Services inch closer to semis

Srinagar: Riding on a hat-trick by S. Raleng, Services drubbed a 10-man Kerala 3-0 to script their second upset victory and virtually assure themselves a semifinal berth in the 62nd Santosh Trophy national football championship here on Saturday.

Kerala held their own in the first half despite being down to 10 men from the 17th minute when midfielder P. Rahul was sent off for a second booking of the match five minutes after the first offence.

But, Services, who had earlier upset defending champions Punjab 2-1 in their first quarterfinal league match on Thursday, turned the heat on their more fancied rivals, semifinalists in the last edition, in the second session and scored three goals in 19 minutes.

Raleng scored in the 66th, 74th and 85th minutes to give his side their second upset victory in as many matches in the quarterfinal league. — PTI

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Manavjit 17th in trap event

New Delhi: World champion and India’s best bet in the Olympic Games, Manavjit Sandhu finished a disappointing 17th in the men’s trap event of the ISSF World Cup being held in Suhl, Germany.

Manavjit started his qualification round with a perfect round of 25 but missed five targets in the next two rounds to push himself out from the medal contention. He returned with figures of 119 (25, 21, 24, 25, 24).

In contrast, Zoravar Sandhu shot an impressive 120, which was the best performance among all the Indians in this event. He shot a series of 24, 24, 24, 24, 24.

Among other Indians in the fray, Anwer Sultan finished 49th with a score of 115 (23, 24, 24, 20, 24) while Mansher Singh shot 113 (21,21,25,22,24) to finish 63rd in a strong field of 96 shooters.

Michael Diamond of Australia fired 145 to win the gold medal. Zoravar and Birendeep Sodhi, who registered a score of 115 will contest in the MQS on Saturday.

— PTI