Tania held, Kruttika in sole lead

New Delhi: Tania Sachdev’s was held by Nisha Mohota in the penultimate round that saw Kruttika Nadig forge into sole lead after beating Soumaya Swaminathan here Saturday.

Overnight joint leader Kruttika overcame the fourth-seed in just 28 moves and now leads the table with 7.5 points after 10 rounds, half-a-point ahead of Tania at the 35th Parsvnath National Women Chess Championship, at Russian Centre for Science and Culture.

In other matches, Grandmaster Eesha Karavade of Maharashtra defeated Padmini Rout of Orissa in 73 moves and Mary Ann got the better off Amrutha Mokal in 35 moves.

Negi ahead

Mangalore: Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi outclassed under-16 world champion Adhiban B. of PSPB in the 10th round to take lead in the 46th National A chess championship here on Saturday. Negi has seven points in his kitty. Defending champion Surya Sekhara Ganguly of PSPB, who drew with former National Champion Praveen Thipsay of Maharashtra was just one point behind with six points.

Ram captain

New Delhi: Diwakar Ram will lead a 16-member strong India under-21 hockey squad for the four-nation Australian Youth Olympic Festival to be held at Olympic Stadium, Sydney from January 14-18.

All the 16 members picked Saturday following trials in Bhopal were in the 21-member squad that toured Argentina for a test series earlier this month.

The Squad

Goalkeepers: Mrinal Chaubey, C. Santosh Kumar. Fullbacks: Diwakar Ram (Capt.), Innocent Kullu, Manjeet Kullu. Midfielders: Birender Lakra, Vivek, Vikas Sharma, Belsajar Horo, Amardeep Ekka. Forwards: Pramod Kumar, Mandip Antil, Jay Karan, Danish Mujtaba, Dharamvir Singh, Mohd Amir Khan. Standbyes: Hari Kripal Yadav, Jagwant Singh, Rupinder Pal Singh, Karamjit Singh, Mohd Asif Khan. Officials: AK Bansal (Chief Coach), Clarence Lobo (Coach), Rajeev Mehta (Manager), RC Trivedi (Physiotherapist).

Zahlavova wins

New Delhi: Czech Republic’s third seed S. Zahlavova tamed Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia in straight sets to lift the singles title of $50,00 ITF women event here at the DLTA complex here Saturday. The third seeded Zahlavova recorded a 6-4, 6-3 win in the final match against Jovanovski, who had upset top seed Slovakia’s M Zec-Peskiric in the semifinals Thursday. Meanwhile, the Chinese Taipei-Hong Kong pair of I-Hsuan Hwang and Ling Zhang had lifted the doubles title after defeating American-British pair of Megan and Emily Webley Smith 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) in the final Friday.