Lifting body decision on Friday

The Indian Weightlifting Federation’s fate will be known on Friday after the sport’s world governing body deliberates on the possible decision to ban. “The IWF executive board did not make any decisions since it will hold a second day of meetings tomorrow. The agenda is so long that we couldn’t finish it and get to the doping problems,” IWF legal counsel Monika Ungar said in a statement.

Piquet to join Force India?

Renault discard Nelson Piquet Jr could be behind the wheels of the Force India car next season, according to media reports. Piquet’s future looked bleak after he admitted deliberately crashing in the 2008 Singapore GP so team mate Fernando Alonso could win the race. Talking to a Brazilian website, Piquet Jr said he was weighing in options. “I am close to Force India at the moment,” Piquet told globo.com. “But to me NASCAR is very interesting, so I don’t know yet what is going to happen.”

Mankad-Huey in quarters

Bidding for his fourth ATP Challenger title of the season, Harsh Mankad has reached the doubles quarter-finals in Champaign in the United States along with Treat Conard Huey. The second seeded Indo-Philippines pair won 6-4 6-3 over American Nicholas Monroe and Izak Van der Merwe of South Africa. However, Purav Raja and British Richard Bloomfield crashed 6-0 7-6 (2) to Dominic Inglot of Britain and American Rylan Rizza.

Anand finishes second

Viswanathan Anand had to be content with a second-place finish at the World Blitz Chess Championship after managing 28 points, three behind winner Magnus Carlsen of Norway. Anand, who started off by winning 12 out of the first 14 games, was three points clear of third-placed Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine. Overall, Anand finished with 20 wins and 16 draws besides his six losses.

... contd.