News of the week
News of the week: 7th Asian medal for Mary Kom, Sushil's legacy tarnished, Osaka's mental health concern
From Mary Kom's silver to Sushil Kumar's arrest, let us look back at the major happenings of the sports world in the last week.
Let us look back at the major happenings of the sports world in the last week in India and around the globe.
Mary Kom wins silver at Asian Boxing Championships
India's veteran boxer MC Mary Kom settled for the silver medal with a hard-fought defeat against 27-year-old Nazym Kyzaibay in the final of women's 51 kg final at the Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai on Sunday. The 38-year-old, six-time world champion matched her Kazakh southpaw punch-by-punch, but Kyzaibay, herself a two-time world champion, outlasted the Indian. In a split decision of 3-2 the result went in favour of Kyzaibay. This was Mary Kom's seventh Asian Championships gold medal, including five golds.
Naomi Osaka conflicted over holding the Tokyo Olympics
Two-time Olympic medalist and the torchbearer of wrestling in India, Sushil Kumar and his associated Ajay Kumar were arrested by the Delhi Police on May 23 after being on the run for 19 days. Delhi Police, after several unsuccessful attempts, arrested the wrestler from Mundka in West Delhi. Sushil was sent to 6-day police custody, and the Delhi Police Crime Branch has been investigating the case. They have since brought in 9 people in custody during their probe.
No Olympics for Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth
Kidambi Srikanth and Saina Nehwal's slim hopes of qualifying for Tokyo Games ended after badminton's governing body (BWF) on Friday made it clear there will not be any change in the current ranking list and no further tournament will be held inside the qualification period. Former world no 1 Srikanth and London Games bronze-medallist Saina's hopes were all but dashed when the last of the Olympic qualifiers in Singapore was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The duo had hung on a slim hope when the governing body said it "will issue a further statement on Tokyo Olympics qualifying at a later date".
Achinta Sheuli wins silver at Junior Weightlifting World Championships
Indian lifter Achinta Sheuli produced his personal best in all three events to clinch an overall silver medal in the 73kg category at the Junior World Championship on Wednesday. The 19-year-old lifted 313kg -- 141kg in snatch, followed by 172kg in clean and jerk -- at the gold level Olympic qualifier event. The Commonwealth Championship gold medallist bettered both his earlier personal best in snatch and clean and jerk by two kilograms each. He lifted 309kg (139kg + 170kg) at the Asian Championships last month. Jeremy Lalrinnunga finished with a silver medal in the snatch at the Junior World Championships but missed out on a Tokyo Olympics qualification. The Youth Olympics winner finished with an overall score of 300, which was one shy of the bronze medal winner Fehmi Yusuf.