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New Indian Express
2 hours ago
- Sport
- New Indian Express
Animesh leads charge as young stars shine at Asian meet
CHENNAI: INDIAN athletics seems to be witnessing a new dawn where athletes don't fear international competitions anymore. Nor do they fear failure on big stage. The transformation from apprehension to infectious confidence seems to have brought in a change in attitude and according to former Athletics Federation of India and current spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla, this is because of quite a few reasons. One of them is exposure to international competitions and another was because of the number domestic competitions the AFI has been conducting. The Asian Athletics Championships has shown that youngsters have started producing results from 18 year-old to mid 20s. Out of the 24 medals India won, 20 of them have been won by those aged 26 or under. In addition to the medals, a few have shattered national and championship records as well. Young sprinter Animesh Kujur (21), javelin thrower Sachin Yadav (25) were among the stars on Saturday. While Animesh shattered his own national record in 200m, Sachin threw his personal best. There was an 18-year-old Abhinaya Rajarajan in the women's 4x100m relay team. On Friday, Pooja, 18, created a U20 national record in high jump. 21 year old heptathlete Nandini Agasara came close to breaking the national record.
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
TV directors roundtable: ‘American Primeval,' ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,' ‘Paradise'
Gold Derby recently hosted a group discussion with four of the industry's leading television directors and producers. They each opened up about when the directing bug originally bit them, what potential dream projects they are hoping to make happen, and which directors they personally look up to. Joining our Meet the Experts: TV Directors roundtable panel are Peter Berg for American Primeval, Charlotte Brändström for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and John Requa and Glenn Ficarra for Paradise. Watch the full group panel above. Click each person's name to watch an individual interview. More from GoldDerby Guest acting Emmy odds: See how Kaitlyn Dever, Jeffrey Wright, Martin Scorsese, Bryan Cranston, and other hopefuls stack up 'Paradise' directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra on the 'chaos' of crafting 'the world coming to an end' 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' director Charlotte Brändström on Gandalf's 'big reveal' and which scene required 'the most prep' "I started off with documentaries, specifically wildlife," Brändström explains about her industry beginnings. "I studied anthropology and then I went through AFI [the American Film Institute] in L.A. I started to do short films and got more and more interested in directing. I wrote and directed my first feature, [titled Stormy Summer]. It was a French drama set during the second World War, a love and betrayal story in the French residence. After I finished that, I got a prize for it and decided I didn't want to do anything else for the rest of my life." She also mentions how she's directed projects in three different languages — French, Swedish, and English. Berg has "so much respect" for Brändström for being able to "speak and direct in three languages, because you speak better English than I do," he jokes. Berg started out by directing plays in high school, but the "key moment" happened when he was acting on Chicago Hope. "The great David E. Kelley did that show back in the day, and we were doing 28 episodes a season ... I was becoming kind of TV-famous as a doctor, Billy Kronk, and people would come up to me and start talking to me like I was that character." When a stranger on an airplane showed him a "horrible, oozing rash" on her elbow, he realized his "legacy" was about to be cemented as a TV doctor. He recalls, "And that, more than anything else, motivated me to take my interest in directing to the next gear." His first movie was Very Bad Things (1998), which Kelley let him out to write and direct. "Meanwhile, Glenn and I have been spending three years on a spec," Requa laughs. "A friend of ours who's an actor is baiting us, will you please just finish the script?!" Ficarra can't get his "mind around" producing so many episodes and shows simultaneously in today's landscape, noting, "We wrote, produced, and directed [Rabbit Hole] on Paramount a couple years ago, and that is the hardest f--king job. It almost killed me. I can't imagine doing more than one show." After making Super 8 movies separately as kids, the duo "met in film school in the '80s," with Ficarra explaining, "I wanted to be a director, and John helped me become a writer." Requa chimes in, "I read Akira Kurosawa's autobiography, and on the back of the book there are 12 hints for young filmmakers, and one of them is 'read the great screenplays, master the craft of screenwriting.' I was like, 'Oh, really? I have to do that?' So, I put down my director pants and I put on my writer pants and I decided I'm gonna figure this out. It took me 20 years! And I still don't think we figured it out." Ficarra recalls, "I don't remember who said it to us. It was like, 'You guys get tired of directors f--king up your scripts. Why don't you go f--k them up on your own?' And so, OK, we did it." This article and video are presented by Netflix, Prime Video, and Disney/Hulu. SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby 'Paradise' directors John Requa and Glenn Ficarra on the 'chaos' of crafting 'the world coming to an end' 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' director Charlotte Brändström on Gandalf's 'big reveal' and which scene required 'the most prep' 'American Primeval' director Peter Berg on crafting an 'adventure story' with a 'dysfunctional family' in the wild west Click here to read the full article.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Sport
- Indian Express
Asian Athletics Championships: Mixed 4x400m relay team wins gold in style
India's 4x400m mixed relay team, on which the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has pinned hopes for a medal at the World Championships and the Olympics, won the gold in style with anchor leg runner Subha Venkatesan the only one in the frame as she crossed the finish line. India led from start to finish and though the Chinese gave them a close fight in the third leg, Vishal TK pulled away strongly to hand over the baton to Subha with a good lead. The Indian quartet comprised Santhosh Kumar, Rupal Chaudhary, Vishal and Subha. They clocked 3 minutes and 18.12 seconds to defend the title from two years ago. Rupal also claimed the women's individual 400m silver. Vishal posted a personal best in the 400m, but finished fourth. Rupal said she could have done better if not for injuries in the lead-up to the Asian Championships. 'My training was going well. But then I had an injury. After that, I was a little worried. But the way my training and performance is going, I'm okay. But I'm not satisfied,' Rupal said. 'My main target from now on is to fix the problems that I have. I have already done my personal best during training,' Former AFI president Adille Sumariwalla said the performance of the relay team showed that India had enough depth. 'It's not a fully rearranged team. Subha was there in the last team. Santosh was there in the reserves. So it is a mix of new and old. We need to look to the future,' Sumariwalla, who is also the Vice-President of World Athletics, said. 'This team has shown we have a good reserve pool, we can perform given a chance.' At the end of the second day, India was third on the medal tally with two gold, four silver and two bronze.
The Hindu
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Hindu
Tejaswin satisfied with silver, Vishal disappointed at missing podium
A personal best, becoming India's best male quartermiler this season, and a gold in the relay notwithstanding, T.K. Vishal was not ecstatic at the end of Day Two of the Asian Athletics Championships. The 21-year old, part of the AFI's plan to revamp the 4x400m relay squad in both men and mixed, admitted there was disappointment at missing out on a medal in his maiden solo international outing but said it was a learning curve. 'Getting a PB (45.57s) is good but I tried my best to get a medal but missed by 0.02 seconds. I am disappointed because now I will have to wait for the next event but this was my first individual international event, I have to take this, learn from it and get better,' he said during an interaction. Running two tough races inside three hours was not easy but Vishal insisted it didn't bother him. 'I have trained for it, I was prepared and it is only good for me going forward, makes me stronger,' he said. Decathlete Tejaswin Shankar, on the other hand, was satisfied that he did his best en route to winning silver with a personal best in shot put and 110m hurdles. 'The shot put PB changed the momentum on Day One because I was really in a hole after the first two events and struggling but after that, I thought I could do something going into high jump. Then today I saw Yuma Maruyama, who was a strong contender for gold, trip and injure his neck badly while warming up for the hurdles but still decide to run and try to push through the pain, which gave me the motivation to go all out for gold. 'Getting a PB was the turning point but I wanted to make sure I completed all events. In such championships it's more about going for the medal instead of trying to go for any improvement in points. You have to stay grounded over two days. In other events, you finish and go back and think what went right or wrong but in decathlon, you think you can't do anything else, you just want to go home,' he shrugged. India with eight medals is currently third on the medal tally behind China and Japan.
The Hindu
5 days ago
- Sport
- The Hindu
India banks on track stars for strong medal show in Asian Championships
The redoubtable Neeraj Chopra will be missing in action, but the 59-strong Indian contingent would nonetheless aim for a double-digit medal haul, riding primarily on strong performances by its track athletes when the 26th Asian Athletics Championship gets underway in Gumi on Tuesday (May 27, 2025). Chopra has yet again decided to skip the biennial event to focus on the Diamond League series leaving Pakistan's Olympic champion Arshad Nadeem as the top draw in the men's javelin throw competition. The Indian challenge in this event would be anchored by the relatively inexperienced Sachin Yadav and Yashvir Singh. The men's 20km race walk will be the first medal event of the championships on Tuesday (May 27, 2025). Servin Sebastian, 25, and Amit, 21, will be the Indian representatives and have posted competitive times in the build up to the event. Sebastian ran a personal best of 1:21:23 to win gold at the Uttarakhand National Games in February. He continued his good run at the Indian Open Race Walking Competition in April by winning gold (1:21:47). Amit has a personal and season best of 1:21:52 posted in April in Chandigarh. Both of them are banking on "conducive" conditions to ensure a strong performance. "The local weather conditions in the morning are conducive for distance events. I should be able to improve my personal best on Tuesday (May 27, 2025)," Sebastian said of his preparation in a press release issued by Athletics Federation of India (AFI). After the race walking event in the morning session, focus during the day will shift to track and field events. The women's javelin throw is the second medal event and for India, Asian Games champion Annu Rani would be a strong hope. The 32-year-old has a season's best of 58.82m recorded in March in Mumbai, which is nowhere close to her best. Her personal best and national record of 63.82m was set in 2022 and she finished fourth at the previous edition of the continental meet in Bangkok in 2023. The day will also see Indian quarter-milers go through the preliminary round grind to advance to the semifinals scheduled later during the day. Rupal Chaudhary, Vithya Ramraj (both women), Jay Kumar and Vishal TK (both men) will be in action in their respective 400m heats. The quarter-milers are also expected to do well in the 4x400 relays to be held later in the championship but have already been struck by controversy after a woman member of the team was dropped owing to a suspected dope violation. At the fag-end of day one, onus will be on India's star distance runner and Asian Games medallist Gulveer Singh to enhance medal tally. The 26-year-old will compete in men's 10,000m. Singh has a personal and season's best time of 27:00.22 seconds posted earlier in March on the USA circuit. Sawan Barwal will be the second Indian runner in fray in the 25-lap race. Sarvesh Anil Kushare (men's high jump qualification) and Yoonus Shah (men's 1500m heat) will also be in action on day one of the Asian meet. The Indian men's triple jump team of Praveen Chithravel and Abdulla Aboobacker too have a bright chance of a podium finish. Aboobacker is the defending champion. Chithravel's season's best of 17.37m recorded during a domestic meet in April, has given a big boost to his confidence. "There will be no triple jump qualification on day one. The competitors will directly showcase their potential in the final on day two," chief national coach Radhakrishnan Nair said. The spotlight will also be on Avinash Sable (men's 3000m steeplechase) and rising stars such as Jyothi Yarraji (100m hurdles) and Parul Chaudhary (women's 3000m steeplechase). The elite continental showpiece will feature 2000 athletes from 43 countries of the region with China and Japan being the most successful in terms of medals won. India is third on the all-time list. In the previous edition held in Bangkok, India logged its joint best ever performance, snaring 27 medals, including six gold, 12 silver and nine bronze. The Indian contingent would be hoping to at least match, if not better, this performance.
