Doha Silver medallists crash out of East India Matchplay golf

Kolkata, Dec 22 (UNI) It was a day of big upsets at the Royal Calcutta Golf Club with Anirban Lahiri and Joseph Chakola -- Silver medallists at the Doha Asian Games -- crashing out of the Match-play contest in the Goodricke East India Amateur Golf Championship here today.

The father-son duo of the legendary Bunny Laxman Singh and Ranjit Singh too made an exit in the second round of the event, which forms the eighth leg of the Royal Challenge Indian Golf Circuit.

In a close encounters, local boy Surya Prakash pulled the carpet from under the feet of Joseph Chakola. Chakola, who was part of the team for the 2006 Eisenhower Trophy as well as the Asian Games, succumbed to Prakash 2&1.

Chakola's teammate at Doha, Lahiri also failed to make it to the third round falling to Vikram Rana who took his game to next level, beating Lahiri comfortably 5&4.

In the other big upset of the day, the much experienced Bunny Laxman Singh, who earned India the gold medal in the 1982 Asian Games, went down to Raj Randhawa 5&4. Singh's son Ranjeet met the same fate losing to Himmat Rai 3&1.

Samaresh Sardar caused a minor upset as he removed Saurabh Bahuguna from contention beating him 5&3. Among the players who progressed were Manav Das who beat HS Kang 2up, Simarjeet Singh who beat Sudhir Sharma 2&1 and Tarun Ghogale who beat Pawan Kumar 5&4.

Scores (2nd round): Vikram Rana bt Anirban Lahiri (5&4); Manav Das bt HS Kang (2 up); Samaresh Sardar bt Saurabh Bahuguna (5&3); Surya Prakash bt Joseph Chakola (2&1); Simarjeet Singh bt Sudhir Sharma (2&1); Raj Randhawa bt Laxman Singh (5 &4); Himmat Rai bt Ranjeet Singh (3&1); Tarun Ghogale bt Pawan Kumar (5&4).

UNI XC AY DH HT1802