Dhampur, Prayagraj players dominate 1st day of squash tournament

Kanpur: Dhampur and Prayagraj players dominated on the first day of the three-day KK Sharma memorial state ranking squash tournament, held at TSH on Friday.As many as 33 ties were held on day 1. All encounters proved one-sided except one, in which Samar Jaisalmer of Varanashi drubbed his city mate Aryan Prajapati by 3-1. Local player Tejswa Dahia bt Aniit Kumar (Dhampur) by 3-0.Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated in the presence of Vinay Pandey, secretary, UP Squash Racket Association. Susheel Sharma, president, Kanpur Squash Racket Association, welcomed the guests, and P K Srivastava, director operations, gave the vote of thanks.The results of the opening day are: Udayveer Bharti (Dhampur) bt Ankit Patel (Prayagraj) by 3-0, Anuj Kumar (Vns) bt Brajesh (Noida) by 3-0, Abir Khullar (Lkw) bt Sufian Mohd (Dhampur) 3-0, Arjun Maheshwari (Noida) bt Rishabh Kumar (Dhampur) 3-0, Arnav Tomar (Dhampur) bt Ankit Kumar (VNS) by 3-0, Abhishek Kumar (Prayagraj) bt Dheeraj Patel (Mirzapur) 3-0, Ansh Kumar (Dhampur) bt Veer Pratap (Dhampur) 3-0, Aryan Prajapati (Vns) bt Krishna Jaiswal (Prayagraj) 3-1, Nitish Patel (Prayagraj) bt Abhihsek Kumar (Prayagraj) 3-1, Raghav Vashisth (Dhampur) bt Saubhagya Raha (IIT Knp) 3-0.Trials: As many as 256 children belonging to the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) participated in the trials for free coaching in 9 sports events at TSH on Friday.According to P K Srivastava, director operations, TSH, around 424 applications were preferred by the aspirants before the screening committee. Thereafter, a coordination committee comprising 7 members supervised the trials, in which individual sports skills, physical endurance, etc, were tested.The final list of trainees will be released on Jan 3. The selected candidates must complete other formalities, including medical fitness, by Jan 4.The 7th batch of trainees will commence from January 7, 2026.