LIVERPOOL: Liverpool’s James Milner has said that proving people wrong has always been a motivating factor for the footballer.“I think it’s just will to win, I suppose, and the drive to be the best you can every day. I think when you lose that you need to retire pretty quick. I’m very competitive in everything you do: training [or] if it’s games, you want to win. Proving people wrong still, it has always been a big driver for me,” the club’s official website quoted Milner as saying. The midfielder, who turned 35 in January, also said: “Every interview you do now your age is brought up. I still feel fine in myself, so why not push for as long as you can? You’re a long time retired, so I want to keep going and keep pushing myself.“Obviously it’s very short term when you get to this age because anything can happen; we know that in football anyway, even when you’re younger. But so far I feel good, I still feel no different to what I did five, seven, eight, 10 years ago in terms of covering the distance in games and things like that. It’s no different. So, crack on,” he added.Liverpool is now the team Milner has served the longest as a senior pro, following his spells with Leeds United, Newcastle United, Aston Villa and Manchester City. The No.7 has amassed 243 appearances and 26 goals over the course of what will soon be six completed seasons at Anfield.Milner further stated that he wants to have an impact on the club and contribute on the field as much as he can.“Especially when you’re at a club like Liverpool and the demand is there every day to win, the players around you, the competition for places and the level they’re at every day, you have to be at your level otherwise you’re not going to be anywhere near it,” Milner said.“The thing I’ve always said since I’ve been here is I just want to have an impact on the club and contribute on the field as much as I can. And sometimes that comes into when you’re not playing — how can you contribute with the team in terms of training and the other side of it? It’s the same reason why you’re driven every day to be at 100 per cent — because you want to be part of something successful,” he added.Liverpool will take on Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar shot 462.5 to edge past the World No 1 Istvan Peni in the final to take the top spot on the podium in the 50m rifle 3 Position event at the ISSF World Cup. It was his first individual gold medal at a senior World Cup.“Since coming out of the lockdown, he was shooting better with every competition,” the High-Performance Specialist Coach of the Junior Indian Rifle Shooting Team, Suma Shirur, told the Olympic Channel. “He shot 1182 in the trials and then 1185 in the all-India university championships.

In the World Cup, his score was not very high but scores overall were low at the (50m) 3 Position events.

That’s because of the very tough outdoor conditions. It was extremely windy on that day.

But hanging in there and performing the way he did showed maturity beyond his years.

Coming out and winning the finals was phenomenal,” Shirur added.Having turned 20 in February, Aishwary is also the youngest Indian in history to win a shooting World Cup gold in the 3 Positions event. He was the only one from India to win an individual gold in a rifle event at the New Delhi World Cup.The Indian shooters raked in a record haul of medals at the New Delhi World Cup.

With a total of 30 medals, including 15 gold, this was their best performance at a World Cup.

Apart from being Aishwary’s personal coach, Shirur, a former Commonwealth Games gold medalist, also guides the junior Indian Rifle Shooting Team. She has shaped the careers of Divyansh Singh Panwar and Aishwary, as both of them progressed through the juniors and have gone on to clinch Olympic quota places for India.Divyansh won a bronze in the 10m Air Rifle individual event while he and Elavenil Valarivan also claimed gold in the 10m Air Rifle mixed team event. Divyansh, Aishwary and Deepak Kumar won the silver medal in the Air Rifle men’s team event. Aishwary also combined with Sunidhi Chauhan to win bronze in the 50m 3P mixed team event.“I am extremely happy for Aishwary and Divyansh, because they are the only ones who won individual medals. That is what we need, and that is what is important when you think of the Olympics. You have mixed team events but not team events at the Olympics, in the air weapon. But presently we don’t have a quota in the mixed team. Winning individual medals was very important,” said Shirur.

“Divyansh has shown exemplary performance before lockdown and to continue at the same level after coming back was great. It was important for us coaches also to see how the kids have coped. Juniors thrive on competition.

They have that raw competitive fire. ‘I want to be better than that person.’ So suddenly when competition stopped keeping them motivated and keeping them hungry, making them do the wall holdings and dry practice was very challenging,” she added.The New Delhi World Cup was the first international competition for the Indian contingent after more than a year. And as such, it helped the shooters, as well as the coaches, gauge just where they stand in the run-up to the Olympics.“The way they dealt with the lockdown was very individual. But initial part was difficult for all. We really had a couple of months of doing nothing. So when they came back, just standing there at the lanes for so many hours was in itself a challenge. Overall the stamina had gone down a little bit. Also for most of them, their kits needed some changes. They needed to fine-tune their rifles, equipment. Each one had their own challenges,” Shirur said.“After the lockdown, this was the first World Cup, first international competition. Everyone was looking forward to it, especially because the Olympics are on. Keeping that in mind, it was important for the shooting world to get started. Keeping the Olympic preparation in mind, this was a very good beginning.”The 46-year-old was glad to see her ward Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar overcome a particular challenge during the lockdown and clinch a gold in the 50m 3 Position event at the recently-concluded ISSF Shooting World Cup.“Post-lockdown he suddenly looked bigger. I left him looking like a kid and he came out looking like an adult! Aishwary had a growth spurt during the lockdown,” Shirur said.“His old jacket wouldn’t fit him anymore. So we had to actually have a new jacket, adjust the rifle according to size. He came to Mumbai and got a new kit done. It’s always a challenge with boys at this age because their bodies are growing. To be able to deal with that aspect of their life and coming on top despite that, I’m very happy to see that.”Encouraged by their recent performance, and the way they held up, technically and mentally, despite the lockdown disruption, Shirur is optimistic about the future. “The boys look ready,” she sums up.

With ANI inputs

Amid the ongoing surge in coronavirus cases, the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala and the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Bengaluru reported 26 and four positive cases respectively. A source told ANI that RT-PCR tests were conducted at NIS, Patiala, and SAI, Bengaluru. At NIS, around 380 tests were carried out while at SAI, more than 400 tests were conducted. In addition to 26 positive cases at NIS, there are two coaches as well who have returned a positive result. However, no Olympic-bound athlete has tested positive for COVID-19.Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju has said that the ministry is planning to send the Indian Olympic contingent in advance for the Tokyo Games so that the athletes get acclimatise to the conditions.“Only three months are left for the Olympic Games. Athletes are giving their best to book their seats for the Olympics and do well for the country. The ministry is also planning to send the Olympic team in advance so that they would get time to adjust to the climate over there. They will be able to train in those conditions which will help them during the competition,” Rijiju told ANI.“Arrangements are being made for our athletes and their team (technical), they will be put up in different locations in Japan. Right now, some of them are still participating in tournaments. There are some qualification events happening, but we have made a detailed plan for it. I have spoken to the Indian Olympic Association and we have a committee headed by me to plan and prepare for the Olympics and the entire management. The athletes will be able to train and practice wherever they will stay,” he added.Eight states accounted for 84.73 per cent of the 53,480 COVID-19 cases registered in the country in the last 24 hours, the union health ministry informed on Wednesday morning.Maharashtra continued to report the highest number of daily cases with 27,918, followed by Chhattisgarh and Karnataka with 3,108 and 2,975 respectively. Six states accounted for 82.20 per cent of the new 354 deaths. With 139, Maharashtra saw the maximum casualties, followed by Punjab with 64 deaths.Fourteen states/Union Territories (UTs) have not reported any COVID-19 related death in the last 24 hours, the ministry further said. ANI

Liverpool’s Harvey Davies said there is nothing better than training alongside the “best goalkeeper in the world” Alisson Becker, adding that the latter’s tips will help him get to the next level.

A first-year scholar with Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s side, the U18s goalkeeper recently found himself training alongside Becker at the AXA Training Centre.

Not only that, a call-up to the first-team squad for a Champions League trip recently arrived as he found himself on the plane bound for Budapest.

On March 10, the 17-year-old was named on the bench for the second leg of Liverpool’s last-16 tie with RB Leipzig.

Also, he only made his U18s debut in the FA Youth Cup away at Tottenham Hotspur last season.

“There’s nothing better than training with the best keeper in the world, you can’t get better than that. When I first got told I was coming up here, I thought, ‘I’ve got an opportunity here to learn so much, so I’m going to take it all in.’ Alisson is unbelievable in training — I don’t think I’ve seen him let in many goals,” the club’s official website quoted Davies as saying.

“He’s world-class and he’s been helping me in training as well and giving me advice on certain things. He’s just a really nice guy as well. The things he’s been telling me will help me get to that next level because that’s where I want to be and he knows that,” he added.

Liverpool is currently struggling in the ongoing season of the Premier League, sitting seventh on the points table with 46 points from 29 games.

Jurgen Klopp’s men had won the 2019-2020 season of Premier League but in this season, the team failed to replicate their dominating showing of the previous season.

The table is topped by Manchester City, having amassed 71 points from 30 games.

Second on the table is Manchester United with 57 points followed by Leicester City and Chelsea.

Liverpool will take on Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday.

In an attempt to curb the menace of social media abuse, Premier League club Arsenal on Tuesday announced a new campaign, named #StopOnlineAbuse.

“Social media is one of the ways our supporters across the world can feel closer to the club and our players, but across football and beyond we’ve seen an online world poisoned by hateful, racist and discriminatory words. We cannot underestimate the impact abuse has on individuals and the recent spate of abuse needs to be a wake-up call,” the club said in a statement. “We all need to work together to drive out this behaviour. This includes clubs, governing bodies, fans, media and politicians; but requires the help and commitment of social media companies. We know that we have a crucial role to play in bringing about real change. We are therefore outlining below our #StopOnlineAbuse action plan to ensure we are fulfilling our responsibility to protect our players and our diverse, global family and stamp out online abuse,” it added.

The club said it has strengthened the internal procedures with the creation of a taskforce to give emotional and practical support to its players.

“Celebrate, educate and punish: Through ‘Arsenal for Everyone’ we strive to ensure that everyone connected to the club feels an equal sense of belonging. We continue to run ongoing staff education programmes on diversity. We will continue to celebrate our diversity and use our relationships with our local communities and our global platform to educate others and lobby to strengthen measures and action taken by relevant authorities, as well as social media companies, to punish those responsible for abuse and discrimination,” Arsenal said.

An all-round bowling performance from New Zealand neutralised the effect of Soumya Sarkar’s fighting half-century and helped the Kiwis register an easy win over Bangladesh in the second T20I on Tuesday.

Skipper Tim Southee, Hamish Bennett, and Adam Milne all picked two wickets each to restrict Bangladesh to 142/7 in 16 overs. With this win, the Kiwis took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20I series. Glenn Phillips had played an unbeaten knock of 58 runs as New Zealand scored 173/5 in 17.5 overs. Rain played spoilsport in the first innings and after the DLS method, Bangladesh was given a target of 170 in 16 overs.

Chasing 170 runs, Bangladesh did not have a good start but Soumya Sarkar took on the New Zealand bowlers. The left-handed batsman single-handedly steered the visitors over the 50-run mark before the completion of powerplay.

While opener Liton Das went cheaply (6), Mohammad Naim played a sluggish T20 knock-in pursuit of 170 runs. However, Soumya continued his onslaught and fired Bangladesh to 85/1 in the nine overs.

Bangladesh needed 85 runs in the last seven overs and Soumya, who smashed his half-century in just 25 balls, was caught at long-on while trying to clear the rope.

Brief Scores: New Zealand 173/5 (Glenn Phillips 58*(31), Daryl Mitchell 34*(16), Mahedi Hasan 2-45); Bangladesh 142/7 (Soumya Sarkar 51*(27), Mohammad Naim 38(35); Tim Southee 2-21).