India rewrote history by winning their first-ever cricket series in Pakistan, after curbing a late charge by the home side in the decisive fifth One-Day International here today.

The 40-run win that helped India wrap up the Samsung Cup one-day series 3-2 was built on a gritty 107 by VVS Laxman, followed up by a brilliant bowling display by seamer Irfan Pathan (three for 32) who helped reduce the home side to 96 for six at one stage.. Pakistan were bundled out for 253 with 13 balls to spare. Never before have India won a one-day series - or for that matter, a Test series - in Pakistan. They have lost all the five previous series of the game's shorter version in this country and their win before a packed Gaddafi Stadium was indeed sweet.

Courtesy: The Statesman, March 25, 2004

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Giving a fine demonstration of his attacking skills, defending champion Viswanathan Anand dealt a double blow to Francisco Vallejo Pons of Spain to move to the joint third position in the Amber Blindfold and Rapid chess tournament here. With a victory each in blindfold and rapid games of round three on Monday, Anand took his tally to four points from six games played so far. Braingames champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia played out two hard fought draws against Peter Leko of Hungary and was joined by compatriot Evgeny Bareev in the lead after the latter scored a hard-hitting 2-0 victory over Loek Van Wely of the Netherlands. Both the leaders have 4.5 points each in their kitty and are followed by Anand, Leko and Russian Champion Peter Svidler. The sixth spot is jointly held by Russian Alexander Morozevich and Latvian born Spaniard Alexei Shirov, who have 3.5 points apiece. Eight more rounds remain in the tournament that carries a total prize pool of 193,500 Euros.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, March 24, 2004

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JJ Shobha of Andhra Pradesh created a new national record in women's heptathlon event of the 10th Federation Cup Athletics Championship to book her berth in the 2004 Athens Olympics Games here on Wednesday. The Andhra athlete scored a total 6211 points to erase the earlier record of 6186 points set by Soma Biswas of West Bengal in July 2000. Shobha is the fourth India athelete to qualify for the four-yearly event after World championship bronze medallist Anju Bobby George, discus thrower Neelam 2Jaswant Singh and men's long jumper Amritpal Singh. G G Pramila of Kerala won the silver with 5911 points while Anju Paulose bagged the bronze with a total of 4927 points. In the 100m hurdles for women, Biswas won the gold with a timing of 13.91 seconds while K N Priya of Tamil Nadu and Amita Sethi of Orissa bagged the silver (14.35) and bronze (14.65) medals, respectively. On Tuesday Amritpal singh erased TC Yohannan's 30-year-old National record in men's long jump leaping to a distance of 8.08m. Amritpal, an Assistant Sub-Inspector with the Punjab Police, blew kisses to the crowd and jumped in joy after he broke the 8.07m mark set by Yohannan while winning gold in the Teheran Asian Games on September 12, 1974.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, March 18, 2004

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STANDING SEVEN feet two inches tall in a body that weighs about 165 kg, Dilip Singh Rana is not a man you are likely to miss on a normal day. And yet, billions of Indians almost did. The only Indian to ever win the World Championship of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), Rana is now hoping to become the `big brother' for those who nurture dreams of doing things similar. Born in Himachal Pradesh, 31-year-old Rana grew up in Jalandhar.

It was in 1997 that Rana entered the Mr. India contest and, not surprisingly, won it too. But it was WWF that had caught his fancy by then. Not surprising then that nearly two years later Rana went on to win the world championship. Beating 250 wrestlers to win the championship was no easy deal, but when Rana went to Japan in 2002 for the championship.

Courtesy: The Hindu, March 15, 2004

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Ace rifle shooter Anjali Vedpathak Bhagwat won the bronze medal in sport rifle three position in the ISSF World Cup at Sydney Anjali shot 97.6 in the final following her 582 in the preliminary round to finish with 679.6 points and claim the third place. This was Anjali's first World Cup medal in sport rifle but she has won a number of medals in her pet event -- the 10m air rifle. This was India's second medal from the World Cup after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the double trap gold.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times, March 06, 2004