Sandeep’s five goals send India to the Olympics

A huge crowd turned up to support India. Reuters

Sandeep’s Singh’s five goals propelled India to an impressive 8-1 win over France in the final of the Olympic Qualifiers in Delhi and helped his team qualify for London 2012 as well.

The first half was a closely fought affair, with India banging in the first two goals only to see France come back with a brilliant field goal. But then India got another one to go into half-time at 3-1.

However, two goals within five minutes early in the second half sealed the deal. Sandeep was unstoppable in the penalty corners and after missing the first PC, he converted all his remaining attempts to almost single-handedly send India to the Olympics. The big-built sardar scored in the 19th, 26th, 37th, 49th and 51st minutes.

The other scorers for India were Birender Lakra, who opened the scoring in the 17th minute, Sunil made it 5-1 in the 43rd and VR Raghunath, with a powerful drag flick, made it 8-1 in the 56th.

The lone goal scorer for France was Simon Martin, who scored in the 24th minute completely against the run of play.

India's Singh celebrates with teammates after scoring goal against France in New Delhi. Reuters

“I can’t explain my feelings. I’m just really happy,” said Sandeep, who was adjudged the Hero of the match, after the game. The drag-flicker scored a total of 16 goals during the tournament.

India had failed to qualify for Beijing Olympics in 2008 and that is one of the reasons why this tournament was so important for the future of the sport in India. For now, however, Michael Nobbs and his wards have booked their tickets to their 19th Olympic Games — the most by any hockey-playing nation.

But remember this was just the first hurdle. Now, comes the real challenge. How do we become good enough to beat Australia, Germany, and Holland?

However, we’ll save that argument for another day. For now let’s just celebrate a team that has outdone itself and taken the first step towards becoming major force again in hockey.

Indian women's hockey team misses London Olympics berth

South African players celebrate their victory after defeating India in the final of the women's hockey Olympic qualifiers at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi. (AFP Photo)

NEW DELHI: Indian women team's hopes of qualifying for the London Olympics went up in smoke after suffering a crushing 1-3 defeat against top-ranked South Africa in the finals of hockey Olympic qualifiers on Saturday.

Results | Points Table

World number 12 South Africa scored through Shelley Russell (4th minute), Pietie Coetzee (30th) and skipper Marsha Marescia (57th) to qualify for the London Olympics.

They remained unbeaten in the tournament and had defeated India 5-2 in the league stage.

India paid the price for their defence lapses and lack of finishing as South Africa rode on their better co-ordination, agility and solid defence to crush the hosts at their home ground.

India conceded an early goal in the fourth minute with Ritu Rani being the culprit as she failed to clear the ball from a back pass inside the D in the left flank, allowing Shelley Russell to steal it and comfortably slot it home.

Stung by the goal, India tried to attack from the left flank with Anuradha Devi Thokchom, who was back after missing two matches due to a hamstring injury, being in the action but they failed to penetrate the South African defence.

The Indians crumbled under pressure as they fumbled with the ball and lacked co-ordination. Even though they penetrated the rival camp, the hosts failed to build a single concrete attack.

India earned their first penalty corner in the 10th minute but Sushila Chanu failed to stop the ball cleanly to squander the opportunity.

South Africa then earned three short corners in the space of six minutes between 23rd and 29th minute, and the visitors made use of the third with the experienced Pietie Coetzee sounding the board with a direct hit.

India came out with all guns blazing in the second half and made regular forays into the rival camp in the first 10 minutes. India came close to scoring when skipper Asunta Lakra made a direct hit from the center but a diving Anuradha failed to connect.

After a couple of minutes, Anuradha was once again in action when she was in a one-to-one situation with South African goalkeeper Mix Mariette but she hit it straight to her.

In the 40th minute, South Africa earned their fourth PC but Joydeep Kaur and Chanu cleared the ball successfully.

However, the visitors piled on agony on India once again when skipper Marsha deflected Coetzee's grounded flick on South Africa's fifth penalty corner in the 53rd minute to almost seal the match.

India scored a consolation goal in the 56th minute with Jaspreet Kaur converting a short corner with a powerful sweep. The Indians tried to create pressure on South Africa but they failed to penetrate the rival defence.

India thus had to settle for the silver to continue their 32-year-old jinx of not qualifying for the Olympics.

Indian women had played in the Olympics in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the year the game was introduced, on an invitational basis.

Earlier in the day, Italy won the bronze medal after beating Ukraine 2-1, while Canada finished at the fifth position after notching up a 3-0 victory over Poland.

Mumbai Marathon: Moiben, Abeyo emerge winners; India's Yadav gets Olympic berth

MUMBAI: African domination continued at the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon as Kenya's Laban Moiben and Ethiopian Netsanet Abeyo bagged the top honours in men's and women's categories in the ninth edition on Sunday.

Among the Indians, veteran long distance runner Ram Singh Yadav booked his berth for the London Olympics.

Moiben, whose previous best timing in a marathon was 2:09:44 -- set in Ottawa in May 2010 -- won the race in a photo finish as he completed the 42-km race in 2:10:48.

Ethiopian Raji Assefa also clocked 2:10:48 but was adjudged second after photo finish results while compatriot John Kyui (2:10:54) was third.

Fatuma Sado (2:30:20) and Makda Harun (2:30:47), followed Abeyo (2;26:12) to complete an all-Ethiopian sweep in the women's category.

The top winners in the two categories got a prize money of USD 36,000 each.

Tanzania's Dickson Marwa and Simon Kasimili were the initial pace setters as they exchanged the lead position during the the first 15 km stretch.

However, after the initial surge, Marwa fell behind and it was here that Kyui and Moiben began their domination. It was at about the 30km stretch that Moiben took the lead which he held throughout.

However, it was a close tussle for the two runners-up places which Assefa and Kyui finally managed to grab.

Yadav, who held the course record for the Indians here -- 2:18:03 set in 2009 -- finally fulfilled his potential as he completed the race in 2:16:59, bettering Olympic qualification timing of 2:18 hours. The Armyman was followed by Elam Singh (2:18:27), who narrowly missed qualification, and T A Rajesh (2:24:25).

Yadav said that his armymates Elam Singh and Karan Singh, who ultimately faded out after being in the lead in the Indian bunch to finish 20th, had given him good competition after he tried to match the Kenyans initially.

"I started strongly and tried to keep pace with the Kenyan runners for 2-3 km but realised that if I continued to do so I would fade out at the 21-22 km mark. Elam Singh and Karan Singh were hot on my heels and I was afraid I would be beaten too by them," said Yadav, who became the eighth Indian athlete to attain the qualifying mark for the London Games.

The other Indians who have achieved the mark are: Vikas Gowda (men's discus), Krishna Poonia (women's discus), Mayookha Johnny (women's triple jump), Tintu Luka (women's 800m), Gurdev Singh, Babubhai Panucha (men walkers with Gurdev attaining A mark and Panucha reaching B mark) and Om Prakash Singh (men's shot put).

"The weather was very helpful this time and there was no head wind too which also helped," Yadav added.

Army coach AS Mathew was also very emotional at his ward Yadav reaching the mark and also felt that the weather played its part.

"It was the best weather since the inception of the Mumbai Marathon. It was to the advantage of the runners. He had missed the qualifying mark earlier narrowly," said Mathew.

Mathew, who said a number of runners had trained at Wellington near Ooty ahead of the race, also took the opportunity to take a pot shot at the Athletics Federation of India for having given a 45-day break to the campers.

"They have a 45-day break. No other country does this. But the good news is that AFI has decided now, after my talks with Mr Dogra (AFI director) that 4 women and 6 men marathoners will be supported well," said Mathew.

Elam Singh said he was quite satisfied with his performance as he had converted from steeplechase to marathon running only 10 months ago.

"I am pleased with my performance. It was my first marathon. I was a 3000m steeplechase runner. It's a huge change from running 3 km to 42 km," said Bishnoi. — PTI

World boxing meet: Devendro, Manoj make it to London Olympics

Devendro Singh (49kg) and Manoj Kumar (64kg) qualified for the 2012 London Olympics by advancing to the quarter-finals of the World Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan on Tuesday.


In pic: Devendro Singh (left) is adjudged winner against Joselito Velazquez recently

While Manoj edged past China's Qing Hu 17:15 with a well calculated approach, Devendro

continued to tame the higher-ranked opponents, this time triumphing over seventh seed Carlos Quipo of Ecuador.

Dinesh Kumar (81kg), however, missed his chance to qualify for the Olympics after losing 7:16 to Damien Hooper of Australia.

Manoj, playing in the light welter weight division, was up against a much taller Qing. The Chinese boxer took full advantage of his height and Manoj found it difficult to connect his punches, trailing by a three point-deficit after the opening round of play (3:6).

But the Indian boxer's strategy of blocking and attacking allowed him to get inside Qing's long reaching arms and score a few crucial points. Qing, who seemed to be losing energy quickly, resorted to continuously holding his opponent, for which he was given two warning. The cautions helped the Indian's cause of levelling the scores and taking the lead.

The last few minutes of the bout saw Manoj capitalise on Qing's misfortunes as the Commonwealth Games golf medallist went on to secure a victory in the last eight.

Meanwhile, Devendro continued his purple patch at the Championships with another scintillating performance. Up against 2010 American Continental Champion Carlos Quipo, the 19-year-old with his lightning fast punches and equally good footwork quickly gained a 5:2 lead. The Ecuador boxer came back strongly in the second round, but Devendro held on to his lead.

Both the boxers came hard at each other in the final round but the nippy Manipuri, with swift combinations, managed to gain crucial points once again. In the end, he clinched a 18:12 victory along with an Olympic berth.

Asian Games gold medallist Vikas Krishnan (69kg) will take on Onder Sipal of Turkey while Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Jai Bhagwan (60kg) will square up against seventh seed David Joyce of Ireland later Tuesday.