with Teimour Rad-jabov (Aze, 3.5). –PTI

Yet anotherdraw forAnand

Dev S Sukumar.BANGALORE

Having unexpectedly won the top prize inthe national circuit a fortnight ago, Ban-galore-based shuttler Sayali Gokhalefinds herself in unfamiliar territory. Withthe women’s singles title at the NationalChampionships under her belt, she willnow be under the microscope, the oneeverybody will want to beat. How she han-dles this new-found status will probablydefine where her career is headed.

But Sayali, 22, is not perturbed. “Mygame won’t get affected,” she says, “butit’s an additional responsibility. I have tomaintain this level.”

Ever since (now world No.10) Saina Ne-hwal burst on to the jun-ior scene some sevenyears ago as a world-class prospect, most ofthe other women’s sin-gles players have stayedin the shadows. WithSaina, Aditi Mutatkarand Trupti Murgundewinning the few prizeson offer in the nationalcircuit, Sayali, and oth-ers like her, have had tokeep working withoutexpectation of a bigturnaround.

The defunct national circuit of 2008gave them no opportunities to tilt at thebig guns, and thus no opportunity to stakea claim in the national squad. “We hadsecond thoughts about our career becausethere were few national-level tourna-ments in 2008,” Sayali says. “We wonderedwhat we were training for. But I kepttraining for myself because I understoodthat in the end, only performance counts.”

The recently-held national champi-onships were a great opportunity for allthe second-rung players. Both Saina Ne-hwal and Aditi Mutatkar withdrew to re-cover from injuries. In their absence,Trupti Murgunde was expected to win,

but Sayali ambushed her in a three-setter,and then went on to dismantle PC Thulasiin the final. Through the tournament shedemonstrated her best abilities: fluidmovement, excellent length, good court-craft, and the willingness to stay in longrallies.

Sayali still retains some of the flavourof her junior days. Her striking charac-teristic on court is her feminine style – agraceful, stroke-filled game that looks outof sync with modern, hard-hitting bad-minton. Her game on court is an exten-sion of her off-court personality, for sheis a quiet, reserved character who neverraises her voice and gets along with every-body.

She ‘keeps the house’ at the Bangaloreflat she shares with fellow PadukoneAcademy trainees Aditi Mutatkar andNeha Pandit – she’s obsessive about tidy-ing the place, and she loves to cook. “She’sa nice, homely girl,” says world no.38 Mu-tatkar, who, like Sayali, is from Pune. “If

the cook doesn’t come,she’s the one who feedsall of us.”

But it’s also thesetraits that make peoplewonder if she’s too“soft” to become atop-level player.“She’s not ag-gressive andthat showsin train-ing. Shedoesn’tcross

her limits, and that’ssomething she will haveto do if she has to progress at the inter-national level,” says Mutatkar. “She’s veryhardworking and sincere, but she alwaysstops at 100 percent, when you need to do110 percent.”

The lack of aggression is somethingthat even her childhood coach in Pune,Anil Modak, points out. She has a fewmore deficiencies to iron. Most believethat, with improved strength and en-durance, she could at least be a world top-30 player. The national title might just bethe fillip that her international careerneeded – and as such, it couldn’t havecome at a better time, or to a nicer person.

Making her way, quietlySayali Gokhale won thenational badminton title,but can she withstand thepressure from now on?

ALL FINESSE: Bangalore-based national champion Sayali Gokhale is known as astrokeful player who can do well on the international circuit

Her game on court isan extension of heroff-court personality,for she is a quiet,reserved characterwho never raises hervoice and gets alongwith everybody

Mumbai: India’s best-knownwoman basketballer GeetuAnna Jose is not to ply herware in the Australian pro-fessional league this year torepresent the country in theAsian Basketball Champi-onship in Chinese Taipei inJune. “I will be in the campprior to the ABC in June inChinese Taipei and will not beplaying in the AustralianLeague,” said Geetu, who isplaying here for SouthernRailways in the Silver JubileeRamu Memorial BasketballChampioship at the IndianGymkhana.

The Australian league be-gins in March. The 6-ft 2-inGeetu is the only Asian play-er to figure in the AustralianLeague and has played the fullseason last year after beingseen in action for five or sixgames in the earlier two years.

“I play at Melbourne forRingwood Hawks and I’m thetallest player in my team, saidthe 23-year-old Kerala-bornplayer who caught the atten-tion of Australian basketballcoaches during the Common-wealth Games in 2006 inwhich she was the Most Valu-able Player of India.

Playing in India is a breezeas compared to the tough procircuit in which she paradesher skills in Australia, Geetusaid. “Here it’s very easy butthere it’s a bit hard to play asthose players don’t give anyleeway. The main differencethere is the height of the play-ers and their speed around thecourt. They are very, veryfast,” she said.

Looking ahead to the ABCcompetition, Geetu felt itwould be a tough ask for theIndian team. Geetu’s highestpoints tally in an Australianpro-league game has been 32points. –PTI

Makwana takes title; Udupa runner-upAshwin Makwana of Gujarat wonthe National Open Chess tourna-ment for the Blind which concludedat Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Mon-day. In the ninth round, Makwanawas forced to accept a draw against12-year-old Sai Krishna from TamilNadu, but he had done enough to en-sure a title win. Top seed KrishnaUdupa of Karnataka was also forcedto accept a draw against AthulKakade of Maharashtra at the end of23rd move and won second prize.Madhan Bagayatkar of Mumbaicame third. Bagayatkar, an Indian in-ternational, was two points down butfinished victorious against T Saibu

of Kerala. Susheela Y of Karnatakawas declared best woman player.

The five-day tournament was or-ganised by Samarthanam Trust forthe disabled, and supported by KPMGIndia.The top 12 (points denote ELOrating): Ashwin Makwana (Guj,1000); Sri Krishna Udupa (Kar, 2000);Madan Bagayatkar (Mah, 1,880); SaiKrishna (TN, 985); Atul Kakade(Mah, 975); Noushad EP (Ker, 980);Mohd Salih (Ker, 1601); SanjayKakade (Goa, 1876); Swapnil Shah(Mah, 1987); Raajhesh Raajput (Guj,990); Ajaya Kumar (Ker, 935);Nagendran (TN, 950).

After upsetting the top seed in the eighth round,Makwana assured himself of the trophy

VICTOR: Ashwin Makwana holds the National Open chess titlethat he won at the end of nine rounds

RUNNER-UP: Top seed Sri Krishna Udupa (left) wasupset in the eighth round and ended second-best

Indian champ in fifth spot;Grischuk remains on top

KSA TO HOLDAWARENESSPROGRAMME

The Karnataka Swim-ming Association

(KSA) will conduct afree awareness pro-gramme on aquaticsafety standards forpublic and semi-publicpools, hotels, apart-ments, resorts andclubs which have swim-ming pools. It will beheld on March 11 at10am in Basavangudiswimming pool. For de-tails contact: H NageshRao: 9243073405.

XAVIER NETSWINNER FOR POSTAL

Postal pipped Southern Blues1-0 in the BDFA Super Divi-

sion league at the BangaloreFootball Stadium on Monday.Nesline Xavier scored the win-ner in the 75th minute. In the ‘A’Division league at National Col-lege grounds, National FootballClub drew 2-2 with GovernmentPress. National FC got the leadin the 26th minute throughVikram, but Nirmal Kumarequalised four minutes later.Vikram struck again in the 65thto give Government Press thelead, but Hariharan stole a lateequaliser in the 84th.

Countryover leaguefor Geetu

Levon Aronian

CHAMPIONS: Panchkesari, winners of the inter-corporate FloodlightSuperSixes tennis ball cricket tournament at Malleswaram Grounds

RAVINDRA JOSHI.DNA

Bangalore,Tuesday, March 3, 2009

www.dnaindia.com

epaper.dnaindia.com 18LOCALSPORTS

GOLD HAUL FOR ITBP INNATIONAL JUDO C’SHIPS

I ndo-Tibetan Border Police won fivemedals, including a gold, in the Senior

National Judo Championships at Lucknow.Virender Singh won the gold (81 kg) andbronze in open weight category, while Santosh Mane won silver in under-66 kgweight category. In 90kg weight category,Virender Singh bagged the bronze, whileMadan Lal also won bronze in the 56 kgweight category. Among the women judokaof ITBP, Kalpna Devi won gold in the 52kgweight category and bronze in open weightcategory.

CWG PROJECTS ON TRACK,SAYS SHIELA DIXIT

C hief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Mon-day admitted that some projects of the

2010 Commonwealth Games were runningbehind schedule but said there was noneed to be skeptical or cynical about thepreparations. “There are some projectswhich are behind schedule, while some arebefore time and some are on time. There isno need to be skeptical or cynical about it,”Dikshit said. Dikshit also scotched appre-hensions that there was no co-ordinationamong different committees of the Games.“There are two group of ministers who arelooking at the preparation of the Gamesand there is enough time, so I am confi-dent,” she said.

COACH BUCAN IN FAVOUR OFNATIONAL LEAGUE

I ndia’s basketball coach Alexander Bu-can on Monday acknowledged the con-

siderable improvement shown by the na-tional team in the last one year and said anational league needs to be put in place.“There has been some improvement com-pared to one-and-a-half-years ago when Itook over as the coach. The Indian under-17 team created history by winning theAsian FIBA 33 championship,” the Serbiansaid. Advocating the importance of the na-tional league, Bucan said all the top basket-ball-playing countries had it. “India is avery big country and this type of competi-tion is needed.”

nationwatch

1

2

3

4

5

He was not allowed to play for a charity match inNew Zealand because of the presence of the playersfrom a rival league. He sat frustrated at the corner ofa ground when we caught up with him.

q&awith...

Disappointed at not being allowed to play?I am furious, not disappointed. How can they stopme from playing?

Yeah, how could they…If I decide to stop playing for them, they’ll be introuble.

So are you planning to talk to the board Prez?What will he do? He is sitting in his AC office whilewe slog out in freezing temperature here. Ridiculous!

Anyways, the focus is the ODI now…Hmm… I hope these kids play with some purpose.They want to hit each ball out of the park.

Have you given them any advice?I just told them to win. I want to win here at leastonce in my career.

yourzone >>>The task is to fill all of the empty squares,using numbers 1 to 9, so the sum of eachhorizontal block equals the number to itsleft, and the sum of each vertical blockequals the number on its top.

webwrapRewriting history

Sir Alex Fergusonbristled and un-leashed his best“turn to stone”glare at the merehint that historymight be about towrap Manchester

United in its warm embrace oncemore. Ferguson was on familiar ter-ritory after United claimed the Car-ling Cup against unfortunate Spursat Wembley after a final that was in-triguing without ever fulfilling itsearly promise. The question was jus-tified, the answer a perfect exampleof expectation management from aman who has mastered the art in asilver-lined Old Trafford career. Unit-ed have added the Carling Cup to theClub World Cup, have strengthenedtheir grip on the League even after aday off from that particular domesticcombat, are in the last eight of theFA Cup and nicely placed to reachthe Champions League quarter-final.

Phil McNulty on the BBC Sports blog

Cautious captainPonting is a cautious captain, all themore so now he is under scrutiny af-ter losing two recent series to Indiaand South Africa. He would haveprobably looked for a lead of 500 inthe ongoing Test against SouthAfrica, but the decision was taken outhis hands. It is still a beautiful dayhere but the rain has a habit of drift-ing in during the late afternoon. Innearby Pretoria, the capital, they areknown as civil servants’ showers.The civil servants, traditionally, gohome at four and that is when therain so often arrives. At lunch Aus-tralia, having resumed on 51-1, were174-9. That gave them a lead of 420,which was probably more thanenough on a pitch doing plenty eventhough, rather timidly, they cameinto this game with only three properbowlers. When Australia lost threewickets in four balls, and four in 13balls, the crowd went crazy. And thewickets kept tumbling throughoutthe session.

Paul Weaver at the Sport blog

kakuro

Gautam Gambhir

Yesterday’sanswer: TThhoossee wwhhoo ggaavvee tthheerriigghhtt aannsswweerr::

Jayant & SheelaSamarth, Rupesh Shah,Shailesh Sharma,Anuraag Dandekar

*Disclaimer: All characters are real but the interviews are fictional