SPORTS MAY 2013

SPORTS MAY 2013

• In the final match of Indian Premier League 2013, Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs to lift the title for the very first time at Eden Gardens on 26 May 2013. Mumbai Indians decided to bat first and scored 148 runs for nine in 20 overs. On the other hand, in a chase of 148 runs, the Chennai Super Kings managed to score just 125 runs for nine in 20 overs. This was the first IPL trophy for Mumbai Indians. Earlier they had lost in the finals to the Chennai Super Kings in 2010. Chennai Super Kings, now have lost three times in the final, i.e., in the year 2008, 2012 and 2013.
  
• Indian boxers won the 2013 Invitational FXTM International Limassol Boxing Cup held in Limassol, Cyprus on 19 May 2013. They won 10 medals which included four gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals which ensured them the first rank. Indian boxers won the tournament on the European circuit for the first time. Reigning national champion Madan Lal (52kg) beat Ayigah Dodsi from Belgium to bag the flyweight title.V Durga Rao (56kg) beat German Dieter Dier to bag his very first international medal on the senior tour. Mandeep Jangra (69kg) beat Victor Vega Blanco of Spain in a completely one sided affair to bag the welterweight title. Super heavyweight boxer Praveen Kumar (+91kg) won the fourth gold for Indiabeating Beguerni Hamza from Algeria.Manoj Kumar (64kg), Olympian Dinesh Kumar (91kg) and Sukhdeep Singh (75kg) won a silver medeal each. Earlier in the tournament, Anil Kumar (60kg), Jagroop Singh (81kg) and L Devendro Singh (49kg) reached the semi-finals and claimed a bronze medal each.
  
• Preeti Beniwal on 22 May 2013 bagged the gold medal in Senior National Women's Boxing Championship. In the event held at Khatima, uttarakhand, Preeti out-punched Manipur's Y Sandhya 22-9 in the final of the 60kg category. Preeti Beniwal hails from Hisar.
  
• Ragala Venkat Rahul swept all the three gold in the boys 77kg category as India continued to shine at the 15th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships on the fourth day in Doha on 30 May. Rahul lifted 132kg in snatch and 157kg in clean and jerk for a total lift of 289kg enroute to winning all the gold medals on offer in the weight category. After four days, India now has secured 27 medals (13 gold, seven silver and seven bronze) in the Championship. Rahul has been a consistent performer for India and he had won two medals in the IWF Youth Boys World Weightlifting Championships at Tashkent, Uzbekistan in April. Akshay B. Gaikwad won three gold medals on second day of 15th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships in Doha.
  
• 44 Years old Ang Dami Sherpa from Nepal won the Everest Marathon on 29 May 2013 in women’s category of Year 2013.Ang Dami Sherpa,won the women’s title in 11th Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon in a timeline of 6 hours, 2 minutes and 10 seconds. This win is counted as Sherpa’s second title at the 42.2 km race, as she already won another title in year 2006. The Everest Marathon is considered as one of the most strenuous marathon events, which starts at the Everest Base Camp at an altitude of 5,364 meters, and ends at Namche Bazaar at 3,446 metres. The race was coincided with the diamond jubilee celebrations of the first ascent of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. The Everest Marathon is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest marathon in the world
  
• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 29 May 2013 constituted a three-man inquiry commission to probe the allegations against Gurunath Meiyappan and the three Rajasthan Royals players, who were arrested on charges of betting in the IPL-6 matches. The Commission will be initiating the adjudication proceedings at the earliest. The committee consisting of Former Judge of the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu High Courts Justice T. Jayaram Chouta, Former Judge of the Tamil Nadu High Court Justice R Balasubramanian, and Secretary of BCCI Sanjay Jagdale. They will probe charges against M Gurunath, former Team Principal of Chennai Super Kings, as well as the three Rajasthan Royals cricketers who were arrested for alleged spot-fixing. The committee will also probe India Cements Ltd. the owner of the Chennai Super Kings Franchise and Jaipur IPL Pvt. Ltd. the owner of the Rajasthan Royals Franchise.
  
• Indian Girl's team won the Gold medal while the Boy's team won the silver medal in the Slovak Junior ITTF Open Table Tennis tournament held in Senec, Slovakia on 31 May 2013. In the title clash, the Indian Girls, led by Sutirtha Mukherjee beat Serbia-A, 3-2. The other members of the team were Monika Batra and Reath Tennison. In the boy's section, the Czeck Republic-A beat India 3-1 to win the gold. The Indian team, consisting of Shudanshu Grover, Abhishek Yadav and Rohit Rajshekhar, had to settle for silver.
  
• Rajeev Shukla resigned as Chairman of IPL on 1 June 2013 in the wake of the raging spot-fixing scandal. The resignation of Shukla came on the eve of the emergency meeting of the BCCI working committee scheduled to be held in Chennai. Rajeev Shukla was an Indian journalist, political commentator, television host and the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Planning, Government of India. He is a Member of Parliament since 2000. He serves as secretary of the All India Congress Committee. Rajiv Shukla was first appointed as the Chief of IPL at the BCCI AGM held on 18 September 2011. Rajiv's appointment came after Chirayu Amin's decision to step down. He was reappointed as IPL Chairman in 2012.
  
• Jamjang Deru wins three medals in Asian Youth Weightlifting
  Doha, May 28: Jamjang Deru of Arunachal Pradesh won three medals, two gold and one silver, on the opening day of 15th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships here in Doha on 28 May 2013. He won the medals in the boy's 50kg category.
  
• Deru won a silver with 87 kg lift and bagged a gold with 113 kg lift. Finally, he signed off with the gold with a total of 200 kg. Previously he had secured fourth position at the IWF Youth World Championships at Tashkent in April 2013 with an overall lift of 195 kilograms.
  
• Indian fast bowler, S. Sreesanth and his two team mates from Rajasthan Royals namely Ajit Chadila and Ankeet Chavan were arrested by Delhi Police on 16 May 2013 on charges of Spot Fixing in Indian Premier League (IPL). The three cricketers were arrested from Mumbai and will be brought to Delhi for being produced in a Court. Apart from the three cricketers the police also arrested seven bookies. Both the cricketers and the bookies are charged under two sections of Indian Penal Code, Section 420 (cheating) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy). The arrests made were a part of the investigations being conducted by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police over months on alleged Spot Fixing in the cash rich, IPL.
  
• The United States, Russia and Iran have forged an unlikely heavyweight alliance to keep the ancient sport of wrestling in the Olympic Games. While political differences between the three are deep, the national teams from the three wrestling superpowers will grapple with each other in New York’s Grand Central Station railway terminal on Wednesday to back the campaign. Wrestling has been in shock since the International Olympic Committee announced in February that it wanted the sport ejected for the 2020 Games.
  
• Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federar in the final match played on 19 May 2013 to lift his seventh Italian Open title. He defeated Federar in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 in the clay court match. This was Nadal’s 20th victory against Federar. While in women s category, Serena Williams won the title after thrashing out the former world number one Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-3 to take the Italian Open on the Rome Clay. This is the second Rome Open title won by Serena, before this Serena won the Rom title 11 years ago in 2002. And this is her fourth consecutive tennis title this year,
  
• In the Men's Singles title clash of the Madrid Open played on 12 May 2013, Spain’s Nadal Rafaeldefeated Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. In the Women's Singles, World Number One Serena Williams bagged her 50th career Singles title. She beat Russian Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-4 to win this title.
  
• India won 2 Silver and 7 Bronze in the 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships that concluded in New Delhi on 10 May 2013. One silver medal was won by Soumyajit Ghosh and Mouma Das in the mixed doubles event, and the other one was won by the men's team earlier in the tournament. Singapore men and women won the gold. The title for the Singapore women was seventh in succession since 1997. The Singapore men completed a hat-trick of success that began in 2007 at Jaipur and continued at Glasgow in 2009.
  
• India's rising shuttler PV Sindhu on 4 May 2013 won her maiden Grand Prix Gold title winning Malaysia Open women's final. In a thrilling clash held in Kaulalampur, top seed Sindhu defeated lower seed, Gu Juan of Singapore, 21-17, 17-21, 21-19. With this, the World Number 13 Sindhu has become the second Indian girl to win the Grand Prix Gold competition, after India's shuttle queen and London Olympics bronze medalist; Saina Nehwal achieved the feat in 2006. PV Sindhu was the only Indian who had made it to the final stage of this tournament. Saina Nehwal did not take part in the tournament.
  
• At the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Jamaica, Kingston, US-based discus thrower, Vikas Gowda clinched Gold on 5 May 2013 with the throw of 61.38 metres. US-based discus thrower, Vikas Gowda, representing India, clinched gold in the World Challenge Meeting at Kingston on 5 May, with a throw of 61.38 metres. He pushed Jason Morgan and Fedrick Dacres (both Jamaica), with throws of 60.96 and 59.30 metres, to second and third spots respectively.In the 100 metres sprint, US’s Tyson Gay recorded 9.86 and secured the top most position. In women category, the best performance was that of US Gia Lewis-Smallwood with 62.41 metres. The IAAF World Challenge meeting in Jamaica was organized at the Kingston's National Stadium.