News in Short

• G Sathiyan and Manika Batra outplayed home favourites NandorEcseki and Dora Madarasz 11-9, 9-11, 12-10, 11-6 to clinch the mixed doubles title at World Table Tennis Tour Contender Budapest 2021.
• Sathiyan and Manika had stormed into the final with a 11-6,11-5,11-4 win over Aleksandr Khanin and Daria Trigolos of Belarus.
• The Indian pair stunned the World No. 7 and top seeded duo of BarboraBalazova and LubomirPistej from Slovakia 11-4, 3-11, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9 in the quarterfinals.
• Sathiyan and Manika began their journey at Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018. Manika also paired with veteran Sharath Kamal at Jakarta Asian Games in the same year.
• Manika and Sathiyan have now teamed up again after three years with 2024 Paris Olympic Games and next year’s Asian Games and Commonwealth Games in mind.

• India’s Amit Kumar bagged a silver medal when finished second in the men’s 10000 m race walk event of the World Athletics U20 Championships at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, Kenya.
• Amit’s silver is the second medal for India at this meet. The Indian mixed relay team won a bronze medal on the opening day.
• Hosts HaristoneWanyonyi won a rare gold with a time of 42:10.84s and Paul McGrath took home bronze in 42:31.11s.

• Malayalam actress Chithra, who has also acted in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi films, passed away. She suffered a cardiac arrest. She was 56.
• Chithra was a known name in the south film industry. She acted in almost 100 films throughout her career and worked with the likes of Mohanlal and PremNazir in her debut film Attakalasham in 1983.
• She went on to star in other hit Malayalam dramas including Adavitam, Nadodi, Ekalavyan, Devasuram, Commissioner, AaramThampuran and Ustad.

• Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah has appointed former Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob as new Prime Minister of the country.
• Sabri is succeeding Muhyiddin Yassin, who resigned after losing majority support in Parliament.
• Sabri is the vice president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) and had served in Muhyiddin’s cabinet as Defence Minister before being appointed as Deputy Prime Minister in July.
• He has received backing from his own party UMNO and other parties in Muhyiddin’s government, which gave him the simple majority in the lower house.

• A stadium inside Pune’s Army Sports Institute is likely to be named after Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra.
• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will visit Pune’s Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT) and Army Sports Institute (ASI) on August 23 and is likely to name a facility for Neeraj Chopra.
• Neeraj Chopra was given a rousing welcome as he arrived home in India after winning the men’s javelin event in Tokyo and securing the country’s first-ever athletics gold.