Sports Shorts: Shiva Thapa in final, five others in semis

Asian silver-medallist Shiva Thapa (60kg) and Gaurav Bidhuri entered the finals while five other Indians made the semifinals at the Grand Prix Usti Nad Labem boxing tournament in Czech Republic.

Shiva defeated local favourite Erik Huleiv in a unanimous verdict to advance. Bidhuri (52kg) made the final in his category after getting a bye.

Five other Indians were also assured of bronze medals. They were Kavinder Bisht (52kg), Amit Phangal (49kg), Sumit Sangwan (91kg) and Manish Panwar (81kg) and Manoj Kumar (69kg).

While Sumit defeated Czech Republic's Jiri Horky, Manish got the better of Belgium's Yassine Aydir. The rest advanced with byes.

Entering the last-eight stage owing to opening-round bye was Satish Kumar (+91kg) and Ashish Kumar (64kg).

Seven of the nine Indian boxers competing in this tournament have qualified for the World Championships in Hamburg, Germany from August 25 to September 2.

The World Championships-bound boxers are Amit, Kavinder, Gaurav, Shiva, Manoj, Sumit and Satish.

Vikas Krishan (75kg) has also qualified for the mega- event but he is not travelling with the team right now. He is currently training in Pune.

Sehwag, PT Usha named in Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award committee

Former India opener Virender Sehwag and celebrated athlete P T Usha have been named in a 12-member Committee which has been handed the job to pick this year's Khel Ratna and Arjuna awardees.

The Committee, to be headed by Justice (retd) C K Thakkar, will meet on August 3 to select this year's awardees.

The Committee has Mukund Killekar (boxing), Sunil Dabbas (Kabaddi), M R Mishra (Journalist), S Kannan (Journalist), Sanjeev Kumar (Journalist), Latha Madhvi (Para athlete), Anil Khanna (sports administrator), Injeti Srivastava (DG, SAI) and Rajvir Singh (joint Secretary, Sports Ministry) as the other members.

Govt spent Rs 32.81 cr on TOP

Sports Ministry today said it has spent a total of Rs 32.81 crore so far under Target Olympic Podium (TOP) scheme, which was rolled out in March 2015, for assisting athletes preparing for the Olympics.

"A total amount of Rs 32.81 crore was released till date under the scheme for training and other support of these selected athletes," Sports Ministry said responding to a question in the Parliament.

The ministry also made it clear that it has not yet set any medal targets for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as of now although it has set up a Task Force for the next three Olympic Games (2020, 2024 & 2028).

It has however earmarked Rs 302.18 crore for National Sports Federations for financial year 2017-18.

"The Budget Estimate provision for 2017-18 under the Scheme of assistance to NSFs is Rs 302.18 crore," it said.

The Government in March, 2015 had rolled out its ambitious TOP scheme to provide financial assistance to the 2016 Olympics medal prospects for their specialized world class training and top-level competition.

Under the TOP scheme, any athlete selected has been provided specialized training under a renowned coach in India or abroad, funding participation in top level competitions, purchase of equipments and food supplements, access to world-class medical experts and sports scientists.