A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Monday
South Africa's Constitutional Court has dismissed an application by paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius to appeal his sentence for murdering his girlfriend, legal documents showed on Monday.
Pistorious was initially jailed for six years for shooting dead Reeva Steenkamp, but prosecutors argued that sentence had been "shockingly lenient" and an appeal court agreed in November to more than double the term to 15 years.
Pistorius challenged the appeals court's ruling in the Constitutional Court.
"The Constitutional Court has considered the application for condonation and leave to appeal. It has concluded that ... the application for leave to appeal should be dismissed as it does not engage this court's jurisdiction," read the court's order dated March 28 and made public by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) on Monday.
The NPA said it was pleased with the order.
"We have always contended as the NPA that their leave to appeal has no prospects of success, and the Constitutional Court has just confirmed that," NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku said.
Ankita only third Indian female to break into top-200
Ankita Raina on Monday became only the fifth Indian woman tennis player to breach the top-200 rankings in singles as she jumped 15 places to reach a career-best 197 in the WTA chart.
The 25-year-old Ankita trains with Hemant Bendrey when she is in the country.
Ankita is the only fifth player after Sania, Nirupama Vaidyanathan, Shikha Uberoi (2005) and Sunitha Rao (2008) to make it to top-200 since WTA ranking was introduced on November 3, 1975 in the open era.
While Sania, winner of six Grand Slam titles in doubles, touched a career-high of 27 in singles in 2007, Nirupama's best rank was 134 in 1997. Shikha had the highest ranking of 122 and Sunita reached a ranking of 144 in her career.
"I have done so much hard work and has remained patient to get this point. I was between 200 and 250 bracket for some time and it takes time to break the barrier. It's tough out there," Ankita told PTI from Japan, where she is competing on the ITF circuit.
"I went up and down in my career but my coach and my parents kept belief in me. My brother has also supported me in a big way, giving me and my needs priority many times. So without their support it was not possible. I want to thank my coach for having faith in me," she added, getting emotional.
The better rank will help Ankita enter the main draws of the WTA 125k series tournaments.
"I want to play the Grand Slams but the immediate target is to get into 150 and by the end of the year into top-100," she said with confidence.
Surprisingly, Ankita Raina was not included in TOP Scheme despite being country's best singles player while lower-ranked players than her were included on recommendation of national observer Somdev Devvarman.
The AITA, later, recommended her name to the ministry for addition in the TOPS but so far no official communication has been made in this regard.
In the singles ranking, talented Karman Kaur Thandi was the next best Indian at number 267.
In the ATP rankings, Yuki Bhambri was the top singles player from India at 105 and was followed by Ramkumar Ramanathan (133), Sumit Nagal (213), Prajnesh Gunneswaran (264) and Arjun Kadhe (396).
In the doubles, Rohan Bopanna was highest-ranked at number 19 and was followed by Divij Sharan (42) and Leander Paes (45).
Aamby Valley drag race from April 13
India’s biggest drag racing event -- The Valley Run will be held at the AambyValleyCity air strip in Lonavala from 13th to 15th April.
The event, in its sixth year now, will be held for both two-wheelers and four-wheelers respectively. Over entries are expected to line-up on the three-days of which the first two days are reserved for motorcycles.
The year The Valley Run will have a Supercar owner’s lounge with an array of amazing vehicles lined up apart from many more exciting elements.
A drag race is a timed event, in which a car or a bike that accelerates the fastest and covers the quarter-mile long straight in the shortest duration wins. Drag races are all about a superfast reaction time and perfect gear shifts from the rider/driver to gain optimum, the lesser the margin of error the better the time.
