& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Pepsi Asian Cup starts

Sports Reporter
The eighth Peps! Asian Cup table tenni tour-nament got underway at the Bangladesh Krlra Shlkkhya Protfsthan (BKSP) Indoor gymnasium in Savar yesterday afternoon Presidential Advisor (or Youth and Sports Alamglr M A Kabir formally inaugurated the ten-nation, four-day meet. The opening ceremony, a boring af fair with loo many verbose speakers taxing the patience of he participants and spectators alike.'Was also attended by Mr Ichiro Oglmura. president of the International Table Tennis Federation who ts here as a special Invitee of the Bangladesh Table Tennis Federation, the organisers of the meet.
Thirty-six players 24 men and 12 women arc competing for the singles titles in their respective ealegoies which offer the champions USS 3000 and the runners-up US S 1500 each. The total prtzemoncy ts US 20.000 with 11.000 for the men and 9.000 for the women. The top 16 men and eight out of the 12 women will qualify for purses of varying amounts. First round robin league matches were held on the opening day.
The men are playing tn eight groups with the top two in each group going through to the next round, the knockout stage, which will determine the eight quarterfinalists. The women arc playing in four groups of three players each. The top two tn each group qualify for the quarterfinals. The final matches are scheduled for the concluding day. Saturday. March 9.
In a major upset on the opening day. top seeded woman player An Hi-Suk of North Korea was beaten by her South Korean opponent Park Kyung-Ae 21-19. 19-21. 18-21. Of the four women's first round matches decided till the time of filing this report, the clash between the two Korean girls was by far the most absorbing one. the other three matches being decided in straight sets.
Number two seed Un Lizhu of Chinese Taipei proved too good for the lone Bangladesh girl Zulekha Akhter. winning 21-9. 21-9.
Third seeded Japanese player Tomoko Shimonaga won the first game against her Thal opponent Suvaporn
PraphuUkul easily enough 21 9 but the bespectacled That girl put up much better resistance in the second game, extending Shimonaga to 21-17.
. Fourth seeded Fan Zlanxin of China outplayed the tall Indian Ntyotl Shah 21-1). 21- 9 in a rather one-sided affair.
Four more women’s robin league matches were In progress.
In four out of the eight opening round men's matches, third seced Kang Hee-Chan of South Korea was the only casualty. losing his inaugural match to the unseeded Xion Ke of China 21-13. 1 1-21. 15-21.
Top seeded Wu Wen Chia of Chinese Taipet disposed of S. Sriram of India in less than halfan hour, winning 21-9. 21-14. second seed Wang Vonggang of China doused Bangladesh's Gias Atiq Ankhf's challenge 21-11.21-13. while fourth seeded left-hander Kim Guk-Chol of North Korea defeated Japan’s Yoji Morimoto 21-14.21-14. Ankhl was the first among the men to make his exit when he lost his second and last robin league match 9-21. 8-21 to U Stng-ll of North Korea.
South Asian champion Arif Khan of Pakistan suffered a shock defeat against Ebrahim Alidkhot of Iran 19-21 and 18-21. but his compatriot Faijad Saif beat Lee Chui-Sung of South Korea 16-21. 25-23 and 21-15. Takehiro Watanabe of Japan defeated Thailand's Vtchit Thalerngpol 17-21. 21- 11 and 21-19 while North Korea’s Ko Chun-Ho routed Saaduddln Ahmed Kisloo of Bangladesh 21-11 and 21-12.
Today's matches start at 3:00 pm.
The opening day saw a sizeable number of guests making the trip to Savar from Dhaka, including diplomats and their families of some of the participating countries. The 3.000-capactty BKSP gym. recently fitted out with a non-skid synthetic mat. had Its steep, narrow galleries almost filled with uniformed students and guests. An all-female Bangladesh Ansars and VDP band provided the music for the march past by the participating teams. Noted music director Sattya Saha conducted the theme sjng sung by Abid a Sultana in chorus while dancers and musicians from the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy performed In a cultural show organised on the occasion.