The Morung ExpressSPORTSWednesday23 February 201110 Dimapur

LONDON, FEBRUARY 22 (AP): Carlton Cole scored twice in three minutes Monday to help West Ham rout Burnley 5-1 and reach the quarterfinals of the FA Cup. Thomas Hitzlsperger scored on his debut to give West Ham the lead with a long-range shot in the 23rd minute, and Cole decided the game with two quick strikes shortly after the break. Winston Reid headed in the fourth in the 59th be-fore Jay Rodriguez scored a consolation goal for the sec-ond-tier club in the 71st.

Reid then prevented another goal in injury time, clearing the ball off the goal line with a diving header that bounced off the bar and left post, and Freddie Sears completed the rout at the other end moments later.

West Ham will travel to Stoke in the next round. For a night at least, West Ham shrugged off its Premier League relegation concerns and gave manager Avram Grant yet another impres-sive cup result. Grant has been under fire for much of the season but also led West Ham to the League Cup semifinals before being eliminated by Birmingham. Last year, Grant took strug-gling Portsmouth - which

Cole double leads West Ham to rout of Burnley

West Ham's Carlton Cole, left, scores his second goal past Burnley's goalkeeper Lee Grant during the English FA Cup fifth round soccer match between West Ham and Burnley at Upton Park stadium in London, Monday, February 21. (AP Photo)

was later relegated - to the FA Cup final, where it lost to his former club Chelsea.

"Our target and first pri-ority is the league, but it's al-ways good to come into the quarterfinals of the cup,"

said Grant, whose team is next-to-last in the Premier League. "We want to win every game. We know in the cup you lose one game and you're out, but in the league there is always the next

game to make things better."Hitzlsperger, who had

been out for six months with a thigh injury, opened the scoring when he cut inside a defender and un-leashed a hard left-footed

strike from 25 meters that swerved past goalkeeper Lee Grant.

"I didn't know what to expect after such a long time out," Hitzlsperger said. "The manager was

speaking to me before the game about whether I would play 30 minutes or start, but I'm delighted to start with a goal and an im-portant win for us.

"It's going to bring some confidence back to the camp and that's important with the games ahead of us."

Cole made the game safe with his two rapid goals, the first coming in the 48th when he stabbed home the ball from a lying posi-tion after tumbling over an onrushing Grant - despite an apparent handball after he fell. The second was a much cleaner finish. Mark Noble sent a long ball over the Burnley defense and Cole controlled it with one touch before sending a per-fect half-volley high into the net.Reid's powerful header from Hitzlsperger's corner put the result be-yond doubt, and West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green could afford to gift Burnley a consolation in the 71st. Green's poor clearance hit Tyrone Mears on the head inside the six-yard box and the ball fell to Rodriguez who nodded home into an empty net. Sears wrapped the win up with an 15-yard strike in the final minute of injury time.

Kiddies corner school, Phek sports week held

PHEK, FEBRUARY 22 (DIPR): The 20th annual Games & Sports Weeks of Kiddies Corner School, Phek was held on February 22 at Phek Local ground with Sr. SP Phek, W. Krome as the Chief Guest. In his inaugural speech, he said we need to set our priorities in the right manner and direction so that we achieve our desired goal and called upon the students to cultivate good behaviour and be sincere in their duties. Stating that health is wealth, he exhorted the students to maintain their health because it goes hand in hand in all the fields like education and social activities. Earlier he unfurled the school flag and declared the tournament open. The opening ceremony was chaired by Savino while invoca-tion prayer was pronounced by Vesuvo. School Propri-etor H. Khamo delivered welcome address. The Sports week will continue till February 26.

Inter Milan, Bayern Munich set for rematchMILAN, FEBRUARY 22 (AP): Inter Milan and Bay-ern Munich will meet in a rematch of last year’s Cham-pions League final on Wednesday in the first leg of the round of 16. Defending champion Inter, however, will be without Diego Milito, who scored two goals in the final but has a hamstring strain, while Bayern will have Franck Ribery, who missed the 2010 final through sus-pension but is now available. Inter midfielder Dejan Stankovic says “both teams have changed a bit and will be missing important players. We are more or less the same, except for Diego.”"

Sutil concludes second VJM04 test in BarcelonaBARCELONA, FEBRUARY 22 (AGENCIES): Force India's Adrian Sutil brought the second test of the team's VJM04 to a close here on the fourth day at the Circuit de Catalunya. Following the previous day's programme Adrian worked on tyre evaluation, running the super-soft Pirelli tyre for the first time this test, and further fine-tuned the set-up and balance of the 2011 car. "A very productive day in general for us. We made some good progress with the balance and we've now got a basic set-up that feels smooth and easy to drive. I also got a run on the supersoft tyres," said Sutil. The German also used the KERS system for the first time and covered 64 laps in total. "Of course we also put the KERS on the car. It ran reliably and allowed us to complete the full test pro-gramme: very promising for this point in testing. It's still early days for the system but we have got ourselves into a good rhythm and can feed this back into the factory to get some more performance for the next test. The team will now return to its base in the UK to regroup ahead of the final all-team test, which will now take place in Barcelona from March 8 to 11. Expressing satisfaction on last day's testing, Dominic Harlow, circuit engineer-ing director, said, "A good final day's testing concentrat-ing on KERS set-up, reliability and also some aero tests that remained on our programme. "Adrian also looked at some ride height sweeps and a few procedural checks. It's been a productive four days for the team and overall the car seems to be performing reliably and according to expectations in all the major areas."

Novak Djokovic ready to get back to businessMONACO, FEBRUARY 22 (AGENCIES): After the adrenaline-fuelled highs of leading his country to a first Davis Cup triumph followed by his second Australian Open title Novak Djokovic found the perfect retreat to reflect on his achievements. Proud Serb though he is, there was little chance of the world number three find-ing any solitude in his native Belgrade so the 23-year-old re-charged his batteries alongside the Mediteranean in Monaco, the preferred location of the rich and famous that has become his second home. Djokovic resurfaced in Dubai this week for his first tournament since thrash-ing Andy Murray in Melbourne and after his extended break and some practise in the sun is ready to continue his quest to become the world number one. "I have been enjoying life a little bit," Djokovic, who swam with dol-phins in the Arabian Gulf on Monday, told reporters be-fore the start of the Dubai Open where Roger Federer is the number one seed in the absence of Rafael Nadal. "I spent most of my time in Monaco. It was just a relax-ing time in a real sense of that word. Taking it easy, no physical involvement, the beach, some nice walks, going round the Cote d'Azur. It's very private, very clean, a very discrete place and I get to really rest there." Despite his residence now being listed in the ATP manual as Mona-co, Djokovic remains a national sporting hero in Serbia and is fiercely proud of his home country.

Justin Bieber talks to Rihanna during the second half of the NBA basketball All-Star Game in Los Angeles. (AP Photo)

BANGALORE, FEBRUARY 22 (TNN): The buzz that Roger Federer had drawn the 79th-ranked Somdev Devvarman as his first-round opponent in the Dubai ATP Championship spread like bushfire through the Indian tennis community on Sunday. By the time the 26-year-old pro's flight from Goa had touched down on the gulf city later in the day, he had over a dozen messages telling him he would be playing the man considered the greatest ever, win-ner of 16 Grand Slam titles and over $60 million in prize-money.

"On the weekend, I had been joking that I would play Roger Federer in Dubai," Somdev, a wildcard entrant in the tournament, said. "That's how it turned out. I'm excited to be playing one of the greatest players. It is a huge opportunity. I'm looking forward to going out there and giving it my all. My job will be to fight

for every point and try and win the match."The Indian, who rose to his career-

best ranking of 79 on Monday, said he was prepared for his first meeting with the Swiss master. "He is class act," Som-dev said. "He has represented tennis very well. He does everything really well, he's great on and off the court."

Somdev, never happy to make up the numbers and always pushing to sneak through in match situations, said range rather than awe was what he would carry onto the court on Tuesday. "We are all pro-fessionals. There's a job that needs to be done. You are likely to draw the top guys some time or the other in a sport like ours. I look at it as a big chance," Somdev added. "I'll be trying to win the match. I have to play well, play my best tennis and then with a little bit of luck I maybe able to pull it off."

Excited to be playing Federer: Somdev

RANCHI, FEBRUARY 22 (AGEN-CIES): Maharashtra's Karan Rastogi, the biggest draw in the absence of the big guns of Indian tennis, sailed into the semifinals as the sport's opening day at the 34th National Games was accompa-nied by a note of disarray. The top seed, who will be flying out on Sunday for the Davis Cup tie In Serbia, defeated Ben-gal's Manoj Sewa and Suresh Krishna of Andhra in straight sets en route to the last four.

Second seed Mithun Murali of Tamil Nadu stayed on course for a sum-mit showdown with Rastogi by brush-ing past Andhra's Arvind Vishnu and statemate Irfan Hussain but third seed Lakshid Sood was felled by Delhi's Vi-vek Shokin, who will now meet Rastogi. Former national champion Ashutosh Singh takes on Murali.

Some matches did without chair umpires and ballboys, making it a lit-tle more taxing for the players, with half the field having to go through two matches each during the day.

Bengal and Services made the semifinals of men's football after with a goalless draw in Pool A. Bengal take on Goa and the Services meet Punjab on Wednesday.

The long rivalry between Jharkhand and Haryana in women's hockey was spiced up with the hosts coming back to hold the defending champions 3-3 in an exciting group-league match. Jharkhand, who have finished runners-up to Haryana at the last three Games, will meet Madhya Pradesh in the semi-finals on Wednesday while Haryana

face Orissa, who have looked the best team in Group A despite finishing No. 2 on goal-difference.

In men's hockey, Punjab will take on Services while Jharkhand will clash with Maharashtra in the semifinals.

RMV Guru Sai Dutt of won the men's singles in badminton while Arundhati Pantawane of Maharashtra got the women's gold.

Shooting competitions were com-pleted on Monday with Chhattisgarh having the last say. PPS Guron got gold in men's skeet with 143 and teammate Baba PS Bedi (140) bagged bronze. The team gold also went their way. AD Peoles of Services shot 141 for silver in the individual while another came in the team championship. Punjab were third with 332, a point behind Services.

The popular archery competition began at the JRD Tata Sports Com-

plex in Jamshedpur with the Indian Round, the new qualifying of with two 50m rounds instead of a 50 and a 30 making for new and lower bench-marks in terms of scores. The 50m records in both the men's and the sections were bettered, Sunil Oraon of Services shooting 337 out of 360 points to better the previous mark of 322. Anima Basumatary of Assam rewrote the women's mark with 319, seven points better than the previous one. After the eliminations in the in-dividual championship. Konsai Bor-gayary of Assam and A. Suraj Singh of Services are left to fight for the men's gold while Prabhahimi Devi of Mani-pur and Jayalaxmi of Jharkhand shoot in the gold medal tie.

Uttarkhand take on Punjab in men's basketball final with Tamil Nadu and Chhatisgarh meeting in the wom-en's title-round.

O Bikram Singh added another gold at the cycling velodrome as Manipur won both 200 m sprint finals, Ramesh-wori and K Suchitra Devi ensuring a 1-2 for the state in the women's event. Bikram timing 13.338 seconds for the gold with Amrit Singh of Punjab and RL Manoj of Services picking up silver and bronze. Kezia Verghese plucked the women's bronze.

Pankaj Kumar of Haryana won the men's 6km scratch race with Punjab's Amandeep Singh and Manpreet Singh Kalsi of Maharashtra landing the sil-ver and bronze, respectively. Gurpreet Kaur of Punjab got gold in the women's 4 km scratch race final.

Karan Rastogi shines in National GamesManipur girls land top honours in Natl Games archeryJAMSHEDPUR, FEBRUARY 22 (PTI): Ma-nipur girls dominated the individual and team championships, grabbing the gold medals in the 34th National Games' archery competition at the JRD Tata Sports complex here today. While the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) won the men's team championship, Assam clinched the gold in the men's individual event. K Prab-hahini Devi of Manipur won three straight sets and gathered six points to claim the first place while host Jharkhand's Jayalaxmi Laguri fin-ished second with four set points win. She had to be satisfied with a silver medal. Th Ishembi Devi of Manipur bagged bronze.

Kalmadi to attend National Games closing ceremonyJAMSHEDPUR, FEBRUARY 22 (PTI): In-dian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalma-di will attend the 34th National Games' closing ceremony in Ranchi on February 26 but un-certainty continues to prevail over whether Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be present on the occasion. "We have not yet got confirmed report about the Prime Minister. We are expecting a communique later in the evening," S M Hashmi, Secretary General of 34th National Games Organising Committee, said today. However, Hashmi, who is also the Secretary of Jharkhand Olympic Association, confirmed that the IOA chief will certainly be present during the closing ceremony.

Carolina Wozniacki wins Dubai Open tennis finalDUBAI, FEBRUARY 22 (AGENCIES): She has outnumbered Kim Clijsters as she regained World No. 1 ranking in the WTA ranking list on Monday. The top seed of Denmark is now also cel-ebrating the 13th title of her career after winning the Dubai Open Sunday as she outplayed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.

Wozniacki lead a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Kuznetsova even though the latter has shown grown improvement in her game, and according to the Agence France Pres-se, despite the enhanced ‘signs of revival after more than six months in the dol-drums’.

The great seed is the first Danish tennis player to hold the top ranking po-sition and the 20th over-all. She is the first Danish tennis player to hold the top ranking position and 20th in the overall rank-ing. This strength was seen in her dogfight with Kuznetsova as she broke serve at once for 2-0. The AFP added, that Wozni-acki also broke serve twice more in the first thirty minutes of the game that allowed her to capture a one-sided first set.

Wozniacki could not be happier with her perfor-

Carolina Wozniacki of Denmark receives the trophy from Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of UAE, after winning the final of the Dubai WTA Tennis Cham-pionships against Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo)

Students of Eastern Bible College, Dimapur are seen during the opening ceremony of the institu-tion’s 37th Annual Sports Meet on Tuesday, February 22 held at the college campus. The inau-gural was graced by Sao Sangtam (INSET) as the chief guest. It will conclude on February 25.

mance at the Dubai Open.“I was very happy with

my performance,” Wozni-acki was quoted as saying by the AFP. “I went for my shots and I am definitely playing better than I have

before”.The AFP underscored

however, that Wozniacki’s success in court is based on her ‘excellent movement, smoothly constructed ral-lying, good