New Delhi, June 28: Two months before the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games, a 16-year-old Indian jabbed, hooked and punched his way to silver medal at the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. Shiva Thapa is now going to be the country’s youngest boxer to compete at the Olympics in London.

Thapa himself didn‘t imagine that things could happen so fast. The Guwahati-born pugilist...

DONETSK, June 28: Defending champions Spain beat Portugal 4-2 on penalties after their Euro 2012 semifinal finished 0-0 after extra-time here on Wednesday.

After an attritional game finished 0-0 following extra time, Cesc Fabregas swept home the winning spot-kick to put Spain in the final.

Xabi Alonso and Joao Moutinho both saw their opening penalties saved, but Portugal blinked...

DONETSK, June 28: Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo will have to wait another two years to see if he will grace a major final for only the second time after Spain edged his side 4-2 on penalties in their Euro 2012 semi-final here on Wednesday.

However, many will question what happened in the penalty shootout as he stood like a spare part - a disconsolate one at that - as Cesc Fabre...

DONETSK, June 28: Sergio Ramos admitted that the chipped penalty that gave Spain the initiative in their 4-2 penalty shoot-out win over Portugal in the Euro 2012 semifinals had been planned in advance.

The Real Madrid man beat Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio with a ‘Panenka’ penalty to put Spain 3-2 ahead and after Bruno Alves hit the crossbar with his attempt, Cesc Fabrega...

Colombo, June 28: More than 100,000 tickets have been sold for the ICC World Twenty20 Cup in Sri Lanka, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a statement here on Thursday. The majority of these tickets have been sold in the Sri Lankan market, ICC said. Around 55 percent of the sales generated are from the local market and nearly 40 percent of the tickets sold were purchased by fans over ...

Colombo, June 28: Indian business enterprises showed keen interest in the inaugural edition of the Sri Lanka Premier League and bought all the seven contesting franchises on offer, even as the BCCI decided not to allow its players to participate in the Twenty20 league.

The Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) had even last year prohibited its players from participating in the league, which force...

Eugene, June 28 : Former Olympic sprint champion Maurice Greene has dismissed the notion that Jamaican Usain Bolt can rescale the lofty heights of 2008 when he established two mind-boggling World records in the 100 and 200 metres. Greene said he expected the marquee 100m at the upcoming London Olympics to be a very competitive affair as Bolt was no longer in the shape he was four years ago, rep...

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28: Sharad Pawar’s reign as the president of the International Cricket Council ended on Thursday as New Zealander Alan Isaac took charge from him for a two-year term at the ICC Annual Conference here.

The 60-year-old Isaac, a former New Zealand Cricket chief, became the eighth president of the ICC, while former South Africa wicket-keeper David Richardson was con...

LONDON, June 28: World number one Maria Sharapova was forced to dig deep before securing her place in the Wimbledon third round with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 6-0 victory over Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova on Thursday. The Court 1 match, suspended overnight in the second set, ended three minutes after Serena Williams concluded her second-round victory on Centre Court, beating qualifier Meli...

LONDON, June 28: Seventh seed Caroline Wozniacki lost 5-7, 7-6, 6-4 to Austrian Tamira Paszek in a disrupted first-round clash at Wimbledon on Wednesday.

In a match which started on Tuesday and was interrupted again by rain on Wednesday, former world number one Wozniacki took the first set and led 2-0 in the second but Paszek continued to go for her shots and fought back to win a tiebre...

LONDON, June 28: Britain’s Andy Murray faced an all-out assault from massive- serving Croat Ivo Karlovic before booking his place in the Wimbledon third round with a 7-5 6-7 6-2 7-6 victory on Thursday.

The number four seed struggled to get a handle on the Karlovic serve with 17 aces flying past him and the 2.08 metre Croat also volleyed well to frustrate Murray.

After cla...

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28: Left red-faced after the powerful BCCI opposed the Decision Review System at the Executive Board Meeting, the ICC on Thursday said that it will not force India to accept the controversial technology in bilateral series.

With India unrelenting in its opposition to the DRS, the ICC Board did not ratify the Chief Executive Committee's recommendation for universal app...

St. George’s, June 28: West Indies A beat India A by two wickets in a low-scoring first of the three match One-Day series at the National Stadium here.

After being dismissed for 190, the Indians looked like pulling it off when they reduced West Indies to 158 for eight before a critical, unbroken 35-run stand between skipper Veerasammy Permaul and tail-ender Nikita Miller steered t...

NEW DELHI, June 28: The first Indian boxer to win a medal at the Olympics, Vijender Singh, said on Thursday that his bronze medal in Beijing had changed the face of boxing and motivated other boxers in the country to reach new heights.

Post the 2008 Beijing Games, Vijender has had a few ups and downs in his career. He lost in the 2009 World Amateur Boxing Championships, beaten by Abbos ...

DUBAI, June 28: Australian all-rounder Shane Watson believes that the West Indies will be the team to beat in the ICC Twenty20 World Cup which kicks off in Sri Lanka in September.

Watson feels Darren Sammy’s side’s all-round strengths make it the favourite for the event.

“I actually think the West Indies are going to be the team to beat. They have got a really ...

WASHINGTON, June 28: Michael Phelps edged Ryan Lochte to win the 200-metre freestyle final at the US Olympic swimming trials. Phelps, the former world record-holder and reigning Olympic champion, led throughout the final to win in one minute 45.70 seconds, while Lochte, who beat Phelps in the event at last year’s Shanghai worlds, trailed at 1:45.75 on Wednesday. Both of them booked an Olympi...

AIGLE, June 28: Italian cyclist Leonardo Bertagnolli retired within hours of learning he could face disciplinary action for suspected blood doping.

The International Cycling Union requested a hearing for Bertagnolli on Wednesday, and soon after the 34-year-old announced his retirement.

If a formal charge is brought, it would be the first such case opened since May 2010 based sol...

WARSAW, June 28: Poland’s security services have lifted their readiness level ahead of the final Euro 2012 match on its soil on Thursday as a precaution after a border patrol found explosives on a raft on a river on its border this week.

“We have received certain information that pointed to a potential appearance of a terrorist threat,” said interior minister Jacek Cic...

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 28: Brazilian swimmer Glauber Silva has been banned for two years and stripped of his place at the London Olympics for doping.

Silva, who last month qualified for the 100m butterfly event in London, tested positive to excess levels of testosterone during Brazil’s Olympic swimming trials in April.

He was handed the sentence by Brazil’s swimming co...

MADRID, June 28: The popularity of the Spanish national football team was highlighted once again on Wednesday night as the penalty shoot-out between them and Portugal attracted the country’s biggest ever TV audience. Spain’ s dramatic penalty win in the penalty shoot-out against Portugal in the first semi-final of the European Championship has taken the Spanish to their third final in ...

MADRID, June 28: Chinese football side Guangzhou Evergrande are preparing an offer for Real Madrid’s star Brazilian midfielder Kaka. Guanzhou are prepared to offer Kaka around 18 million euros a season on top of paying 25 million euros to Kaka’s current club, Real Madrid, for his transfer. Guangzhou are currently trained by former Italy coach Marcelo Lippi and the club’s owner Xu...

BERLIN, June 28: German club Wolfsburg have agreed on a transfer for striker Mario Mandzukic to join Bayern Munich until 2016. The Croatian international will travel to Munich in the next few days to undergo the mandatory medical check up. Then he will sign his contract with the German record champion until June 2016. “We are very happy to sign Mario Mandzukic, a top striker of the Bundeslig...

BERLIN, June 28: German side Borussia Monchengladbach has signed Atletico Madrid defender Alvaro Dominguez until June 2017, the club said in an official statement. The 23-year-old central defender passed the medical check-up Tuesday to sign a five-year contract with the “Fohlen”. “He was starting defender at Atletico Madrid, he has won the Europa League in 2010 and 2012. Moreover...

MADRID, June 28: Spanish club Atletico Madrid have confirmed a deal with Chelsea to keep young goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois on loan for another season. Courtois spent last season with Atletico Madrid after joining Chelsea from Belgian side, Genk, and was an immediate success, winning a place in the first team and forming part of the team that ended the season crowned as Europa League champions foll...

WARSAW, June 28: Poland’s capital Warsaw geared up on Thursday for its last Euro 2012 kick-off, with Germany playing Italy at the city’s National Stadium for a place in the competition final.
About 30,000 foreign arrived in the city for the key match, including 20,000 Germans and 3,000 Italians, organizers said.
Some 6,000 police officers were out in force to keep order, incl...

LONDON, June 28: Former England captain David Beckham revealed on Thursday he had not been picked for Great Britain’s Olympic football squad.

Beckham, regarded as a potential skipper of the side, confirmed in a statement he had not made the final 18-man squad as one of coach Stuart Pearce’s three over-age players.

Pearce had travelled to the United States to assess B...

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 28: Substitute Romarinho scored a precious late equalizer as Corinthians earned a 1-1 away draw against Boca Juniors in the Copa Libertadores final first leg in Buenos Aires.

Facundo Roncaglia gave Boca the lead on 72nd minute at the Bombonera Stadium when he tapped in from close range after Chicao’s goal-line clearance on Wednesday.

Corinthians coach ...

DONETSK, June 28: Team captains Iker Casillas and Cristiano Ronaldo made speeches supporting a UEFA anti-discrimination campaign before Spain and Portugal kicked off their European Championship semifinal match on Wednesday.

UEFA requires captains of each semifinalist to deliver prepared statements on the pitch for the “Respect Diversity” campaign. Casillas said “we owe...

MADRID, June 28: Barcelona have strengthened their defence and found a replacement for Eric Abidal by sealing an agreement with Valencia to sign Spain fullback Jordi Alba on a five-year contract, the La Liga club said on Thursday.

The deal is worth 14 million euros ($17.44 million) and is subject to the 23-year-old left back, a Barca youth academy graduate who is representing Spain at E...

LONDON, June 28: Arsenal’s signing of French striker Olivier Giroud on Tuesday may signal a turning-point in Robin van Persie’s career with the Premier League club.

Manager Arsene Wenger is said to be considering playing an attacking trio of Giroud, Van Persie and the Gunners’ other new recruit Lukas Podolski as part of a 4-3-3 formation which the Frenchman tried out l...

WARSAW, June 28: Cesare Prandelli admitted he doesn’t always understand errant striker Mario Balotelli but insisted it wasn’t a problem. Balotelli’s club coach Roberto Mancini said last season that it was impossible to understand the mad-cap 21-year-old. But his Italy counterpart said it was merely a generational issue rather than a difficulty tuning into his temperamental star&r...

THE HAGUE, June 28: Bert van Marwijk has stepped down as Netherlands coach after his team’s first round elimination from the European football championships, the Dutch Football Federation (KNVB) announced on Wednesday. A statement on the KNVB’s website said: “On the initiative of Bert van Marwijk, the KNVB and Bert van Marwijk decided on Wednesday to end the coach’s contrac...

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 28: Brazil international midfielder Paulo Henrique Ganso has rejected an improved contract offer by his club Santos. The 22-year-old, currently tied to the Brazilian outfit until 2015, is reportedly seeking a salary of $500,000 a month - more than double the amount proposed by Santos, reports Xinhua. “The negotiations are still open,” Santos vice president Odilio R...

LONDON, June 28: Manchester United will face Barcelona in a pre-season friendly staged in Gothenburg on August 8, the Premier League giants confirmed on Thursday. United, beaten 3-1 by Barca in the 2011 Champions League final, will face the Catalans as part of a busy pre-season schedule which includes matches in Norway, South Africa and China. “Manchester United against Barcelona is one of t...