Sports Shorts: Verma, Rankireddy-Shetty win Hyderabad Open badminton titles

India's Sameer Verma and the pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty lived up to the top billing by clinching the men's singles and doubles titles respectively at the Hyderabad Open badminton tournament on Sunday.

Top seed Verma defeated Malaysia's Soong Joo Ven 21-15, 21-18 in the men's singles summit clash of the $ 75,000 BWF Tour Super 100 tournament.

Rankireddy and Shetty also came out victorious, beating third seeded Indonesian pair of Akbar Bintang Cahyono and Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani 21-16, 21-14 to lift the men's doubles crown.

However, a hat-trick of titles eluded India as another top seeded local pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and N Sikki Reddy came out second best in the mixed doubles final.

Chopra and Reddy toiled for 55 minutes before losing 15-21, 21-19, 25-23 against sixth seeds Akbar Bintang Cahyono and Winny Oktavina Kandow of Malaysia.

Olympic great Johnson recovering from 'mini stroke'

Michael Johnson is recovering from a ‘mini stroke’, the Olympic champion and former world record-holder said on Twitter on Saturday but expects to make a full recovery.

“Last week I rather surprisingly suffered what’s known as a Transient Ischemic Attack or mini stroke,” the 50-year-old American tweeted.

“The good news is I’m back at home with my family, cleared of any ... issues and have already made great progress on my road to a full recovery.”

Johnson became the first man to win both the 200 and 400 meters at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and then captured gold in the 400 four years later in Sydney.

His 200m world record of 19.32 seconds stood for 12 years until 2008 when it was broken by Jamaica’s Usain Bolt with 19.30. Bolt lowered it again to 19.19 at the 2009 world championships.

Johnson’s 400m world record of 43.18 stood for 17 years until South African Wayde van Niekerk lowered it to 43.03 in the 2016 Olympic final.

Shaw 'awake and alert' after head injury

Luke Shaw’s injury curse struck again on Saturday as the Manchester United left back’s England recall was cut short by a sickening clash of heads early in the second half against Spain.

Shaw created England’s goal in their 2-1 defeat but was injured in an accidental clash with Dani Carvajal early in the second half — leading to a seven-minute stoppage as he was treated by several medics.

Thankfully the prognosis was upbeat later as England’s medical team confirmed that it was not as serious as the 81,000 fans inside Wembley Stadium had at first feared.

“Luke is awake and alert, having been assessed by our doctor and given an X-ray,” a Football Association statement said.

“He’ll stay with us overnight for further observation, with another update to come in the morning.”

Manager Gareth Southgate, who gave Shaw his first start for three years, confirmed the 23-year-old was ‘up and talking’.

Shaw’s United career has been overshadowed by injury.