The 76th Junior National Basketball Championship, hosted by the Pondicherry Basketball Association and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Puducherry, witnessed a challenging start for the runners-up team from Gujarat. In their opening Group B encounter on Friday, Gujarat fell to Rajasthan with a score of 55-62. Dinal Viththani led the Gujarat scoring with 17 points, while Vidhi Baria added 11 points. For Rajasthan, Ankita contributed 19 points, propelling her team to a victory after a closely contested first half. The match was evenly poised until the second quarter, but Rajasthan pulled away decisively in the third quarter.
The following day, Saturday, Gujarat faced Uttar Pradesh and suffered a second consecutive defeat, this time with a final score of 69-85. At the end of the third quarter, Uttar Pradesh held a slim lead of 59-56, but they dominated the final period, outscoring Gujarat 26-10 to secure a comfortable win. Neha led the Uttar Pradesh scoring with 22 points, and Anshika Sharma contributed 15 points. For Gujarat, Dinal Viththani was again the top scorer with 13 points, and Nitya Agrawal chipped in with 10 points.
Vaidehee Chaudhari's Disappointing ITF Korea Campaign
India's rising tennis star Vaidehee Chaudhari, originally from Ahmedabad, endured a below-par performance at the ITF W$35,000 tournament in Changwon, South Korea. The 26-year-old, seeded fifth in the singles draw, lost her first-round match 3-6, 4-6 to unseeded Japanese player Reina Goto. In the doubles event, Vaidehee and her American partner Amy Zhu won their first-round match 6-1, 3-6, 10-4 against India's Sravya Shivani Chilakalapudi and Russia's Kseniya Yersh. However, the pair was defeated in the quarter-finals by South Korea's Heerae Im and Eunchae Kim, losing 1-6, 1-6.
Sheetal Bhatt Appointed Competition Director for National Finswimming Championship
The Underwater Sports Association India (USAI) has appointed Gujarat's Sheetal Bhatt as the competition director for the upcoming 9th National Finswimming Championship. The event is scheduled to take place from May 29 to 31 at the Campal Swimming Pool in Panaji, Goa. USAI is a recognized member of the World Underwater Federation (CMAS).
