Sports Snippets

Atiqa Mir only Indian chosen for FIA’s women driver programme

FRANCIACORTA (Italy), Nov 14: Indian racing prodigy Atiqa Mir is among nine drivers chosen worldwide in the junior category for the FIA Girls On Track Rising Stars program for 2026.Atiqa is one of the youngest drivers chosen for the world body FIA backed initiative aimed at promoting and developing young women drivers at the grassroots level. She is also is the only Indian named in the age 12-14 junior category.Girls On Track was launched by the FIA in 2018. Atiqa’s selection follows a string of impressive performances in the Champions of the Future Academy (COTFA) championship and the FIA Karting World Championship where she finished sixth in the opening race. She had dominated the COTFA round in Greece earlier this year.“In just over two weeks, nine talented racers will head to Cremona Circuit for three-day training camp designed to sharpen their skills and help take their racing to the next level,” read a note from the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission.The other drivers picked by the FIA in the junior category are Lina Salamanca from France, Sofia Calderon from Costa Rica, Cora Moore from Britain, Anna Regina Franco Rodriguez from Mexico, Lily Rizk from Egypt, Kira Maistrenko from Ukraine, Annais Orelana from Chile and Emily Grace Hamer from Australia.Atiqa, the first Indian to be backed by the Formula 1 Academy, is currently taking part in the final round of COTFA series here. (PTI)

India clinch bronze at ITPF World Cup after fighting back on final day

AQABA (Jordan), Nov 14: India clinched a bronze medal in the team event at the ITPF World Cup, capping their campaign with a podium finish on the final day of the competition here.The Indian team comprised Dinesh Karlekar, Amit Chettri, Sandeep Kumar, Bonge Ganesh, Jitender Singh and Sirsat Dhanraj.Karlekar was India’s top performer, securing the overall individual bronze medal across the three days of competition with 127.5 points.He narrowly missed out on silver, with Saudi Arabia’s Alqahtani and Jordan’s Abdul Wahan scoring 128 points each, while the gold-medal winner finished with 130 points, according to the Indian Tent Pegging Federation.India were leading on the final day until the last run, but missed three pegs in the decisive attempt, finishing with eight points in that run.Jordan won the World Cup.The Indian contingent was led by Dr Athar Afsar, the country’s only Gold Badge International Judge and Coach, and coached by Suresh Kumar, India’s highest international medal winner. (PTI)

TT: Manika, Sreeja and Sathiyan negotiate qualifiers

PHAGWARA, Nov 14: Former champions Manika Batra and Sreeja Akula produced impressive wins in the qualifiers to secure their berths in the stage 2 knockout rounds on the inaugural day of the third National Ranking Table Tennis Championships here on Saturday.The top 16 women’s seeds, however, await their turn to begin their main-draw campaigns on Sunday at the Shanti Devi Mittal Indoor Stadium.Batra registered a 3-0 victory over Monolipi Singha in Group 69, while Akula also accounted for Bhumika Sahukar by the same margin in Group 1. With one more round remaining, both will aim to carry that form into the final group encounters before turning their attention to the knockout stage.Among other contenders, Ahana Sengupta went down 2-3 to Vanshika Mudgal of FCI in Group 15 before recovering to register a 3-2 victory over Ranjini Saha.In Group 19, Hiya Singh also endured a close encounter against Naisha Rewaskar, losing 2-3, but bounced back to beat Sanchari Chakrabarty 3-1.In Group 20, Shaniqa Shahid, after losing 1-3 to Nithyashree Mani, fought back to defeat Sanya Sehgal 3-2. Preetika P in Group 17 and Mitali Purkar in Group 52 were among others involved in five-game contests, while Aarna Gauhar Ahuja and Avni Dua also featured in closely fought group encounters.The remaining group matches will determine the eventual Stage 2 qualifiers, with the successful contenders joining the players who have already secured their places. (PTI)