SPORTS FEBRUARY 2014

SPORTS FEBRUARY 2014

• Sourav Kothari won the National Billiard Championships held in Lucknow on 26 February 2014.
  
• Somdev Devvarman beat top seed Aleksandr Nedovyesov in the men's singles final to win the $100,000 ONGC GAIL Delhi Open ATP Challenger in New Delhi on 22 February.
  
• Roger Federer has won his sixth Dubai ATP title, defeating Thomas Berdych of Chez Republic on 2 February. Berdych finished runner-up a year ago to Novak Djokovic. Federer added a 78th singles title to his glittering record as he lifted his first trophy in eight months since winning in Halle, Germany. The Swiss moved into sole third on the all-time title list, pulling away from John McEnroe (77).He has now won at least one trophy per year for the past 14 seasons.
  
• The biggest event of card games comes to India as the country will host the next World Bridge Championship for Bermuda Bowl (men) and Venice Cup (women) in October 2015. Bridge Federation of India (BFI) President N R Kirubakara Moorthy on 15 February, informed that the World Bridge Federation (WBF) has allotted the 2015 World Championship to India and "BFI are now in the process of finalizing the event”. This would be the first time that India would be hosting the biggest event of the card games. The WBF conducts the World Bridge Team Championships every two years. This is the premier tournament in international bridge and sees the top teams from each geographic region competing against one another for the Bermuda Bowl trophy. Additionally, there are separate trophies for the top women`s team as well as the top senior team (D`Orsi Trophy) globally. About 550 players from 66 countries are expected to be seen in action in this world meet.
  
• Olympic champion Renaud Lavillenie on 15 February broken Sergey Bubka's 21-year-old pole vault world record with a 6.16m leap in the Ukrainian's home city of Donetsk. The Frenchman, 27, cleared the height on his first attempt to go one centimeter higher than the record Bubka set indoors in February 1993.Former Olympic champion Bubka also held the world outdoor record of 6.14m, achieved in Italy in 1994.Bubka was a pioneer of the sport, becoming the first man to clear 6.00m, and was in Donetsk to witness Lavillenie eclipse his record. The six-time outdoor world champion broke the men's pole vault world record 35 times during his career, 17 times outdoors and 18 indoors.
  
• Shot putter Om Prakash Karhana on 15 February gave the lone gold to India in the 6th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships, as he won the gold medal on the second and final day of the event at Hangzhou, China. Om Prakash threw the iron ball to a distance of 19.07m to clinch the gold and save India from ending the championships without a medal. For Om Prakash, who is holding the outdoor national record at 20.69m, it was the second ever medal at these championships. Earlier, he had won a silver medal in the India-dominated 2008 edition at Doha; Qatar. India had won just a bronze in the last edition of the championships at the same venue two years ago. Long jumper Kumaravel Premkumar had won the bronze.
  
• Venus Williams beat Alize Cornet in straight sets to win the Dubai Championships title for a third time on 21 February. This was her first WTA Tour title since she won in Luxemburg in October 2012.
  
• Rafael Nadal beat Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3 7-6 (7-3) in the Rio Open final on 22 February. It was Nadal's 43rd clay title and stretches his record on the surface to 298-21, the best of the Open era.
  
• Ousted from the Olympic movement due to tainted officials and government interference more than a year ago, India's exile came to an end on 11 February, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) welcomed the country back into the fold within days of fresh elections in the scam-riddled IOA. "The IOC Executive Board (EB) reinstated the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of India, the Indian Olympic Association, during an ad-hoc meeting in Sochi," the IOC said in a statement. The IOC lifted the 14-month old ban after the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) barred charge-framed officials from its fresh election in which World Squash Federation chief and younger brother of BCCI boss N Srinivasan, N Ramachandran, was elected as the president. The decision comes after the IOC's three observers for the elections left Indian shores "satisfied with the IOA elections promising to submit a "favorable report to the IOC president”. The most immediate effect of this would be seen at the ongoing Winter Olympics in Sochi, where the Indians would now be allowed to carry the tri-color during the closing ceremony after parading through the opening ceremony under an IOC flag.
  
• The Sports Authority of India (SAI) set up 14 different high-level expert committees on 14 February 2014. The committees have been mandated to identify the country's medal prospects and provide them with specialised training in the run up to the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games to be held in 2015. The committees have been formed for 14 sporting disciplines including shooting, weightlifting, boxing, archery, athletics, judo, badminton and wushu among others. Every committee will have 4 to 6 members each, which will comprise of concerned federation officials, SAI appointed coaches and sports experts. The committees will start working from February 2014.These committees will function till the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games. The committees will help in identifying the medal prospects who require specialized training and monetary support. Based on the recommendations of respective committees, SAI will work with athletes for the podium finish at the Games, along with developing them for future events.
  
• The suspended Indian Olympic Association (IOA) amended its constitution and successfully held its elections in New Delhi on 9 February, taking the first steps to returning to the international fold. World Squash Federation president N. Ramachandran was unanimously named as the new president of the IOA in the elections held in the presence of three observers from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) — Pere Miró, IOC Director of NOC Relations, Jérôme Poivey, Head of Institutional Relations in the NOC Relations Department, and Robin Mitchell, head of the IOC delegation. Most of the office-bearers, including secretary general Rajeev Mehta, were elected unopposed, barring the vice-presidents. The IOA was suspended in December 2012 after it went ahead with elections despite IOC’s reservations, electing Abhay Singh Chautala and Lalit Bhanot as president and secretary respectively. Both have been charged by a court of law. Under the new constitution, any member against whom charges have been framed by a court of law for an offence that carries imprisonment of more than two years will not be allowed to contest elections and the case will be referred to the IOA Ethics Commission. The main office-bearers are- President: N. Ramachandran; Senior vice-president: Virendra Nanavati; vice-president:Janardhan Singh Gehlot, Birendra Prasad Baishya, Akhilesh Das Gupta, Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Tarlochan Singh, Anurag Thakur, R. K. Anand, G. S. Mander; General secretary: Rajeev Mehta
  
• Karnataka won the Irani Cup for the fifth time beating Rest of India in the final held at Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on 12 February 2014. Karnataka beat Rest of India by an innings and 222 runs to win the trophy. Shreyas Gopal five wickets haul including a hat-trick and Skipper's Vinay Kumar four wickets haul helped Karnataka comprehensively win the game. The victory made Karnataka the first Ranji Trophy champion in the last eight seasons to win the Irani Cup, a measure of the side’s dominance this season. Also Vinay Kumar became the third Karnataka captain to win both the Ranji Trophy and Irani Cup in a same year.Karnataka last won the Irani Cup in 1998 at the same venue under Venkatesh Prasad.The Irani Cup (earlier called Irani Trophy) tournament was conceived during the 1959-60 season to mark the completion of 25 years of the Ranji Trophy championship.
  
• The Supreme Court appointed committee on IPL spot-fixing submitted its report to the court on 9 February 2014. The committee was headed by Mukul Mudgal who is the former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court. The committee appointed in the wake of IPL spot fixing in October 2013 was probing the charges against team owners of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. The Mudgal Committee also comprised of Additional Solicitor General L N Rao and Nilay Dutta. The report submitted by Mudgal Committee says that the allegations of betting and passing of information during Indian Premier League 2013 against Gurunath Meiyappan has been proved. However, whether he was indulged in the fixing still requires clarification. The report also says that more investigation is needed against Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra, who is facing charges of betting and fixing the match. The Mudgal Committee Report has also sought a probe into the possible involvement of international stars, including six capped Indian players whose names figured in the conversations between bookies taped by the police. Supreme Court of India on 7 March 2014 will examine the report submitted by the panel. The panel led by Justice Mudgal made the report after compiling statements of players, officials associated to IPL and Journalists.
  
• N.Srinivasan, the President of BCCI on 8 February 2014 was elected as the new Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC). His tenure of the office will begin in July 2014 for a period of 2 years. This decision was taken by the ICC Board during their meet in Singapore. He will succeed Alan Raymond Isaac. With this appointment, the ICCs Board will be headed by Srinivasan. ICC Board is the apex decision making body of the world cricket. Srinivasan will be assisted by a new Executive Committee that will be chaired by Wally Edwards from Australia. The Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee chaired by Giles Clarke from the English cricket Board. The newly elected team will oversee the affairs of the international cricket during its two year transition period till 2016. Later on, the full members of the ICC will elect a new Chairman while BCCI, CA and ECB - will be represented on both sub-committees, along with two representatives of the other Full Members who will be elected by the Board.
  
• Srilankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara, on 7 February 2014 became the second person in the history of Cricket to score a triple century and a century in the same test match. By performing the rare record, he joined Graham Gooch, the former skipper of England team. He achieved this reach by scoring 319 runs in the first inning of the match and 105 runs in the second innings. He achieved this record, while playing in the second test match against Bangladesh. But he failed to break the record of most runs in a Test match of Gooch by 32 runs as in 1990, Gooch scored 333 and 123 runs in two innings, which on aggregated becomes 456 runs. Whereas, Sangakkara’s total aggregate of the two matches is 424 runs.
  
• Indian Squash player Joshna Chinappa won the Winnipeg Winter Club Open title on 3 February 2014. She defeated Heba El Torky of Egypt. The fourth seeded Indian won by 3-2 (11-13 11-8 11-5 3-11 12-10) in a see-saw battle. The triumph of Chinappa marked the second consecutive year of an Indian winning the trophy with Dipika Pallikal being the first to clinch it before her in 2013. Joshna was the first Indian girl to win the British Squash Championship title in 2003 in the under 19 category, at Sheffield, U.K. and was also the youngest Indian women's national champion.