Shorts: Srikanth, Sameer progress at Korea Masters

Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday

India made a promising start at the Korea Masters with shuttlers Kidambi Srikanth and Sameer Verma advancing to the second round of the men's singles competition in Gwangju , Korea, on Wednesday.

The sixth seed Srikanth defeated Hong Kong's Wong Wing Ki Vincent 21-18, 21-17 in match that lasted 37 minutes.

The former World No.1 Srikanth now enjoys a dominant 11-3 head-to-head record over the Hong Kong shuttler. He will face Kanta Tsuneyama of Japan in the second round.

Sameer Verma also reached the second round after his opponent Japan's Kazumasa Sakai retired midway with the score reading 11-8 in favour of the Indian.

However, it was end of the road for Sourabh Verma, who went down after winning the first game to local favourite Kim Donghun 21-13, 12-21, 13-21.

Sameer will take on Donghun in the second round.

Shooting World Cup Final: Manu, Rahi knocked out of 25m air pistol event

India's Manu Bhaker and Rahi Sarnobat failed to qualify for the finals of the women's 25m air pistol event at the World Cup Finals in Putian, China, on Wednesday.

Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Manu shot 292 and 291 in the precision and rapid events respectively for a total of 583 in the qualifiers.

While two other shooters, Germany's Doreen Vennekamp and Elena Galiabovitch of Australia, also ended with a qualification score of 583, the German qualified owing to a superior tally of inner 10s.

Manu and Galiabovitch had 17 inner 10s, while Vennekamp shot 23 to be way ahead.

Rahi, on the other hand, endured a disappointing outing. The Asian Games gold-medallist finished bottom of the heap in the qualifiers with a score of 569.

Later on Wednesday, Anish Bhanwala will compete in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event.

Aligarh: National shooter Areeba Khan aims at 2024 Paris Olympics

National level shooter and Asian Championship silver medalist Areeba Khan is aiming to win a medal for the country in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"My goal is the Olympics 2024 for which I'm preparing hard. I want to bring a medal for the country. I have participated in six national events and 14 international tournaments so far. I recently won a silver medal in the Asian Championship team event. My individual ranking was fifth in that competition in the juniors category," Khan told ANI.

The 18-year-old draws inspiration from her father and brother who were former shooters.

"My father and brother were national shooters from whom I got the inspiration to become a shooter.

Khan also seeks the support of the government to bring more laurels to the country.

"I request the government to support us. We need government support to perform better," Khan said.

Malik recalls her journey to 2016 Paralymic feat

Deepa Malik, who had become the first Indian para-athlete to win a medal in Paralympics, on Tuesday revealed that she had to switch over from javelin to shot-put and prepare herself for the quadrennial event in just 11 months.

"I was training for javelin all along and winning an Asian medal for the second time in 2014 in Incheon, Korea, I was world No 2 in category 53 for javelin," Malik said.

Speaking during the launch of a course titled 'The Edge' by International Institute of Sports Management, Malik recalled how she had to acquaint herself with a new skill in a short period of time before the Paralympics in 2016.

"At that point of time, I was happy that going to win a medal in javelin and suddenly in 2015 when the final event list came out, my category has shot-put instead of javelin," she said.

"I had 11 months to prepare for Paralympics with a new sport, new skills, new coaching and reinventing my body to be able to handle another equipment, which is 4 kg," she said, narrating how she clinched the silver medal in shot-put.

Malik, who has already opted out of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, said she was aiming to create a record in sea swimming and was hurt not to be part of the recently concluded World Championships for para-athletes.

Meanwhile, former India Hockey captain Viren Rasquinha also spoke about how he overcame failures in his playing days in the presence of former India spinner Nilesh Kulkarni.