Sports Shorts: Srikanth is Sportsperson of the Year!

A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday

The country's top-ranked men's shuttler Kidambi Srikanth was adjudged Sports Illustrated 'India's Sportsperson of the Year' for his stupendous performance in 2017.

Other winners included the women's cricket team, which bagged the 'Team of the Year' award while national football team coach Stephen Constantine clinched the title of 'Coach of the year'.

"It is an honour for me to have received the award in a year where my fellow athletes from different sports have also excelled. This is not just an Award, but it also serves as a reminder for me to work even harder next year and bring more glory to the nation," World No 4, Srikanth said.

Tennis veteran Leander Paes was awarded 'Outstanding contribution to Sport' while I-League side Aizawl FC were named Editor's Choice for Excellence (Team) and Commonwealth gold medallist Jitu Rai - Editor's Choice for Excellence (Male).

Young paddler Manav Thakkar and golfer Shubhankar Sharma were named 'Young Sportsperson of the Year' and 'Gamechanger of the Year' respectively.

Legendary hockey player Dhanraj Pillay, who was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award, said "I have always believed in working hard and being dedicated towards your sport, and it is a great feeling when people recognise you for it. For me, this Award is not about what I have done in my career, it is about what more I can do for sports in the country".

Sonia, Lovlina in semis of Mongolian boxing tourney

Indian boxers Sonia Lather (57kg) and Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) were guaranteed of at least a bronze medal after they advanced to the semi-finals of the Ulaanbaatar Cup in Mongolia.

Sonia, a World and Asian championship silver-medallist, produced an assured performance to defeat local favourite Myagmar Gundegmaa to make the last-four stage.

Joining her in the medal rounds was Lovlina, a gold-medallist at the inaugural India Open earlier this year. She was equally dominating in her 5-0 win over Thailand's Suchada Panich.

It was a battle of straight punches between Sonia and Gundegmaa and the Indian was better by a few notches in her clean and impactful hits.

Lovlina's rival put up a stronger resistance but lacked in accuracy.

Amit, Gaurav enter semis of German boxing tourney

Commonwealth Games medallists Amit Panghal (49kg) and Gaurav Solanki (52kg) advanced to the semi-finals and assured themselves of medals at the Chemistry Cup boxing tournament in Halle, Germany.

In bouts held last last night, Amit defeated Germany's Christopher Goman 5-0, while Gaurav recorded a comprehensive win over Russia's Vadim Kudriakov by a similar margin.

Amit, a silver-medallist from the CWG and a world championships quarterfinalist, has a tough one up next as he will be facing Cuba's Damian Arce Duarte, who got a bye in the opening round.

Gaurav, who claimed a gold in the CWG, will be facing Ireland's Conor Quinn in his semifinal bout.

However, CWG silver-medallist Manish Kaushik (60kg), bronze-medallist Naman Tanwar (91kg) and former Asian youth silver-medallist Ankush Dahiya (60kg) bowed out after opening-round losses.

Manish was defeated 1-4 by Cuba's Lazaro Jorge Alvarez Estrada, while Naman went down to the Netherland's Roy Korving in another split verdict.

Also going down in a 1-4 decision was Ankush, losing to Russia's Artur Subkhankulov.

Earlier, CWG gold-medallist Vikas Krishan (75kg) had entered the quarter-finals with a facile win over Ireland's Nevin Michael on Wednesday.