FOOTBALL
St. Xavier’s School to lock horns with some of the best youth teams in Europe
St. Xavier’s Collegiate School from Kolkata, the first Indian youth team to officially participate in the MADCUP Football Tournament 2025, will face Atlético de Madrid and SO Caillolais, an associate club of Olympique Marseille, in the group stage.
The fifth edition of MADCUP tournament, the largest federated international tournament for grassroots football, will run from June 21 to 26.
It will be hosted across 32 sporting facilities in Madrid; including iconic venues such as the Atlético de Madrid Sports Centre, Ciudad Deportiva del Real Madrid, and Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas.
The young Kolkata side will test its mettle against youth teams from some of the biggest names in world football, including Real Madrid CF, Atlético de Madrid, Juventus FC, Sevilla FC, CA River Plate, Valencia CF, CD Leganés, and other leading global academies from approximately 40 countries across five continents.
“St. Xavier’s Collegiate School, Kolkata, India participating in the MadCup 2025 is not only the creation of history for our school but for Indian youth football itself,” Farino Torcato, Senior Teacher, said.
“I am not thinking of winning the tournament or something like that, but yes, we Xavierians are on a mission to show the world we also know and play football and will leave no stone unturned in making our school, city, state and country proud.”
-Team Sportstar
Mumbai City FC signs midfielder Zothanpuia
The 20-year-old Zothanpuia joins the Islanders on a three-year contract.
| Photo Credit:
Mumbai City FC
The 20-year-old Zothanpuia joins the Islanders on a three-year contract.
| Photo Credit:
Mumbai City FC
Indian Super League side Mumbai City FC, on Monday, announced the signing of midfielder Zothanpuia from Aizawl FC.
The 20-year-old joins the Islanders on a three-year contract.
He made his professional debut for Electric Veng FC in Mizoram in 2022, before featuring for Oranje FC in the I-League 2 during the 2023-24 season, following which he played for Southern Samity in the 2024 Calcutta League.
Fondly referred to as ‘Puipuia’, he joined Aizawl FC for its I-League campaign in the 2024-25 season, wherein his 20 appearances yielded three goals and two assists.
“I am thrilled to join Mumbai City. It is a club with a rich history and a record of winning trophies and titles. I am looking forward to contributing to that effort and hope to learn and grow with the experience in the squad. Playing in the ISL has been a dream of mine and I am excited to live that dream with Mumbai City,” Zothanpuia said .
-Team Sportstar
GOLF
Saptak Talwar finishes at tied 63rd; Jackson cruises to maiden title
Saptak Talwar played a final round of even par 71 to finish the Raiffeisenbank Golf Challenge in tied 63rd place IN Brno, Czech Republic.
The 26-year-old played rounds of 72, 70, 74 and 71 to finish the week with a score of three over par. The Indian began his final round on the back nine and had bogeys on the 12th and 17th with one birdie on the 13th.
He started the front nine by picking up a shot but had a double bogey on the eighth hole, however, an eagle on the ninth allowed Talwar to close the day with an even par score.
Palmer Jackson, who was tied for the lead at the end of the third round, played his best round of the week, a 7-under 64, to win by six shots.
The 24-year-old American began his day on the front nine and picked up three shots in his first four holes before making a bogey on the fifth.
He bounced back with an eagle on the seventh and another birdie on the ninth. His final score for the week stands at 21 under par with rounds of 65, 67, 67 and 64.
In second place six shots behind Palmer were Matthew Cheung of Hong Kong and Tobias Jonsson of Sweden.
-PTI
CRICKET
Suryansh Shedge to lead Mumbai’s emerging team on UK tour
Suryansh Shedge has been appointed captain of Mumbai’s emerging team, which will travel to England for a month, beginning June 28, the Mumbai Cricket Association said on Monday.
The team, which also features batting all-rounder Musheer Khan, Angkrish Raghuvanshi and young spinner Himanshu Singh, will play five two-day matches and four one-day games against various UK sides.
They will face off against teams from Nottinghamshire, Combined National Counties (Challengers), Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, among others.
Squad
Suryansh Shedge (c), Vedant Murkar (vc), Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Ayush Vartak, Aayush Zimare, Himanshu Singh, Manan Bhatt, Musheer Khan, Nikhil Giri, Pragnesh Kanpillewar, Prateekkumar Yadav, Prem Devkar, Prince Badiani, Zaid Patankar, Hrishikesh Gore, Harshal Jadhav.
-PTI
CHESS
Avirat Chauhan held in opening round of Aurionpro Junior International
The first round of the Aurionpro Mumbai Junior International Chess Tournament saw its first surprise as fourth-seeded Avirat Chauhan (ELO 2168) was held to a draw by the lower-rated Tanmay R.
Players in action during the first round of the Aurionpro Mumbai Junior International Chess Tournament.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Players in action during the first round of the Aurionpro Mumbai Junior International Chess Tournament.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Playing with the white pieces, Avirat opened with 1.e4, to which Tanmay responded with the sharp Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defence. The game remained evenly balanced, with regular exchanges of material. Despite Avirat’s experience, Tanmay held his ground with composure, and the players agreed to a draw after 29 well-fought moves.
Apart from this result, the rest of the top seeds had a smooth sailing. Top-seed FM Aansh Nerurkar, second-seed Madhesh Kumar, and third-seed Advik Agarwal notched up comfortable wins to advance to the second round of this ₹15.00 lakh prize money event.
The results (first round):
Levan Pantsulaia bt Siddhardh Raman; Luka Paichadze bt Shubh Kapur; Soumil Gogte lost to Mihail Nikitenko; Aditya Chavan lost to Mamikon Gharibyan; Boris Savchenko bt Advik Reddy; Saranya Devi lost to Vedant Panesar; Tomike Sanikidze bt Bhavya Gupta; Shahan Vohra lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy; Arsen Davtyan bt Arjun Singh; Mayuresh Parkar lost to Duc Hoa Nguyen; Alexander Slizhevsky bt Indra Reddy; Shitiz Prasad lost to Aleksej Aleksandrov; Alexei FEdorov bt Vageesh Swaminathan; Raj Kapoor llost to Nayaka Budhidharma.
Under-13:
Vihaan Rao lost to Aansh Nerurkar; Madhesh Kumar bt Ishaan Bhansali; Krithik Nandyala lost to Advik Agrawal; Avirat Chauhan drew with R Tanmay; Tvesha Jain lost to Madhvendra Sharma; Krishay Jain bt Vinay Kulkarni; Dev Dharshan lost to Aadit Lenin; Samuel Noble bt Ayaanraj Kottapally; Vyom Agashe lost to Shaunak Badole; Adhirat Mitra bt Anay Ghule; Vighnesh Deshpande lost to Vyom Malhotra; Jagreet Misra bt Ishaan Agarwal; Arnav Dhamapurkar lost to Ramanuj Mishra; Maddhav Abeer lost to R Nijesh; Siddhant Salunke bt Dinesh Konda.
-Team Sportstar
Kerala State Open Chess: Arush lifts maiden State title
Pathanamthitta’s A. Arush, who picked up chess while playing with his grandfather as an eight-year-old, won his maiden Kerala State Open FIDE-rated chess title at the Mermaid Hotel, in Vytilla, Kochi on Monday.
The 13-year-old, the eighth seed here, was tied with Kozhikode’s seventh-seeded Sharsha Backer with seven points from the eight-round event but won the State senior championship’s 62nd edition with a superior tiebreak score. Sharsha finished runner-up.
A. Arush won the Kerala State senior chess title in Kochi on Sunday
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A. Arush won the Kerala State senior chess title in Kochi on Sunday
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Arush shocked the third-seeded Sidharth Mohan in Monday’s final round after a draw against Sharsha in the previous round this morning.
“He could be the youngest or the second youngest to take the State senior title. We can only confirm it after checking the records,” said Rajesh Nattakom, who ran the sport in the State for 12 years as the secretary and then as president of the Chess Association Kerala (CAK) till May this year.
Thiruvananthapuram’s Sidharth Sreekumar, with 6.5 points from seven rounds, won the KSSC’s State senior championship in Thrissur on Sunday with Thrissur’s Gokul Satyaki (5.5 points) finishing second.
Final placings (CAK’s State Open Championship, top 5):
1. A. Arush (Pta) 7 pts, 2. Sharsha Backer (Koz) 7, 3. Sanjay S. Pillai (Ktm) 6.5, 4. J.P. Karan (Koz) 6.5, 5. Nisthar Abdallah (Klm) 6.5.
Final placings (KSSC’s State Technical Committee’s State Championship, top 5):
1. Sidharth Sreekumar (Tvm) 6.5 pts, 2. Satyaki G. Gokul (Tsr) 5.5, 3. P. Neerad (Ksgd) 5.5, 4. P. Athulkrishna (Koz) 5, 5. A.R. Akshay (Tvm) 5.
– Stan Rayan
RUGBY
Rugby Premier League: Chennai Bulls, Bengaluru Bravehearts win big
Chennai Bulls and Bengaluru Bravehearts registered comprehensive wins in their respective matches of the Rugby Premier League here on Monday.
Bengaluru Bravehearts stormed past the Kalinga Black Tigers 35-10.
However, it wasn’t an easy start for the Bravehearts, as the Kalinga Black Tigers went ahead in the first quarter through Lucas Lacamp’s try.
After that, the Bravehearts cranked up the style and turned the game on its head as Philip Wokorach scored two tries, and the troika of Akuila Rokolisoa, Iowane Teba and Mohit Khatri added a try each as well.
In the other match, Chennai Bulls took on the Mumbai Dreamers and overcame the challenge with relative ease. The Bulls won 31-17.
-PTI
