Sourabh Verma wins Russian Open title
Vladivostok (Russia), July 29 : Sourabh Verma stood out with his top-of-podium finish performance in the men singles event even as the young mixed doubles duo of Rohan Kapoor and Kuhoo Garg finished with the silver medal in the Russia Open Tours Super 100 badminton tournament here.
Sunday's triumph comes close on the heels of Lakshya Sen's gold medal winning performance at the Asian Juniors in Jakarta, just a fortnight ago.
The Indian shuttlers continued to put up a stellar display and it was capped by the sixth-seeded Sourabh who scripted a come-from-behind win to triumph over Japan's Koki Watanabe in the summit clash. He beat the Japanese 18-21, 21-12, 21-17 to clinch his first title of the season in a thriller that lasted exactly an hour.
In the first game, Sourabh had a lacklustre beginning as he was trailing 5-11 even though Watanabe managed only a slender lead initially. Yet, the Indian showed great character and levelled at 18-18 before the Japanese ran through to finish strongly.
Sourabh, obviously eager to keep himself in the hunt, looked much more composed and with his effective half-court smashes and an equally strong net play, maintained the lead to take the game 21-12.
Watanabe looked resolute to not let his guard down in the decider, surging with an early lead of 9-3. But Sourav staged a fine recovery from nowhere and exhibiting his prowess at rallies, pulled himself upfront, thanks to some clinical baseline smashes and decisive drops.
In his anxiety to catch up with Sourabh, the Japanese made several unforced errors which only helped the Indian's cause as the Japanese wilted under pressure. Sourabh romped home winners with the game and match at 21-17.
Earlier, Kuhoo Garg and Rohan Kapoor, who had won the silver at the Lagos International last week, continued their sublime form to repeat the success at the Russian Open. They put up a valiant effort but succumbed 19-21, 17-21 to the Japanese-Russian combine of Vladimir Ivanon and Min Kyung Kim in the final.
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Supreme Court rejects plea for reverting to ballots in elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.
Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.
When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".
The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.
"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.
After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.
The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.
"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.
There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.
"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".
Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.
"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.
When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."
The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.
The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.
"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.
