Olympian no more

New Delhi: Olympian Thulukhanamm Shanmugam passed away in Bangalore on Thursday. He was 92. A skillful midfielder, Shanmugam was a part of the gold medal winning squad of the 1951 Asian Games in Delhi. He also represented India in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. In the later years, Shanmugam became a successful coach and was the technical director of the Indian team in 1989 Nehru Cup .

USFC coach

Gangtok: Australian Nathan Hall has taken charge as the new head coach of United Sikkim FC for this season.

Salgaocar held

Calcutta: Salgaocar and ONGC played out a goalless draw in the 11th round of the I-League at Margao on Friday.

Fifa view

Paris: Fifa has said that they were unable to check whether claims that an African footballer and not Argentina star Lionel Messi was the record holder for the most goals scored in a calendar year. “Thanks for the questions about Godfrey Chitalu. Our official stats are limited to Fifa competitions, so we cannot verify this ‘record’,” Fifa said.

Good show

Bangkok: Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok on Friday won the 2012 Race of Champions Asia and qualified for the Nations Cup. India are pitted in the same group as Germany. Team India defeated Japan 2-0 in the final after leading the group stage with four wins out of six races.

Table tennis

Hyderabad: Ayihika Mukherjee and Suthirtha Mukherjee on Friday entered the pre-quarters of the World Junior Table Tennis Championships after scoring back-to-back victories over their respective rivals here on Friday.

Aditi up

Calcutta: Aditi Ashok set up an interesting duel with Gurbani Singh in the semi-final after the former easily won her quarter final in the All India Ladies Matchplay Championships at Tollygunge Club Friday.

Four-under

Marrakech: Sharmila Nicollet opened with four-under 68 in the first round of the Final Qualifying at Lalla Aicha Tour School for the 2013 Ladies European Tour season and was placed tied fourth, but Smriti Mehra shot two over 74 and was down in tied 85th place.

Claudius ill

Calcutta: Leslie Claudius was again admitted to a private hospital on Friday following complications, his son Brandon said.

PCB move

Karachi: PCB has said that they will be sending a sports psychologist with the team to India.

IPL workshop

New Delhi: The two-day workshop for the nine franchise owners of the IPL will be held in Jodhpur on December 20 and 21.

Sportsdesk & Agencies