Poonia bags silver

New Delhi: Olympic-bound Indian discus thrower Krishna Poonia marginally improved her performance with an effort of 62.34m, but that was enough to win her a silver medal at the Post Pre Elite Womens’ event at Portland.

Two days back, Poonia had missed out on a medal at the Perfontaine Classic Diamond League Meet at Eugene in the US when she managed a distance of 62.11m.

India to host

Chennai: India will stage eight International Open chess tournaments every year, All India Chess Federation secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan said. Chauhan said the National Premier will revert back to round-robin format from this year. The new format will have nine players qualifying from National Challengers, four top rated, one previous champion in a 14-player event, Chauhan said in a release.

London: Former Chelsea and England winger Joe Cole played a major role in persuading Lille midfielder Eden Hazard to move to Stamford Bridge, the Belgian international said on Monday. Hazard has completed his transfer to the European champions and FA Cup holders after passing a medical. The fee is undisclosed but according to media reports it is around £32 million.

Karun chance

London: Karun Chandhok is ready to claim an Indian motor racing first by starting the Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar race next week. “As long as I do a lap in the race that will be enough. To be first out of 1.3 billion (Indians), that’s quite nice,” the 28-year-old former F1 driver said.

Tanvir in

Lahore: The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has allowed all-rounder Sohail Tanvir to remain in Sri Lanka for the five one-day Internationals considering his good performance in the T20 series.

Tarapore out

Mumbai: SS Shamsuddin has replaced Shavir Tarapore in the International Panel of Umpires of the International Cricket Council from India. The decision to include Hyderabad’s Shamsuddin in place of Karnataka’s Tarapore was taken here on Monday by the umpires sub-committee of the Board. The committee retained Sudhir Asnani of MP, S. Ravi of Tamil Nadu and VN Kulkarni of Maharashtra on the same panel for the season 2012-13.

Sreevats show

Calcutta: Kalighat rode on Sreevats Goswami’s 104 to post a massive 401 for seven against Mohun Bagan in the final of AN Ghosh Trophy at Eden Gardens on Monday.

Summarised scores

Kalighat 401/7 in 85 overs (Sreevats Goswami 104, Sudip Chatterjee 98; Sanjib Sanyal 5/68) vs Mohun Bagan.