SPORTS MAY 2015

SPORTS MAY 2015

• Mumbai Indians beat CSK by 41 runs in IPL final
  Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs in the final at the Eden Gardens on 24th May to be crowned as Indian Premier League (IPL) Champions. The tournament featured eight teams and was held from 8 April 2015 to 24 May 2015 after the end of the 2015 Cricket World Cup Mumbai Indians won the tournament for the second time. Man of the Match in Final- Rohit Sharma
  • Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner won the Orange Cap for scoring the most number of runs in IPL 8 (562 runs in 14 innings).
  • The most wickets award went to Dwayne Bravo of Chennai Super Kings. (26 wickets in 16 innings)
  • Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) Chris Gayle struck the most number of sixes in the tournament with 38 hits.
  
  
• Doha Boxing Tournament: Indian boxers clinch 4 gold, 1 silver,2 bronze
   Indian boxers rounded off a brilliant run at the Doha International Tournament, winning four gold, one silver and two bronze medals in the event on 23rd May. Commonwealth Games silver medalist L Devendro Singh, Shiva Thapa, Manish Kaushik, and Manoj Kumar won the gold medals. The silver medal went to Gaurav Bidhuri, while Mandeep Jangra and Vikas Krishan bagged bronze medals. In the finals, Devendro beat Philippines Aldren Moreno. This was followed by Gaurav losing to Montassar Bouali
  
  Former Asian gold medalist Shiva defeated Egypt's HYM Abdelaal. Manish beat Moroccan Rabi Hamza, while Manoj thrashed Filipino Magliquian Nicole by a similar margin. This was a test event for the world championships scheduled in October this year.
• Govt to set up five sports centres across India: Thawar Chand Gehlot
  Union Social Justice Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot on 24th May said that union government will set up five sports centres across India with an aim to provide various facilities to the differently-abled and also to boost their interest in sports.
• Abhinav Bindra becomes 4th Indian shooter to qualify for Rio Olympics
  Abhinav Bindra has become the fourth Indian shooter to win a quota place for the Rio Olympics. Bindra earned the place after he finished sixth in the Men's 10 metre Air Rifle final at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Munich on 28th May. Bindra, India's only individual Olympic gold medallist, shot a score of 122.4 in the final. Gagan Narang, Jitu Rai and Apurvi Chandela are the other Indians to have secured an Olympic quota earlier.
  
  Each country can win a maximum of 30 quota places from a total of 15 shooting disciplines (including shotgun events), two each from each discipline. If Bindra could make it to Rio, it will be his fifth consecutive Olympic Games.
• Provisional approval for Kochi
  Kochi has been provisionally selected as a host of the 2017 under-17 FIFA World Cup. Less than five cities have been selected for organizing event, Kochi is one of them
  
  Two major inspections, by a FIFA panel, will be held next year in January and September before the six venues in the country which will host the league phase of the World Cup are confirmed. But Kochi is a strong favourite not only to host the league matches but also one or two knockout matches.
  
  However it will depend on many factors, including the enthusiasm and crowd turnout at the venue, indicated Ceppi. The four training grounds in Ernakulam — Maharaja’s Stadium, the Panampilly Nagar Sports Academy, Fort Kochi Veli Ground and Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) at Panangad — were announced as the training grounds.
  
  The ‘training site agreement’ for the first three venues were handed over to Ceppi on Thursday and agreement for the KUFOS ground is expected to be signed in a few days. Apart from the work on the turf, dressing rooms and floodlights will be set up at all the training grounds.Around Rs. 40 crore are likely to be spent on the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the main venue here, and between Rs. 3 to 4 crore on each training ground.
• Sania, Martina finish as runners-up
  Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis finish runners-up at the WTA Internazionali BNL d'Italia, after getting defeated in the final against Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic, on 17th May. Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis were playing their fourth final together since March 2015, the Indo-Swiss pair lost 3-6 4-6 against the third seeded team of Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.
• Himachal to host paragliding World Cup
  The hill State is to host the first paragliding World Cup in India from October 23 to October 31 at Bir Billing in Kangra valley. State Urban Development Minister Sudhir Sharma, who is also the president of the Paragliding Association, said efforts are on to develop world-class infrastructure for the event.
  
  According to Sharma paragliding athletes from over 50 countries were expected to participate in the championship and 47 countries have already confirmed their participation. The event would go a long way in promoting sports and tourism
  
  After hosting the paragliding pre-World Cup successfully, the Paragliding World Cup Association, France, had given the opportunity to the hill State to host the world championship now.
• Saina Nehwal regains top spot in world badminton rankings
  Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal regained the number one spot in the latest BWF world rankings released on 21st May. The Olympic bronze medallist, however, climbed to the number one ranking today once again ahead of the Australian Open, starting on May 26.
  
  Defending champion in the Australian Open Super Series, Saina would be taking on a qualifier in her campaign opener. Meanwhile, P V Sindhu lost a position to be on 12th place in the Rankings. In men's singles, K Srikanth has retained his fourth place. P Kashyap maintained his 13th place and H S Parnnoy also held on to his 15th spot.
• Goa to host Youth Delphic Games in 2016
  The Youth Delphic Games, considered the Olympics of art and culture held every four years, will be held in Goa from February 1 to 14 next 2016. The last edition was held in Johannesburg.
• IWF to impose 2-year ban on coaches of weightlifters who tested positive for banned substances
  The Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) has decided to impose a two-year ban on the coaches of all those weightlifters who tested positive for banned substances across different championships in the last few months.
  
  The Federation has also imposed a year-long ban on four States -- Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Manipur for returning highest number of dope cases off late. Yadav, however, clarified that the period of suspension to be given to the weightlifters would be decided only by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA).
  
  As many as 26 lifters have tested positive both out-of-competition and in-competition since the beginning of this year. But the maximum numbers of offenders were caught at the National Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships, which was held in Yamunanagar in January. Of them four lifters were from Delhi, three from Punjab and two each from Haryana and Manipur.
• 7 medals assured for India in Doha boxing tournament
  Seven medals have been assured for India in Doha boxing international tournament as Commonwealth Games silver-medalist L Devendro Singh (49kg) advanced to the final, while six others entered the semis. Devendro, who got a bye in the opening round, entered the final after his Qatar rival Al Rafeek Yahea was declared medically unfit on 22nd May. Meanwhile, former Asian gold-medalist Shiva Thapa (56kg), Gaurav Bhiduri (52kg), Mandeep Jangra (69kg), Manish Kumar (60kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Vikas Krishan (75kg) made the semifinals.
  
  Shiva out-punched Jordan's Al Wadi Mohammad 3-0, while Manish got the better of Tunisia's Elmejri Ahmad 2-1. Mandeep, also a Commonwealth Games silver-medalist, reached the last four after beating Afghanistan's Allahdad Rahemi. Manoj beat Morocco's Younes Baati to book his semi finalberth. Vikas and Gaurav, on the other hand, got byes into the semifinal stage in a relatively small draw given the low participation in the event. The tournament features a total of 12 countries and is a buildup for the October World championships, which is also an Olympic qualifying event.
• Vikas Gowda wins Gold medal in Jamaican Intl meet
   Ace Indian discus thrower Vikas Gowda won the Gold medal in the Jamaican International Invitation meet in Kingston on 10th May. He came up with an effort of 65.14 meters to win his event. Chad Wright of Jamaica was second, while Jared Schuurmans of United States was third.
  
  Another gold came India's way at the Sacramento State Open event in the United States. At the Hornet Stadium, national record holder Kamalpreet Singh won the men's hammer throw event with an effort of 69.61 meters last night.
• Andy Murray wins Madrid Open title by defeating Rafael Nadal
  Andy Murray has claimed his first victory over Rafael Nadal on clay to win the Madrid Masters Men's Singles Title.
  
  Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna won his third title of the 2015 season and first with his new Romanian partner Florin Mergea as they lifted the Madrid Open trophy with a tense win over Nenand Zimonjic and Martin Matkowski
• Tejaswini wins gold at Under-15 World School Chess C'ship
  Indian youngster Tejaswini Sagar has won her maiden world title by bagging the gold in the under-15 category of World School Chess Championships. In the event that concluded at Pattaya on 14th May, the Aurangabad-girl defeated Kavinya Miyuni Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka in the ninth and final round. Overall, Tejaswini scored seven points out of a possible nine, winning six, drawing two and losing one game.
• Gagan Narand triumph
  Gagan Narang won the bronze medal in the 50 metre Rifle Prone Event of the ISSF World Cup at Fort Benning in the US on 15th May. He has earned himself a quota place for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Narang, who won the bronze medal in 10 metre Rifle at the London Olympics, shot 185.8 overall to secure third place behind gold medallist Michael McPhail of USA and Ole Kristian Bryhn of Norway. After Jitu Rai and Apurvi Chandela, Narang is third Indian shooter to make the Rio cut.
• Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeats Manny Pacquiao
  American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Manny Pacquiao from Philippines on a unanimous decision to win the unified World Welterweight title of World Boxing Council, World Boxing Organization and World Boxing Association.
  
  The legendary bout termed as ‘Fight of the Century’, took place at iconic MGM Grand, Las Vegas and witnessed 12 rounds of intense boxing. In the end it was Mayweather Jr. who continued his undefeated streak to 48 to Nothing (48-0). In initial rounds Pacquiao won the little battles and was surging ahead but Mayweather Jr. took advantage of his long reach and accurate punches to be well ahead on the judge’s scorecard. This fight was the highest watched and most revenue generating almost 400 million dollars of all time.
• Indian Army won championship
  The Indian Army team on 3 May 2015 emerged as champions in the 19th Federation Cup National Senior Athletic Championships. The team scored 123.5 points at the end of the four-day event at the Mangala Stadium in Mangaluru, Karnataka. The Tamil Nadu team notched the second position by securing 114 points. The overall men's championships went to the Army when they totaled 123.5 points, while Tamil Nadu came second with 48 points.
• India shooters won 3 gold, 2 bronze medals
   India's top rifle shooters have won a rich haul of three gold and two bronze medals at the International Shooting Competition of Hannover in Germany. Beijing Games gold medalist Abhinav Bindra won both the individual and team gold in his pet 10 metre air rifle event.
  
  Upcoming talent Chain Singh added the 50 metre men's rifle prone yellow metal to his 10 metre air rifle team gold, which he won alongside Bindra and Gagan Narang. The two Bronze medals came though Narang in the men's 50 meter rifle 3 positions event, and Apurvi Chandela in women's air rifle event. All the medal winners will be seen in action next week in Fort Benning, United States, for the ISSF Rifle/Pistol World Cup.
• Four SAI athletes attempt suicide, one dies in Alappuzha
  A 15 year old sportsperson died on 7th May and three others, all undergoing training at Water Sports Center of the Sports Authority of India in Alappuzha, Kerala have been hospitalized, after they ate a poisonous fruit The girls are suspected to have consumed the fruit, locally called 'Othalanga' inside the SAI women's hostel. They were rushed to a hospital after they fainted and later taken to Alappuzha Medical College, where one of them died.
  
  The girls were undergoing training at the Water Sports Center of the SAI at nearby Punnamada. Relatives of the athletes alleged that the girls were being physically and mentally tortured by some seniors. However, the hostel warden denied the charges and said they came to know about the condition of the girls only when they fainted.
• Roger Federer Triumph
  Switzerland tennis player Roger Federer on 3 May 2015 won the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open Men’s singles title by defeating Pablo Cueves. With this win, the world No 2 ranking player took his 85th ATP World Tour title and ended a long drought on clay since his previous title of 2012 Madrid Masters. This is the first ever World Tour event in Turkey and was held from 27 April to 3 May 2015 in Istanbul, the Capital City of Turkey.