PERINTHALMANNA: Tamil Nadu boys and Kerala girls clinched their 8th title in the National Volleyball tournament here on Wednesday.

TN boys beat Kerala 25-21, 25-17, 25-19 to lift the title in a match played late into the night. In the girls section hosts Kerala beat Andhra Pradesh 25-17, 21-25, 32-34, 25-20 and 15-9 to the relief of the jam-packed stadium which was cheering non-stop for Kerala's victory, almost throughout the marathon match.

Pemba pots gold

BANGALORE: A sepoy from the Gorkha Regiment, 18-year-old Pemba Tamang won the first gold up for grabs in the International Shooting Union rules competition of the 42nd National shooting championships here at the JRN Memorial shooting range at the SAI Southern Centre on Wednesday. He won the 25 metres sports pistol event among junior men (open category), incidentally his first in a Nationals.

Leaders: Free Pistol Junior Men: Open (no finals; top three scorers win medals): Sakander Kumar (Army) 481(74,83,82,80,83,79) 1, Bijender Singh (Army) 481 (73,84,87,84,75, 78) 2, Anuj Kumar (Navy) 481 (73,84,87,84,75,78) 3. (Five have completed their rounds out of 21 shooters) . 10 M Air Pistol: Open: Ved Prakash (Army) 561 (96,92,94,92,93,94) 1, Mukesh Kumar (Navy) 555 (94,92,92,92,95,90) 2, Mohd Kalmuddin (Army) 555 (89,94,93,96,94,89) 3 (21 finished firing out of 53 entries).

Spikers advance

MUMBAI: Maharashtra boys and girls made it to the semifinals of the National Youth Basketball Tournament being played at the Surat Municipal Corporation Indoor Stadium on Wednesday according to information received here.

Maharshtra boys overcame Rajasthan by a solitary point winning 51-50. The Maharashtra girls had a very easy outing drubbing the eves from Chandigarh by a huge margin of 43 points to 6. In the other boys quarter-finals Tamil Nadu beat Bihar while Punjab stopped Karnataka.

Sharma reinstated

NEW DELHI: Ajay Sharma is back as Delhi's captain for the Ranji Trophy Super League. The Delhiand District Cricket Association (DDCA) executive committee is reported to have decided to reinstate him as skipper in place of Vijay Dahiya who led the team during the league phase. Dahiya will be his deputy for the Super League.