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India's Lakshya Sen fought his way back to reach the second round of the All England Championships on Tuesday, while compatriot HS Prannoy was eliminated in the opening round of the men's singles competition here. Lakshya, ranked 15th in the world, came from behind to defeat Chinese Taipei's world No. 37, SU Li Yang, with a 13-21, 21-17, 21-15 win in the opening round of the Super 1000 event. The 23-year-old from Almora will face Indonesia's third seed Jonatan Christie next. Lakshya had defeated Christie en route to his fourth place finish at the Paris Olympics last year. Prannoy, a bronze medallist at the 2023 World Championships and Asian Games, struggled against France's Toma Junior Popov, who is ranked 17th. Prannoy fought for 53 minutes before going down 19-21, 16-21. In the mixed doubles, Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath had a tough outing against China's world No. 7 pair of Guo Xin Wa and Chen Fang Hui, losing 6-21, 15-21 in 51 minutes. After losing the first ga
Union sports minister Mansukh Mandaviya will chair a two-day meeting with his state-level counterparts, senior administrators, and key government officials here to "exchange ideas and craft a roadmap" for India's Olympic preparations. The March 7-8 gathering will be held at Kanha Shanti Vanam in the city. India is eyeing a double digit medal haul at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and is also bidding to host the 2036 Olympics for which a letter of intent has been sent to the International Olympic Committee. "The deliberations will focus on enhancing sports governance, grassroots talent identification, infrastructure development, inclusivity, and fostering collaborations," the sports ministry stated in a press release. Key focus areas of the brainstorming session will be an overview of various government schemes and co-ordination with states on the subject. Sports infrastructure development partnership with corporates, talent search, and promotion of good governance will also come ...
India is focussing not just on strengthening infrastructure capabilities, but also intellectual preparedness as it eyes hosting rights for the 2036 Olympic Games, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha said on Wednesday. The former track and field star noted India's engagement with the quadrennial international games goes beyond competitive sports to embrace its true spirit of promoting peace and cultural exchange. She was addressing the 1st International Olympic Research Conference at Rashtriya Raksha University (RRU) near Dehgam in Gandhinagar district. The four-day conference has been organised by the Bharat Centre for Olympic Research and Education (B-CORE) of the RRU, an institution of national importance under the Union home ministry. In her address, Usha said thanks to the conference, representatives of various Olympic studies and research centres from across the world as well as experts from diverse fields have converged in India. "India's engagement with the .
For a state that witnessed two elections of great significance this year and accounted for more than 20 per cent of athletes in India's Paris Olympics contingent, it is only fitting that the year's top newsmakers came from two fields: politics and sports. Add to the mix, the issues of farmers and farming -- farmers' protest remained a constant underrunning theme in the state's sociopolitical discourse through the year -- and Haryana's 2024 round-up is almost complete. As Haryana seemed to be settling into the regular humdrum of daily politics after high-pitched election season came the unsettling news of the passing of its five-time chief minister and political stalwart Om Prakash Chautala. He died on December 20 at the age of 89. The state entered 2024 with a great deal to look forward to for everybody: a BJP looking to repeat the 2019 feat of winning all 10 LS seats and also retaining power in assembly, a Congress emboldened by projections it would wrest back a large number of ...
Not many sports are inseparably linked with an individual, but Mirabai Chanu has been that one name in Indian weightlifting for several years now and 2024 was no different as she carried the weight of the nation's aspirations for Olympic glory once again. However, this time those dreams ended in heartbreak not just for her but also for the sport that has struggled to find a worthy successor to her. Chanu, who etched her name in history by ending India's 21-year Olympic medal drought in the sport with a silver at the Tokyo Games, embarked on a quest this year to achieve an extraordinary feat -- a second consecutive Olympic medal in weightlifting. While no other Indian lifter came close to qualifying for the Paris Games, Chanu secured her spot with an underwhelming 184kg (81kg + 103kg) at the Phuket World Cup, while making a remarkable return from a six-month injury layoff. Her journey to Paris was fraught with challenges. At 29, Chanu faced an uphill battle against an injury-ravage
Indian boxing endured a turbulent year marred by coaching turmoil, crushing defeats, and a medal-less Paris Olympics campaign, all of it made worse by the national federation's negligence that brought unprecedented embarrassment to the country. There were very few positives to count in a year when, after a widely successful 2023, expectations were sky high. Yet no boxer was able to add to the three bronze medals -- Vijender Singh (2008), M C Mary Kom (2012) and Lovlina Borgohain (2021) -- that India had secured in the previous editions of the Olympics. Nishant Dev, unlucky to miss out on an Olympic medal, was India's top performer but the likes of world champions Nikhat Zareen and Lovlina disappointed despite widely held belief that fortunes of women's boxing were following an upward trajectory. Outside the ring, the Boxing Federation of India's (BFI) negligence cost India an Olympic quota even as administrators globally scrambled to retain the sport on the Olympic roster. Controv
The Paris Olympics says it was far less polluting than recent Games but is not claiming to have been "carbon neutral" despite funding projects to compensate for its emissions. Organisers said on Wednesday that this summer's Olympics and Paralympics generated 1.59 million tons of climate-warming carbon dioxide, from the food athletes ate and construction of their rooms to flights that spectators took and energy that powered events. According to a French government carbon-impact calculator, 1.59 million tons of CO2 is equivalent to driving a car 182,675 times around the globe or 898,305 return flights between Paris and New York. Still, Paris Games organisers said they more than met their goal of slashing the Olympics' pollution footprint by half announcing a 54.6 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions compared to the London Olympics in 2012 and the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. Here's a look at how they did it and tips they offered to future hosts, starting with the 2026 Milan-Cortina
Olympic leaders are very confident and relaxed about working with the incoming Trump administration ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games, outgoing IOC president Thomas Bach said Thursday. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has talked up his own role helping get the games for LA in 2017, though a White House meeting during that campaign with an Olympic delegation including Bach was not a success. Still, the two men could meet again as soon as Saturday in Paris, which hosted the 2024 Olympics that LA originally bid for. Trump is traveling to the French capital for ceremonies this weekend to reopen Notre Dame Cathedral that was devastated by fire five years ago. Bach also is invited to return to the Olympic host city where he has excellent relations with French President Emmanuel Macron, who formally opened the Summer Games on July 26. President Trump should do the same duty at the LA Olympics opening ceremony on July 14, 2028 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Though the LA Olympic
Special Olympics Bharat (SOB) has announced a 16-member squad for the Special Olympics Asia Pacific Bocce and Bowling Competition, scheduled to be held at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex here from November 18 to 22. The team includes eight athletes each for Bocce and Bowling, supported by eight coaches. The Men's Bocce squad comprises Kabir Pritam Baruah, Ebenezer David, Wilfred Dsouza, and Devansh Agarwal, coached by P. Arun and S. Anandan. The Women's Bocce team includes Priyanka, Manjula, Purnima Madan, and G. Subhashini, guided by Mamta and Pushpa Tripathi. The Women's Bowling team features Neha Singh, Simran Pujara, Shraddha Patel, and Susri Sangeeta Nayak, with coaches Shafali Gupta and Anupama Singh. Representing the Men's Bowling team are: Ibhanan Sahu, Ankit, Prakash Veghela, and Nirupam Dey, coached by Akshat Sharma and Ileshbhai Raval. The competition, a first of its kind in India, will focus on athletes aged 22 and above with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (ID
Nearly 20,000 people were forcibly displaced in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics from tent camps or shelters in the Paris region, a coalition of more than 100 community groups said Monday. In its report, the group Le Revers de la Mdaille, which translates as the other side of the medal, claimed that 19,526 people were displaced from informal housing between April 2023 and September 2024 as part of what it calls social cleansing by authorities. The report notes that some people were evicted multiple times and, as a result, may be counted more than once. As the city prepared to host millions of spectators for the Games, facilities and infrastructure underwent significant renovation, which the report alleges included the eviction of migrants and squatters from visible locations near event venues. Paul Alauzy, spokesperson for Le Revers de la Mdaille, claimed that there is direct evidence linking these displacements to Olympic preparations. There are images, internal government ...
The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has submitted a 'Letter of Intent', expressing the country's desire to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games, to the International Olympic Committee's Future Host Commission, taking the first concrete step in an ambitious plan. The letter was submitted on October 1, according to a source in the sports ministry. "This monumental opportunity could bring substantial benefits, fostering economic growth, social progress, and youth empowerment across the country," the source added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had first talked about his government's aspiration to host the 2036 Olympics last year. A decision on the host will not be taken before the IOC elections next year and India will also have to face competition from several other nations like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, who are positioning themselves as strong contenders to host the sporting spectacle. India's plan has been backed by current IOC head Thomas Bach. The last time India host
Indian Olympic Association President PT Usha Thursday barred the IOA staff from taking any instructions from joint secretary Kalyan Chaubey and the rest of the Executive Council members while declaring that the agenda unveiled by him for the October 25 Special General Body Meeting was "illegal and unauthorised". On Wednesday, Chaubey issued a circular on official IOA letterhead, listing 26 agenda items for the SGM to be held here on October 25. One of the items was a vote of no confidence against Usha "in light of alleged constitutional violations and actions potentially detrimental to Indian sports". Chaubey, who had issued the circular "pursuant to a directive from 12 members of IOA EC", had signed it as IOA's joint secretary and acting CEO. Usha declared that Chaubey does not hold the acting CEO's post. He had earlier served as IOA's acting CEO before Raghuram Iyer took charge of the post in January. Usha, in a press release, termed Chaubey's action as "both illegal and in ...