Dhaka, Jan. 31: India added four gold medals on Day Three of the 11th South Asian Games to keep the lead on the medal standings here on Sunday.

Hyderabad, Jan. 31: J.S. Dhariwal-trained Arabian Prince, ridden by Suraj Narredu, won the Vijay Textiles Golconda Derby Stakes (Grade-I) 2400 metres, the glamour event of the Hyderabad winter races and the chief attraction of the races held here on Sunday, in a record time.
Arabian Prince clocked     2-28.07 erasing Zurbaran’s seven-year-old record of 2 minutes 28.84 seconds for 2400 metres, set in 2003.

Berlin, Jan. 31: Franck Ribery will have to wait to win his Bayern Munich place back with rising German star Thomas Mueller  and Dutch play-maker Arjen Robben bossing the midfield, coach Louis van Gaal said on Sunday.

Mumbai, Jan. 31: The World Series of Boxing (WSB) took on a tangible form as the cities of New Delhi, Astana, Baku and Beijing emerged as the franchise holders for the four teams in the tournament’s Asian conference this week. The cities signed their final franchise agreements at the first-ever joint meeting between the AIBA Executive Committee and all AIBA Commissions.

The agreements pave the way for the franchises to start recruiting their top national boxers, developing their brands and structuring their operations ready for the start of the first regular season of the WSB, which starts in November this year.
Delhi’s franchise owner Videocon Industries was the first organisation to commit to the WSB by signing the heads of agreement. The $2.5 billion conglomerate was represented at the signing ceremony by its chief marketing officer Sunil Tandon, who said, “Videocon looks forward to developing boxing on a global scale, since we are present all over the world. The vision of Colonel Raja, the president of the Indian Boxing Federation, made the decision to commit to World Series of Boxing easy.”
AIBA president Dr Ching-Kuo Wu said, “Kazakhstan was one of the first cities to agree to take a WSB franchise. The country has a very high standard of boxing and I am therefore happy that it will have a team in the tournament.”
Jambulat Sarsenov, vice-president of the Kazakhstan Boxing Association thanked Dr Wu for leading the efforts of this important project. “For us this is a new challenge and a new opportunity for our boxers,” he said.
Representing the Baku franchise in Azerbaijan, Suleyman Mikaylov, vice-president of the Azerbaijan Boxing Federation said, “All boxers, coaches and national federations will benefit from this project because it is future-oriented. I would like to congratulate the whole AIBA family on this project.”
China Boxing Industry Group (CBIG) is behind the Beijing franchise, Its chairman, Li Hou Qiang, a former heavyweight boxer, formalised the WSB agreement.
Speaking on behalf of Li Hou Qiang, Harris James, president of CBIG said, “CBIG is very proud to assist endeavours to develop boxing in China. Our chairman has a passionate focus on developing the sport to bring personal satisfaction to boxers. There is a long and challenging road ahead but under the guidance of AIBA and the WSB I am sure that the tournament will be a great success.”
Dr Wu said, “The fact that we are signing a Chinese franchise at a meeting being held in China is significant. Boxing is growing very fast in China and the Beijing WSB franchise will undoubtedly help the sport to develop even further.”

Age Correspondent

Hyderabad, Jan. 31: Ave Maria, who was a good third in the Golconda Oaks, has come on a lot since that run, and should not find any difficulty in winning the Telangana Cup, the feature event on the 27th day races of the Hyderabad winter season races 2009-2010 to be held here on Monday.

Karachi, Jan. 29: Retaliating to the snub at the Indian Premier League auction, the Pakistan Cricket Board on Friday revoked all the No Objection Certificates (NOCs) issued to its players for participation in the third edition of Twenty20 event.

Indore, Jan. 29: Subramaniam Badrinath celebrated his India call-up with a fluent 82, while Manish Pandey and R. Ashwin also struck half-centuries as South Zone thumped Central Zone by five wickets to sail into the final of the Duleep Trophy here on Friday.

Johannesburg, Jan. 29: An interim appointment he might be but South Africa’s new cricket coach Corrie van Zyl is all excited about his job and wants to instill discipline in the side, who head to India on Saturday for a Test and ODI series.

Chennai, Jan. 28: Going purely on performance and talent, the national selectors have rewarded Tamil Nadu batsman S. Badrinath, Karnataka speedster Abhimanyu Mithun and Bengal’s wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha with berths in the squad for the first Test against South Africa beginning at Nagpur from February 6.

Dhaka, Jan. 28: India fly out of Bangladesh having accomplished their mission and almost immediately face opposition of a far superior quality in Graeme Smith’s men than they did in the course of the two Test matches at Chittagong and here.