Mumbai Marathon : Yadav gets ticket to London            

            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 9th edition of Mumbai Marathon here on Sunday-January 15, 2012. 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 - completed the 42km race in 2:18:48. He was followed by Ethiopian Raji Assefa (2:10:48) and compatriot John Kyui (2:10:54). 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 prize money of US 36,000 each. Tanzania’s Dickson Marwa and Simon Kasimili were the initial pace setters as they exchanged the lead position during 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 Army-man was followed by Elam Singh (2:18:27), who narrowly missed qualification and TA Rajesh (2:24:25).        

Rathore, Anjali fail to qualify for London Olympics

           The final bid for top Indian shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Anjali Bhagwat to qualify for London Olympics ended in disappointment as they failed to make it to the final round in their respective events in the Asian Shooting Championships at Doha today. Rathore, Athens Olympic silver medallist in men's double trap, and Anjali, former 10m air rifle world number one, will now miss London Olympics as the Asian Championship was the last qualifying event for them.

            Double trap world number two Ronjan Sodhi, who had already earned his London Olympics quota, too could not make it to the final round, adding to the gloom in the Indian camp.

            All eyes were on Rathore after he had equalled the world record of 148/150 at Asian Shotgun Championship in November, but he failed to adjust to the windy conditions.

Saina makes another semi final exit

             Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal failed to sustain her impressive touch as she suffered a straight-game defeat at the hands of world No 1 Yihan Wang of China in the semifinal of the Malaysian Open Super Series, in Kuala Lumpur today.

             Playing in her first semifinal of the new season, world No 4 Saina was outplayed by the top seed Chinese 15-21 16-21 in a 41-minute contest. The 21-year-old Indian was ahead initially in both the games but her performance dipped several notches down later on with the Chinese dominating in all departments.

            Wang had 16 smash winners as against 11 from Saina. The Chinese had 13 net winners as against 10 of Saina. In the first game, Saina was leading 6-2 before Wang caught her up at 8-8. From there, the Chinese kept Saina tied down. From 18-15, Wang reeled off three straight points to take the game 21-15.

           In the second game also, Saina opened up a 5-2 lead but her opponent caught her up at 10-10. From thereon, Saina had to play catch-up game. But the veteran Chinese shuttler was not the one to relax a bit, and from 15-14, Wang zoomed ahead with four straight points before closing the game and win the match comfortably. — PTI