Sunday, September 9, 2007

Talasha Prabhu swims to glory...

Talasha Prabhu swam her way to gold in the 50 m freestyle in the U-14 category at the first South Asian Aquatic Championship at Islamabad-Pakistan held in September 2007 clocking a personal best of 29.04 in her first ever international meet.

Ivana bags gold at Asian Chess in Al Ain

World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana Furtado won the U-8 category at the Asian Youth Chess Championships held in Al Ain, U.A.E. from August 22-31.
With this victory, Ivana notched 8 out of possible 9 points to record her first Gold Medal in the Asian Youth Championships. She becomes thus the youngest Indian to have bagged both the World and the Asian Championships - another feat for the Limca Book of records! She will look to make it three in a row when she participates in the Commonwealth Championships to be held in New Delhi in December this year.
SOURCE - Sameer Salgaocar President, Goa Chess Association

Bhakti bags silver at U-16 Asian Chess

Goa's Woman FIDE Master Bhakti Kulkarni (ELO 2112)
added yet another feather in her cap by winning the
Silver medal in the Asian Girls Under 16 Chess
Championships which concluded in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Bhakti registered a performace rating of 2087 and should
be earning herself 16 ELO Rating points as well as a bonus!

Last year's Commonwealth Girls Under 18 Gold medallist
Bhakti started off the tournament terribly by losing
in the first and third rounds. However, she recovered
superbly thereafter winning the next six on the trot
and beating the top seed and hot favourite WIM Padmini
Rout (ELO 2246) as well as strong contender WFM Pon.
N. Krithika (ELO 2122) in the process. The first place was bagged by
Nakhbayeva Guliskhan (ELO 2024) of Kazakhstan whereas
Padmini had to remain content with the Bronze medal.

Bhakti thus gets the unique distinction of having won three
medals in three consecutive Asian Championships. She won the
Bronze in New Delhi in 2005, the Gold in Teheran in 2006 before
completing her treble in Tashkent this year. Bhakti also has won the
Commonwealth Under 18 Girls Gold medal in Mumbai in 2006
to cement her place as flagbearer of Goan chess.

She will be received in New Delhi on her return by her parents and
AICF Vice President and GSCA President Sameer A. Salgaocar.
The last mentioned stated that this was a proud day in the history of Goan
sports and that Bhakti, her coach Dronacharya Awardee Raghunandan
Gokhale and parents should be lauded for their efforts!

Round 1 - lost to Gulruhsor Esonboeva of Uzbekistan
Round 2 - beat Hulkar Tohirjanova (ELO 1923) of Uzbekistan
Round 3 - lost to Guliskhan Nakhbayeva (ELO 2024) of Kazakhstan
Round 4 - beat Maftuna Khidirova of Uzbekistan
Round 5 - beat Mekhrangez Rakhmatova of Tajikistan
Round 6 - beat Thamina Turdialieva (ELO 1931) of Uzbekistan
Round 7 - beat Padmini Rout (ELO 2246) of India
Round 8 - beat Krithika Pon (ELO 2122) of India
Round 9 - beat Maftuna Orzikulova of Uzbekistan

Final Ranking - Second among 19 contestants. A full report on the tournament
is available at the following link - http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3995

Courtesy - http://GoanChess.blogspot.com