Badminton at Olympics: Lakshya Sen enters semifinals with thrilling win over Chen
Paris, Aug 2: Lakshya Sen inched closer to a maiden Olympic medal after becoming the first Indian male shuttler to advance to the semifinals with a thrilling three-game win over Chinese Taipei's Chou Tien Chen at the Paris Games here on Friday.
The 22-year-old from Almora, a 2021 World Championships bronze medallist, combined pace with precision and held his nerve during key moments to emerge 19-21 21-15 21-12 winner against world number 11 Chou, a 2022 World Championships bronze medallist in an intense quarterfinal battle.
Sen, the reigning Commonwealth Games champion, will face the winner of the match between 2021 World Champion Loh kean Yew of Singapore and Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen of Denmark in the last four.
Women's singles players PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal are the only Indians to have crossed the quarterfinal stage in Olympics. In men's singles, Parupalli Kashyap and Kidambi Srikanth had reached the quarterfinals in 2012 London and 2016 Rio editions respectively.
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EC will leave no stone unturned to hold free, fair elections in West Bengal: CEC Kumar
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday asserted that the Election Commission will leave no stone unturned in holding free, fair and transparent polls in West Bengal where the first phase of voting is scheduled to be held on April 23.
Interacting with officials involved in poll management, the CEC said the elections will be fear-free, violence-free and intimidation-free.
Officials said the poll authority will ensure elections are also inducement-free and "booth jamming free".
No employee of the state government, local bodies or autonomous bodies will be allowed to influence the electoral process, they said.
The ruling TMC in the state has accused the EC of playing in the hands of the BJP, a charge vehemently rejected by the election watchdog.
The EC and the TMC have also been at loggerheads over the special intensive revision of voters' list with the party accusing the poll authority of deliberately disenfranchising voters to benefit the BJP. Both the EC and the BJP have rejected the charge while dubbing it as baseless.
The second phase of voting in West Bengal will be held on April 29 and votes will be counted on May 4.
