Indian sports wrap, July 5: India tops Asian Junior Individual Squash Championships; Anahat Singh wins gold

SQUASH

Anahat crowned Junior Asian Squash Champion

India emerged as the top-performing nation at the 32nd Asian Junior Individual Championships 2025 after clinching two gold medals, two silver medals, and three bronze medals.

Top-seeded Anahat Singh and Aryaveer Dewan led the way by winning gold medals in the Girls Under 19 and Boys Under 17 categories, respectively. While Anahat beat Cheung TC of Hong Kong 3-0 (11-7, 11-2, 11-8), Aryaveer outclassed the top-seeded Nickhileswar of Malaysia 3-0 (11-5, 11-8, 11-3).

India’s silver medallists were Ayaan D and Saanvi K in the Boys Under 13 and Girls Under 15 sections, respectively.

Anika Dubey (Girls Under 17), Aryaman Singh (Boys Under 15), Amarya Bajaj (Boys Under 13) clinched the bronze medal for India.

-Team Sportstar

GOLF

Diksha hangs in at Irish Open to make 11th cut in a row

Diksha Dagar carded an even par 73 in the second round to emerge as the lone Indian to make the cut at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open in Kildare.

Diksha, who did not have a single par in her first six holes, was tied 56th after two rounds.

It was Diksha’s 11th cut in a row. The 24-year-old from Jhajjar, the highest ranked Indian in the Ladies European Tour, has shown great consistency with five Top-10 finishes including a runner-up finish in Morocco.

The other three Indians playing the Irish Open missed the cut as Avani Prashanth (74) fell short by one stroke and Tvesa Malik (78) and Hitaashee Bakshi (83) were way behind.

Diksha began on the first with a bogey, but rallied very well with three birdies in a row. She continued with a bogey-birdie on the fifth and the sixth. She had seven pars in a row and despite bogeys on the 14th and the 16th, Diksha closed with two pars for a 73 to make the cut on the line.

The cut fell at +2 with 69 players making it through to the weekend.

-PTI

Sharma, Ahlawat miss the cut in Germany

The Indian duo of Shubhankar Sharma and Veer Ahlawat missed the cut at the BMW International Open at Golfclub München Eichenried in Munich.

Sharma shot 74-68 to total two-under for two rounds and missed the cut by one as he finished T-69, while Ahlawat carded the same and also missed by one shot.

It was the seventh missed cut in a row for Sharma, while Ahlawat has missed three and withdrawn once in the last six starts. His best was T-13 in Austria and he was T-73 in Italy.

-PTI

Bhullar, Ajeetesh make cut in Morocco; nine Indians miss out

Gaganjeet Bhullar and Ajeetesh Sandhu were the only Indians to make the cut at the USD 2 million International Series Morocco, while nine others bowed out at the halfway stage in Rabat, Morocco.

Bhullar, the most successful Indian golfer on the Asian Tour, carded an even-par 73 following his opening round 72 to be one-under 145 after 36 holes, placing him tied 36th at the par-73 Royal Golf Dar Es Salam course.

Sandhu, meanwhile, added a 73 to his first-round 74 to be one-over and just scrape through at tied 61st as the cut fell at one-over.

Among the Indians missing the cut was Khalin Joshi (74-74), who fell short by a solitary shot. Others who exited early included Rashid Khan (77-72), S Chikkarangappa (75-75), SSP Chawrasia (74-76), Yuvraj Sandhu (76-74), Rahil Gangjee (75-75), Viraj Madappa (78-76), Karandeep Kochhar (78-80) and Aman Raj (79-79).

-PTI

Kho Kho

Ultimate Kho Kho appoints Dhiraj Parasher as CEO

Ultimate Kho Kho (UKK), India’s first professional Kho Kho league, announced the appointment of Dhiraj Parasher as its new Chief Executive Officer ahead of the Season 3 kicking off on November 29, 2025.

Parasher brings over two decades of experience across sports, entertainment, consulting, and brand development. He was also involved in organising major events, including the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

– Team Sportstar

ARCHERY

Asian para archery championships: India bags two team gold medals

Indian archers claimed two team gold medals in the Asian para archery championships in Beijing on Saturday.

Jyoti and Sheetal Devi combined to beat China’s Zhao Jing and Zhang Lu 148-143 in the final to win the compound women’s open team title. 

Harvinder Singh and Bhawna defeated China’s Gan Jun and Gao Cihan 5-4 (shoot-off: 14-8) to secure the recurve mixed team open crown.

Indian archers, however, lost in three finals to the Chinese to take silver.

Rakesh Kumar and Shyam Sunder Swami were defeated 156-155 by AI Xinliang and Zhang Yicheng in the compound men’s open team event. Jyoti and Rakesh were beaten 153-150 by Zhao Jing and Xinliang in the compound mixed team open title clash. Harvinder and Vivek Chikara lost 5-4 (shoot-off: 18-17) to Chinese Gan and Zhao Lixue in the recurve men’s open team gold medal match.

– Team Sportstar

WEIGHTLIFTING

Asian youth and junior weightlifting championships: Bhavani and Mansi claim twin gold for India

Bhavani Reddy and Mansi Chamunda have bagged gold and bronze medals in women’s 48kg youth and junior categories respectively at the Asian youth junior weightlifting championships in Astana.

Bhavani totalled 159kg (snatch 69kg, clean and jerk 90kg), while Mansi aggregated 166kg (snatch 74kg, clean and jerk 92kg). Dharmajyoti Devgharia took the silver in men’s youth 56kg with a total of 222kg (snatch 96kg, clean and jerk 126kg).

– Team Sportstar