Manu Bhaker and Javad Foroughi win air pistol mixed team gold in President's Cup
Wroclaw (Poland) (PTI): India's woman pistol ace Manu Bhaker and Iran's reigning Olympic champion Javad Foroughi won the 10m air pistol mixed team gold at the inaugural ISSF President's Cup here.
The Indo-Iranian pair got the better of the French-Russian duo of Mathilde Lamolle and Artem Chernousov 16-8 in the gold medal match on Friday.
Bhaker and Foroughi were placed third in qualification with a combined scored of 582/600 to qualify for the first semi-final where they topped the field of four pairs to make it to the final.
Lamolle and Artem came through by winning the second semi-final.
Among the other Indians in the field, Abhishek Verma paired up with Ukranian Olena Kostevych to finish sixth while the pairing of Saurabh Chaudhary and Swiss Heidi Gerber Diethelm also made it among the top eight semi-finalists to finish seventh.
Yashaswini Deswal, the fourth Indian in the fray and who was paired with Slovakian Juraj Tuzinsky, ended 10th among the 12 teams in the competition.
International mixed teams were formed by the ISSF randomly in accordance with the draw.
In the day's other medal event, China's Lihao Sheng and Romania's Laura-Georgeta Ilie won the 10m air rifle mixed team competition.
The inaugural ISSF President's Cup is a rechristened version of the World Cup Finals, where the year's top 12 athletes according to world ranking are invited to determine the best individual athletes of the year in their respective Olympic events.
Individual winners will be awarded The Golden Target along with prize money. Cash awards will also be awarded to all athletes in the individual competitions.
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BJP workers protest Bengaluru event on Umar Khalid, taken into preventive custody
Bengaluru (PTI): BJP workers, led by former Bengaluru Mayor M Gautham Kumar, staged a protest outside the heavily fortified BIC in the city on Tuesday ahead of an event.
The editors of the book “Umar Khalid and His World” have planned a reading of excerpts from the book at the venue, followed by a discussion involving several “historians and intellectuals”.
The BJP activists raised slogans demanding the cancellation of the event. They attempted to enter the venue by breaking through the barricades put up by the police.
Police personnel deployed at the spot took the BJP workers into preventive custody.
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The party had on Monday petitioned Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh seeking cancellation of the event organised in support of activist Umar Khalid.
A delegation of BJP leaders led by Bengaluru Central MP P C Mohan met the commissioner and submitted a memorandum in this regard.
Khalid is currently in jail in connection with allegations of conspiracy in the 2020 Delhi riots.
In a post on ‘X’ earlier in the day, the Karnataka BJP alleged that while courts are still hearing cases related to anti-national activities, the Congress-backed ecosystem is busy glorifying individuals who aim to divide Bharat.
“Why is Bengaluru being turned into a hub for celebrating such elements? Is this the ‘cultural contribution’ the Siddaramaiah government wants to promote? Our city is a land of innovators and patriots, not a playground for the ‘Tukde Tukde’ (divisive) narrative,” it alleged.
The Supreme Court on April 20 dismissed Khalid’s plea seeking review of a verdict denying him bail, observing that there are reasonable grounds to believe the allegations against him in connection with the conspiracy behind the 2020 Delhi riots.
The court had earlier said there was a prima facie case against Khalid and Sharjeel Imam (another accused) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), noting that prosecution material suggests their involvement in the “planning, mobilisation, and strategic direction” of the riots.
The February 2020 riots in northeast Delhi broke out during protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), leaving 53 people dead and more than 700 injured.
