ESPN India Daily Blog: Latest Updates from the World of Indian Sports
Welcome to ESPN India’s daily blog, where we aim to bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports: from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.
June has plenty of sporting action taking place – which you can find listed out in ESPN India’s sporting calendar.
Amit Panghal wins quota
Reigning commonwealth gold medalist and former worlds silver medalist Amit Panghal sealed his quota for the Paris Olympics with a stunning 5-0 win over China’s Chuang Liu in the 51kg quarterfinals at the second World Qualification Tournament on Sunday. He now joins the quartet of Nishant Dev (71kg), Nikhat Zareen (50kg), Preeti Pawar (54kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (75kg) who’d booked their quotas earlier.
Later in the day, Jaismine Lamboria (57kg) and Sachin Siwach (57kg) will also look to secure Olympic quotas.
Praggnanandhaa beats Caruana, Vaishali leads women’s section
R. Praggnanandhaa bounced back in style at the Norway Chess 2024 as he notched up a win over world #2 Fabiano Caruana for the first time in the classical format. It marks a second massive victory for the Indian teenager, who had beaten world #1 and five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen in round 3. It also takes him into the top-10 of the FIDE rankings.
The result sees Praggnanandhaa claim the third spot [8.5] at the end of round 5, with Carlsen [9] and Hikarau Nakamura [10] ahead of him. Carlsen made the most of a last-minute blunder from Alireza Firouzja Nakamura to snap up the win, while Nakamura got past reigning world champion Ding Liren to climb atop the standings.
There was more reason to celebrate for India as Praggnanandhaa’s sister Vaishali won in Armageddon against China’s Lei Tingjie. Vaishali continues to top the table in the women’s category [10] and is closely followed by Anna Muzychuk [9] and Ju Wenjun [7.5]. Vaishali has also moved up in the FIDE rankings chart and is just five points away from making the top-10.
What’s on today?
Boxing: Amit Panghal, Jaismine Lamboria and Sachin Siwach have crucial bouts in the Olympic qualifiers in Thailand.
Hockey: India take on Great Britain in the FIH Pro League
Tennis: Rohan Bopanna in action at the French Open.
Chess: R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali in action in Norway Chess.
What happened yesterday?
Boxing: Jaismine Lamboria and Sachin Siwach edged closer to Paris Olympics quotas
Hockey: India put three past world-champions Germany
Athletics: DP Manu won gold in Taiwan Open, but was still outside the Olympic qualification mark
French Open: Balaji-Martinez reached the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals
Badminton: Defeat for Treesa-Gayatri in Singapore Open semifinal.
Stay tuned for more updates on Indian sports!