Indian Sports Live Updates: March 19 — Hima Das wins gold beating Dhanalakshmi; Vijender Singh loses first pro boxing bout
Latest updates on Indian sports from Hima and Dhanalakshmi's 200m final, PV Sindhu's All-England Badminton Open quarter-final, and ISSF World Cup.
Hima Das will face competition from Dhanalakshmi in the 200m event. (AFI)
Welcome to The Bridge's live blog for your latest news and interesting features on Indian sports.
There are three events where our focus will be during the course of the day:
- Tamil Nadu's Dhanalakshmi will run her 200m final today at the 24th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships
- PV Sindhu will play her 2021 All England Open Badminton Championships quarter-finals
- ISSF (Shooting) World Cup starts in Delhi.
Follow the day's LIVE coverage here:
Indian boxer Vijender Singh registered his first defeat in professional boxing career against Artysh Lopsan in the "Battle of Ship" event on the rooftop of Majestic Pride Casino Ship on the Mandovi River in Goa.
Olympic medallist Vijender was completely overplayed in the first four rounds. After a minute in the fifth round, an injured Vijender could not continue the bout and the referee had to call of the bout.
Discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur booked her Tokyo Olympics berth as she improved upon her earlier personal best by four metres on the final day of the Federation Cup Senior National Athletics Championships, here on Friday.
The 25-year-old Kaur, who had also won gold in the 2019 edition of the championships, dramatically heaved the discus to 65.06m in her first throw to the surprise of the sizeable crowd at the NIS here. The Punjab athlete then fouled all her remaining five attempts. The Tokyo Olympics qualifying mark in women's discus throw is 63.50m
Indian shuttlers have seen limited success in the tournament, which is often referred to as the 'Wimbledon of Badminton'. It was in the year 1980, an Indian first conquered the title when Prakash Padukone emerged as the champion in the men's singles event, defeating one of the best players of the era Liem Swie King. Till date, the feat could be emulated just once by Gopichand in 2001.
The Bridge spoke to the legendary Prakash Padukone ahead of this year's tournament. Talking about the present state of Indian badminton, Padukone pointed out that there's no doubt the crop today have been consistently playing well but they also need to choose their fights wisely.
"I think there is no doubt that we have a lot of talent, we just need better planning. The players need to choose the tournaments more carefully. I do agree that the international rankings are important, but more than that, one should focus on winning big tournaments like the All England Open, World Championships, and the Olympics."
Lakshya Sen crashes out in the quarters of All England Open losing to Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands 17-21, 21-16, 17-21.
The last time an Indian male shuttler made it to the semis of the tournament was in 2001 when Pullela Gopichand had reached the last 4 stage.
Better from Lakshya Sen as he takes the second game 21-16 to level the match 1-1. He has shown improved intensity but can he keep it going in the decider and progress to semis?
He will be the youngest ever Indian to enter the All England Open semi-finals!
Lakshya Sen has gone down in the first game 17-21 inside 17 minutes to Mark Caljouw in the All England Open quarter-final!
We are back with some updates from the ISSF World Cup in Delhi!
Arjun Babuta and World No. 1 Divyansh Singh Panwar have both qualified for the Men’s 10m air rifle final.
Babuta shot 631.8 to finish 3rd while Divyansg shot 629.1 to finish 6th