NEW DELHI: Second seed Judith Walia of Karnataka toppled defending champion Heena Khandelwal (Maharashtra) and then scalped Amrita Mohapatra (Orissa) to become the first player to move into the semifinals of the seventh National Snooker championship.

The second seed played a determined game to emerge winner 41-19, 12-55,40-31 over Khandelwal.

Today, Judith scored a hard fought win over national billiards runners up Mohapatra 3-1 in a best-of-5 frame quarter-final.

Ghate to lead

PUNE: Milind Ghate of Mumbai will lead Maharashtra in the Senior National badminton championship to be held at New Delhi from February 4-10.Maharashtra Badminton Association (MBA) honorary secretary SV Natu said SA Shetty will be the manager while former international Leroy D'Sa will be the coach.

Team: Men's: Milind Ghate (capt), Rajeev Bagga, Bhushan Akut, Vincent Lobo, Vikrant Patwardhan, Vijay Lancy (all Mumbai), and Nikhil Kanitkar (Pune).

Women's: Manjusha Kanwar, ArchanaDeodhar, Trupti Murgunde, (all Pune), Meenakshi Wagh (Thane). Manager: SA Shetty. Coach: Leroy D'Sa.

Live telecast

MUMBAI: ESPN is to telecast live the triangular limited overs series in Australia featuring the hosts, England and Sri Lanka from January 10-31.

Comedy of errors

BANGALORE: It was a comedy of errors which marked the inauguration of the first SAARC golf championship, in which six countries -- India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka -- are participating.

Dignitaries took a solemn salute to the tunes of national anthem with an inverted Indian flag. The authorities, however, corrected the goof up.This was not the end. The Bhutan flag fell down. The harried officials quickly managed to put it right with the help of ladder amid peels of laughter from the spectators.

The last one: Pakistan flag flying half mast to their national anthem till the end without a soul noticing it.

Maharashtra win

CALCUTTA: Defending champions Maharashtra won both theirleague matches on the second day of the Inter-state squash championship at the Calcutta Racket Club.

Maharashtra beat Uttar Pradesh 4-0 in the morning and then defeated West Bengal B by an identical margin in their second match.

Manjusha, Abhinn retain titles

PUNE: Former national champion Manjusha Kanwar confirmed her top billing in no uncertain terms and bagged a profitable double in the fifth edition of the Dajisaheb Natu Memorial badminton championship which concluded at the WIE Complex here today. Top seed Abhinn Shyam Gupta of Air-India lifted the men's singles title at the expense of unseeded Vijay Lancy of Maharashtra 15-11 15-2 in under 40 minutes. This was his second title in a row here. Manjusha was in fine nick and made short work of PVV Laxmi of Andhra Pradesh 11-3 11-2. This was her fifth title in a row in the championship. Later Manjusha, pairing with Archana Deodhar, won the womens doubles 15-12 15-4.

Milind Ghate to lead Maharashtra

PUNE: Milind Ghate of Mumbai willlead Maharashtra in the Senior National badminton championship to be held at New Delhi from February 4-10.

Team: Men's: Milind Ghate (capt), Rajeev Bagga, Bhushan Akut, Vincent Lobo, Vikrant Patwardhan, Vijay Lancy (all Mumbai), and Nikhil Kanitkar (Pune).

Women's: Manjusha Kanwar, Archana Deodhar, Trupti Murgunde, (all Pune), Meenakshi Wagh (Thane). Manager: SA Shetty. Coach: Leroy D'Sa.

Uma Jadhav sets four National marks

Lucknow: Uma Jadhav of Maharashtra today won four gold in different categories of the 20th Junior National Men and Women Powerlifting Championship.In the men's section Anuj Vashishtha also created a national record.

In the 56kg women's section, Uma won gold in squat, bench press, deadlift and total categories lifting 165kg, 87.5 kg, 170kg and 422.5 kg weight respectively and created four new national records.

Judith Walia topples top seed Heena

NEW DELHI: Second seed Judith Walia of Karnataka toppled defending champion Heena Khandelwal (Maharashtra) and thenscalped Amrita Mohapatra (Orissa) to become the first player to move into the semifinals of the seventh National Snooker championship.

The second seed played a determined game to emerge winner 41-19, 12-55,40-31 over Khandelwal. Later, Judith scored a hard fought win over national billiards runners up Mohapatra 3-1 in the quarters.

Frank D'Mello passes away

JABALPUR: The grand old man of boxing in India, Frank G D'Mello died here yesterday after a protracted illness. He was 75.

Air-India face Northern Rlys in semis

CHANDIGARH: Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala will meet Punjab State Electricity Board, Patiala while defending champions Northern Railways, Delhi are pitted against Air-India, Mumbai in the semi-finals of the third Coca Cola Surjit Women Hockey Tournament tomorrow at the Burlton Park in Jalandhar.