Athletics
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:
Live Updates
- 19 March 2021 4:38 AM GMT
20-year-old jumps at a height equal to Asian Games bronze finish
Another athlete from Tamil Nadu — Gracena Glistus Mery attained one with a 1.84m effort to win the women’s High Jump. The 20-year-old cleared that height on her second attempt after having needed three tries to cross the bar when it was placed at 1.81m. Her previous best of 1.79m was achieved in the University trials in Bhubaneshwar on March 8.
The last time an Indian woman jumped higher than Gracena Mery’s 1.84m was back on June 3, 2017, when heptathlete Swapna Barman cleared 1.87m. The girl from Kanyakumari thus becomes the latest Indian high jumper to join the 1.80m club. Her clearance drew gasps since it was the height that was good for the bronze medal in the Asian Games in Jakarta in 2018.
- 19 March 2021 3:14 AM GMT
Dhanalakshmi beats Hima Das, Dutee Chand, and PT Usha
Tamil Nadu's Dhanalakshmi who stunned Dutee Chand in the 100m final on Tuesday, emerged as the sprinter to beat in the women’s 200m, clocking a Meet Record time of 23.26 seconds in the women’s 200m semifinals in the 24th National Federation Cup Senior Athletics Championships at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports.
Her victory over Hima Das (Assam) who clocked 24.39 seconds in the semifinal heats lifted her to the top 10 of Indian all-time list. Archana Suseendran (Tamil Nadu) won her semifinal heats in 24.07 seconds to raise expectations of a good final. It must be stated that both Hima Das (23.10) and Archana Suseendran (23.18) have faster times than the one blazed by Dhanalakshmi on Thursday.
Her time broke PT Usha’s long-standing meet record of 23.30 seconds set in Chennai in 1998. Having run 24.05 seconds when finishing third in the Federation Cup here two years ago, she recorded a 23.47 in the Tamil Nadu State Championships in Sivakasi on January 24, thus making it the second time she was dipping in under 23.50 seconds.
- 19 March 2021 3:11 AM GMT
PV Sindhu to face Akane Yamaguchi at All England
India's ace female shuttler PV Sindhu cruised into the quarterfinals of the All England Open Badminton Championships on Thursday, after she beat Denmarks Line Christophersen 21-8, 21-8 in the Round of 16.
Since its inception, the All England Open has been one of the oldest and prestigious badminton tournament.
- 19 March 2021 2:52 AM GMT
3 paddlers secure berth at the Olympics
Yesterday, India table tennis secured as many as three berths at the Asian Olympic qualification tournament with Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, Achanta Sharath Kamal, and Sutirtha Mukherjee qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. Despite her defeat against Sutirtha, Manika Batra will still have a good chance of qualifying because of her ranking. So India might field as many as 4 paddlers at the Summer Games.
