GAMES

Source- NZPA www.nzherald.co.nz-

A mix of penalty corner power and some slick outfield play saw the New Zealand men's hockey team ease to a predictable win against Trinidad and Tobago in their opening match at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi today.

Three of New Zealand's goals in the 7-1 win came from penalty corners as the power of defenders Andy Hayward (2) and Hayden Shaw proved too much for Trinidad and Tobago to handle.

New Zealand, ranked 7th in the world and third in the Commonwealth compared to Trinidad and Tobago's rankings of 27th and 10th, respectively, also scored four neatly constructed field goals through Blair Hilton - who bagged two, one either side of halftime - Hugo Inglis and Nick Haig, who returned from a knee injury.

But after Shaw had lashed in his first goal to open the scoring, it was Trinidad and Tobago who provided the individual play of the match when they equalised midway through the second half.

Wayne Legerton was seemingly trapped on the sideline but a mazy run, in which he beat five New Zealand defenders, ended with a cracking shot to draw them level against the run of play.

Perhaps stung by their lazy defending, New Zealand responded immediately, with striker Nick Wilson jinking his way through the defence and firing a shot which was saved, but the rebound was easily tucked away by Hugo Inglis.

Blair Hilton made it 3-1 at halftime, the striker scoring despite his team being a man down with Steve Edwards forced to spend two minutes in the sinbin after a stick clash.

Shaw and Hayward scored from penalty corners soon after the break before Hilton and Haig rounded out the scoring with well-taken individual efforts.

New Zealand's remaining group B matches are against Canada, England and South Africa.

New Zealand 7 (Andy Hayward 2, Blair Hilton 2, Hugo Inglis, Hayden Shaw, Nick Haig) Trinidad and Tobago 1 (Wayne Legerton). Halftime: 3-1.

Roger Daniel and Rhodney Allen won a  bronze medal for Trinidad and Tobago at the 2010 Commonwealth Games,  in New Delhi, India, today. The T&T marksmen copped third spot in the men's 50 metres pistol pairs event.

New Delhi: Coetzee Pietie marked her return from retirement by slamming four goals as South Africa pounded Trinidad and Tobago 12-0 in a pool A match of the women's hockey competition in the 19th Commonwealth Games here Monday.

Pietie, the 32-year-old forward and penalty corner specialist, came out of a self-imposed five-year absence from competitive hockey and showed she was none the worse for it by slotting home the goals as the South Africans ran riot at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

"Everything went to plan today (Monday) and it is a privilege to score a hat-trick in an international match," said Pietie, who showcased her versatility with two penalty corner conversions and as many field goals.

"I took a five-year break because I was exhausted, but I was playing in local matches. Then, my coach convinced me to return and this is my third month," she added.

Pietie began the flood of goals with two conversions in the first 10 minutes and thereafter, the Trinidadians were helpless against the South African onslaughts that were magnified by the tottering defence.

"We need to remain focused on our next match. We made too many mistakes in the defence, but we can bounce back," said a brave Trinidad and Tobago skipper Patricia Wright-Alexis.

The other goal-scorers for South Africa, who led 3-0 at the break, were: Dirkie Chamberlain (3), Jennifer Wilson (2), Kathleen Taylor, Lesle Anne George and Farah Fredericks.

Source: IANS

Source: www.nytimes.com  By HEATHER TIMMONS

After all, most of the top international athletes have withdrawn, citing everything from safety to scheduling to muscle strains, as evidence of India’s abysmal planning piled up and Delhi was hit by an outbreak of dengue fever.

But the games, a quadrennial competition of nations from the old British Empire, may be closely watched by economists and business executives around the world nonetheless. As India emerges as an economic player, the business world will view the games as something of a management competency test.

“It is India, and India is a rising power,” said Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

India, with its nearly 9 percent economic growth and rapidly increasing middle class, has become the latest popular destination for global companies and low-growth Western governments. That is why many of the same Western nations that were publicly upset by India’s lack of sports preparedness have recently stepped up their trade efforts with the country.

In July, Britain sent a large trade delegation that included Prime Minister David Cameron, and just last week Canada announced it would set up a chief executive forum with India and hoped to triple bilateral trade to $15 billion by 2015. Australia is pushing hard for a free-trade agreement with India, and New Zealand has secured one.

The games are the first time that India has hosted a truly global athletic competition. In fact it is the first time in decades — since the Asian Games in the early 1980s — that India has held any major multinational sports event.

Despite photos of filthy accommodations for athletes, a collapsing footbridge, a tourist shooting and allegations of corruption, not a single one of the 54 participating countries and 71 teams has backed out of India’s Commonwealth Games. India, like other emerging economic powers including China and Brazil, has become too important on the world stage, analysts say.

“Nothing will progress without the cooperation of China, India and Brazil,” said John Lee, foreign policy fellow at the Center for Independent Studies in Sydney.

Emerging markets are expected to make up just over 30 percent of the world’s gross domestic product this year, according to the International Monetary Fund figures, double their contribution in 1985. And partly because of the recession that was touched off by banks in the developed world, countries like India and China will contribute most of the global economy’s growth this year.

Emerging market countries are also increasingly hosting international sporting events, and, as developed nations are finding, they are doing things in their own way — whether it is the eerie precision of the Beijing Olympics, the glitz of South Africa’s World Cup or the chaos of India.

While developed nations seem to recognize the need to tap into India’s fast-growing economy, it still seems to be a tough transition for some to view India as a grown-up power to reckon with.

“I would hope that at the end of all of this India would have learned a great lesson,” the Commonwealth Games Federation’s president, Mike Fennell, said last week. In the past, such a remark might have been attacked as patronizing, or worse, by many of India’s top leaders and thinkers.

But in today’s India, where the number of billionaires grew by 50 percent last year — to 69 people, according to the latest Forbes list — no one in the government even seemed to notice. Rather than expressing remorse, Indian officials have started to make remarks seeming to ask what all the fuss was about in the first place.

“Anywhere, where international events take place, work continues till the very last minute,” Sheila Dikshit, Delhi’s chief minister, said last week.

Still, organization of sporting events and parades can be overrated as a measure of economic prowess, said Mr. Lee of the Center for Independent Studies.

“North Korea has great military parades with 200,000 people, but no one looks to them” to predict the future, Mr. Lee said.