KOCHI: The countdown to Cochin International Half Marathon to be held on December 29 has begun and the first set of foreign athletes landed in the city on Thursday.
Ethiopians Abere Belay and Merkebu Birke and Kenyan Sammy Korir are three who have landed early for the 21-km race. Race director Edgar de Veer from the Netherlands is also here.
Merbeku with a personal best of 1:00.14 finished second in Des Moines while his compatriot Belay, who made his debut this year, had done 1:00.58 and has already run three this year.
Celebrated Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai is the best in men’s category enlisted for the event while his teammate Helah Kiprop tops the women’s chart and are expected to arrive on Friday.
Mutai finished second in the prestigious London Marathon this year while Helah is runner-up from the 2012 Berlin event. The women’s field also includes Estonian triplets Leila, Liina and Lily Luik.
The Half Marathon will start at 6:15 am from the Maharaja’s College ground premises and upon reaching Mattancherry, will take a U-turn and finish at the starting point.
Calicut University crushes SG Varsity
DC CORRESPONDENT
KOZHIKODE: South Zone champions Calicut University players scored 14 goals against a sorry SG University to start their all-India inter-university football championship in style at Muvattupuzha on Thursday.
In another match, MG University defeated Calcutta University, 4-0.
SELECTED RESULTS
Pool A: MDU Rothak bt Utkal University, 5-3; University of Burdwan bt Mumbai University, 2-0; Anna University bt Utkal University, 5-1
Pool B: Calicut University bt SG University, 14-0; Delhi University bt West Bengal University 2-0;
Pool C: Punjabi University bt Annamalai University, 1-0
Pool D:?MG University bt Calcutta University, 4-0; LNIPE Gwalior bt Shivaji University, 1-0.
Gadekar show helps Goa win
DC CORRESPONDENT
KOCHI: Harshad Gadekar’s unbeaten half century was the perfect anti-climax to four days of see-sawing cricket action that ended with Goa stealing a three-wicket win from Kerala’s clutches in the Ranji Trophy Group-C at Porvorim on Wednesday.
Brief scores: Kerala 273 & 147 in 62.5 overs (P. Prasanth 46, Vinoop 40, Jakati 4/44, Yadav 3/26, Mangaldas 2/33) lost to Goa 242 in 91.2 overs (Kamat 96, Desai 49, Niyas 6/82) & 183/7 in 64 overs (Gadekar 57 not out, Vaz 37, Shukla 28, Parameswaran 2/23)
Biju named india u-19 fielding coach
DC CORRESPONDENT
KOZHIKODE: BCCI has assigned Biju George as the fielding coach of Indian Under-19 team for the Asia Cup at Dubai from December 28 to January 2 to become the first coach from Kerala to train Indian team at any age group.
A Sports Authority of India coach, Biju George has qualified NIS and Level III certification in coaching from the National Cricket Academy.
Biju, a native of Thiruvananthapuram, is the coach of several Kerala first-class cricket players including Sanju V. Samson, Raiphy Vincent Gomez, Rohan Prem, and N. Niaz.
