Short Corner — Chandigarh

Thai dream starts on a bright noteOpening ceremonies have become as much a part and parcel of multi-discipline gatherings as the events t...

Thai dream starts on a bright note
Opening ceremonies have become as much a part and parcel of multi-discipline gatherings as the events themselves. The competition in this regard is not among the participants, but with the past, present and future hosts of such games. Every host finds enough reasons to have an extravaganza, which they hope will be remembered for posterity.

Wattana out
Even as the King of Thailand, who celebrated his birthday on Saturday, opened the 13th Asian Games at the main stadium, the country’s sporting icon, James Wattana, tumbled out of the snooker singles, losing 1-5 to a virtually unknown Hong Kong 23-year old called Chan Kwok Ming on Sunday.

Sweden win
Sweden clinched their second consecutive Davis Cup title yesterday when Jonas Bjorkman and Nicklas Kulti beat Italy’s doubles pair of Diego Nargiso and fill-in Davide Sanguinetti in straight sets. The 7-6 (7-1), 6-1, 6-3 victory added to wins in both of December singles matches to give Sweden an insurmountable 3-0 lead over Italy in the best-of-five series.

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Naoka’s gold
Japan’s Naoko Takahashi ran away with the first gold medal of the Asian Games today, missing the world best time by less than a minute with a glorious front-running win in the the women’s marathon.

Advantage India A
India A gained a slight advantage by taking a 54-run first innings lead and then rattling up runs at nearly six an over in their second essay in the 11 overs they faced on the penultimate day of the second cricket `Test’ against West Indies A. India A were 64 for two at close after dismissing the visitors for 243 in their first innings.

Yuvraj’s 278
Yuvraj Singh, son of former Test cricketer Yograj Singh, hammered 278 to take Punjab to a win over Railways on the basis of first innings lead.