Category: Sports

National Sports Day of India marks the birth anniversary of great hockey player Lt. Dhyan Chand. To celebrate his association with domain of sports, every year Indian government honours the players on 29 August, who perform exquisitely in sports.

This year (2016) a large number of nominations were received for the awards. These nominations were considered by the Selection Committees which comprise erstwhile Olympians, Arjuna Awardees, Dronacharya Awardees, Dhyan Chand Awardees, Sports Journalists/Experts/Commentators and sports administrators. For Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award and Arjuna Awards, Selection Committee was led by Justice S.K. Agarwal, Retired Delhi High Court Judge. Selection Committee for Dronacharya Awards and Dhyan Chand Awards was headed by Ms. M.C. Mary Kom. And for Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar, Selection Committee was headed by Shri Rajiv Yadav, Secretary (Sports).

This year PV Sindhu (Badminton), Sakshi Malik (Wrestling), Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics) and Jitu Rai (Shooting) are being felicitated with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratan Award for their praiseworthy performance in Rio Olympics (2016).
Besides, Shri Nagapuri Ramesh (Athletics), Shri Sagar Mal Dhayal (Boxing), Shri Raj Kumar Sharma (Cricket), Shri Bishweshwar Nandi (Gymnastics), Shri S. Pradeep Kumar, (Swimming, Lifetime), and Shri Mahabir Singh, (Wrestling, Lifetime) are conferred with Dronacharya Award.

Further, players who are honored with Arjuna Awards are Shri Rajat Chauhan (Archery), Ms. Lalita Babar (Athletics), Shri Sourav Kothari (Billiards & Snooker), Shri Shiva Thapa (Boxing), Shri Ajinkya Rahane (Cricket), Shri Subrata Paul (Football), and Ms. Rani (Hockey), etc.

Dhyan Chand Award is received by Ms. Satti Geetha, Shri Sylvanus Dung Dung, and Shri Rajendra Pralhad Shelke for Athletics, Hockey, and Rowing respectively.

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar is won by Hockey Citizen Group, Dadar Parsee Zorostrian cricket club, Usha School of Athletics, and STAIRS in Identification and Nurturing of Budding and Young Talent category. India Infrastructure Finance Corporate Limited has won the award for Encouragement to Sports through Corporate Social Responsibility. In this list, Reserve Bank of India received the award for Employment to Sportspersons and Other Welfare Measures. Also, in Sports for Development category Subroto Mukherjee Sports Education Society won this prestigious award.

The 2018 Winter Olympics took place from 9th February to 25th February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Province, South Korea. They are also officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games, and are a major attraction at global level, as grand as the Summer Olympics, but attended and competed by fewer countries and athletes, as only winter sports are allowed.

It was the first Winter Olympics and held at South Korea and the second Olympics held in the country. This 2018 Winter Olympics was also the first Olympics of the 3 successive Olympics to be held in East Asia, the other 2 being Tokyo’s Summer Olympics of 2020 and the Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympics. The event featured a total of 122 events related to 15 sports including additional sports like “big air” snowboarding, mixed doubles curling and mass start speed skating. A total of 2914 athletes from 92 countries associated with National Olympic Committee participated in the event.  Norway headed the total medal tally with 39 followed by Germany with 31 and Canada with 29 medals. A total of 307 medals were presented at the events.

Accentuating an inspirational outlook towards specially abled, the fifteenth Summer Paralympics was celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. This year, the event attained the position of being second-most-attended Paralympic Games in history.

The event began with the theme “Todo Mundo tem um Coração” (“Everybody Has a Heart”) and witnessed a huge participation of around 160 National Paralympic Committees with a total of 4,350 athletes. In addition to this, two refugee athletes namely, Syrian-born swimmer Ibrahim Al Hussein and Shahrad Nasajpour, an Iranian discus thrower, also took part in the games as independents. This was the first time a tremendous step was taken by the authorities for the refugees and asylee athletes. Two new sports namely, canoeing and the triathlon were also added in the list of sports this year.

The President of International Paralympic Committee, Phillip Craven spoke on the opening ceremony and invited viewers to “see the true meaning of sport and the true definition of ability”. He said that Paralympians have the ability to change the existing perceptions and open a whole new world of endless opportunity.

The eleven days’ event ended on 18th September in the famous Maracana football stadium. While China spearheaded the league with 239 medals, Britain remained on the second position with 147 medals in total. Ukraine and the United States followed with 117 and 115 medals respectively.

The Closing ceremony was a great success filled with amazing performances filled with enthusiasm and inspirations. The ceremony was dazzled with various concert performances by an array of prominent Brazilian musicians. There was also a formal handover to Tokyo which is to host the 2020 Summer Paralympics. The IPC President also announced that he would bestow the Paralympic Order—the IPC’s highest honor, on the people of Brazil and Rio de Janeiro for their enormous support of the Paralympics.

Ariya Jutanugarn wins The United States Women’s Open Golf Championship, which is one of the thirteen national
championships conducted by United States Golf Association (USGA) and is the oldest of five other major championships of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). The Championship came into being 72 years ago in 1946. The Tournament is usually held in early July and is the third major of the LPGA season. The winner of the event bags a large sum of money which is considered the highest purse in women’s golf. In 2017, the amount was
$5 Million.

Ariya is the first player from Thailand to win the championship. Her win came after she parred the fourth extra hole after earlier finishing regulation at 11-under-par 277. She suffered a back nine collapse before beating her South Korean opponent, Kim Hyo-joo in the playoff at the U.S women’s open.

Through this win, she has joined Annika Sorenstam, Karrie Webb, Se Ri Pak and Inbee Park as the only players to win both the US women’s Open and the British Open, which she won in 2016. Some considered the tournament to be the most difficult day of her career, but she walked away bagging the trophy and the cash prize worth $900,000.

Since 2018, the U.S Women’s Open is being held prior to the Men’s tournament in order to provide optimum playing conditions to the world’s best players across the various and finest golf courses that the U.S has to offer.

India’s star boxer Vijender Singh added another feather to his cap of achievements by clinching the WBO Asia Pacific Super Middleweight title. The 30-year-old player defeated the former WBC European champion Kerry Hope at Delhi’s Thyagraj Stadium and recorded his seventh straight win in the circuit.

Vijender, who has won India’s first Olympic medal for boxing, took all 10 rounds to dismantle the Welsh-born Australian Hope. He scored 98-92, 98-92, 100-90 to be the unanimous winner. He is now ranked 15th in the WBO rankings.

“This comes after a lot of hard work put in by me, my trainer, my team,” an emotional Vijender said after the win I thank my coach, my promoter and my team who have done a fantastic job.” He further added, “It’s not about myself, it’s about my nation, my country.”

An ecstatic Lee Beard who coached Vijender Singh showed his appreciation for the world champion, “When I first saw him, it took just 15 minutes for me to gauge that he will win a world title. I looked into his eyes and I saw a fire. Whatever he seems to focus on, he gets it. Of all the fighters I have trained, he is one of the best when it comes to learning; he is an extremely quick learner.”

It was Vijender’s first bout in his homeland after he turned professional last year. Delhi’s Thyagraj stadium was jam-packed with his fans cheering for him. Many celebrities like Randeep Hooda, Mary Kom, Virender Sehawag, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, and Rahul Gandhi were also present in the stadium to witness the epic win. As soon as the results were announced, Twitter flooded with congratulatory messages for the champion. Prime Minister and the President also congratulated Vijender for his classic win.

With a perfect finish in the Asia/Oceania Group I tie, the Indian Davis Cup team made its way to the World Group play-offs of the Davis Cup. The host nation’s team defeated its Korean rivals with a 4-1 lead.

Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna had already sealed the deal by taking a lead of 3-0, winning the only doubles-match against Seong Chan Hong and Hong Chung by 6-3 6-4 6-4. Saketh Myneni and Ramkumar Ramanathan had already won their respective singles.

The final day matches were played in Chandigarh where the humid climate proved to be a hassle for both the teams. While Yong-Kyu Lim prevented a Korean whitewash with a gritty 3-6 6-4 6-7(2) win over Ramkumar Ramanathan, Rohan Bopanna aced the match defeating Chung by 3-6 6-4 6-4. Despite losing the tie, the Koreans have to be credited for giving a tough fight to the Indians. Even though they were playing on a foreign land, they gave their best shot in every game.

After the final win, the Indian team celebrated by dancing on popular Bollywood number, much to the delight of their fans. This is the third time that Indian team has reached this stage in the game, they have lost play-offs twice – against Serbia (in 2014, Bangalore) and Czech Republic (in 2015, New Delhi). The team is all set to secure its position in the elite 16-nation World Group.

The one month long football festival, Euro Cup as always was a vivacious, dynamic and throbbing experience for the football fans all across the globe. Hosted by France from 10 June to 10 July, the fifteenth Euro Cup was an exciting event. It was for the first time that 24 teams participated in the event (only 16 teams used to participate earlier).

The final of the game showed that it is not necessary that the team with finest style of the play will win the tournament but the one which can survive against the odds. Portugal was not the best team contesting in the tournament and did not have a very strong team to support its bid for the cup. The team rode its luck all along the way with Ronaldo leading the team single handedly to the finale.

Ronaldo’s injury during the match came out as a soul-crushing shock for his fans. But Ronaldo’s exit from the field fared well for the team as the French team was proving quite menacing for them before that. And the change in field position got them into a stronger position to fight.

Cristiano Ronaldo was super excited about lifting the cup for the first time. He expressed his happiness by saying, “I am very happy. I have been looking for this for a long time, since 2004. I asked God for another chance at this because we deserved it,”

The Player of the Tournament award was given to the French player Antoine Griezmann and the Young Player of the Tournament award was conferred to Portugal Renato Sanches.

For his 6 goals and 2 assists, Antoine Griezmann was awarded with the Golden Boot too. The Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo was given the Silver Boot for his 3 goals and 3 assits while the Bronze Boot was given to French player Olivier Giroud for 3 goals and 2 assists. Hungarian player Zoltán Gera’s goal against Portugal was named as the goal of the tournament based on online voting.

The Indian Cricket Board has entrusted former skipper and ace spinner Anil Kumble with the responsibility to lead team India as head coach. Former Indian captain Anil Kumble will hold the post for one year. It is after 16 years that an Indian player is appointed as the head-coach of the team after Kapil Dev resigned in September 2000.

Kumble’s first assignment as the Head-coach of the blue-army will be to lead them for four-Test tour of the West Indies. “I have an opportunity to make a difference. I have an opportunity to be part of the journey and if I can be part of the journey where we see Indian cricket rise to where we all want it to be, then I think it’s wonderful. I feel privileged, like I already mentioned. It is an honor, again to be a part of the team.” Kumble said expressing his delight.

Announcing his appointment, the BCCI showed its immense belief in the caliber of the star cricketer and said, “As for the one-year period, Kumble is now transforming himself from being a great on the cricketing field to probably becoming a great coach that we expect him to be.”

Anil Kumble is one legendary cricketer. In a fabulous international career of 18 years, Kumble picked up 956 international scalps. He played 132 Tests taking 619 wickets at an average of 29.65 and was made the captain of test team in 2007. He is known for his best figures of 10 for 74 against Pakistan in Delhi in 1999. He is the highest Indian wicket taker in both Test matches and One-Day Internationals and is third in the international list behind Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne.

Even after his retirement from the field in 2008, Kumble’s connection with the cricket continued as he took up administrative roles. He was selected as president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association in November 2010. He also served as the chairman of National Cricket Academy in Bangalore and also got the privilege to head the BCCI’s technical committee.

The former Brazilian defender and a Real Madrid star-player Roberto Carlos reinforced the close ties between Brazil and the UAE with his attendance at the concluding night of the fourth Nad Al Sheba (NAS) Ramadan Sports Tournament. Carlos was a special guest at the final of Futsal competition in Dubai where Al Joker was crowned as the winner.

Carlos was excited to be present at the nail-biting finale of the Futsal competition and asserted that he is a keen follower of the Futsal games. He emphasized on the development of Futsal at the foundation level among the young players as it can improve their skills a lot. “Nearly every great footballer has played futsal at some point of his life. Futsal gives you the basics and we need to encourage our youngsters to play futsal during their growing years. Futsal is the right sport that can only be helpful in aiding the development of players,” the ace footballer insisted.

He also acknowledges football as the biggest bond connecting the two nations. “Football and football players have long been the biggest ambassadors for Brazil all over the world. I feel proud to be at this wonderful sports complex and witness such an exciting and close final between two great teams,” Carlos said during an interview at the event. “One of the salient points in developing football has been this Brazilian connection with countries all over the world, and I am pleased to see this close connection between the UAE and Brazil,” he added.

In an 11 year long club career with the Real Madris, Carlos played a total of 584 matches matches in all competitions and scored 71 goals, in the process winning for La Liga titles and three Uefa Champions League crowns. The annual Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament takes place during Ramadan each year. A number of exciting sports competitions like paddle tennis, archery, volleyball, and running are organized to celebrate the spirit of Ramadan as developing the mind and body are integral parts of the month. The tournament this year was held under a new theme ‘Limitless Abilities’ in keeping with the aim to encourage sports for special needs athletes.

Keeping the increasing popularity of Badminton in the region in view, the UAE formed a new governing body to oversee the ongoing development of the game. The UAE Tennis Association now rechristened as the UAE Table Tennis and Badminton Association will enhance the governance, administration, grassroots development and event delivery for both sports by sharing the resources.

The formation of the governing body, facilitated by Falcon and Associates, was announced by His Excellency Saeed Hareb, Secretary General of Dubai Sports Council, and His Excellency Dawood Al Hajri, President of the UAE Table Tennis Association, with the Badminton World Federation President Poul-Erik Hoyer witnessing this important event.

His Excellency Saeed Hareb, who is also Chairman of the BWF Dubai World Superseries Finals Organising Committee, commented on the announcement by saying, “The formation of the UAE Badminton and Table Tennis Association is a fantastic milestone for the growth and development of the sport.” He further added, “The creation of this national association will no doubt increase participation in the UAE and further enhance the governance, development and administration structures currently in place. This is certainly an exciting time for badminton in the UAE and Dubai Sports Council looks forward to working very closely with the UAE Table Tennis and Badminton Association to promote badminton to an ever wider audience.”

Dawood Al Hajri’s name was announced as the new President of the Association, with Hassan Al-Zarouni appointed as Secretary General, Abdulrahman Al-Menhali as Treasurer and Ghazi Al Madani as a board member.
Accepting the position of the President of the Association, Al Hajri said, “The growth trajectory of badminton over the past two years has been nothing short of remarkable since the Shuttle Time Dubai programme was introduced as part of the agreement to host the BWF World Superseries Finals in Dubai. The association will further promote the growth of the sport in the region by developing a strategic and coordinated approach to the long-term development and sustainability of badminton in the UAE.”