BANGALORE: National badminton champion Gopi Chand made a surprise first round exit in the 100,000 dollar Chinese Open Grand Prix Championships, according to information received here.

Gopi led 14-9 in the decider and served six times for the match, but could not score the elusive point and lost to the young Korean 16-17 in the decider. In last week's Korean Open Grand Prix, Gopi had lost in the pre-quarter final to World Number 10 Kenneth Jonasen of Denmark 6-15 9-15.

Indian Oil sponsors

BANGALORE: The 54th National and 63rd Senior National badminton championships to be played from February 4 to 10 at Delhi will be sponsored by Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The Indian team for the World Badminton Championships to be held in Copenhagen in Denmark would be selected during the championships, Padukone added.

Two for Iran

MUMBAI: National junior champion Thomas Kurian of Railways and Chetan Anand of Air India would be participating in the Iran Open tobe held in Tehran from January 28 to February 1. The BAI will also send a team of five boys and three girls along with one coach to Dutch Open (at Haarlem) and German Open (Bottrop) during March, Prakash Padukone said. The BAI is also planning to send an eight-member senior team, including two women, for the European circuit -- Swedish Open at Borlange (March 3-7), the All-England championships at Birmingham (Mar 9-14) and French Open in Paris (Mar 17-21).

Pak kho-kho team

HYDERABAD: A team from Pakistan will participate in the four-nation Netaji Subhash International kho-kho championship to be held here from January 25 to 29. SR Sukumara, Commissioner of Police and chairman of the organising committee, said extra security will be provided to the team. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and two Indian teams -- India and Rest of India -- will also be participating in the five-day meet.

Special security

IMPHAL: Special security arrangements, army and para-military forces, would be made forsportspersons and officials participating in the fifth National Games here next month, Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi said. Security would also be provided to all stadia complexes and other complexes between February 14 to 25, he said.