Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
Young Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin came back into title contention with a crushing victory over world junior champion Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran in the fifth round of the TePe Sigeman & Co. chess tournament in Malmo, Sweden.
With just two rounds left in the category-17 event, Nihal shares the third spot with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Germany and Nils Grandelius of Sweden while Maghsoodloo and Hillarp-Persson, also of Sweden, are next in the standings with two points each. Ivan Saric of Croatia is at the bottom of the table with just 1.5 point to his name.
Nihal got off to an modest start but Maghsoodloo could not come up with dominant moves, putting the Indian in the driver's seat. Nihal then kept the pressure up till the Iranian cracked. The Kerala-based Grandmaster won a queen and finished the game with a flawless conversion.
"I spent a lot of time agonizing over the loss against Hari in the previous round. I just wanted to get better and not lose, so today was a much better day," Nihal said.
The top seeded Indian P Harikrishna was held to a draw by Saric but remained in joint lead on 3.5 points alongside England's Gawain Jones, who split the point with Nisipeanu.
Saric seemed to emerge with a slightly better position from the opening in an Anti-Marshall against Harikrishna. However, it was an endgame and Harikrishna did not take much time to start doing what he usually does best. After the first time control, the Indian took control of the proceedings even as Saric had enough defensive resources to hold.
In the other game of the day, Grandelius accounted for his Swedish counterpart Persson.
Results of Round 5: Ivan Saric (Cro, 1.5) drew with P Harikrishna (Ind, 3.5); Nihal Sarin (Ind, 2.5) beat Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 2); Nils Grandelius (Swe, 2.5) beat Tiger Hillarp-Persson (Swe, 2);.Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Ger, 2.5) drew with Gawain Jones (Eng, 3.5).
Russian athlete Savina gets 12-year doping ban
Russian middle-distance runner Kseniya Savina has been banned for 12 years for anti-doping violations by global athletics authorities, the Russian athletics federation said on Wednesday.
Her coach and husband, Alexei Savin, received a four-year ban for violating anti-doping regulations, the federation said.
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which monitors anti-doping issues in athletics, had said last month that the two had been charged with "tampering and complicity", in violation of anti-doping regulations.
Russia has been rocked by several sporting bans in recent years after international investigations found evidence of widespread, state-sponsored doping in athletics and a string of other sports.
The Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA and Russia's athletics federation were suspended after a 2015 report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics.
RUSADA was reinstated last year. Russia's athletics federation remains suspended by the IAAF.