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Published : Nov 18, 2023 17:52 IST , CHENNAI – 7 MINS READ
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Bengaluru’s Ruhaan started with a fighting win over Tijil in the opening race. It did boost his confidence and further his points tally going into the second race. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Championship leader Ruhaan Alva (MSport), Arya Singh and Tijil Rao from Dark Don Racing shared a win each in the final round of the 26th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship, here on Saturday.
It has never been this close between the top three in the LGB Formula 4 which is the premier class of the championship. All three races went down to the wire at the Kari Motor Speedway in Chettipalayam.
Bengaluru’s Ruhaan started with a fighting win over Tijil in the opening race. It did boost his confidence and further his points tally going into the second race.
Ruhaan took advantage of starting on pole and raced to a quick lead. He was in control for over four laps but found Arya and Tijil breathing down his neck, and soon, the duo managed to go up front.
It was wheel-to-wheel racing between the three thereon. Even as Arya and Tijil were fighting right up in front for some time, Ruhaan made a clever move in the first corner of the 11th lap to take the lead, yet again, only to surrender it soon.
The duo maintained a steady pace to finish one-two for Dark Don, while Ruhaan settled for the third spot.
In the last race of the day, Ruhaan was quick off the blocks and so did Tijil and TS Diljith (Dark Don). Tijil held his nerve to finish on top.
The Novice Cup was as close as the LGB Formula 4 class. Neythan McPherson of Momentum Motorsport edged out teammate and championship leader Arjun S Nair in the first race.
But Arjun shot back to win the second race and strengthened his chances of clinching the championship crown with a tally of 62 points.
Anish Shetty underlined his class in the RE Continental GT Cup with a well-deserved double win.
-PTI
Gaganjeet Bhullar zooms ahead to a seven-shot lead in Indonesia Masters
Gaganjeet Bhullar strung together his second card of 63 in three days despite a late bogey to take a considerable seven-shot lead with one more round left in the Indonesian Masters, here on Saturday.
Bhullar began the day with a three-shot lead, carded 8-under 63 and moved to 20-under and seven shots ahead of the young Spaniard David Puig (62), who moved to 13-under with his amazing effort.
A four-time winner in Indonesia, the 35-year-old Bhullar took a decisive step towards his fifth win in the country.
After three birdies between the fourth and ninth, he had back-to-back gains on the 11th and 12th and then again on the 14th and 15th. A dropped shot on the 16th was followed by a closing birdie for a 63, following in on his 63-67 on the first two days.
The other Indian players also had a great moving day as Veer Ahlawat (65) moved to tied-third at 12-under and the in-form Karandeep Kochhar had a couple of great stretches of three birdies in a row. It was bettered by four-in-row on the back nine during his 65 that carried him to 65 and tied-sixth.
S Chikkarangappa (68) was tied-13 at 9-under, while Rashid Khan (71) was tied-40, Honey Baisoya (73) was tied-58 and Anirban Lahiri (77) was tied-70.
Tied at third at 12-under with Ahlawat were last week’s winners in Hong Kong, Kiwi Ben Campbell (63) and Canadian Richard T Lee (68).
Bhullar has always been a strong front-runner — three of his 10 wins have been start-to-finish — and he gets closer to a fourth win in a similar style.
“I think, as I said yesterday, the goal was to keep the ball in play from the tee and hit it close from the fairway,” said Bhullar, whose other wire-to-wire wins came in the Macao Open in 2012 and 2017, and the 2013 Indonesia Open.
“And then, the goal is to putt better, and today, I putted really well. I missed the shortest birdie putt of the week on number three, which was like three feet.” “That just kind of motivated me to read the lines properly and just some sort of a trigger in my mind. And, I think after that, I just kept reading the lines properly, and the pace was really good today.” Of his four wins in Indonesia, three have been in the country’s national open, in 2013, 2016 and in August last year, which was Bhullar’s most recent win on the Asian Tour.
Bhullar first tasted victory on Indonesian soil at the President Invitational, 14 years ago.
Puig’s brilliant bogey-free 62 is the lowest round of the week, although it could not officially count as one of the lowest in the event’s history.
-PTI
Jeevan and Vijay Sundar in Challenger doubles final
Second seeds Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth beat Johannes Ingildsen and Eero Vasa 6-4, 7-6(5) in the doubles semifinals of the €73,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Danderyd, Sweden.
In the final, the Indian pair was scheduled to face the top seeds Julian Cash of Britain and Bart Stevens of Holland.
– Kamesh Srinivasan
$25,000 ITF men’s tournament starts in Mumbai from 20 November
The leading Indian players Ramkumar Ramanathan, Digvijay Pratap Singh, Sidharth Rawat, Karan Singh, Siddharth Vishwakarma, SD Prajwal Dev and Manish Sureshkumar will try to capitalise on the chance to compete at home in the $25,000 ITF men’s tennis tournament being organised by the Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA) in Mumbai from Monday.
The secretary of MSLTA and the tournament director, Sunder Iyer hinted about the quality of the field by pointing out that players from 17 countries would be competing in the tournament. The qualifying event starts on Monday and the main draw action will begin on Tuesday.
The singles champion and runners-up will get 50 and 30 ATP points respectively.
Evgeny Donskoy, Louis Wessels (Ger), Vladyslav Orlov (Ukr), Ryuki Matsuda (Jpn) will be some of the leading foreign players competing in the event.
– Kamesh Srinivasan
Bhosale, Chaudhari to lead Indian challenge in ITF World Women’s Tour
Rutuja Bhosale and Vaidehi Chaudhari will lead India’s challenge in the ITF World Women’s Tour, to be played on the clay courts of the Bowring Institute here from Sunday. Apart from Bhosale and Chaudhari, Pranjala Yadlapalli, Zeel Desai, Shrivalli Rashmikaa Bhamidipaty and Humera Baharmus are a part of the 20 players who have earned a direct entry into the main draw of 32.
Karnataka’s top player Sharmada Balu and the promising Suhitha Maruri have been given wildcards along with Anjali Rathi and Sahira Singh.
The rest of the eight spots in the USD 25,000 tournament will be filled up by qualifiers.
Sunil Yajaman, Tournament Director and Joint Secretary of the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) said, “We have taken a conscious decision to activate the various districts in Karnataka which will not only put them on the world tennis map but give our players an opportunity to earn valuable ATP points.”
– PTI
Junior badminton: Qualifier Tanvi beats seventh seed Durga
Qualifier Tanvi Patri beat seventh seed Durga Kandrapu 21-9, 17-21, 21-15 in the under-19 girls pre-quarterfinals of the Yonex-Sunrise 30th Krishna Khaitan junior badminton tournament at the Tau Devi Lal Sports Complex here on Saturday.
In the boys’ pre-quarterfinals, qualifier Rohan Kumar sustained his good run and scored a thrilling 22-20, 21-23, 21-15 victory over 11th seed Himanish Das.
-Kamesh Srinivasan
DGST polo tournament: Army Service beats 61st Cavalry
Abhimanyu Pathak scored six goals in helping Army Service Corps (ASC)- Royal Enfield to a 10-8 victory over 61st Cavalry in the final of the DGST Trophy six-goal polo tournament at the Jaipur polo ground here on Saturday.
Dhruvpal Godara top scored for the Cavalry team with five goals.
The results (final): ASC-Royal Enfield 10 (Abhimanyu Pathak 6, Angad Kalaan 3, Mukesh Gujjar) bt 61st Cavalry 8 (Dhruvpal Godara 5, Vishal Chauhan 3).
-Kamesh Srinivasan
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