SPORTS MARCH 2014

SPORTS MARCH 2014

• Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) beat defending Champions Haryana 4-0 to clinch the 4th Hockey India Senior Women National Championship (Division A) on March 22 held in Bhopal. Jharkhand won the match playing for the 3rd position against Punjab.
  
• West Zone on 27 March 2014 won the Deodhar Trophy 2014. They lifted the trophy after defeating North Zone in the Day-Night final at Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam by a margin of 133 runs. 
  • Deodhar Trophy is a 50-over over inter zonal knockout Indian domestic cricket tournament.
  • The one-day zonal championship, established in 1980s has been named after Prof. D. B. Deodhar, who is known as the Grand Old Man of Indian cricket.
  • The tournament is annually played among five zonal teams namely North Zone, South Zone, East Zone, West Zone and Central Zone.
  
  
• After coming up of the report submitted by the Justice Mukul Mudgal panel in a sealed cover, the Supreme Court on 25 March, asked Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president N. Srinivasan to step down on his own to ensure a fair inquiry into allegations of betting in the Indian Premier League.
  
• Serbian Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal by 6-2,6-3 to win fourth Miami open title on 30 March . This is the second straight win of the event title for Djokovic as earlier on 16 March 2014; he won the BNP Paribas Open Final in Indian Wells ATP Tennis Masters title in California against Roger Federer.
  
• Karnataka for the first time won the Vijay Hazare Cricket Trophy 2013-14 by defeating Railways by four wickets at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on 16 March 2014. Earlier in the year 2014; Karnataka has already won the Ranji Trophy and Irani Trohy. Vijay Hazare Trophy was started in 2002-03. It is the One-day version of the Ranji Trophy. Tamil Nadu won the trophy four times and Delhi won the trophy in 2012-13.
  
• The world’s number two Novak Djokovic on 16 March 2014 defeated Roger Federer to win the BNP Paribas Open Final in Indian Wells ATP Tennis Masters in California. BNP Paribas Open Women’s singles title won by Italian Flavia Pennetta by defeating second seeded Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-1
  
• Indian archers on 13 March 2014 bagged 2 gold and a silver in the team events in 1st Asian Grand Prix Archery Championships at Bangkok. Whereas, in the Compound Women’s team event women team defeated Iran to clinch the first gold, 219 to 204. The women compound team included Gagandeep Kaur, V Jyothi Surekha and P Lily Chanu. In the Men’s Recurve, the team of Jayanta Talukdar, Tarundeep Rai and Kapil won gold after defeating Taipei, 6-0 in set system. Apart from this, the Indian team of Abhishek Verma, Sandeep Kumar and Rajat Chouhan won silver in the Men’s compound section after facing a defeat by Iran, 227 to 232. Recurve women's team lost to Japan in the bronze medal match and completed at the fourth position. The women recurve team included Deepika Kumar, Bombayla Devi and Laxmirai.1st Asian Archery Grand Prix 2014 (World Ranking) is being organised in Bangkok from 10 March to 16 March 2014. The event has been organised following the World Archery Rules for 2012 in both divisions Recurve and Compound.
  
• India's ace shooter Heena Sidhu produced some excellent shooting to clinch the air pistol women's gold medal while Chain Singh bagged a gold medal in men's air rifle event at the 7th Asian Championship in Kuwait on 10 March. Chain Singh won the top prize with a score of 206. In the qualification round, his score was 619.6. The team consisting of Heena (386), Shweta Chaudhary (378) and Harveen Srao (374) won the silver medal in the team event with a total score of 1138/1200.In the men's team event, Chain Singh (619.6), Ravi Kumar (620.7) and PT Raghunath (615.8) won the bronze medal. The gold and silver medals were won by China and Iran. Heena is presently the world record holder in finals with a score of 203.8, which she shot at ISSF World Cup in Munich last year. The silver medal was won by WU Chia Ying of Chinese Taipei with 198.3 while the bronze went to Al Balushi Wadha of Oman with a score of 177.3.Chaudhary, who also made it to the finals of the individual event, was ranked 5th. In the women's air pistol team event, there was a tie with China who also had an identical total score but on the basis of an inner 10 score, the Asian giants won the gold. The bronze medal was won by Chinese Taipei with a total score of 1134/1200. Until now India have won three gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
  
• Pooja Ghatkar asserted the Indian supremacy against tough Chinese competition by clinching the gold in women’s air rifle in the seventh Asian air gun championship in Kuwait City on 8th March. The 25-year-old from Pune, Pooja shot 208.8 in the final to beat Du Bei of China by 1.6 point. The reigning World and Olympic champion Yi Siling of China, who had also won the gold in the last Asian Games in Guangzhou, was pushed to the third place. The Indian women were pushed to the bronze medal by Mongolia, while China won the gold easily. In men’s air pistol, in which the Chinese swept all the three medals, Samaresh Jung and Prakash Nanjappa did well to make the final. The Indian men managed to get the silver behind China which was a class apart as it equalled the world record of 1759.
  
• The results:Men: Air pistol: 1. Pang Wei (Chn) 202.3 (FWR) 585; 2. Wang Zhiwei (Chn) 201.9 (591); 3. Mai Jiajie (Chn) 180.3 (583). Team event: 1. China 1759 (EWR); 2. India 1732; 3. Saudi Arabia 1716.
  
• Women: Air rifle: 1. Pooja Ghatkar 208.8 (413.1); 2. Du Bei (Chn) 207.2 (415.7); 3. Yi Siling (Chn) 186.2 (417.2). Team event: 1. China 1244.4; 2. Mongolia 1236.3; 3. India 1235.6.
  
• One of the greatest batsmen of all time, Sachin Tendulkar was on 14 March, voted Cricketer of the Generation as he faced stiff competition from spin legend Shane Warne and all-rounder Jacques Kallis at the ESPNcricinfo awards function in Mumbai. The award is meant to honour the most outstanding cricketer between the years 1993 and 2013, and the occasion also marked the 20th anniversary celebrations for the cricket website. Tendulkar has been the most successful batsman of his generation, having set innumerable records in both Tests and ODIs. He rewrote some of the most coveted batting records, including those for most Tests runs and Test hundreds, and for most ODI runs and ODI hundreds.
  
• Mizoram on 9 March 2014 won the 68th senior National football championship of Santosh Trophy by defeating Railways 3-0 in the final match played at Kanchenjungha Stadium in Siliguri, West Bengal. Railways for the last time bagged Santosh Trophy in 1966 and since then (48 years) it has never won a single trophy. With this win of the Santosh Trophy, Mizoram bagged 5 lakh rupees, while Railways as the runners-up got 3 lakh rupees.
  
• The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on 4 march, given recognition to ‘Hockey India’ as National Sports Federation (NSF) for the sport of Hockey. According to a communication sent to all concerned, the Ministry has said, ‘Hockey India’ is made responsible and accountable for the overall management, direction, control, regulation, promotion and development of the sports discipline, i.e. Hockey (Men and Women). The communication said, in order to be eligible for assistance and continuing the recognition of Government of India, ‘Hockey India’ is required to follow the guidelines of the government issued from time to time and also those prescribed in the National Sports Development Code of India.
  
• Graeme Smith, the South African cricket team Captain on 4 March 2014 announced that he will retire from international cricket at the end of the test match against Australia at Newlands. Smith is the longest serving captain for South Africa in international cricket. His retirement came after Jacques Kallis retired from the test team in December 2013.He has played 117 test matches as an opener of which 109 was as a captain too. His total 109 test captaincies are 16 more than the previous record held by Allan Border of Australia. He has played 197 one-day international. He holds the world record as the most test wins as skipper (53) by defeating the record held by Australian Ricky Ponting of 48 wins as a Test captain.
  
• Ragala Venkat Rahul won 2 Gold and 1 Silver on the second day of the 16th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championship on 6 March 2014. The Championship is being held at Bangsean in Thailand. Rahul won the medals in 77-kg category of boys. He bagged Gold each in Clean & Jerk (163 kg) and in total lift (296 kg). The Silver was won in snatch (133 kg).The championship is the continental qualification event for the 2nd Youth Olympic Games. The 2nd Youth Olympic Games are to be held in August 2014 in Nanjing, China. In 2013, 15th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championship was held at Al Sadd Sports Club in Doha, Qatar.
  
• Tamil Nadu (TN) men, Railways women won the 27th Federation Cup Volleyball Titles on 5th March 2014. The finals held at Kizhakkambalam, Ernakulam in Kerala.
  
• Jitendra Singh, the Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports on 5 March 2014 inaugurated the Sports Authority of India National Cycling Academy (SAI NCA) at Indira Gandhi Sports Complex. The finances of the academy will be maintained by Government of India, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports through Sports Authority of India. The Academy has been launched with a long-term perspective of making an Academy which will be financially independent and a self-sustaining venture. Academy will cater in identification and nurturing of young talent at both sub-junior and junior levels. It will also train the elite athletes on a run up to their preparations for international/national competitions Earlier, in 2013 India received the first-ever Gold medal in the history of Cycling in the Asian Cycling Championship held at Bangkok (Thailand).
  
• Australia on 5th March 2014 replaced India’s second position in the Test team rankings of cricket. This place was achieved by Australia after they defeated South Africa by 245-run in the third and final Test match in Cape Town. Australia who replaced India at the second position in test rankings entered the three test-matches series with South Africa at third position. This second-position has won Australia a cash award of 370000 US dollars. South Africa at the top position will receive 475000 US dollars. England is at the forth rank.
  
• Sri Lanka on 9 March, won the Asia Cup championship for the fifth time, equalling the record held by India. Pakistan failed to defend the Asia Cup title as they were defeated by Sri Lanka in the final held at the Shere Bangla National Stadium Mirpur, Bangladesh. Chasing 261, Sri Lanka completed their well-deserved five-wicket victory with 22 balls left to snatch the title from Pakistan who had won the previous tournament also held in Bangladesh in 2012.Opener Lahiru Thirimanne, who had scored a century against Pakistan in the opening match, hit another ton in the final.
  
• Arvind Bhat of India by defeating Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark 24-22, 19-21, 21-11 in an epic final won the German Open Grand Prix Gold title in Mulheim an der Ruhr on 2 March. By stunning the 11th seed Danish player in an hour, Bhat became only the second Indian shuttler to win a GP Gold title outside India. K Srikanth won the Thailand GP Gold last year to break the jinx. P.Kashyap was the first Indian to win a GP Gold crown ever since the BWF introduced Super Series structure in 2006. Kashyap had claimed the GP Gold at the Syed Modi Memorial tournament at Lucknow in 2012.