Lifter Romi Devi wins three gold

NEW DELHI: Teenage debutante Romi Devi did India proud as she won three gold medals in the 75 kg category of the Junior Asian Weightlifting Championship at Wu Han, China.

Romi’s powerful snatch of 95 kg for her first gold was way ahead of the 82.5 kg lifted by silver-medallist Liu-Tang Hui of China. Romi had a jerk of 110 kg to claim the second gold and her total of 205 kg clinched the third. The Indian tally went up to 20 medals — 3 gold, 4 silver and 13 bronze. Two ace lifters Kunjarani Devi and K Malleswari skipped the meet to prepare for the World championship.

Abhinn in final

BANGALORE: Abhinn Shyam Gupta has entered the final of the Olympic qualifying tournament being held at Sydney. Gupta upset second seed and Dutch No 1, Jeroen Van Dijk, 15-6 15-5.

Among other Indians in the fray, Ajit Wijetilak and Sachin Ratti lost in the quarter-final and pre-quarterfinal respectively, the latter to Dijk. Manjusha Kanwar, BR Meenakshi and NeelimaChoudary lost in the quarterfinals.

Aparna ranked 16

BANGALORE: India’s National champion Aparna Popat has attained a career-high 16 in world rankings, released by International Badminton Federation IBF on September two. National champion P Gopi Chand has gone down from 37 to 42.

Other rankings Men: Abhinn Shyam Gupta 97, Nikhil Kanetkar 110, Ajit Wijetilak 171, Sachin Ratti 197, Srikant Bakshi 207, Mangrish Palekar 226, Thomas Kurien 241, Chetan Anand 310; Women: Neelima Choudhary 121, Manjusha Kanwar 154, BR Meenakshi 189 and PVV Lakshmi 272.

Bhutia permit

CALCUTTA: Star striker Bhaichung Bhutia, the first Indian to sign for a European club, was likely to get his work permit to play as a professional in England within three weeks. “An application has been submitted to the authorities in England three weeks ago and would take three more weeks for the process to be completed,” PC Raj Purohit, Bhutia’s agent in England said heretoday.

Mongia champion

HYDERABAD: Taking advantage of strong wind conditions, Nitin Mongia of Naval Sailing Club NSC, Mumbai, clinched the BPL Laser National Regatta Championship title with eight penalty points, pipping R Mahesh 9 PP to the spot. This was Mongia’s third win in a row.

Other results Two-man enterprise: Dharmander Singh amp; Durai Raj ESA, Pune; OK Dinghy: Anirudh Vijaykumar SSC, Secunderabad; Redial: DP Selvam ESA, Pune; Optimist: Varun Prabhakar RMSC, Chennai.