Kevin Anderson vs Kei Nishikori in Vienna final
MOST READ Gov’t to employ 6,000 displaced by Taal Tim Cone, Ginebra set their sights on elusive All-Filipino crown Lights inside SMX hall flicker as Duterte rants vs Ayala, Pangilinan anew Japeth Aguilar embraces role, gets rewarded with Finals MVP plum Will you be the first P16 Billion Powerball jackpot winner from the Philippines? Nadine Lustre’s phone stolen in Brazil Allen Durham still determined to help Meralco win 1st PBA title A winner of 11 ATP events, Nishikori hasn’t triumphed since winning in Memphis in February 2016. He has lost eight straight finals since.The second-seeded Anderson defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.FEATURED STORIESSPORTSGinebra beats Meralco again to capture PBA Governors’ Cup titleSPORTSJapeth Aguilar wins 1st PBA Finals MVP award for GinebraSPORTSGolden State Warriors sign Lee to multiyear contract, bring back ChrissAnderson has a shot at a fifth career title and second of the year after winning in New York in February.Nishikori leads Anderson 4-2 on career matchups, but the South African won their only previous meeting this year. Don’t miss out on the latest news and information. With a victory on Sunday, Anderson will qualify for the ATP Finals.Currently in ninth place, Nishikori with a win could move to within 125 points of the cut for the eight-man event in London next month.Nishikori held serve throughout against Kukushkin, who came through qualifying. He used his first break point to close out the first set before going up 3-0 in the second and wrapping up the win on his first match point.Against Verdasco, Anderson hit nine of his 19 aces in the opening set. The Spaniard broke Anderson twice in the second but didn’t get another chance on the South African’s serve in the final set.ADVERTISEMENT LATEST STORIES Stuffed on sports: 5 leagues playing in Los Angeles on 1 day Sports Related Videospowered by AdSparcRead Next Japan’s Kei Nishikori reacts after winning his match against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan during their semifinal match at the Erste Bank Open tennis tournament in Vienna, Austria, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)VIENNA — Kei Nishikori will try to end his long losing streak in ATP finals and Kevin Anderson will go for his second title of the year at the Erste Bank Open on Sunday.The fifth-seeded Nishikori reached his third final of 2018 after beating Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals.ADVERTISEMENT Gretchen Barretto’s daughter Dominique graduates magna cum laude from California college Lights inside SMX hall flicker as Duterte rants vs Ayala, Pangilinan anew Carpio hits red carpet treatment for China Coast Guard PLAY LIST 02:14Carpio hits red carpet treatment for China Coast Guard02:56NCRPO pledges to donate P3.5 million to victims of Taal eruption00:56Heavy rain brings some relief in Australia02:37Calm moments allow Taal folks some respite03:23Negosyo sa Tagaytay City, bagsak sa pag-aalboroto ng Bulkang Taal01:13Christian Standhardinger wins PBA Best Player award View comments
– GECOM says Commissioners were unavailable– as local, diplomatic observes accredited for LGEOpposition Commissioners of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have gone public with concerns about transparency at the entity, with days to go before November 12; they claim their efforts to have statutory meetings have been thwarted.At a press conference on Friday, Commissioner Bibi Shadick explained that GECOM ought to have had a statutory meeting on Tuesday. This meeting was however not held as Tuesday was a holiday.And despite an understanding in the past that meetings which fell on holidays would roll over to the next day, the Commissioners claimed this was not followed. This has caused Commissioner Robeson Benn to declare a lack of confidence in GECOM’s preparations. He explained that concerns his party had about theGECOM Chairman, retired Justice James PattersonDisciplined Services’ voting and other critical matters could not be addressed.“It should not be that you have an Elections Commission, in election mode and the Commission could not be called to meet on the statutory day or the day after or at any time to ventilate issues which may be brought to the Commission. It undermines the transparency of the process and is probably a bad harbinger of things to come.”“We had bad experiences of the CEO (Keith Lowenfield) not being available and it affected issues that resulted in a court case… if we are updated and satisfied, that speaks to a transparent process and willingness to give the public and stakeholders confidence in the process. If we can’t meet, there is an issue with transparency,” he said, adding that there is still time for a meeting.Benn also questioned whether the lack of meetings was because of a reluctance to answer questions on important issues. He noted that there are logistical and other issues when it comes to the November 2 Disciplined Services voting, which should have been ironed out the day before.Meanwhile, fellow Commissioner Sase Gunraj noted that stakeholders have had to write GECOM to complain about the process, such as personnel placed at certain positions. He said these and other issues are not being brought to thePPP GECOM Commissioners Sase Gunraj, Robeson Benn and Bibi ShadickCommission’s attention.When asked about local, regional and international observers, Shadick and Gunraj explained that they were in the dark. It was noted that whether observer groups have been accredited is a mystery to the Commissioners. According to Shadick, this is one of the issues that would have been raised.GECOMIn a brief interview with Guyana Times on Friday, GECOM’s Public Relations Officer, Yolanda Warde was asked about the concerns of the Commissioners. She acknowledged that GECOM Chairman James Patterson received a letter from the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Commissioners requesting a statutory meeting.“Some of the other Commissioners were unavailable, because of the critical operations that are ongoing in the field, in relation to preparation for the election and so they were visiting a number of those areas.”“He also indicated that he’s not aware of the critical issues that need to be discussed and therefore, unless he would have received that kind of specificity, the operations at this particular juncture that is happening in preparation for Monday takes precedence,” Warde explained.She also confirmed that the observers previously approved by the Commission have been accredited. This includes the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), the Private Sector Commission (PSC), as well as the Canadian High Commission and the United States embassy.The last time Local Government Elections were held in 2016, the US embassy and the British and Canadian High Commissions had fielded observer teams. With elections expected to go down on November 12, the deadline for local observers to apply was October 11.The PPP had previously indicated that over 3000 candidates have been put forward by the party to contest local elections in all 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). The other parties will be contesting on a smaller scale.A Partnership for National Unity will be contesting elections in 76 of the 80 LAAs. The Alliance For Change plans to contest only 38 LAAs at the upcoming LGE scheduled for November 12.The Disciplined Services voted last Friday, where one of the issues raised was the names of officers missing from the lists.
Pebbles’ owner ,Jeff Kerner, 48, of Sherman Oaks, said the dog was healthy before eating tainted dog food, which apparently triggered renal failure. Menu Foods, the Canadian maker of the food, announced last Friday that it was recalling 60 million cans and pouches of wet dog and cat food sold throughout North America. It affects 91 brands, including Food Lion, Iams and Nutro, sold under store and brand labels at Wal-Mart, Safeway, Kroger and other retailers. Los Angeles County officials had already confirmed at least nine cases of kidney failure in dogs and cats exposed to the recalled food, said Jonathan Fielding, county director of public health. Of those nine animals, three dogs and two cats have died, he said. “These are dogs and cats that have specifically eaten that food,” he said. “Clearly, there’s something going on here.” SYLMAR – Pebbles, the Yorkshire terrier who grew ill after eating recalled dog food and became a symbol of the food scare’s impact on pet owners nationwide, died Thursday. “She passed away this morning,” said Joan Newell, a receptionist at Collett Veterinary Clinic in Sylmar. Pebbles’ fight for life was first reported by the Daily News and then covered in a number of TV reports. Since last Friday, the 7-year-old normally healthy pooch had been treated at the veterinary clinic, where she was being fed intravenously. County health officials on Tuesday conducted a telephone survey of 219 area pet stores, and found that all but two had removed the affected products from shelves. Fielding said he was more concerned about large retail and grocery stores that might have the pet foods among numerous other products. The Associated Press contributed to this report
0Shares0000Lionel Messi underlined his and Barcelona’s Champions League credentials with a hat-trick in their group stage opener against PSV© AFP LLUIS GENEBARCELONA, Spain, Sep 18 – Lionel Messi pictures the Champions League ending with him hoisting the trophy and it began with him scoring a hat-trick on Tuesday as Barcelona put four goals past PSV Eindhoven.An early kick-off at Camp Nou meant that before most of the tournament’s teams had even named their line-ups, Messi was up and running, his sumptuous free-kick from the edge of the area nestling in the top corner, exactly where it was intended. Messi would have his second and third before the end, but the game was up by then thanks to a superb strike from the excellent Ousmane Dembele.Only when Barca were three ahead was Samuel Umtiti sent off for a second yellow card, and with 10 men, Messi completed his hat-trick for a 4-0 win.Dembele’s goal was worthy of deciding any match but this was Messi’s night. After a miserable World Cup trying to retrieve the irretrievable Argentina, Barcelona’s now-captain proved his quality again to any doubters that are left.Four goals already in La Liga, seven overall, neither age nor Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure from Spain appear to have taken the edge off.But even if Messi remains as good as ever, his team will need others to step up. Philippe Coutinho was impressive here and, after a difficult debut campaign, Dembele is finding his rhythm.The 21-year-old’s driving run earned Messi his free-kick while a sizzling shot brought the goal his bustling display deserved.Perhaps more importantly, this victory was a clean slate for Barcelona.It was exactly 23 weeks ago that Roma pulled off one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in this competition and sent the club into a depth of disappointment that, in truth, not even winning the double could alleviate.Instead, Madrid rubbed salt into the wound by making it look easy and winning their third in a row. “It is a thorn in our side,” Luis Suarez said. “It’s time to win the Champions League,” said Messi.– Magical Messi –PSV’s coach Mark van Bommel knows what it feels like to walk out at the Camp Nou – he had a successful, albeit short, spell playing for Barca – but few of his players did.Nick Viergever was one of them, for Ajax in 2014, but it was his rash challenge on Dembele in the 31st minute that conceded the free-kick a yard outside the penalty area.Messi sized it up and sent it spinning away from the hand of Jeroen Zoet and into the top corner.PSV could have been ahead. Twice they had raced away on the break but Gaston Pereiro blasted over and Steven Bergwijn’s curling effort whistled wide of the post.It was an open game, with Coutinho missing a header and then teeing up Messi to sidefoot high. The Argentinian soon made amends, his eighth free-kick scored in 2018. He has never scored more in a year.The contest bristled at the start of the second half. Suarez earned Messi a second free-kick within range but this one floated over. Suarez’s delightful chip beat Zoet but not the crossbar.PSV were still in it and could have equalised when Hirving Lozano’s finish was blocked, crucially, by Gerard Pique.Then three goals arrived in 15 minutes. First Dembele, after leaving two PSV midfielders for dead with a dragback, unleashed into the bottom corner. Messi then latched onto a lob from Ivan Rakitic to slot home before Umtiti was sent off for a cynical block on Lozano.It made no difference. Suarez set up Messi’s third, a brilliant flick allowing his captain the last word, after he had also had the first.0Shares0000(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)
ARLINGTON — Mike Fiers had his hoodie up, tightly hiding a work of art on his face for a big debut. A few minutes before his start at Globe Life Park, Fiers revealed his new spiraling facial hair, a beard/goatee that coiled around the side of his face.Fiers wanted to update his beard look, and while scrolling indexes for some inspiration with some teammates he Google’d “funny beards” and landed on the cinnamon-roll look.“Mid- September and just to give the guys a laugh,” Fiers said. “And I’m …
Three-time Dusi champion Andrew Birkett entrenched his status as a Dusi star by winning The Unlimited Non-Stop Dusi on debut on Friday after a breathtaking second half solo charge to set up an 11-minute victory over the first K2 home. ‘It looked good’“I had to race down into the valley after lectures one afternoon to check it out, and sure enough, it looked good,” he added. ‘It’s all in your head’ “It’s a long race, though, and whilst you’re obviously racing against others you’re actually only really racing against yourself. It’s all in your head. Runners-upTeam Best Kayak Centre colleagues Lance Kime and Kwanda Mhlope were ecstatic with their runners-up finish, and showered praise on the juggernaut K1 performance by Birkett. Birkett’s meticulously worked out strategy for the race involved the use of a particularly light race boat that he was not able to drag on the portages like the other top contenders, and instead he lost some time on the long downhills by carrying his K1. The record field of 121 boats, including a new record 30 K1s, were treated to good water and clear conditions early on. However, as the heat became stifling and the field started catching up to the water releases, the race got tougher and more than two dozen crews either withdrew or failed to make the 14:30 cut-off at the Inanda Dam wall. Birkett made a crucial break at a sneak portage that he had found going over Nqumeni Hill, roughly halfway through the 110km race from Camps Drift to Durban, which split up the front bunch and set up his solitary grind into the finish at Blue Lagoon. Widened his leadOnce he got a sniff of the lead Birkett paddled and ran his way to the front and steadily widened his lead, using the impressive conditioning base that had helped him win The Unlimited Dusi title with Jason Graham just a fortnight before. Women’s raceThe women’s race quickly turned into a lopsided contest as K1 and K2 Dusi champ Robyn Kime staged a superb race to finish 14th overall in a gritty display of well paced paddling and running, which lopped an hour off the previous women’s K1 record set by Hilary Pitchford. During that stage of the race Birkett was locked in a fierce tussle with the crews of Lance Kime and Kwanda Mhlope and the pre-race favourites and defending champions Thulani Mbanjwa and Sbonelo Zondi. “I had planned a lot of my race, but then, four days before the race I got a phone call from a veteran Dusi paddler, who I think knows the valley better than anyone else, telling me about this portage at Nqumeni, saying that this path was worth a minute and a half. “At the N2 bridge we couldn’t believe it when we saw the Trautmanns just there. That extra adrenalin rush then got us going again and it was basically a flat out sprint to the finish line from there, and we were very glad to finally get to Blue Lagoon.” “It would have been great to have caught second place, and if it had been a little longer maybe we could have,” he added. “But we were taking on water and just couldn’t quite close the gap. We finished second in our previous attempt, but we were definitely quicker this time despite things being a whole lot hotter and there being less water this year.” 5 March 2012 The seasoned K2 crew of Debbie Germiquet and Carmen Blackeney finished second. “We took out for the Burma Road portage with Craig Turton and Jasper Mocke and by the time we got to the top of Burma we’d caught Thulani Mbanjwa and Sbonelo Zondi!” said Trautmann. “From then on it was all about trying to put the hammer down as much as possible and get out of sight of the others. “None of us had enough time to properly recover from The Unlimited Dusi, but my running was really strong today, which was pleasing. No-one goes through a race like this without going through bad patches. I went through five, and you just have to tell yourself to hang on, and focus on getting to Durban in one day, not about winning or records.” Birkett was within reach of Hank McGregor’s K1 race record by the end of the haul across Inanda Dam. However, that dissolved when he overtook the mistimed water release from Inanda Dam after completing a lightning fast portage over the hill. ‘A lonely day on my own’“I went out quite hard in the first five to ten kilometres to try get ahead of the bulk of the field and then I latched onto a group’s wave, but they were quite a bit faster than me, so I had to drop off and then it was just a lonely day on my own where I just had to try focus on keeping going,” she said. “Coming into it, we knew he would be right up there, especially with him being such a strong runner, but we thought we might be able to get away from him on the river, which to a degree we did, but he was just stronger and smarter than us today.”
The youngsters had to dig deep in the dying stages of the race as they were reeled in by the flying Trautmann brothers, Kelvin and Matt. ‘More pressure’“When I overtook the water, it made the race even harder, but I like that. It made it even more of a challenge and put more pressure on me to stay focussed.” “My seconds told me that the record might be on, but I completely ignored it,” said Birkett. “All I wanted to do was finish the race in one day, and stayed focussed on that. RESULTS Kime and Mhlope managed to stay in contact with Birkett, but Mbanjwa and Zondi fell out of contention, as Mbanjwa battled with a persistent shoulder injury, while technical problems beset their boat. Under-23 stars Kwanda Mhlope and Lance Kime placed second, while Robyn Kime won the women’s title, also in a K1, smashing an hour off the old record. “It was a gamble all right having a light boat, and I had to nurse it. It was the right decision in the end, and it was a brilliant boat to have for a race like this,” he reckoned. The result was another brilliant one for the Trautmann siblings, who ground their way back into the top three in the second half of the race. “Its great, though, because it’s a lot slower than Dusi, so you get to take in the beauty of the valley as you try to settle into a steady rhythm and keep grinding away. ‘Blew a gasket’“We blew a gasket going across the dam and were absolutely shattered towards the end,” said Kime. Stellenbosch University student Kime stressed that she was focussed largely on finishing her first Non-Stop. “Its great to have won in my first outing, but that definitely wasn’t the focus today. It’s such a tough race, so there’s never a huge ladies field, but just to have gotten to the finish is something I’m really chuffed with,” she said. “We didn’t feel very good in the beginning,” said Kelvin Trautmann. “The plan was to try be up there at Guinea Fowl, but the guys flew out the blocks and we were already four minutes behind at Guinea Fowl. Would you like to use this article in your publication or on your website? See: Using SAinfo material “When we came to the Nqumeni Hill takeout I had to hold back so that the other two crews got ahead of me, and I was able to sneak into that path unseen. And yes, it worked!” he said. SAinfo reporter Andy Birkett 8:11.15Lance Kime/Kwanda Mhlope 8:22.31Matt Trautman/Kelvin Trautman 8:25.01Thulani Mbanjwa/Sbonelo Zondi 8:39.10Craig Turton/Jasper Mocke 8:45.57Thomas Ngidi/Roland Smith 8:50.13Lucas Mthalane/Loveday Zondi 9:07.36Mark Mulder 9:10.23Gavin Shuter/Zonele Nzuza 9:10.24Trenton Lamble/Mark Michell 9:16.46Carl Folscher/Alex Adie 9:40.16Siseko Ntondini/Victor Monyepao 9:40.25Marc Germiquet 9:42.31Robyn Kime 9:43.42Glenn Hilliar 9:53.38Cam Schoeman/Wesley Green 9:55.59Wim van Herzeelie/Patrick Walden 9:57.26Debbie Germiquet/Carmen Blakeney 10:04.06Dave Mackenzie/Mike Eglington 10:06.16Michael Hay/Darren Berriman 10:07.33 “Andy is just a phenomenal athlete and what he’s done today is just incredible,” said Kime. The Unlimited Non-Stop Dusi takes place over one day instead of the traditional three days of The Unlimited Dusi. It is undoubtedly one of the toughest challenges in the world of paddling.
RELATED ARTICLESReturn-Air ProblemsThis New Door Design Solves an Old ProblemPerfect Balance Makes the CutNew Green Building Products — March 2011An Easy Retrofit for Return AirAll About Furnaces and Duct Systems If a forced-air HVAC system is pushing more air into a space or room than return pathways can match, some spaces in the home become pressurized and others depressurized. This imbalance can cause problems: thermal comfort, moisture, and even combustion safety.Types of HVAC returnsIn an ideal world, every supply would have a companion return duct. This approach is called a dedicated return for each supply. But most older and even many new homes have one or maybe two central returns located in common spaces because it is less expensive and difficult to locate and run just a supply to each space. With central returns, here are the ways to provide return pathways: door undercuts, jump ducts, transfer grilles, and the deKeiffer bypass.Door undercutsThis is certainly the easiest and cheapest way to attempt a return pathway but it is rarely sufficient. For most situations, door undercuts need to be greater than 1.5 inches to be sufficient and that amount of undercut is very often not acceptable for aesthetic or privacy reasons. Jump ductsA jump duct is a large insulated flex duct that connects two ceiling grilles, one just inside the door to the supplied room and the other just on the other side of the door in the hallway ceiling. The sharp bend and variegated surface of the interior lining of the jump duct reduces sound transfer without compromising air movement. Since this approach penetrates the ceiling plane, the jump duct must be carefully air sealed if it breaks into an unconditioned space like the attic.Transfer grillesThere are two types of transfer grilles, above-door and high-low offset. The above-door transfer grille simply has two grilles located above the door between the room and common space, one on each wall, with offset baffles to limit sound transmission.The high-low offset is located in an interior wall framing cavity adjacent to the door between the room and common space. One grille is located high on the wall on one side (usually the common space), the other low on the wall (in the room). The offset reduces sound transmission. Note that this interior framing cavity must be clean and without wiring penetrations (or seal these penetrations as you would if it were an exterior wall framing cavity).The de Keiffer bypassAn HVAC engineer from Boulder, CO, Rob deKeiffer of the Boulder Design Alliance, came up with an elegant return pathway: the deKeiffer Bypass. The door trim is spaced off of the wall on both sides enough to create around 23 square inches of free air space connecting the room and the common space. The framing cavity space above the door is sleeved with sheet metal to create a dedicated pathway connecting the two sides of the spaced-out door trim.Armand Magnelli’s (Livable Housing, Inc.) perspectiveAnother approach is to install a product that combines a metal sleeve with an interior baffle and grilles on both sides of the wall, such as the Tamarak Return Air Pathway (RAP). Or one of Halton’s transfer grilles (these more commercial in nature). These products purportedly provide better noise reduction with good air flow and are relatively easy to install. The fit between standard stud spacing in interior partition walls. For an independent analysis of several approaches see the following review by the Building America Program.An advantage of using the products from Tamarak is that they are sized for CFM capacity, an important variable in balancing the airflow between rooms. The issue with the products from Tamarak and Halton is that while they provide an attractive and effective packaged solution it may be difficult to convince local HVAC distributors to stock their lines of products forcing contractors to order them online. Some of the other solutions are fabricated from stock components available at most HVAC distributors.The use of any of these solutions may also improve performance of whole house ventilation systems by enabling better circulation of fresh air from bedrooms at night, a crucial time to deliver fresh air to occupants.Your perspectiveBe great to learn what method you use and why? Weigh in—it’s what GBA is all about.
I am just back from speaking in Las Vegas. Getting to the conference center required a walk through the Casino at Caesar’s Palace. There are two kinds of people you see in a casino.The first group, usually seen playing at night, has set aside some money to gamble during a night out with their friends. They aren’t gambling because they believe they are somehow going to solve their money problems or end up with real wealth (even if some do get carried away).The second kind of people you see in a casino, even during daylight hours, have not set aside money to gamble on a night out on the town with their friends. They’re playing with money they don’t really have, believing that luck will find them and solve their money problems.The people in the first group have bet on themselves and ended up in a position where they have money that they can gamble and lose. The second group of people bet on luck finding them because they don’t believe in themselves enough to place that same bet on their own success.Non-hustlers won’t bet on themselves because they don’t believe that bet is well-placed.They believe they have better odds of being lucky than figuring out how to generate the results they want for themselves.They believe that the chances of winning big in a casino are better than the chances of their following through with their commitment to do the work necessary to succeed.Non-hustlers believe that forces outside of themselves are what determine who you are and what you have.Hustler’s bet big on themselves, knowing that they cannot make a safer bet, nor can they place a bet that pays off at the same level, or over as a long a period of time.The business you talk about starting is a bet on yourself. That course you want to take so you can change careers is a bet on yourself. The time you spend working on your own hustle late at night and early in the morning is a bet that you can build the version of you that comes after this one.Bet big. But make that you bet on the one and only thing worth betting on: You. Essential Reading! Get my 2nd book: The Lost Art of Closing “In The Lost Art of Closing, Anthony proves that the final commitment can actually be one of the easiest parts of the sales process—if you’ve set it up properly with other commitments that have to happen long before the close. The key is to lead customers through a series of necessary steps designed to prevent a purchase stall.” Buy Now
Winning 15 medals in sports ranging from archery to athletics, which included five yellow metals, Commonwealth Games hosts India produced yet another scintillating display to get back to the second spot grabbed last evening by England.Teenager Deepika Kumari and Rahul Banerjee won gold medals in individual recurve events on the last day of the competition to help India end their campaign in archery with three golds, one silver and four bronze medals.India’s Prajusha Maliakkal celebrates after winning the silver in the women’s long jump event of the Commonwealth Games at Jawharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday. Photo: PTIBesides these two titles, India also bagged two bronze medals in archery through senior pros Dola Banerjee and Jayanta Talukdar in the individual recurve event.World freestyle wrestling champion Sushil Kumar and boxing pin-up boy Vijender Singh came up with thundering displays that fetched them a gold and a spot in the semi final respectively.Pistol shooter Harpreet Singh and tennis player Somdev Devvarman were the others to fetch gold medals for India to boost the overall tally to 29, just one short of their record tally of 30 won eight years ago at Manchester.There were also two silver medals from athletics during the day, a discipline in which India have never won more than one medal at any single Games in the past and now have claimed four here.Field athletes Vikas Gowda, in men’s discus, and Malliakal Prajusha, in women’s long jump, won the two silver medals.India’s Sarvanjit Singh (L) celebrates after scoring a goal against Pakistan in men’s hockey preliminaries of the Commonwealth games at the Major Dhyanchand National Hockey Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday. Photo: PTITo cap a great day, the Indian men’s hockey team shed their nerves when faced with a do-or-die situation and hammered arch-rivals Pakistan 7-4 to qualify for the semi finals.Barring Akhil Kumar, who was knocked out in the quarter finals, most other medal contenders in the boxing ring took their places in the semis with Vijender’s knock-out of his Elias Nashivela in just over a minute being the most impressive one.advertisementWorld freestyle wrestling champion Sushil Kumar too produced a superb display to win the 66kg class to add lustre to a splendid Indian show on the mat that fetched India their tenth gold from the mat.India’s tally of 29-22-22 kept them ahead of England’s 26-45-30 while Australia were speeding ahead of the rest with a total haul of 61-36-37.–with PTI inputs
Yeh Khula AasmaanCast: Raghuveer Yadav, Raj Tandon, Anya Anand, Yashpal Sharma, Manjusha Godse, Kishor Nadalskar, Nitin KerurDirection: Gitanjali SinhaRating: A teenager grapples with his no-show in academics. The pressure to qualify for IIT is killing him. Mom and dad are too busy to pay attention and the boy has no one to turn to.You get the familiar picture of urban crisis this film is trying to set up. It’s not really the first time that Bollywood has tapped the subject, and debutant Gitanjali Sinha tries narrating her coming-of-age tale with a retrospective twist. When life gets messed up on the fast lane, get far away from the maddening crowd. Head back to the village for a pep dose of self-discovery.Debutant Raj Tandon plays Avinash, the young hero of the film who is lonely, depressed and confused. The turnaround in his story comes when Avinash visits his Dadu, Gulab Rai (Raghuveer Yadav). The boy finds a support system in the grandfather. Realising Avinash’s problem is psychological, Dadu – a kite running champ in his heydays – decides to instil self-realisation in the boy using the sport as a template.The kite-flying metaphor used to unravel lessons on life, love, friendship and hope are, however, predictably drawn. That bit is a snag, as is the snail’s pace of the narrative. Yeh Khula Aasmaan could have been watchable fare had its makers worked at a tighter screenplay.Raj Tandon makes a fine debut, and Raghuveer Yadav’s Dadu is credibly essayed. The actors, though, can’t save the tedious show.advertisement
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