BANGALORE: Twenty-two-year-old former National tennis champion Arathi Ponnappa has decided to retire. Arathi played her last competitive match in New Delhi in October last. In the National hardcourt championship, she was beaten in the semi-final by Uzma Khan. She decided to retire as the national circuit has been scrapped and there were hardly tournaments.

Mensah High-Q

PANAJI: Philip Mensah of Churchill Brothers topped the goal-scoring list with 11 goals while Salgaocar's Bruno Coutinho and East Bengal's Raman Vijayan were on second place with 10 goals each in the third edition of the National Football League which concluded last Monday in Calcutta.

Jumping bankers

BANGALORE: The ninth all-India inter-bank basketball tournament, under the aegis of the Bank Sports Board, Mumbai, will be held here from March 26. International players like CV Sunny, Jayashankar Menon, Saravanan, Jeevanand Moses (Indian Bank), S Robinson (IOB) and BS Gautham and M Stalin (Vijaya)will take part in the event.

Khalsa 300

CHANDIGARH: Pakistan, Uzbekistan, United Kingdom, Kazakhstan and Canada have been invited to participate in the Tercentenary Birth of Khalsa Sports Festival to be conducted by Punjab Olympic Association. Competitions would be conducted in cart race, tug of war, kabaddi, wrestling, shooting and equestrian.

Pulling out

BANGALORE: Corps of Engineers Rowing Association (CERA) won the singles scull event against hosts Karnataka on the inaugural day of the 19th National rowing championship at Ulsoor Lake today.

Last year's hosts, Chandigarh, have not turned up for the four-day event, while Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have opted out. Kerala are yet to get their green signal from concerned authorities following some registration problem.