Germany’s star forward Christopher Ruhr on Thursday heaped praise on the Indian hockey team, saying the 2014 Asian Games champions are one of the best contenders for a medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

The two-time World Junior Player of the Year said India can also win the 2018 World Cup because the prestigious tournament will take place in India and it could give extra advantage to the hosts.

“I think India and (2016 Olympic champions) Argentina developed most of all among the big hockey nations over the past 2-3 years. I like the style India plays and I think they are a huge competitor for winning an Olympic medal in 2020,” Ruhr, who was part of Germany’s team that won the bronze medal in 2016 Rio Games, said in a release.

“Also a medal at the World Cup in 2018 — especially because the World Cup takes place in India and the crowds in India are always amazing, which gives the home team another percentage point in motivation,” he added.

Considered as one of the most devastating forwards in the world, the 23-year-old, who was recruited by former champions Ranchi Rays for a whopping $75,000 for his Hockey India League (HIL) debut, has enjoyed tremendous success while playing in India.

Apart from the 2013 Junior World Cup title here, Ruhr also featured in Germany’s team in the 2014 Champions Trophy-winning team in Bhubaneswar.

Ruhr said he has been looking forward to playing in the Indian league ever since the German team lifted the Junior world title at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi.

“I am super excited to play in the HIL. Since I played the Junior World Cup in Delhi, I have been dreaming about playing in this country in front of the unbelievable crowds in each stadium. We don’t have big crowds very often, when we play in Germany or Europe,” said Ruhr.

“I can’t wait to play with and against so many world class players and experience the hockey and the country itself,” he added.

He also reckoned that the HIL stint will help his career at this stage when Germany prepare for the World Hockey League Semi-Final and Final competitions to be held this year.

Rühr was the leading goal-scorer with six goals at the previous Hockey World League (HWL) Semi-Final in Buenos Aires — which Germany won — and further scored three goals in the 2015 Hero Hockey World League Final in Raipur.

“Playing in the HIL will help me a lot for my career because I am going to see so many different styles of hockey and can adapt them to my game to make it more and more unpredictable,” said the Düsseldorf native in Germany.

Ranchi Rays will begin their camp in Mumbai next week where they play their first match of the edition on January 21 against Dabang Mumbai.

–IANS

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]]> https://glint.tv/ports/stephanie-rice-olympics-champion-swimmer-now-a-glam-girl/ Tue, 04 Oct 2016 10:22:59 +0000 https://glint.tv/?p=3902

After her retirement annoncement, triple Olympic gold medalist swimmer, Stephanie Rice has given herself a chance to experience some of the luxurious lifestyle of Btown and has also walked on the ramp for the Lakme Fashion Week where the Australian flaunted her well toned body.

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Rio 2016 Olympics bronze medalist wrestler Sakshi Malik was accorded a grand welcome by people and the state government as the motorcade carrying her entered Haryana.

Sakshi, who arrived in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport early on Wednesday from Rio de Janeiro, was given a rousing reception at the airport itself. The Haryana government in a state-level function held to honour Sakshi, rewarded her with a Rs 2.5 crore check and announced a government job for her.

The Delhi government had also announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for her. “I got a very good welcome. Felt very nice. Lot of people from my village and state came to receive me,” Sakshi, who stopped at New Delhi’s Haryana Bhawan for some time, told the media.

“I will rest for a few days and then begin the training schedule again,” said a visibly happy Sakshi, who got a first medal for India at the Olympics by winning bronze in the 58-kg women freestyle wrestling event.

Sakshi’s motorcade delayed reaching Bahadurgarh town as she was stopped and honoured by people from various villages in Haryana along the Delhi to Rohtak highway.

The wrestler was accompanied by her mother Sudesh and father Sukhbir Malik. She was accorded the status of a state guest by the Haryana government.

Haryana’s Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Anil Vij, who was present in Rio as the head of state delegation, accompanied the star wrestler on the return flight.

At the insistence of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the event to felicitate Sakshi was pre-poned from Wednesday evening to morning. The venue was also shifted from her hometown Rohtak to Bahadurgarh town, 30 km from Delhi. Khattar, along with other ministers and officials, was present at the venue to welcome and honour Sakshi.

Sakshi was given the honour to be the flag-bearer at the closing ceremony of the Rio games.

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia last week visited Sakshi’s native place in Rohtak, 70 km from Delhi. He announced a direct promotion for Sakshi Malik’s father Sukhbir Malik — a bus conductor with Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC).

IANS

Indian marathon runner O.P. Jaisha said she fainted at the Rio Olympics on a hot, humid day because no Indian sports official provided her with water or glucose water, a reminder that sports federations in India are often ignorant of sporting requirements.

Much has been written about Indian sports associations managed by politicians instead of athletes. Now, there is clear data on the details:–

Only one sports association (SA) — the Athletics Federation of India — has a former national athlete as president.
– Only nine SAs have former or present players on their governing bodies.
– 12 SAs have not made available any details about the tenures of presidents and members.
– Only two SAs have any kind of plan for the future.
– Women constitute between 2 per cent and 8 per cent of SA governing bodies. Hockey India, with 34 per cent female representation, is the exception.

These are the key findings of a new report, Governance of Sports in India: 2016, by InGovern Research Services, an advisory, which analysed publicly available data from 27 sports associations and federations (including the Indian Olympic Association). The IOA’s members include 38 national sports federations (NSFs).

Of these 38 NSFs, sports and disciplines represented by 26 NSFs –which the report probes — featured in the recently-concluded Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The major findings are segregated into five major buckets:

1. Incorporation and constitution of associations and federations

– Nine SAs have failed to disclose their objectives to the general public.
– 10 SAs have failed to make available their constitution/charter to the general public.
– 10 SAs have not made public their governing statute, which includes the roles and responsibilities of the president, members and other office bearers.

2. Composition of associations and federations

– Only one SA has a former national athlete as its president.
– As many as eight SAs do not have female representation on their governing bodies. This excludes four NSFs that have not provided any details of their governing bodies.
– Of the other SAs, women constitute between 2 per cent and 8 per cent of the governing bodies. This doesn’t include Hockey India, which has a 34 per cent female representation.- Only nine SAs have former or present players in their governing bodies.

3. Governing Body

– 11 SAs have not provided information related to rotation, tenure as well as term limits of the members of their governing bodies.
– 12 SAs have not made available any details regarding the tenure limits of their presidents and members.
– Of the remaining 15 SAs, only six have set tenure limits for their presidents.

4. Financial Disclosures and Strategy

— Only two SAs — All India Football Federation (Strategic Plan 2014-17) and the Indian Golf Union (Tee20 Strategic Plan 2013-2020) — have designed a strategic plan for improvement of their respective sports.
— As many as 16 SAs do not publish financial statements in the public domain and/or on a regular basis.
— Only one SA — All India Football Federation — has had its financial statements audited by a reputed auditor.
— Only one SA — Table Tennis Federation of India — has disclosed remuneration details of key personnel.

5. Management of Conflicts of Interest

— Only one SA — Hockey India — has adopted a conflict-of-interest policy.
— None of the SAs have disclosed any conflicts of interests or transactions concerning the president or members of governing bodies.

The report outlines six major recommendations that could improve governance of sports in India:

1. Design a strategy/road-map for future: The IOA and all SAs should adopt a strategic roadmap that is disclosed to the public domain. Implementation of this roadmap should be monitored and disclosed regularly.

2. Revamp of elections and succession planning: The SAs should amend their constitutions to set the maximum term limits and retirement limits for members and office bearers (such as president, secretary, treasurer). Once they reach the limit, they should not be considered for future appointments.

3. Be transparent: SAs should put their financial statements, profiles of executive council and administrative staff, budgets, expenses and remuneration details in the public domain.

4. Mitigate conflicts of interest: SAs should disclose conflicts of interest and ensure they are not allowed.

5. Increase player- and female-representation on the council: This is important to enhance diversity on councils.

6. IOA should be more transparent: IOA must disclose its budgets and audited financial statements of its participation in any national and international events. For these events, it should disclose participating sportspersons, non-playing staff, including officials and doctors and a break-up of expenses.

(24.08.2016 – In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public interest journalism platform. Devanik Saha is a freelance journalist and MA Gender and Development candidate 2016-17 at Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. The views expressed are those of IndiaSpend. Feedback at respond@indiaspend.org)

Saina Nehwal is back at her best.

The 26 year old is easily India’s biggest medal hope at the Rio Games. Saina is fearless, takes the Chinese shuttlers head on, has the game and the heart to add another medal to the Bronze medal she won at the London Olympics in 2012. Her event badminton, discipline women’s single, which is quite an open competition this time around.

Also Read: Saina Nehwal back to her best

The Chinese top players Li Xuerui, Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian have all looked vulnerable this year. With Ratchanok Intanon mired in a doping controversy, an injury free Saina could go deep into the medal rounds. Young Spanish shuttler Carolina Marin is another player is another big gold medal contender at the Rio.

When Saina won the Australian Open Super series at Sydney earlier this year, it was her maiden title of the season, her second title win in Australia and 10th Super Series title overall. The win now doubt give her confidence for her second consecutive medal prospect at the Rio Games.

Ranveer Singh faux pas; wishes Indian cricket team for Rio Olympics

Asked to give a message to the Rio bound Olympic team, Ranveer Singh started on the wrong foot – wishing luck to the Indian cricket team, who are in West Indies for a Test match tour. The actor landed in Mumbai after a three month long shooting schedule in Paris. Ranveer was shooting for the Yash Raj’s upcoming film ‘Befikre’. Although it was 4.30 in the morning when Ranveer came out of airport, he was greeted by a big media gathering and highly charged Ranveer was full of emotion and answered questions; on the many kissing scenes with Vani Kapoor in Befikre and also on wedding rumours with Deepika Padukone.  

Ends her title drought by beating another Chinese opponent to bag her second Australian open title

When Saina Nehwal entered Sydney Sports Centre on Sunday, she knew it was a long time since she had won a title. Saina’s last tournament win came in India Super Series at Delhi in 2015. Even the last time she played in a final was way back in November 2015, where she lost to Li Xuerui in China.

But going to the Australian Open final, Saina Nehwal looked in ominous touch, having overcome her nagging injuries that have proved to be her undoing in earlier tournaments this year.

In the quarterfinals she got the better of world number two and winner of four titles this year, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon. In the last four, Saina demolished her nemesis China’s Wang Yihan in straight games 21-8, 21-12. She beat Yihan in all department of the game – court movement, deception and power. Over the years these have been the hallmarks of the Chinese game.

Unlike in earlier round matches though, Saina started off slowly in the final against her Chinese opponent Sun Yu – losing the first game 11-21. But she cut down her errors, tightened her net game and hit some powerful smashes to win the next two games 21-14, 21-19.

This was Saina’s maiden title of the season, her second title win in Australian and 10^th Super Series title overall. The win will be a big  a boost for her second consecutive medal prospect at the Rio Games.

There was a lot of fuss when Salman Khan was named India’s Goodwill ambassador of Rio Olympics. The backlash after his appointment made the authorities to also give Abhinav Bindra, Sachin Tendulkar and AR Rahman the Rio Olympics ambassadorship.

Apart from Bindra, who is an Olympic champion, other ambassadors have nothing to do with the Olympic movement. Salman, in an interview, broke his silence on the issue, questioning why others were not questioned when they have very little or nothing to do with the movement.

“After me, who all have been made goodwill ambassadors? Sachin Tendulkar, AR Rahman and Abhinav Bindra, right? But it started off well right? For the media and for everyone else,” Salman said.

“The media should have done the same thing when Sachin and Rahman were roped in. Why didn’t that happen? Why did the media not give them the same kind of coverage they gave me? In their case too, while one isn’t a sportsperson, the other one has only played one sport,” he pointed out.

Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif back Salman on Rio Games Controversy

Salman insisted that every time he becomes a soft target because of a number of court cases that are pending against him. “So, you have issues with one person, who has court cases, becoming the Olympics goodwill ambassador,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, the Bhai of Bollywood made it clear that he is not leaving his ambassadorship, while adding that his intention of getting associated with the Olympic movement is to help athletes. “My intention was that Olympics should get publicity and everyone should know about it,” Salman said.

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Both Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif have stood up for their ex-boyfriend Salman Khan on the recent Rio Olympics controversy. There has been a big backlash to Salman’s appointment as India’s Goodwill Ambassador for the Rio Games. Although Katrina has never been hesitant to mention Salman’s name in public but Aishwarya and Salman have avoided each other ever since their bitter break-up. So the support for Salman coming from Aishwarya’s corner has come as a big surprise.

Although she never directly mentioned Salman’s name in the comment, it was but obvious which way she was tilting on the controversy. “I have to say that anyone who is doing good to represent the country or working or speaking or standing for the betterment of art, music or sports, is wonderful and the person needs to be recognised,” said Aishwarya, keeping herself as neutral as possible.

Several sporting icons like Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and legendary athlete Milkha Singh have objected to the idea that Olympics needed a Bollywood actor’s endorsement.

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In the second of our series on Pinki, the boxer talks about her brothers who coached her. She also emphasises on the role that boxing can play in the lives of women & expresses confidence of coming out with flying colours at the Olympic trials