TENNIS
Sumit Nagal reaches pre-quarterfinals of Rosario Challenger
Indian tennis player Sumit Nagal progressed to the pre-quarterfinals after a hard-fought win over local favourite Renzo Olivo at the 2025 Rosario Challenger in Rosario, Argentina.
Nagal, seeded eighth, displayed determination and grit to rally his way to a 5-7, 6-1, 6-0 win over Olivo on Monday.
The 27-year-old Indian will next face the winner of the match between Chinese Taipei’s Tseng Chun-hsin and Bolivian Hugo Dellien.
– PTI
BASKETBALL
Madhya Pradesh and Telangana crowned men’s and women’s basketball 3×3 champions
Madhya Pradesh and Telangana won the men’s and women’s basketball 3×3 gold medals after beating Kerala in the finals of both sections at the National Games in Dehradun on Tuesday.
Madhya Pradesh won 22-20 in a hard-fought men’s summit clash against Kerala, while Tamil Nadu beat Telangana 21-16 to win the bronze.
In the women’s final, Telangana triumphed 21-11 over Kerala with a commanding performance. Telangana defended their title which they had won in the 2023 National Games in Goa.
Madhya Pradesh took the bronze after beating Tamil Nadu 14-12 in the third-place match.
Earlier in the men’s semifinals, Madhya Pradesh had secured 18-14 victory over Telangana, while Kerala narrowly edged past Tamil Nadu 16-15.
In the women’s semifinals, Telangana had defeated Tamil Nadu 18-11 while Kerala won 13-10 victory over Madhya Pradesh.
-PTI
Chennai Heat beats Punjab Warriors in INBL
Keith Kiner was quite the star as he came up with the dunks and three-pointers in helping Chennai Heat to a 77-65 victory over Punjab Warriors in the INBL Pro basketball league at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Punjab did fight hard and matched the Chennai team in the second and fourth quarters, but the Chennai team pulled ahead with a 10-point lead in the third quarter, after having led by two points at the end of the first quarter. Chennai led 39-37 at half time.
Shakem Johnson, Arvinder Singh and Tad Dufelmeier supported Keith in making it a lively affair for the Chennai team.
Punjab missed its chances, especially a bunch of free throws, and thus could make it a more lively finish.
The results:
Chennai Heat 77 (Keith Kiner 19, Shakem Johnson 14, Arvinder Singh 14, Tad Dufelmeier 13) bt Punjab Warriors (Stokley Chaffee 15, Uche Dibiamaka 14).
– Kamesh Srinivasan
CYCLING
Footballer-turned cyclist David Beckham of Anadaman & Nicobar wins gold in National Games
Andaman and Nicobar Islands cyclist David Beckham Elkatohchoongo, whose last name saved him from denying entry in the United Kingdom for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, on Tuesday won gold in the men’s elite sprint event at the National Games here.
The 21-year-old Elkatohchoongo clocked a time of 10.691 seconds in two laps to win the gold while Laitonjam Ronaldo Singh (10.724 seconds) of Manipur and another Andaman and Nicobar Islands cyclist Esow Alben (10.826 seconds) took the silver and bronze respectively.
It was a tough fight among the three best cyclists of the country competing at the brand new Shivalik Velodrome here, with Elkatohchoongo emerging on top ultimately.
When Elkatohchoongo landed in the UK for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, the British immigration officers were stumped when he told them his name. They asked him if David Beckham was his real name.
After double checking of his passport, he was allowed entry by the immigration officers.
Elkatohchoongo’s name was given by his father who was a ‘street footballer’ and a fan of charismatic English football great and former captain David Beckham.
Elkatohchoongo’s first love was also football but later shifted to cycling which is quite popular in Andaman and Nicobar Islands which has produced the likes of Deborah Herold, the first Indian cyclist to win a medal in Asian Senior Championships and world number four at one time.
Elkatohchoongo was the best Indian cyclist at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, reaching to the quarterfinals.
His and 22-year-old Ronaldo’s presence in the Indian cycling team for the Hangzhou Asian Games created a lot of buzz in the foreign media because of their names.
Ronaldo was given his name by his father as he was born during the 2002 World Cup which Brazil won with Ronaldinho playing a big role in the triumph.
Ronaldo is a sprint silver medallist at the 2022 Asian Championships.
Esow Alben was the first Indian cyclist to win an individual medal at the global level, a silver in keirin event at the 2018 junior track world championships. He won a silver in sprint and a bronze in keirin in the 2019 edition also.
Esow and Ronaldo were also part of the quartet that won the team sprint gold in the 2019 junior track world championships.
In other events of the day, Karnataka’s Keerthi Rangaswamy won the gold medal in the women elite scratch 10km race. Assam’s Chayanika Gogoi clinched the silver medal, while Meenakshi from Haryana bagged the bronze.
In the men’s elite scratch race (15km), Services Sahil Kumar won the gold medal. Kerala’s Adwaith Sankar and Krishna Nayakodi, also of Services, clinched the silver and bronze medals respectively.
Maharashtra’s Shweta Balu Gunjal bagged the gold medal in the women’s elite Sprint with a timing of 12.745 seconds. Andaman and Nicoba’s Celestina (12.848 seconds) secured the second place while Triyasha Paul of Delhi clocked 12.799 seconds to bag the bronze medal.
-PTI
SWIMMING
Star swimmers Srihari Nataraj and Dhinidhi Desinghu ended their National Games campaigns with a whopping nine gold each as their state Karnataka’s overwhelming dominance at the pool reflected in its top placing on a day when there was not much movement in the medal tally.
Karnataka clinched four more gold on the concluding day of swimming competitions in Haldwani on Tuesday to run away with a whopping 22 yellow metals in total from the pool.
Desinghu, the 14-year-old swimming sensation, won the women’s 100m freestyle event with a Games record time of 57.34 seconds — bettering her own earlier mark of 57.87 seconds set in the 2023 Goa edition — while Nataraj took the men’s 100m freestyle title with a time of 50.65 seconds.
Desinghu and Nataraj, both Paris Olympians, later teamed up to help Karnataka win the mixed 4x100m medley gold with a time of 4 minutes and 3.91 seconds to end at the same number of gold medals.
Desinghu, however, pipped her senior state-mate in the total number of medals won. She won 11 medals in the Games, having earlier won seven gold (400m freestyle, mixed 4x100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 100m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle relay and 50m freestyle and 4x200m freestyle relay), one silver (50m butterfly) and one bronze — (4x100m relay medley).
The 24-year-old Nataraj ended the campaign with 10 medals, having earlier won seven gold — 50m backstroke, mixed 4x100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m freestyle relay medley, 4x200m freestyle relay and 100m backstroke — and a silver — 50m freestyle.
Nataraj and Desinghu are tipped to become the best male and female athletes of the Games. Nataraj had won the accolade in the 2023 edition of the Games in Goa with 8 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze to his kitty.
– PTI