Pankaj Advani won his sixth National billiards title when he beat fellow Bangalorean and sparring partner Balachandra Bhaskar’s challenge in under two hours in the Manisha National billiards and snooker championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana here on Friday.<\/p>\n
The Hindu reports that Advani made his visits to the table count with big breaks and virtually sealed the final before the 25-minute break allowance after the fourth game.\u201cI could not have asked for more; getting three 150 breaks in the final. It was by far the best match of the Nationals for me. It will be right up there and rank alongside many of my international wins,\u201d said Advani.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the appeal panel headed by retired High Court Judge C.K. Mahajan reserved judgement on the case involving leading 400-metre runners Ashwini A.C., Sini Jose, Priyanka Pawar and Tiana Mary Thomas, who had been suspended for one year by the disciplinary panel for steroid violation.<\/p>\n
According to a report in The Hindu, advocate RK Anand appealed that there was \u2018no fault or negligence’ on the part of the athletes, and that the contaminated food supplement had been given to them by the coach from Ukraine, Yuri Ogorodonik, appointed by the Government of India. He also pointed out that the athletes had complete faith in the 74-year-old coach as he had served Indian athletics for more than a decade.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Force India has completed its drivers’ line-up for the 2012 season by signing French racer Jules Bianchi as reserve driver. According to news reports, Bianchi, who was with Ferrai as a test and reserve driver in the 2011 season, has been promised a minimum of nine Friday practice sessions during Grand Prix weekends. \u201cI’m obviously excited to join Sahara Force India and the chance to get track time during race weekends is an important step for me. Being regularly in a current car is the best way to learn quickly and I hope it will put me in a strong position to one day move into a race seat,\u201d Bianchi said through a Force India statement.<\/p>\n
And in another quest for supremacy, World junior champion Deepika Kumari of Steel Plant will clash with L. Bombayla Devi of Railways in the individual women’s recurve final of the 32nd Sahara senior National archery championship at the JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pankaj Advani won his sixth National billiards title when he beat fellow Bangalorean and sparring partner Balachandra Bhaskar’s challenge in under two hours in the Manisha National billiards and snooker championship at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana here on Friday. The Hindu reports that Advani made his visits to the table count with big breaks and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[571,574,575,523,573,572],"class_list":["post-2275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-from-the-newspapers","tag-ashwini-a-c","tag-force-india","tag-jules-bianchi","tag-pankaj-advani","tag-priyanka-pawar","tag-sini-jose"],"yoast_head":"\n