Shuttlers advance
Auckland: HS Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap reached the pre-quarter finals of the New Zealand Grand Prix Gold with straight-game wins here on Wednesday. Prannoy staved off a challenge from Indonesia’s Firman Abdul Kholik 23-21, 21-18 while Kashyap thrashed New Zealand’s Oscar Guo 21-9, 21-8.
Squash meet
Manchester: Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal advanced to the women’s doubles quarter finals at the WSF World Doubles Squash Championship here on Wednesday. They defeated Tesni Evans and Deon Saffery of Wales 11-8, 11-7 to reach the last-eight stage. They will take on Samantha Cornett and Nikole Todd of Canada.
Boxers up
New Delhi: Three Indian boxers advanced to the quarter finals of the Asian Junior Championships in Puerto Princesa, Philippines, on Wednesday. Selay Roy (46kg), Bhavesh Kattimani (52kg) and Aman Sherawat (70kg) entered the last-eight stage after winning their respective opening bouts.
Hari in lead
Biel (Switzerland): GM Pentala Harikrishna registered a scintillating victory over former Fide World Chess champion Ruslan Ponomariov of the Ukraine in the eighth round to consolidate his position at the top of the table in the 50th Biel Chess Festival, here.
Chess meet
Calcutta: Anwesh Upadhyay and P. Saravanna Krishnan have emerged as leaders with 6.5 points after the seventh round of the ongoing National Rapid Chess Championship. Candidate Master Aronyak Ghosh stunned Grandmaster Deep Sengupta. Kaustav Chattopadhyay shocked WGM Soumya Swaminathan.
Bronze medal
New Delhi: India began their campaign in the Junior World Wrestling championships on a positive note with Veer Dev Gulia bagging a bronze medal in the men’s 74kg freestyle and Deepak Punia entering the bronze medal play-off round in Tampere, Finland. Gulia beat Yamasaki Yajuro of Japan 8-5.
Pay dispute
Melbourne: Cricket Australia is on the verge of agreeing a new pay deal with the players' union, ending a long impasse and avoiding the need for arbitration. A Cricket Australia spokesman said on Wednesday that negotiations had advanced to the "final details" after days of lengthy talks with the Australian Cricketers' Association.
