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          Indian Sports highlights, March 11: Vinesh wins trials, Punjab FC hold FC Goa

          Nishant Dev in action IBA
          • ESPN staffMar 11, 2024, 10:50 AM

          Here at the ESPN daily blog, we bring you all the news from the dynamic world of Indian sports, from the wide variety of Olympic sports to franchise leagues.

          March has plenty of sporting action taking place - which you can find listed out in ESPN India's sporting calendar.

          Here are the key events from Monday, March 11:

          PVL: Calicut, Delhi win

          The Calicut Heroes beat Mumbai Meteors 3-1 (13-15, 15-9, 15-7, 15-12) and Delhi Toofans beat Bengaluru Torpedoes 3-0 (15-13, 18-16, 17-15).

          ISL: FC Goa held by Punjab FC, but qualify for playoffs

          Wilmar Jordan, Luka Majcen and Juan Mera scored for the home side while Carl Mchugh, Noah Sadaoui and Carlos Martinez scored the goals for The Gaurs. With this point FC Goa secured their place in the playoffs while Punjab FC jumped to seventh in the table, the same points as Jamshedpur who occupy the last playoff berth.

          Vinesh wins trials

          Vinesh Phogat has won the trials for the 50 kg women's freestyle event and will be going to the Olympic Qualification tournament. You can read up on that here.

          Also read: Explained: Can Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics?

          Satwik-Chirag - Perfect in Paris

          In the very arena that the Paris Olympics will be held, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty - world No 1 and one of India's top medal hopes at the Games - reminded everyone of their calibre last evening: they beat Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan to win the French Open. Their first title of the year. Zenia has more on that for you here.

          Hockey India names 28 core probables for national men's coaching camp

          Hockey India has shortlisted 28 players who will be a part of the core probables for the senior men's national camp to be held from March 12 to 30 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. The camp will be focussed on the upcoming FIH Hockey Pro League matches, while the main focus will remain on the Paris Olympics.

          "We are looking to begin an important block of training in this camp, and we need to ensure we are in the best shape possible before heading for a series of Test matches in Australia," said the team's coach Craig Fulton.

          "The players chosen for the camp will be in contention to play the upcoming set of important games; hence, we have picked a group of experienced players along with some youngsters who played in the Pro League as well.

          "The Pro League mini-tournament in Odisha proved to be an excellent testing ground, but there is always room for improvement, and we will look to set things straight well before the final leg of the Pro League and the Paris 2024 Olympics," he added.

          Indian men's hockey team 28-member core group:

          Goalkeepers: Krishan Bahadur Pathak, PR Sreejesh, Suraj Karkera.

          Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh, Sanjay, Sumit, Amir Ali.

          Midfielders: Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Rabichandra Singh Moirangthem, Shamsher Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Rajkumar Pal, Vishnukant Singh

          Forwards: Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Abhishek, Dilpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Gurjant Singh, Mohammed Raheel Mouseen, Boby Singh Dhami, Araijeet Singh Hundal.

          Boxing: Nishant one win away from an Olympic quota

          Early in the morning hours today, Nishant Dev continued his run in the World Olympic Boxing Qualification tournament at Busto Arsizio, Italy. He beat Greece's Christos Karaitis with a 5:0 unanimous decision in the pre-quarterfinals. The 23-year-old Nishant Dev will face Omari Jones of the USA, a world championships silver medallist, in the quarter-finals next later tonight (1:30am on Tuesday morning in India) -- a win here and he secures an Olympic boxing quota for India in the men's 71 kg event.

          He is the only Indian boxer remaining in the tournament, and India's last chance for a quota from this round of qualifiers (there's one more tournament left). .

          What's on today?

          • Boxing: Nishant Dev in qf action; a win gives him an Olympic quota

          • ISL: Punjab FC take on FC Goa in a clash that has ramifications for both the league shield race and the last playoff spot

          • PVL: Bengaluru Torpedoes face Delhi Toofans, Calicut Heroes face Mumbai Meteors.

          What happened yesterday?

          In an action packed day:

          • Badminton: Satwik-Chirag won the French Open final, and that in some style. More on that here.

          • Wrestling: Bajrang, Ravi lose Olympic qualification tournament/Asian Championships trials. But they are not out of the running for Paris yet

          • Football: Mohun Bagan take the bragging rights, and league top spot, with a 3-1 win over East Bengal in the derby

          • PVL: Defending champs Ahmedabad Defenders lost 0-3 to Delhi Toofans while Chennai Blitz got blitzed 0-3 by the Calicut Heroes.

            You can find more details of yesterday's events, here.