The Hindu : Sport : TN to host inter-State National meet

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TN to host inter-State National meet

CHENNAI: After successfully conducting the 48th edition of the National inter-State senior athletics championship in Madurai last year, Tamil Nadu is ready for the next edition to come off at the floodlit Nehru stadium here from October 21 to 24.

“Normally it would take years for a State to get a senior meet again, having conducted one only a year ago. That the Athletics Federation of India thought it fit to allot it again to Tamil Nadu is a reflection of the adequate infrastructure facility available here and our ability,” said W.I. Davaram, President, Tamil Nadu Athletic Association, at a press briefing on Tuesday.

If the Madurai meet was to pick the Indian squad for the Beijing Olympics then the forthcoming one is to select the national team for the Asian Track and Field Meet to be held in Guangzhou in China in November.

Considering the importance of the Chennai meet, all the top athletes are expected among the around 1000 likely to participate, he said.

Benedict Starley, Sathya, Nickil Chittarasu, P. Muthusamy, Sharadha Narayana, G. Gayathry, S. Saraswathy, R. Elavarasi and I. Surya are among the leading Tamil Nadu athletes who would be seen in action.

Mr. Davaram said the meet would also be witnessed by six-time Olympic heptathlete and javelin thrower from Britain, Theresa Sanderson, who has been nominated as an Observer by the AFI.

Referees’ programme gets over

After two days of fitness tests and orientation classes at the Nehru stadium here, as part of the pre-I League exercise, the 46 referees who successfully went through the programme left for their respective places on Tuesday, in readiness for the matches.

The I-league, the premier football programme of the All India Football Federation, gets underway on October 1.

Speaking about the efforts taken by the AIFF, Gautam Kar, Deputy Secretary of AIFF said, “the idea was to highlight on all the refereeing shortcomings seen in the previous edition and to stress on the need for uniformity in the interpretation of the rules.”

He said it was the desire of the Federation that no team should suffer for want of good refereeing decisions.

The fitness tests were elaborate according to Mr. Kar, a former referee himself, in keeping with the demands of modern football.

“Today referees retire at 45 years and so the world body (FIFA) is keen that they should be fit like the players and also be prepared to take heavy loads of duty. They should also be sharp in their decision-makings,” he said.

Former FIFA official K. Sankar was among those roped in to conduct classes on key areas, one of which was the interpretation of the ‘off-side’ rule.

From Tamil Nadu those who have made it to the I-league panel are Meganathan, Vijaykumar, Arokiaraj, Thambiraj, Srikrishna and T. Pradeep Kumar.

Vidyuth’s effort in vain

Player of the tournament P. Vidyuth’s all-round performance went in vain as Chennai CA clinched a one-wicket win over Prahlad CC in the final of the Prahlad U-10 cricket tournament here on Monday.

The scores: Final: Prahlad CC 65 in 23.1 overs (P. Vidyuth 25) lost to Chennai CA 66 for nine in 23.1 overs (P. Vidyuth three for eight, N. Shivakumar three for 13).

Semifinals: Future Stars 114 in 24.5 overs (C.S.D. Srirangam 27, Ryan J. 36, R. Keshav three for 12) lost to Prahlad CC 115 for eight in 24.2 overs (Abhijith Venkatesh 25, Vishal three for 18).

VB CA 99 for seven in 25 overs lost to Chennai CA 100 for five in 21.1 overs.

Aditya bowls well

R. Aditya returned figures of five for 15 to help Chennai Stars defeat MAS by four wickets in the under-13 CSCA-Ganpa memorial trophy.

The scores: MAS CA 114 for nine in 25 overs (R. Sarath 36, P. Suhes Rayan 25, R. Aditya five for 15) lost to Chennai Stars 115 for six in 23.4 overs (P. Sarath four for 34).

Ebenezer Marcus 157 for eight in 25 overs (C.S. Rohit 39, M. Thiyagarajan 41, K. Gokul 26, V. Rakesh 28, S. Raghul three for 28) bt Chennai Stars 67 in 15.4 overs (Krish Aashik three for 24).

Antares takes trophy

Antares Publishing Services defeated Fountain Head 10-0 in the final of the Adclub football tournament here recently.

Earlier in the semifinals, Antares had beaten Kotak Mahindra 5-1 while Fountain Head edged Sutherland 3-2. In all eight teams had taken part in this tournament.

V. Kalidas, Vice-President (Advertisement), The Hindu, R. Seshadri of Anurgrah Madison and Karthic Moorthy of Elegant Publicities gave away the trophies.

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