The hosts India, who are placed in Group A, will open their campaign against the USA on October 6, followed by Colombia on October 9 and Ghana on October 12. New Delhi: When captain Amarjit Singh and his boys step onto the field at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Friday, it will be close to six decades since any Indian football team appeared in a FIFA competition. Starting October 6, the hosts will join 23 top footballing nations at the biggest stage in youth football; and the occasion will also cross the following landmarks: 1. India will make a comeback to the finals of a FIFA competition, breaking a hiatus of 57 years since appearing in four consecutive Olympic football tournaments from 1948 to 1960. 2. The hosts will be the 18th Asian team to participate in the U-17 World Cup, after Iraq in 2013. 3. India will be the fifth Asian country to host the U-17 World Cup, which will mean that more editions of the tournament have been held in Asia than in any...

Demetrious Johnson successfully defended his flyweight title for a record-breaking 11th time, stopping Ray Borg by armour submission at 3:15 of fifth round Saturday night at UFC 216. The card was the first major sporting event in Las Vegas since the mass shooting that killed 58 people this week. A moment of silence kicked off the pay-per-view portion of the event, then a handful of survivors and first responders were brought into the octagon and recognized as Everlast performed "America the Beautiful". The UFC has pledged to donate $1 million to help victims and their families. The 31-year-old Johnson (27-2-1) broke the defence record he shared with longtime middleweight champion Anderson Silva. "Shout out to Las Vegas," Johnson said. "Thank you so much to all the first responders." Borg dropped to 11-3. "Ray Borg was running his mouth," Johnson said. "I got the suplex and the armour, I knew I got it." Also, Tony Ferguso...

Simona Halep has become world number one for the first time by beating Jelena Ostapenko to reach the final of the China Open. Romanian Halep won 6-2 6-4 in Beijing and will replace Spain's Garbine Muguruza at the top of the rankings. Having suffered a shock defeat by Ostapenko in this year's French Open final, Halep was always in control against the world number eight. She will face Caroline Garcia or Petra Kvitova in Sunday's final. Halep, 26, will be confirmed in the number one spot when the rankings are released on Monday. In June, Ostapenko denied Halep both a first Grand Slam title and the number one ranking with a stunning win in Paris. The 20-year-old Latvian trailed by a set and was 3-0 down in the second but prevailed to become the first unseeded woman to win at Roland Garros since 1933. But Saturday's semi-final was a more one-sided affair as Halep broke Ostapenko in the first game of the match. Her serve was superior throughout - she w...

In this under 17 World Cup, there are few young, who could take the tournament by storm and increase their already high reputations  India is just days away from hosting the historic FIFA Under-17 World Cup in the country, which is being seen as a metaphorical alarm clock, that will finally ring strong and hard into the ears of the supposed football sleeping giant and make him go to work. This is the nation's first ever world football tournament and the young Turks will be eagerly waiting to showcase their talent on the biggest stage and too in front of their home crowd, that too so early in their career. However, it is not going to be an easy task for the home side as they will be up against some of the best teams at this level and against players who rub shoulders with some of the best in the world at senior level day in day out. The likes of Neymar, Toni Kroos etc took baby-steps in this competition itself and went onto become the superstars that they are...