New Delhi, Feb 7 : Manipur emerged winners in the national Vovinam championship held at Nanded, Maharashtra.

Around 550 participant from 18 states competed in the first national championship of the little-known Vietnamese martial art sport that concluded Saturday.

Manipur were the overall championship winners scoring 81 points with 13 gold, 12 silver and 18 bronze medals. Maharashtra came second with 63 points winning eight gold, 10 silver and 19 bronze medals. Madhya Pradesh finished third bagging nine gold, four silver and four bronze medals, the Vovinam Association of India said in a statement.

Batsman Rohit Sharma has been included as a cover for VVS Laxman for the first Test against South Africa scheduled to begin on February 6 in Nagpur.

It is uncertain whether V. V. S. Laxman will be able to play the match, as he suffered an injury on his left hand during the first Test against Bangladesh at Chittagong in January.

Laxman appeared for the training secession and practiced batting however his name did not appear for the catching practice secession indicating that the injury has not healed completely. Rohit also took part in the training secession.

Chocolate maker Hershey Co. posted a net profit of 63 cents a share on Tuesday, beating market expectations of 60 cents per share.

Net income of the company, which decided to drop its Cadbury aspirations after Cadbury accepted Kraft Food Inc.'s $18.7 billion offer, rose 54 per cent to $126.8 million (55 cents a share) as compared to $82.2 million (36 cents per share) in the year-ago period, Hershey said in a statement. Sales went up 2.2 per cent to $1.41 billion.

India’s first Formula One driver, on Monday, also became the first from motor sports to get the Padma award. Narain Karthikeyan was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri along with cricketer Virender Sehwag, shuttler Saina Nehwal, boxer Vijender, hockey player Ignace Tirkey and cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar.

Karthikeyan made his F1 debut at the 2005 Australian GP with Jordan. He has since raced for India in the A1 GP and the Le Mans series.

“I am deeply honoured and humbled. It is a great day, not only in my life, but also for Indian motor sports,” said the 33-year-old in a statement.

Hockey India’s hurried and feeble attempt at appeasing the protesting women players was shot down, with the team demanding to be treated at par with their male counterparts.

Indian men’s hockey team ended their strike after being promised an amount of Rs 1 crore. The women, however, were offered a mere Rs 50,000 each as reward for their performance in 2009.

“We want HI to treat us at par and give us the same cash incentives,” senior player Deepika Murthy said on Thursday. “Anything less will not do.”

Just when Hockey India (HI) has warded off one crisis, another looms large for the body, which goes to polls on Feb. 7. HI’s affiliation process and the alleged interference of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and its affiliates in the process has come under scrutiny with some groups taking the matter to court.

On Thursday, the Mumbai High Court admitted a petition challenging the affiliation process in Maharashtra on a one-state-one-association basis. The petition was moved by the Mumbai and Vidarbha hockey associations along with a faction of the Maharashtra Hockey Association, all of whom have been ignored.

The negotiations between the administrators and the players, who are protesting for non-payment of their 2009 dues, were unsuccessful at Pune.

Following this, Wednesday saw IOA president Suresh Kalmadi rushing to have word with the players at camp with the aim of making peace between them and Hockey India.

There are chances for the crisis in the Indian hockey to get even worse; however, the 21-players are agreeing on revolting and supporting the seniors over the pay issue.

The junior team’s skipper, V Raghunath said that since the players are demanding for what is due, they are with them.

20-month old relationship between F1 racing star Lewis Hamilton and Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger came to an end.

Hamilton, 25, and Scherzinger, 31, ended their relationship on the note that both of them wanted to concentrate on their careers but will remain close friends and stay in touch with each other.

A joint statement from their spokesmen confirmed, "Nicole Scherzinger and Lewis Hamilton can confirm that they have decided to go their separate ways - the two of them have decided to focus fully on their careers and will remain close friends".

Both of them were dating each other since their first interaction at the MTV Europe Awards in Munich in November 2007.

New Delhi, Jan 11 : International Hockey Federation (FIH) vice president Antonio Van Ondarza Monday said the priority of the national players should be to play for the country.

Ondarza asked the agitating players to end their "boycott" of national camp because it can affect India's chances in next month's World Cup.

"It (boycott) is completely unheard of. Whatever has happened should not have happened," Ondarza told reporters here Monday.

The organizers of the Mumbai Marathon have declared a triple bonanza this week by inviting one of the world’s best athletes, Daniel O’Brien, as the event ambassador in the 2010 version.

Another honor being bestowed on Mumbai is the arrival of the ‘Marathon Flame’ from Greece which will come out of Europe for the first time ever.

The best of these three additions is the upgrading of 2010 Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon from silver label to gold. This was decided by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the international governing body for athletics.

Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) has planned to organise a meeting with the top six players of the Indian cricket team to discuss the improvements which should be made to the condition of the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium of Delhi. In the meeting, Mr. Bishan Singh Bedi will lead the team of the six cricketers to meet with the President of DDCA, Mr. Arun Jaitley on Saturday

This step is being seen as the correction after the final ODI cricket match was drawn between India and Sri Lanka in the last month, when the Sri Lankan Players denied continuing the match due to the bad conditions of the pitch.

London, Jan 9 : Brazilian midfielder Anderson has admitted that he is not fit to wear the Manchester United shirt, and vowed to return to the lean, mean figure that wowed fans at Porto before his move to Old Trafford in 2007.

Anderson has failed to deliver a goal threat from midfield with just one strike in 96 appearances in United’s 3-1 victory at Spurs earlier this season.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in my goal performance at United. In fact it makes me sad. And one of my first objectives is to get back to the condition I was in at Porto, then start scoring goals which decide matches because that''s vital for any player’s career,” The Sun quoted Anderson, as saying.

London, Jan 9 - Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has sent out a clear message to Real Madrid and Barcelona that Cesc Fabregas will still be at his club next season.

The Gunners boss was categorical in confirming that his skipper will be staying in North London beyond this summer.

Speculation has intensified as reports from Spain claim Wenger has a pact with Fabregas that he can leave at the end of the season.

"Yes, Cesc will be an Arsenal player on October 1, 2010. Why not? We''ve no intention to sell and he has a long-term contract. Contrary to what people say, he has a longer contract than you think," The Sun quoted Wenger, as saying.

London, Jan 9 : Horrified Premier League bosses last night called for the African Nations Cup in Angola to be scrapped, after the Togo team was attacked by rebels in Cabinda.

The Togo team coach driver was killed and two players injured when Angolan rebels opened fire with machine guns at two buses.

Manchester City will hold emergency talks with the Football Association after their striker Emmanuel Adebayor was caught up in the Togo gun horror.

Hull boss Phil Brown wants his two players back home now. “I am appalled. This throws a question mark against next summer’s World Cup.”

Cape Town, Jan 9 : England coach Andy Flower has warned middle-order batsman Ian Bell, saying that he must show that he can produce innings of brilliance on a more regular basis to repay the investment made in him.

Bell had been struggling with his form in the recent months, but has made vital contributions in the tour of South Africa.

“We''re looking for him to make consistent and medium to long-term contributions and not just nip in with a couple of scores. These have been fine contributions, but we''re looking for a lot more from him. England invested a lot with Ian Bell and this is some of him paying England back,” The Guardian quoted Flower, as saying.

Lahore, Jan. 9 : Former Pakistan skipper Imran Khan has lashed out at the national side for missing “a golden opportunity to beat Australia in their own backyard.”

“They missed a golden opportunity to beat Australia in their own backyard after so many years. Our team has a lot of talent but they are short on temperament and this was visible in the way we allowed Australia to comeback and win the Test in Sydney,” The Nation quoted Khan, as saying.

Sydney, Jan 9 : Cricket Australia (CA) has intensified their campaign to play day-night Test cricket, with preparations on to trial a coloured ball under lights in match conditions.

According to reports, a domestic game next month will be used to assess the feasibility of fundamentally changing the conditions for Test cricket.

CA chief executive James Sutherland has said that if the initial trials are successful, then some Sheffield Shield matches would be played under lights with coloured balls next season.

CA cricket operations manager Geoff Allardice said that they expect the arrangements for the trial match to be completed by the middle of next week.

Sydney, Jan 9 : Noted cricket columnist Peter Roebuck has said that the Australian team and skipper Ricky Ponting will be hard-pressed to recapture the Ashes on the basis of form shown at the SCG against Pakistan.

Roebuck said that the current England squad has the potential to beat any team, while at present Australians must be cast as outsiders.

Chennai, Jan 9 : Stanislas Wawrinka unleashed a flurry of classy shots at the right moments to beat Michael Berrer 7-6 (5), 6-4 and set up a semi-final meeting with Dudi Sela in the USD 400,000 ATP Aircel Chennai Open tennis tournament here Friday.

Sela, the fifth seed from Israel, was stretched but hung on to put out a fighting Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 7-6 (3), 7-5 in the quarter-finals.

Also through to the semi-finals was third seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia who overcame Thiemo De Bakker (Netherlands) 7-5, 7-5 and will meet the winner of the Marin Cilic (second seed) vs Santiago Giraldo (Colombia).

Kolkata, Jan 8 : Two Churchill Brothers footballers - midfielder Kalu Ogba and goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya - sustained injuries as Mohun Bagan supporters turned violent after the I-League encounter between the two clubs at Barasat near here Friday.

The Mohun Bagan supporters, incensed at Churchill striker Odafa Okolie being chosen for the man-of-the-match award and not their Brazilian recruit Jose Barreto, pelted stones at the rival players injuring the two.

Bhattacharya identified one of the attackers and chased him which aggravated the disturbances.