Diptayan finishes second

Tirupati: Diptayan Ghosh of West Bengal, G. Akash of Tamil Nadu and Sagar Shah of Maharashtra were tied for the second spot with nine and half points in the the 50th National Challengers Chess Championship.

Third seed and world Under-18 bronze medallist International Master Debashis Das of Orissa won the title settling for half point against Bitan Banerjee of West Bengal in the 13th and final round here.

Better tie-break score helped Diptayan secure the runners-up position while Akash finished third.

Mumbai best

Mumbai: Formidable Mumbai crushed Vidarbha 5-1 to lift the West Zone title and qualified for the Indian Hockey Federation-conducted Senior National Hockey Championships inter-zonal round to be held, later this year.

Ajitpal view

New Delhi: Former India hockey captain and India’s chef-de-mission for London Olympics Ajitpal Singh feels that it won’t be possible for the current team to win any medal at the quadrennial extravaganza.

“I don’t hope of any medal. We have not reached that level. The only logical expectation is a top-six finish,” he said.

Cacau dropped

Frankfurt: Brazil-born striker Cacau was dropped from Germany’s squad for the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine on Monday. Cacau struggled in his Bundesliga club Stuttgart and was mostly coming off the bench during the season.

Cech contract

London: Petr Cech has signed a new four-year contract with Chelsea, tying the Czech Republic goalkeeper to the European champions until 2016.

Barry out

London: Gareth Barry was ruled out of the European Championship on Monday because of a stomach injury, robbing England of one of its two holding midfielders less than two weeks before the start of the tournament.

Approval

Chennai: The Governing Council of the Champions League Twenty20 is learnt to have approved the participation of Pakistan’s domestic T20 champions Sialkot Stallions in this year’s event to be held in October at different venues in India.

The council’s approval was a mere formality after the BCCI Working Committee on May 12 had cleared the decks for the Pakistan outfit’s participation.

Majola case

Johannesburg: Suspended Cricket South Africa chief executive Gerald Majola has failed in his bid to get the chairman of his disciplinary hearing over irregular IPL bonuses changed.

Objections by Majola's legal team to have senior counsel John Myburgh as chairman were dismissed by the chairman of the Johannesburg Bar, Craig Watt-Pringle, who appointed Myburgh.