SPORTS AUGUST 2012

SPORTS AUGUST 2012

• India defeated host and defending champion Australia to win ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. In the final match played at Townsville in Australia on 26 August 2012, the Indian under -19 squad led by Unmukt Chand beat Australian side by 6 wickets. Skipper Unmukt Chand scored unbeaten 111 runs leading his team to a glorious victory.William Bosisto, the Australian skipper received the Man of the Tournament award. Anamul Haque of Bangladesh scored 365 runs, highest in the tournament. Reece Topley of England claimed 19 wickets and remained the leading wicket taker of the tournament. This victory marked third under-19 world cup title for India after Mohammad Kaif in 2000 and Virat Kohli in 2008 had led the team to the tournament victory. Meanwhile in Mumbai, the BCCI announced a cash prize of Rs. 20 lakh each for members of the team.
  
• Queen Elizabeth officially opened the London Paralympic games, on 29 August 2012. Britain's first Paralympic Games gold medallist, Margaret Maughan hit the cauldron.The opening ceremony signalled the start of 11 days of competition by 4200 athletes from 164 countries.
  
• Delhi won the 23rd Federation Cup Throw Ball Championship-2012 in both the male and female categories. The Championship which was held on 23-25 August 2012, in Srinagar. Delhi beat Tamil Nadu in the women’s final while, in the men’s final, Delhi beat Andhra Pradesh.
  
• England’s test team captain Andrew Strauss announced his retirement from international cricket on 29 August 2012. Under Strauss’ captaincy the England team witnessed back-to-back Ashes wins over Australia and reached to the top of the test rankings. A left-hand batsman, Strauss made his first class debut in year 1998 and one-day international debut in 2003 against Sri Lanka. Strauss made his test debut against New Zealand at Lord’s in 2004, where he scored 112 and 83 runs in two innings and received Man of the Match award. In a nine-year long international career, Strauss played 100 tests and 127 one-day internationals. Strauss has to his credit 7037 and 4205 runs in test and ODIs respectively.
  
• The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) erased 14 years of Lance Armstrong’s career on 24 august, including his record seven Tour de France titles, and banned him for life from the sportthat made him the hero of millions of cancer survivors, after concluding he used banned substances. The USADA said it expected cycling’s governing body to take similar action, but the International Cycling Union (ICU) was measured in its response, saying it first wanted a full explanation on why Armstrong should relinquish the Tour de France titles he won between 1999 and 2005.Armstrong, who retired a year ago, said on that he would no longer challenge USADA and declined to exercise his option of entering arbitration. While announcing the decision, he again denied taking banned substances during his career and called the USADA’s investigation a “witch hunt” .The International Olympic Committee said it would await the USADA’s and the ICU’s decisions before taking any step against Armstrong, who won a bronze medal at the 2000 Sydney Games.
  
• Veteran Indian batsman VVS Laxman announced on 18 August that he would be retiring from international cricket with immediate effect."It's been 16 years since I have made my international debut for India and I think it is the right time to move on," said an emotional Laxman after announcing his retirement in Hyderabad. Laxman was also picked for the forthcoming India-New Zealand two-Test series but the stylish Hyderabadi stunned the cricket fraternity by calling it quits with immediate effect. Laxman has played 134 Tests, amassing 8,781 runs at an average of 45.97 and hitting 17 hundreds. The Hyderabadi has pouched 135 Test catches too.
  
• Test debut: vs South Africa at Ahmedabad, 1996 M - 134; Runs - 8,781; Avg - 45.97; 100s - 17; Top Score - 281
  
• ODI debut: vs Zimbabwe at Cuttack, 1998 M - 81; Runs - 2,338; Avg - 30.76; 100s - 6; Top Score – 131
  
• Union government announced the Arjuna awards on 19 August in New Delhi.25 sportsperson will be awarded Arjuna Awards this year, while Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna will be jointly given to vijay kumar and yogeshwar dutt.President of India will grant them awards at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 29. Selection committee was headed by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. Vijay Kumar won a silver in the 25m rapid fire event and Yogeshwar won a bronze in 60kg free style event. They both will be awarded with cash prize of Rs. 7.5 lakh each along with medal and a citation. Yuvraj Singh will be awarded with the Arjuna Award.Arjuna Awardees will receive statuettes, citations and cash prize of Rs. 5 lakh each.Normally only 1 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award is given every year to an individual sportsperson and for the Arjuna Awards not more than 15 awards are to be given in any calendar year.However in certain conditions the rules can be relaxed. 25 sportsperson for Arjuna Awards 2012 are: Deepika Kumari (Archery), Laishram Bombayla Devi (Archery), Sudha Singh (Athletics),Kavita Ramdas Raut (Athletics), Ashwani Ponnappa (Badminton), Parupalli Kashyap (Badminton), Aditya S Mehta (Billiards and Snooker), Vikas Krishan (Boxing), Yuvraj Singh (cricket),Sardar Singh (Hockey), Yashpal Solanki (Judo), Anup Kumar (Kabaddi), Samir Suhag (Polo), Annu Raj Singh (Shooting), Omkar Singh (Shooting), Joydeep Karmakar (Shooting), Dipika Pallikal (Squash), Sandeep Sejwal (Swimming), Ng. Sonia Chanu (Weightlifting), Narsingh Yadav (Wrestling), Rajinder Kumar (Wrestling), Geeta Phogat (Wrestling), M. Bimoljit Singh (Wushu), Deepa Mallick (Athletics Paralympics), Ramkaran Singh (Athletics Paralympics).
  
• Six sporting coaches were recommended for the Dronacharya Awards 2012. Wrestling coach Yashvir Singh, Boxing Coach BI Fernandez, Athletics Coach Virender Poonia, Kabaddi Coach Sunil Davas, Parathletics Coach Dr. Satyapaul and Hockey Coach Harinder Singh are the six names who have been selected for the coveted award.The Dronacharya Award was instituted by the government of India in 1985. The award carries five lakh rupees and a citation and is conferred to coaches of different sports for their noteworthy contribution. The awards will be presented by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan on 29 August 2012, the National Sports Day.
  
• World number one Roger Federer defeated Novak Djokovic 6-0 7-6 to win his sixth ATP Cincinnati Msters title of the year. In the women’s singles China's Li Na defeated German Angelique Kerber 1-6 6-3 6-1 to win the title.The sixth seeded Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna lost in the finals by Sweden's Robert Lindstedt and Romania's Horia Tecau 4-6, 4-6 in straight sets.
  
• South Africa stood as the World’s Number One Test Cricket team replacing England. The feat was achieved after its 2-0 victory over England in the three Test-match series, which ended at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London on 21 August 2012. Australia and Pakistan stood at third and forth positions. India stands on fifth position.
• The London Olympics 2012 concluded in London on 12 August 2012. The 30th summer Olympic event was inaugurated at Olympic Stadium at the Olympic Park in East London on 27 July 2012. Nearly 10500 athletes were participated in 26 sports events in this Olympics. At the end of the game US topped the medal tally with a total of 104 medals (46 Gold+29 Silver+ 29 Silver) followed by China with 88 medals (38 Gold+27 Silver+23 Bronze). Great Britain with 65 medals (29 Gold+17 Silver+19 Bronze), Russia with 82 medals (24 Gold+26 Silver+32 Bronze) and South Korea with 27 medals (13 Gold+8 Silver+6 Bronze) finished third, fourth and fifth respectively. India with 6 medals (2 Silver+4Bronze) finished 55th on the medal tally.
  
• The mascots of London Games-2012 were Wenlock and Mandeville. While Wenlock is a mascot of Olympics, Mandeville is mascot for Paralympics. These are two ultra-modern one- eyed creatures. Total 4700 medals ( Gold, Silver, Bronze) were there at the London Olympics 2012. The Olympic medals weigh between 375-400 grams. The gold medals are not actually made of solid gold. They are in fact 92.5 percent silver and 1.34 percent gold, while the rest is copper. On every medal there is the image of Nike, the Greek Goddess of victory. The 31st edition of Summer Olympics will be held in Reo de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016.
  
• Some of the winners at London Olympics 2012:
  1. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt won three gold in three separate events (100 meter race, 200 meter race and 4X100 meter relay team race). With a storming victory in both 100 and 200 meters race he became the only sprinter in the history to defend both Olympic titles.
  2. Dan Lin of China beat Malaysian Chong Wei Lee to clinch Badminton men’s singles gold
  3. Germany beat Netherlands 2-1 to win men’s hockey gold.
  4. Mexico beat Brazil 2-1 to win Soccer gold
  5. United States defeated Spain to win men’s Basketball gold
  6. Andy Murray of Great Britain beat Roger Federer of Switzerland to win tennis men’s singles gold
  7. Michael Phelps bagged 6 medals(4 Gold+2 Silver) in swimming, becoming the most decorated Olympian ever with 22 medals.
  8. Russia defeated Brazil to win men’s volleyball gold.
  
  
• India’s performance-India had sent 83-member team to the London Olympics 2012, which is the largest ever contingent sent by Indian Olympic Association in the Olympics. Shooter Vijay Kumar bagged the silver medal in the 25 m Rapid Fire event, while MC Mary Kom, five-time world women's boxing champion, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal and rifle shooter Gagan Narang won India bronze medals. Gagan Narang opened India’s account at the medal tally after he won bronze in shooting event on 30 July 2012.
  
• The London Olympics 2012 concluded in London on 12 August 2012. The 30th summer Olympic event was inaugurated at Olympic Stadium at the Olympic Park in East London on 27 July 2012. Nearly 10500 athletes were participated in 26 sports events in this Olympics. At the end of the game US topped the medal tally with a total of 104 medals (46 Gold+29 Silver+ 29 Silver) followed by China with 88 medals (38 Gold+27 Silver+23 Bronze). Great Britain with 65 medals (29 Gold+17 Silver+19 Bronze), Russia with 82 medals (24 Gold+26 Silver+32 Bronze) and South Korea with 27 medals (13 Gold+8 Silver+6 Bronze) finished third, fourth and fifth respectively. India with 6 medals (2 Silver+4Bronze) finished 55th on the medal tally.
  
• The mascots of London Games-2012 were Wenlock and Mandeville. While Wenlock is a mascot of Olympics, Mandeville is mascot for Paralympics. These are two ultra-modern one- eyed creatures. Total 4700 medals ( Gold, Silver, Bronze) were there at the London Olympics 2012. The Olympic medals weigh between 375-400 grams. The gold medals are not actually made of solid gold. They are in fact 92.5 percent silver and 1.34 percent gold, while the rest is copper. On every medal there is the image of Nike, the Greek Goddess of victory. The 31st edition of Summer Olympics will be held in Reo de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016.
  
• Britain’s Andy Murray defeated Roger Federer 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 in the men’s final on 5 August to win his first Olympic gold medal and avenge his Wimbledon final defeat against the World No.1.
  
• Top Indian shuttler Saina Nehawal won India its third medal at London Olympics 2012 after she won a bronze in women's singles badminton event played at Wembley Arena on 4 August 2012. Saina bagged the bronze after her Chinese opponent Xin Wang conceded the match due to a knee injury. The previous two medals came in shooting events. While Gagan Narang won India its first bronze in the London Olympics on 30 July 2012, Vijay Kumar clinched silver on 3 August 2012. With this victory, Saina became the second Indian woman after Karanam Malleshwari to win a medal in the history of Olympics. Karnam Malleshwari had earned India a bronze in weight lifting event in 2000 Sydney Olympics.
  
• Mary Kom defeated Maroua Rahali of Tunisia in the Quarterfinals 15-6, securing one medal for the country. This was the first time when the women boxing event was introduced in the Olympic games. Later, Mary kom was knocked out of the Olympic Games flyweight (51 kg) semi-finals after she suffered an 11-6 defeat in the hand of Britain’s Nicola Adams, with that Mary satisfied with the Bronze medal. om has total 5 world boxing championship titles in his name. The government of India had awarded her with the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, country’s highest award given to sports persons, in 2009. Besides she was also given the Arjuna Award in 2003 and Padma Shree Award in 2006. She was also appointed the International Boxing Association’s Ambassador for Women’s Boxing in 2009.
  
• Sushil Kumar, the star Indian wrestler, won India its sixth medal on the very last day in London Olympics 2012. Sushil bagged the silver after his Japanese opponent Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu defeated him 3-1 in the gold medal bout in the 66-kg freestyle category on 12 August 2012.He became the first ever Indian sportsperson to win individual medals in two successive Olympic Games. He had won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. In a separate 60- kg wrestling event, Yogeshwar Dutt, another Indian wrestler won India a bronze medal. Dutt defeated North Korea's Ri Jong Myong in the bronze medal bout on 9 August 2012. With the two medals in wrestling, India took the total number of its medals in London Olympics 2012 at a record haul of six medals. Shooter Vijay Kumar bagged the silver medal in the 25 m Rapid Fire event, while MC Mary Kom, five-time world women's boxing champion, ace shuttler Saina Nehwal and rifle shooter Gagan Narang won India bronze medals. Gagan Narang opened India’s account at the medal tally after he won bronze in shooting event on 30 July 2012.
  
• China made an unprecedented sweep of all five Olympic badminton gold medals on 4 August after Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng won the men's doubles at the London Games.Before that, Lin Dan of China had defeated Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei to win the men’s singles title. Lin’s victory gave China its fourth gold medal in badminton.
  
• Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time became the most decorated Olympian of all time when he won a record 19th Olympic medal at the London Games on 1 August. Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina, who won the last of her 18 Olympic medals at Tokyo in 1964, held the record Phelps broke. Until Phelps surfaced, no-one had come close to breaking her record in almost half a century but now the torch has been passed to the 27-year-old from Baltimore.
  
• Vijay Kumar (26) of India, won with a silver medal in 25m rapid fire pistol at the Royal Artillery Barracks in the London Olympics on 3 August. The 26-year-old Vijay has given a tough fight in the final in which the reigning world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia went without a medal despite shooting a world record 592 in qualification.
  
• Eight badminton players at the London Olympics have been dramatically disqualified on 1 August, after being charged with trying to throw their matches. The Badminton World Federation said that it had charged the players, from China, South Korea and Indonesia, with not giving their best efforts to win a match and “conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport.”
  
• Michael Phelps won the 100 metres butterfly gold at the London Olympics on 4 August. The American, whose list of achievements in the Olympic pool is already beyond comparison, and wins his 17th gold and 21 overall medals.
  
• Saina Nehwal won the badminton bronze in the women’s singles as Wang Xin of China retired with a painful knee while leading 21-18, 1-0. Nevertheless, Saina became only the second Indian woman after weightlifter Karnam Malleswari in Sydney in 2000, to win an Olympic medal for India. She is the third Indian to win a medal in the London Games behind shooters Gagan Narang (bronze) and Vijay Kumar (silver).

SPORTS JULY 2012

SPORTS JULY 2012

• Gagan Narang(29) won the bronze medal in men’s 10m air rifle event in the London Olympics, on 30 July. Narang displayed great character to deliver the third shooting medal for India in the Olympics after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore’s silver in Athens 2004 and Abhinav Bindra’s gold in Beijing 2008. He joins wrestlers K.D. Jadhav (1952) and Sushil Kumar (2008), boxer Vijender Singh (2008), tennis ace Leander Paes (1996) and woman weightlifter Karnam Malleswari (2000) to win an individual bronze medal for India.
  
• Spaniard Fernando Alonso of Ferrari won this year's Formula One German Grand Prix championship on 21 July that was held in Hockenheim, Germany. While, Redbull’s driver Webber took the second position.
  
• Egypt won the world junior squash championship by beating Pakisthan on 19 July held in Doha, Qatar. While India beat England to get the Bronze medal.
  
• Hashim Amla became the first South African to hit a triple century against England on 21 July at Oval. He surpassed teammate AB de Villiers' 278 not out - the previous highest Test innings for a South African.
  
• Ernie Els of Britain won the British Open golf championship on 21 July held in Lytham, England. Els captured his fourth major title after the 1994 and 1997 US Opens and the 2002 British Open.
  
• 6th Leiden International Chess Tournament: David Howel of England won the 6th Leiden International Chess tournamenton 15 July 2012, which was held in Leiden, Netherland .The Indian grand master Parimarjan Negi took the second position. While the third place of the Leiden tournament was shared by two Indian Grandmasters S Arun Prasad and M.R. Lalith at 6.5 points.
  
• Indo-Pak cricket revived : Indo-Pak cricketing ties are set for revival with the BCCI today (16th July) agreeing to a three-match ODI series between the two arch-rivals, who have not played each other in a bilateral series for close to five years. The decision to resume cricketing ties with Pakistan was taken by the Board's powerful Working Committee much to the delight of cricket fans on both sides of the border.
  
• Australian fast bowler Brett Lee(35) announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket on 12 July 2012. However,he will continue to play in the IPL. He had already announced his retirement from Test cricket in 2010.In his 13 year career,he played 76 Tests, 221 One Day Internationals and 25 T20 internationals. He took over 700 international wickets (310 in Tests, 380 in ODIs and 28 in T20s). He has taken 10 five-wicket hauls in Tests and 9 five-wicket hauls in ODIs. He is also the first bowler to take a hat-trick in T20 cricket.
  
• Australian Mark Webber of Red bull won the British Grand Prix Formula one title held in London on 8 july.However ,Fernando Alonso of Ferrari finished at second.
  
• China won the junior women hockey championship by defeating India,The tournaments final was held in Bangkok on 7 july.
  
• PV Sindhu of Andhra Pradesh created history by becoming the first Indian to win the girls' singles title in the Asian Youth Under-19 Championships at Gimcheon, Korea.In the finals on 7 july, Sindhu rallied to beat Okuhara Nozomi of Japan 18-21, 21-17, 22-20. She is the reigning national women's champion.
  
• South African wicketkeeper Mark Boucher on 10 July 2012 announced his retirement from International Cricket due to eye injury.He suffered the eye injury on the opening day of South Africa’s tour match against Somerset at Taunton on 9 July 2012. Mark Boucher had played 147 Test matches with a world record of 555 dismissals which include 532 catches and 23 stumping. He also played 295 ODIs in which he made 425 dismissals with 403 catches.
  
• Sushil to be India's flag-bearer at Olympics:
  The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on 15th July, announced that wrestler Sushil Kumar, a bronze medallist at the Beijing Games, will be the flag-bearer of the Indian contingent at the upcoming London Olympics. The names of top boxer Vijender Singh, tennis legend Leander Paes and ace shooter Abhinav Bindra were also doing the rounds for the honour. Vijender, Sushil and Bindra had all returned with medals from the last edition of the Games in Beijing in 2008. IOA acting president V.K. Malhotra announced that Sushil will be India's flag-bearer.mBindra was reportedly the preferred candidate of the IOA but since his 10m air rifle event is scheduled three days after the opening ceremony on July 30, the shooter wanted to focus on his preparations. Similarly, Vijender's weigh-in is scheduled for July 28 so it was tough for him to do the honours. Paes had led the contingent in 2000 Sydney Games and IOA decided Sushil should do the honours this time.
  
• Indo-Pak cricket ties breakthrough, BCCI agrees to ODI series: Indo-Pak cricketing ties are set for revival with the BCCI today (16th July) agreeing to a three-match ODI series between the two arch-rivals, who have not played each other in a bilateral series for close to five years. The decision to resume cricketing ties with Pakistan was taken by the Board's powerful Working Committee, which met here today, much to the delight of cricket fans on both sides of the border.
  
• Sharad Pawar's resign as thepresident of the International Cricket Council ended on 28 june as New Zealander Alan Isaac took charge from him for a two-year term at the ICC Annual Conference in kaulalampur.The 60-year-old Isaac, a former New Zealand Cricket chief, became the eighth president of the ICC, while former South Africa wicket-keeperDavid Richardson was confirmed as the new chief executive of the world body, taking over from countryman Haroon Lorgat.
  
• Spain won European football chapionship 2012 by beating Italy 4-0 in the final, at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine, on 1 July 2012. Spain which had earlier defeated Germany 1-0 in 2008 Euro Cup not only defended the title but also created a record by becoming the first team to claim two consecutive titles in tournament's 52-year long history. Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta of Spain was declared the man of the match given his match winning performance, while Fernando Torres was given the Golden Boot as he scored three goals in the Spain's title winning campaign.
  
• Swiss tennis player Roger Federerbeat British player Andy Murray 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 to win the Wimbledon Open Championship 2012 in London on 8 July 2012. Federer, with this victory also reclaimed the world No. 1 rank. The Wimbledon Open marked 17th career Grand Slam for Federer, who had earlier claimed six Wimbeldon titles from 2003 to 2007 and again in 2009. Only William Renshaw's and Pete Sampras have got the distinction of winning the coveted Wimbledon singles title on seven occasions.Serena Williams of USbeat Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland to claim Ladies' singles title. The mixed pair of Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond defeated Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina to win the mixed doubled final. The men's doubles final was won by Jonathan Marray and Frederick Nielson who defeated Robert Lindstedt. In Ladies' Doubles final the pair of Serena Williams and Venus Williams emerged victorious as they defeated Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.Wimbledon, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious sporting events in the world, has been held at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London since 1877. Played on a grass court, Wimbledon is one of the four major grand slam tournaments in the world.

SPORTS JUNE 2012

SPORTS JUNE 2012

• German Formula One (F1) racer Sebastian Vettel of Red bull won European Grand Pix 2012 title at Valencia circuit on 24 June 2012. Previously,he won the World Championship in 2012 and 2011.
  
• Indian grand master Koneru Humpy won FIDE womens Grand Pre chess title, held in kazan, Russia on 22 june.
  
• Pakistani Cricket player Danish Kaneria was banned by England and Wales Cricket Board on 21 June 2012. He was given a lifetime ban because he was found guilty for corruption. He is the third Pakistani player who is banned because of match fixing. In addition, in the year 2000 Salim Malik and Ata-ur-rehman were banned for lifetime from Cricket because of match-fixing. Moreover, Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif were banned by the International Cricket Council and jailed by the court of United Kingdom in the year 2010 for fixing specific parts of a Test match.
  
• Web Simpson of U.S.A won the U.S Open Golf tournament on 18 June by defeating Michel Thomson.
  
• Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal won her third Indonesia Open Super Series title after beating China's Xuerui Li in Jakarta on 17 June 2012. With this victory, the fifth seed, Saina took the total number of her title in the calendar year 2012 to 3. The Olympic-bound shuttler had won the Thailand Open on 9 June 2012. 22-year-old Saina had earlier claimed the Indonesia Open title in 2009 and 2010.
  
• Harmeet Desai won under- 21 Men’s gold medal in Brazil Open Table Tennis tournament on 17 June 2012. He had defeated Belgian Cedric Nuytin by 4-2.
  
• Tejaswini Mule won Silver medal at International Junior Shooting Championship in Suhl, Germany on 17 June 2012. She won the silver medal in the 50-metre rifle prone women’s event. The gold medal was won by Jolyn Beer of Germany and Orth won bronze medal.
  
• Indian Criket Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was appointed as a brand ambassador of Nepal Cricket Association; Nepal on 17 June 2012.The announcement was made by Posta Bahadur Bogati, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal. Dhoni will promote and develop cricket in Nepal. Dhoni also advised Nepal cricket officials to get permission from International Cricket Council to construct a stadium.
  
• Rafael Nadal of spain on 11 June 2012 defeated Serbian Novak Djokovic to clinch French Open Singles Title 2012. With this victory, the Spaniard also surpassed the Legend Bjorn Borg’s 6 French Open title feat. The French Open title marked his 11th Gand Slam in his career. While, Maria Sharapova won French Open 2012 on 9 June 2012. She defeated Saria Erani from Italy by 6-3 and 6-2. She won French open for the first time in her career. French open was held at Rolland Garros in Paris. Previously, Sharapova was the winner of Wimbledon in 2004, the US Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008.
  
• Indian Badminton player Saina Nehwal won her 16th career title as she defeated Thailand's Ratchanok Inathon in the Thailand Open Grand title in Bangkok on 10 June 2012. The Thailand Open Grand Prix is Saina’s second title in the year 2012. Earlier, in April 2012 she had won the Swiss Open Title. Saina had reached the women singles quarterfinals round at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, which made her the first Indian woman shuttler to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics. She is also the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. Saina Nehwal created a history on 21 June 2009, when she became the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open Title in Jakarta.
  
• All-rounder Yusuf Pathan, a member of the World Cup winning cricket team, has finally been presented the Gujarat government's Eklavya Award, almost 14 months after it was announced.The award was also presented to his teammate and fellow Gujarati, Munaf Patel, at his residence in Bharuch. CM Narendra Modi had announced the awards for Munaf and Yusuf Pathan in April 2011.
  
• New Zealand beat Argentina 1-0 to win Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament at Ipoh, Malaysia on 3 June 2012. India by defeating Britain 3-1 got the third position. Sardar Singh of India was awarded with the trophy of the Best Player of Tournament.
  
• Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirzaon 7 June 2012 won their second Grand Slam title together and first French Open trophy after beating Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Klaudia Jans Ignacik of Poland in the mixed doubles final, in Paris. It is the second career Grand Slam title for Sania, while the 12th grand slam trophy for Bhupathi, who now has won eight mixed doubles trophies. Sania and Bhupathi had won the 2009 Australia Open and it is their first Grand Slam title since then.

SPORTS MAY 2012

SPORTS MAY 2012

• Defending champion Vishwanathan Anand of India won the FIDE ( Federation Internationale des Echec) World Chess Title on 30 may 2012 for the record fifth time. Anand beat Boris Gelfand of Israel in a rapid-chess tie-breaker. The world title is Anand’s fourth in a row as he had also claimed the title in 2007, 2008, and 2010. The 42-year-old had claimed his maiden world title in 2000 after beating Latvian Alexei Shirov in Tehran. He is also the first Asian to win the FIDE world chess championship.
  England Batsman Kevin Pietersen announced his retirement from limited-overs edition of International cricket. He, however, will continue to play test cricket for the country. Pietersen who had made his international debut in 2004 has played a total of 127 one-day internationals and 36 Twenty20 internationals. South Africa-born Pietersen has scored 4184 one-day international runs at an average of 48.14. He is the sixth highest run getter from England.
  
  . The Badminton mens team of China won the Thomas Cup by beating arch-rival South Korea 3-0 at the Wuhan Sports Complex Gymnasium, Huwan, china on 27 may. While the chinese women team won the Uber cup by beating the south korea.
  
• Roger Federar of Switzerland defeated Tomas Berdych of Czech won the Madrid Open title on 13 May 2012. With this win, he retained no.2 position.
  
• Malaysia won the Junior Hockey World Cup 2012 title by defeating Pakistan.
  
• India’s Olympic prospect Deepika Kumari won her first Archary World Cup individual recurve gold medal on 5 May at Antalya, Turkey. She beat Korea’s Lee Sung Jin by six set points to four in the final of the Stage 2 of the championship. Ms. Deepika, who has already qualified for London Olympics, is the current junior world champion and a gold medallist at the Delhi Commonwealth Games. She had also won the Cadet World Title in 2009.
  
• Indian athletes won four gold, one silver and four bronze medals, in the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok on 8 May 2012. MR Poovama won gold in the the women's 400m, Sajeesh Joseph bagged gold in the men's 800m while,the men's 4X400m relay team of Joseph Abraham, Jitin Paul, Shake Mortaza and MP Kunhu bagged gold. The womens relay team of Saraswati Chand, Debashree Majumdar, Ratandeep Kaur and Poovama also won the gold.
• Indian women squash team won the gold medal at the 16th Asian Squash Championship in Kuwait on 5 May 2012. The women team created a history by defeating the top seeded Hongkong team in the title clash. Joshna Chinnappa and Dipika Pallikkal of India defeated world number sixteen Joey Chan and world number seven Annie Au respectively.
  
• Seven-time World snooker champion, 43-year old Stephen Hendry of scotland announced his retirement on 1 May 2012 after losing in the quarterfinals at the World Championships. He was snooker's world number one for eight straight years between 1990 and 1998, and again in 2006-2007.

SPORTS APRIL 2012

SPORTS APRIL 2012

• India's top-seeded snooker player Aditya Mehta defeated seven-time world champion Pankaj Advani to win 28th Asian snooker title held in Doha, on 29 April 2012. Mehta is only the third Indian to clinch the Asian Snooker Championship.
  
• Shon Wan Ho of Korea won the India Open badminton super series title, by defeating the Chinese Lee Chong Wei on 28 April 2012.In the women's singles final at India Open badminton Championship, Li Xuerui of China beaten Juliane Schenk of Germany.
  
• World’s second ranked tennis player Rafael Nadal defeated sixth seeded David Federer to clinch the Barcelona Open Title on 29 April 2012.
  
• Red bull driver Sabastian vettel won the Bahrain formula one raceon 22 April held in Manama.
  
• The China’s third seeded Chen Jindefeated fellow countryman and fifth seeded Du Pengyu in men’s the finals of Asian Badminton Championship in Qingdao, China on 22 April 2012.
  
• Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic announced retirement from tennis on 15 April 2012 after he suffered a defeat to Ivan Dodig at the Monte Carlo Masters. Ivan’s career high ATP ranking was number 3. He won his first ATP singles title at Lyon in 2001. He won two ATP titles in his career.
  
• Indian squash player Saurav Ghosal won the El Gouna International Open trophy, held in El Gouna, Egypt on 9 April 2012 over Robbie Temple of England.
  
• The 18-year-old Shiva Thapa (56kg category) on 11 April 2012 became the youngest Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympicsby beating Japan's Satoshi Shimizu 31-17 to enter the final of the Asian qualifiers in Astana, Kazakhstan. While, India's Vijender Singh qualified for the London Olympics in the 75-kilogram category. He is the first Indian boxer to qualify for the Olympics for the third time in succession. Vijender Singh is also the first Indian to win an Olympic and World Championships medal (bronze in both events).
  
• Indo-Czeck pair of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek won the doubles title of Miami Masters on 31 March 2012. Paes by winning the Miami Titles took the total number of his career titles to 50.Paes became the 24th player in ATP Tour history to complete 50 doubles titles. World number one Novak Djokovic won the Miami Masters mens title by defeating Andy Murray. In the womens event Agnieszka Radwanska, won the title by defeating Russian Tennis star Maria Sharapova.
  
• Geeta Kumari , the woman wrestler, won a gold in 55kg category at the ongoing Asian qualifying tournament in Astana, Kazakhastan. With this victory she also made a history, as she became the first Indian woman wrestler to have ever qualified for the Olympics.
  
• China won the men's world team table tennis championship titlewith a 3-0 victory over hosts Germany in the final held in Dormant (Germany).

SPORTS MARCH 2012

SPORTS MARCH 2012

• Indian women boxers M.C. Mary Kom and Sarita on 25 March 2012, won two gold medals in the Asian women's boxing championship held in Ulaanbator.Mary Kom, the five-time world champion, defeated the two-time world title winner Ren Cancan of China. Sarita, the 2006 world title winner, defeated Chorieva Mavzu of Tajikistan.
  
• Indian Kabaddi women team won the first ever Women World Cup Kabaddi championship title defeating Iran on 4 March 2012, held in Patna... Sixteen countries participated in this event.
  
• Indian middle order batsman and former captain Rahul Dravid, on 9 March 2012, announced his retirement from international cricket. He has the credit of second highest aggregate of runs in the test history only after Sachin Tendulkar. Dravid scored 13,288 runs in 164 Tests, including 36 hundreds. Dravid made his international debut on 20 June 1996 while playing at the Lord’s against England. He had announced his retirement from the ODIs in England in 2011.
  
• Roger Federer won the Dubai international open singles tennis title by defeating Andy Murray in the finals held in Dubai on 3 March. While Indian duo Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan bopanna won the mens doubles title.
  
• West Indian cricket player Runok Mortan on 4 March, killed in a car accident. He played 15 test matches, 56 one day internationals and seven 20-20 matches since 2002.
  
• Iconic India batsman Sachin Tendulkar on 25 February became the first overseas player to be presented with the honorary life membership of the Sydney Cricket Ground.

SPORTS FEBRUARY 2012

SPORTS FEBRUARY 2012

• East Zone won the Duleep Trophyfor the first time in 51 years by defeating Central Zone by an innings and 20 runs at the Holkar stadium, Indore on 14 feb.
  
• Victoria Azarenka of Belarus defeated Samantha Stosur to win her third successive title of the year at the WTA Qatar Open 2012on 20 feb.
  
• World no 1 tennis star, Novak Djokovic of Serbia was awarded with the highest Serbian award, the Gold Star of Karadjordje on 15 February 2012.It was conferred upon him by the Serbian President Boris Tadic.
  
• Sania mirza of india and Anastasia Rodinova of Australia won the Pattaya open womens tennis title held in Pattaya on 12 February.
  
• Zambia WON THE AFRICA NATION S CUP TITLE by dedfeating the Ivorycoast on 13 february.
  
• Saketh Mineni of Andhra Pradesh won the Mens National Grass court Tennis championship, while Reshmi chkrobarthy of TamilNadu won the womens title.Tournament was held in kolkatta.
  
• Egypt defeated India 2-1 in the final of the Under-21 Squash World Cup held in chennai,on 5 February 2012. Marwan El Shorbagy defeated Ravi Dixit while Karim Abdel Gawad beat Ramit Tandon . However Dipika Pallikal manged to win on her opponent. 
• Aditya Mehata won the National Snooker Championship title held in Pune, by defeating Kamal chawla. 
• In the 100th edition of The Australian Open (2012), Serbia’s Novak Djokovic won the title by defeating Rafel Nadal of Spain in the mens singles while Victoria Azarenka of Belarus won the women’s singles by defeating Maria Sharapova of Russia. In the men’s doubles Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek won the title by defeating Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. In the women’s doubles Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva, both from Russia defeated Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, to win the title. The mixed event was won by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecau. 
• Pendyala Harikrishna of India won the prestigious TATAsteel international chess title which was held in Netherlands. 
• Pankaj Adwani won the Nationsl Billiards Chess championship by defeating the Balachandra Bhaskar in the finals which was held in Pune. 
• Sourabh Varma defeated B Sai Praneeth in the final to clinch the Senior National Badminton Championship title in Bangalore.. The ninth seeded PV Sindhu defeated second seed Neha Pandit in the women's singles final to lift the title. In the mixed doubles category, top seeds Arun Vishnu and Balan Aparna, In the Mens doubles Kona Tarun and Arun Vishnu in the women's doubles, second seeds Pradnya Gadre and Prajakta Sawant won the titles.

SPORTS JANUARY 2012

SPORTS JANUARY 2012

• A. Amalraj won the national title by defeating A Sharath Kamal in the final of the 73rd Senior National and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships in Lucknow on 29 January 2012. Amalraj also won the double’s title with Sanil Shetty, by defeating Harmit Desai and Devesh Karia. In the women’s category Poulami Ghatak won the title by defeating K Shamini. 
• Sixth seed GM Oliver Barbosa of Phillippines won the 10th Parsvnath International Open Grandmasters Chess tournament by defeating Indian IM Shyam Nikil. Indian International Master Lalith Babu won thebronze.
  
• Senior Australian batsman Ricky Ponting was honoured with Austrlia’s highest civil honour along with a host of sportspersons of international repute. The former skipper was appointed an officer (AO) in the general division of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to the sport of cricket as a leading player, and to the community through the establishment of the Ponting Foundation.
  
• Rajasthan won its second consecutive Ranji Trophy title by defeating Tamil Nadu at the Chidambaram stadium, Tamil Nadu on 23 January 2012. V A Saxena of Rajasthan was awarded the Man of the Match in the final.
  
• Argentina’s Lionel Messi was awarded the 2011 FIFA Best player award on 9 January 2012 in Zurich. He won the award for the third consecutive year. Japanese Homare Sawa was awarded the 2011 FIFA Best player in the women’s category. Barcelona’s coach Pep Guardiola was named FIFA Coach of the Year.
  
• Kerala men won the National title for the fourth time, in the 60th senior National volleyball championship by defeating uttarakhand at the Balbir Juneja Indoor Stadium, Raipur on 11 January 2012. The Railways won the national title in the women’s category.
  
• The Czech Republic defeated France and lifted its second Hopman Cup held in Perth, Australia. Thomas Berdych and Petra Kvitova represented the Czech.
  
• Milos Raonic of Canada won the Chennai open tennis title,2012.Leander peas and Janko Tipsarevic won the mens doubles title.
  
• The 19-year-old Rohith Lalith Babu became the 26th Grandmaster of India and fourth GM from Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally, the last Indian to become a GM was D Harika, also from the same state. Babu is also from the same city which World runners-up Humpy hails from. Harikrishna is the other GM from the A.P State.

SPORTS DECEMBER 2011

SPORTS DECEMBER 2011

• China won the gold medal in the World Women's Team Chess Championship at Mardin, Turkey. The Russians claimed the silver while Georgia got the bronze.
  
• Indonesia’s shuttler, Taufik Hidayat, won the Syed Modi India Open Grand Prix Gold badminton championship by defeating Sourabh Verma of India. The women's singles was won by Inthanon Ratchanok of Thailand.
  
• Mumbai skipper Wasim Jaffer overtook former teammate Amol Muzumdar (8237 runs) as the highest run-getter in Ranji Trophy. He scored 8242 runs a against Muzumdar’s 8237 runs.
  
• India striker Sunil Chhetri was on 20 December 2011 voted Player of the Year by the All India Football Federation. He will receive a cash award of Rs 2 lakh and a silver plaque.The criteria of selection were Performance for India and general conduct on and off the field. Chhetri scored 13 goals in 17 internationals in 2011, which was the highest the by an Indian. He has also been awarded the prestigious Arjuna Award in the past. I.M.Vijayan was the first recipient of the award in 1992. In 2010 the award was bestowed on Gouramangi Singh
  
• Indian ace badminton player and World No. 4 Saina Nehwal of India was defeated by World No. 1 Wang Yihan 18-21, 21-13, 21-13 in the women’s singles final of the $500000 BWF World Super Series badminton championship in Chinaon 18 December 2011. Saina Nehwal had created history by becoming the first ever Indian to enter the singles final of the World Super Series. . In 2011, Saina won only the Swiss Open Super Series title.
  
• Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta won the London Chess Classic's open section, with a victory over Grandmaster Keith Arkell of England. Abhijeet, a former world junior champion and reigning national champion, scored eight points in all.
  
• Iran's teenage sensation Hossein Vafaei Ayouri won the IBSF World Snooker Championship for the first time beating Wales star Lee Walker 10-9 in the best of 19 frames final held in Bangalore.
  
• Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal,the two highest-ranked Indians in the world, won the senior National squash championships at the Indian Squash Academy, Chennai. Saurav defeated Harinder Pal Sandhu, while Dipika defeated Anaka Alankamony.
  
• The defending champion India retained the SAFF football championship against Afghanistan during the final match played in New Delhi. This is the sixth time for India to won the SAFF football championship.
  
• Legendary weightlifter Karnam Malleswari resigned as vice-president of the national body, Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) on 1 December 2011 citing unconstitutional functioning of the body as the reason for her resignation. Malleswari was appointed vice-president in December 2009.
  
• Spain won its fifth Davis Cup titleafter Rafael Nadal defeated Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro. Nadal with the victory stretched his record on clay to 16-0. Nadal earned his 20th straight victory since debuting in the competition in 2004.Argentina remained the only nation to play in four Davis Cup finals and never win one.
  
• India won its 6th SAFF Championship title against Afghanistan on 11 December 2011. India's star striker Sunil Chhetri won all the individual awards in the tournament. India was a five-time SAFF champion before it won the 2011 SAFF. The other participating nations in the 2011 South Asian Football Federation Championship (SAFF) were Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Pakistan.
  
• Belgium defeated India 4-3 in the final of the Champions Challenge hockey tournament in Johannesburg, South Africa on 4 December 2011. Sandeep Singh finished the tournament with seven goals, all through penalty corners, and won the Player of the Tournament award.
  
• India's opening batsman Virender Sehwag made a world-record 219 runs out of 149 balls against West Indies in their 4th One Day International being played at Indore. Virender Sehwag is the second batsman to do double century in ODIs after Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 200 against South Africa in Gwaliar in 2010. 

SPORTS NOVEMBER 2011

SPORTS NOVEMBER 2011

• Swiss tennis star Roger Federerdefeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France in their singles final tennis match at the Barclay’s ATP World Tour Finals, in in London on 27 November 2011. The victory earned him a record sixth ATP World Tour Finals title. Federer has won 70 trophies in his career and has also equalled Lendl's record of 39 match wins in the end-of-season event.
  
• Karnataka emerged the overall champion of the five-day 65th National aquatics meet that concluded on 20 November 2011 in Ranchi. Karnataka won men’s team championship (swimming) and the women’s team championship. Karnataka swimmers won a whopping 23 gold, 11 silver and nine bronze medals. Aaron D'Souza and Richa Mishra of Police were crowned the best swimmers of the meet. Both won five individual gold medals and broke three records. Karnataka emerged the overall champion by collecting 327 points. Maharashtra ended second with 176 points and Railways (143) third.
  
• Hyderabad wicketkeeper Ibrahim Khaleel created a record for the most dismissals in a first-class cricket match during his side's victory over Assam in a Ranji Trophy Plate Group ‘B' contest. The 29-year-old Khaleel took seven catches in Assam's second innings to finish with 14 victims (11 catches, 3 stumping) in the match. The previous mark of 13 dismissals was set by Zimbabwe's Wayne James, who claimed 11 catches and effected two stumpings when playing for Matabeleland against Mashonaland in 1995-96.
  
• India wins the title for both men and women in kabaddi world championship held in Bhatinda. Indian men’s team defeated Canada easily by 59-25 while women team beat U.K. The prize money for men was 20 million. The CM Punjab has announced government jobs for Indian women team for winning the trophy.
  
• Jamaican sprint icon Usain Bolt and Australian hurdler Sally Pearson won ’Athlete of the Year' awards in Monaco. They were named athletes of the year by athletics' governing body, the IAAF.
  
• Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was voted WTA's Player of the Year. In 2011, she claimed her debut grand slam title. In the 2011 season, she steered the Czech Republic to Fed Cup glory. Kvitova also bagged the Most Improved Player award and the fair play prize, while fans voted her the Breakthrough Player of the Year.
  
• Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi won their first ever ATP Masters tournament by beating Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-4 in the final of Paris Masters on 13 November 2011.Bopanna and Qureshi had earlier won the Gerry Weber Open at Halle and the Stockholm Open.
  
• McLaren Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain won the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix at Yas Marina circuit in Abu. The victory at Abu Dhabi marked Hamilton’s third win of 2011 and 17th of his career.
  
• Richa Mishra became the first woman to clock the best Indian time in 800m freestyle. On 17 November 2011, she won three gold medals at the 65th National aquatic championships (meet) at the Veer Budhu Bhagat Stadium. She became the first to win three gold medals of the meet and set two senior championship marks (800m & 200m freestyle).
  
• Ace shooter and silver medal winner at Asiad-2010, Gagan Narang, inaugurated the annual sports and games meet of Hyderabad police at Shiv Kumar Lal police stadium.
  
• Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman to cross the 15000 run mark in test cricket when he reached 28 during his unbeaten 33 run knock on the third day of the first test match against West Indies at Feroz Shah Kotla. Tendulkar was playing his 300th innings in his 182nd Test match.
  
• Three Pakistan cricketers and an agent were sentenced imprisonment in Britain for their involvement in one of the biggest fixing scandals. Former captain Salman Butt received two and a half years, Mohammad Asif was sentenced to 1 year, while 19-year-old Mohammad Amir will serve six months. Agent Mazhar Majeed was sentenced to 2 years, 8 months. Butt, Asif and Majeed are expected to begin their sentences at Wandsworth prison in south London, Amir is due to be sent to Feltham young offenders' institute in west London. The players were found guilty of conspiring with Majeed to bowl deliberate no-balls as part of a betting scam during the test match against England at Lord's in August 2010.The scandal is being described as the biggest fixing scandal in cricket since South Africa captain Hansie Cronje was banned for life in 2000 for taking bribes from bookmakers.
  
• India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi won the Stockholm Open men's doubles title by defeating Brazilians Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares 6-1, 6-3 on 23 October 2011. The Stockholm Open was top-seeded India-Pakistan pair's second ATP World Tour title of 2011. They had earlier won on grass at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle in June 2011.
  
• Mary Ann Gomes of Airports Authority of India(AAI) emerged winner of the Velammal Educational Trust National Premier women's chess championship on 9 November 2011. Mary became the 17th player to win this event. She received a trophy and Rs.75000 from D.V. Sundar, vice-president, FIDE (World Chess Federation).Eesha Karavade finished second after defeating Padmini Rout.
  
• Malaysian squash superstar Nicol David won a record sixth women's World Open title on 6 November 2011 by defeating England's Jenny Duncalf at Luxor Theatre, Rotterdam. With this victory, David surpassed Sarah Fitz-gerald's record five world titles. She won her first world title in Hong Kong in 2005.
  
• Cricket personality M.S. Dhoni and Shooting personality Abhinav Bindra were commissioned as Honorary Lieutenant Colonels in the Territorial Army on 1 November 2011.The honour was bestowed upon Dhoni and Bindra for their outstanding contribution to sports and their commitment to the Indian Army on various occasions. They were pipped-in by Army chief General V K Singh. Dhoni was chosen to represent the Parachute Regiment of the Indian Army while Bindra joined a TA battalion of the Sikh Regiment.

SPORTS OCTOBER 2011

SPORTS OCTOBER 2011

• Churchill Brothers won the 2011 Durand Cup at the Ambedkar Stadium with a 5-4 tiebreak wins over Prayag United on 15 October 2011 by defeating Prayag United.
  
• Five-time world champion MC Mary Kom won gold in the 51kg category by defeating Pinki Jangra in the summit clash on the final day of the 12th Senior Women's National Boxing Championships in Bhopal on 16 October 2011. In the featherweight division, bronze medalist at the Women's Youth World Championship, Pwilao Basumatary of Assam settled for a silver medal after losing to Mandakini Chann of AIP who won gold. Haryana bagged the overall title with three gold medals, two silver and two bronze. Manipur came second with two gold medals, silver and a bronze while Railways finished third with two gold and three bronze medals.
  
• Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports on 9 October 2011 launched the nationwide Come and Play scheme in New Delhi. Through this scheme, the ministry aims at opening SAI’s sporting infrastructure for the youth across India. The scheme is targeted at the 8-17 age groups. The main objective of the scheme is to provide coaching primarily to sportspersons of young age. Under the Come and Play Scheme, competitions related to various age categories would be conducted twice a year and the top three position holders in the relevant age group would be permitted for admission to boarding scheme in SAI (Sports Authority of India) training centers.
  
• McLaren’s Jenson Button won the Japanese Grand Prix in his adopted homeland, Japan on 9 October 2011. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel who stood third in the Formula 1 race became the youngest double world champion with four races to spare. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel made his way to the record books as Formula One’s youngest double world champion after finishing third in a Japanese Grand Prix. Ferrari’s Fernando Alons had become the previous youngest double world champion when he had won for Renault aged 25 in 2006.
  
• The ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports on 1 October 2011 announced the decision to set up the National Institute of Sports Science and Medicine (NISSM).NISSM will have its premises at the Jawahar Lal Nehru stadium in New Delhi. The institute will aim at fostering disciplines like Physiology, Nutrition, Psychology, Anthropometry, Nutrition, Biochemistry and Sports medicine. NISSM is modeled on the lines of China Institute of Sports Sciences (CISS). The decision to set up the institute was taken during the visit of Indian President to China on 27 May 2010.NISSM will function under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

SPORTS SEPTEMBER 2011

SPORTS SEPTEMBER 2011

• Russian grandmaster Peter Svidler won the Chess World Cup title on 20 September after winning over Alexander Grischuk. Russia hosted this event. Russia holds the No.1 spot on the World Chess Federation's top-10 list, followed by Ukraine.

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• Salgaocar defeated East Bengal 3-1 in the final of the 33rd Federation Cup at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on 29 September 2011. Salgaocar became the first non-Kolkata club to win the premier domestic cup competition in Indian football since Mahindra United in 2005.

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• The Indian kabaddi team lifted its first-ever Circle Style Asian kabaddi title by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan 53-38 at Tabriz in Iran on 27 September 2011.It is for the first time that the championship was played outside India. Eight nations participated in the championship. 

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• India’s Deepika Kumari got silver after being defeated by China’s Cheng Ming 5-6 in the tie-breaker of the women’s individual recurve summit clash at the World Cup archery finals in Istanbul on 25 September 2011. 

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• Novak Djokovic defeated the 10-time Grand Slam champion Nadal and won his first career US Open crown and fourth Grand Slam title.

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• Australia’s Samantha Stosurdefeated Serena Williams to win the US Open crown and her first grand slam singles title. Stosur became the first Australian woman in 38 years to win the title when she beat Williams 6-2 6-3.

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• India defeated Pakistan in the penalty shoot-out in the final to clinch the inaugural Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament on 11 September 2011. Goalkeeper S. Sreejesh played a crucial role in securing victory as he managed two crucial saves for India. Indian hockey team is coached by Michael Nobbs. Malaysia bagged bronze by defeating Japan.

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• Durgesh Kumar Pal of Army Sports Institute (ASI), Pune won the gold medal in the 400m hurdles in the Commonwealth Youth Games at Isle of Man on 12 September 2011.

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• Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Olympic gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra were conferred with the rank of honorary Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army by President Pratibha Patil. The honour was bestowed on Dhoni and Bindra for their outstanding contribution in the field of cricket and shooting respectively, and their commitment to the Army on various occasions. Bindra and Dhoni joined the ranks of senior cricketers Kapil Dev and Sachin Tendulkar who have been conferred with honorary ranks in the armed forces. Kapil Dev is an Honorary Lt Col in the Territorial Army, while Tendulkar is an honorary Group Captain in the Indian Air Force. 

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• Sai Praneeth defeated Saurabh Varma 21-13, 10-21, 21-16 to win the men's singles crown in the IFCI all-India ranking senior badminton championship on 5 September 2011. Sai Praneeth also won the men's doubles collaborating Nanda Gopal (AAI). They defeated top seeds Pranav Chopra (PSPB) and Akshay Dewalkar (AI). In the women's singles, Sayali Gokhale won over Tanvi Lad .In the mixed doubles category, Pranav Chopra and Prajakta Sawant clinched the mixed doubles title by defeating Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan.

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• Star Indian boxer Vijender Singhwon gold and also bagged the Best Boxer award at the World Police and Fire Games in New York. Indian pugilists finished off a reasonably successful campaign with two golds, two silvers and a bronze at the World Police and Fire Games in New York. Both Vijender (75kg), an Olympic and World championship bronze medallist and Dinesh Kumar (81kg) won gold.

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• Jamaica's Usain Bolt won the Men's 4x100 Relay final and set a world record at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea on 4 September 2011.

SPORTS AUGUST 2011

SPORTS AUGUST 2011

• In the 13th World Championships in Athletics that started in Daegu, South Korea on 27 August 2011,Jamaican Yohan Blake emerged as the new world champion in men's 100m after Usain Bolt crashed out of the final with a foul start. Jason Richardson (USA) won gold in the 110m hurdle on 29 August. In the Women’s 100m, Carmelita Jeter (USA) won the gold. Veronica Campbell-Brown and Kelly-Ann Baptiste won the silver and bronze medals respectively. In the 400m event of the women’s category, Amantle Montsho was placed first followed by Allyson Felix and Anastasiya Kapachinskaya. Olympic champion Olga Kaniskina of Russia won her third consecutive World women's 20km walk title on 31 August 2011.Kaniskina's three consecutive world titles matched the feat of Jefferson Perez of Ecuador, who won the men's 20km titles in 2003, 2005 and 2007.
  
• Sebastian Vettel of Red Bul has won the Belgian Grand Prix on 28 August 2011. With the victory, Vettel’s number of victories in 2011 moved to seven.His teammate at Red Bull, Mark Webber finished in second, 3.7 seconds behind, while Jenson Button, who won the previous race, the Hungarian Grand Prix finished third .
  
• Top-seeded International MasterRahul Sangma of Delhi won the Sunita Singh Memorial National youth (under-25) chess championship at Indore on 27 August 2011.The championship was a 50-player event. Sangma scored a final round victory with black over Sai Agni Jeevitesh of Andhra. The event was organised by S.K.M. Chess Academy and J.J. Public School, Indore, from 21 to 27. August 2011. Pranesh Yadav of Shivamogga, Karnataka was the chief arbiter.
  
• Veteran Indian footballer Baichung Bhutia announced his retirement from international soccer on 24 August 2011. In his career spread over 16 years he scored 42 goals in 107 international appearances. Nicknamed the Sikkimese Sniper, he is currently contracted by the club he owns, United Sikkim. He has thrice in the past been named Indian Player of the Year. When he signed up to play for the English club Bury F.C. in 1999 he became the first Indian footballer to play professional football in Europe. He was honoured with the Arjuna award in 1995 and Padma Shri in 2008.
  
• World No. 4 Andy Murray won the ATP's Cincinnati Masters title for the second time on 21 August 2011 after defeating World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Fourth-seeded Russian Maria Sharapovadefeated Serbia's Jelena Jankovic to win the women's title. In the doubles final, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won their third title of 2011 and first at Cincinnati after 10 years, following a hard-fought win over French-Serbian combination Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic.
  
• Ace Indian discus thrower Krishna Poonia won the Gold medal in the Annual Athletic Meet at Portland in the United States.
  
• Novak Djokovic defeated American Mardy Fish 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to win the Montreal Mastersthereby winning his ninth ATP title of 2011. The win also made him the first to capture an ATP tournament on debut as number one since Pete Sampras in 1993.
  
• Veteran Indian batsman Rahul Dravid announced his retirementfrom both the Tests and ODIs. He announced his retirement after he was chosen for the ODI and T20 series in England. He became the second highest run-getter in Test cricket-12576 runs from 155 matches during the India-England test series. Dravid also equaled Sunil Gavaskar's record of 34 Test tons during the ongoing Test series against England. Dravid has to his credit over 10000 runs in both the Test and ODI cricket, with 10765 runs in 339 one-dayers who is the seventh highest scorer in that format.
  
• Aditya Mehta claimed his maiden National snooker title by defeating Alok Kumar 6-2 the best-of-eleven frame final at the Hash10 World Sim championships on 9 August 2011.
  
• McLaren's Jenson Button won the Hungarian Grand Prix on 31 July 2011. He has 11 Grand Prix races in a career that started with team Williams in 2000.Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel was placed second in this event.
  
• The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) set up an eight member Indian Court of Arbitration for Sports (ICAS). ICAS was set up under the Chairmanship of Dr. AR. Lakshmanan, former Supreme Court Judge and former Law Commission chairperson to resolve all sports related disputes in India. All sports related the International Court of Arbitration settles disputes in the whole world for Sports situated at Lausanne, Switzerland through a panel of eminent experts in the field of law, medicine, sports and others. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had given directions to the IOA to constitute the Indian court of Arbitration for Sports in order to resolve all sports related disputes within the territory of India.
  
• India’s double-trap shooter and Asian Games gold medalist Ronjan Sodhi was ranked No.1 in the world, as per the latest rankings released by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) on 1 August 2011. Double trap marksman Ronjan Sodhi won gold in the World Cup Finals in Turkey in 2010. He had recently won the silver medal in the Beijing World Cup to clinch the Olympic quota place. After the Beijing World Cup he went on to win a bronze medal in the next World Cup in Maribor.Ronjan Sodhi from Punjab lad had won the World Cup gold medals in Belgrade in 2008 (with two world records to boot) and Lonato in 2010.

SPORTS JULY 2011

SPORTS JULY 2011

• Five-time national champion Vidya Pillai Tilakraj of Tamil Nadu defeated Arantxa Sanchis 3-1 (53-34, 43-53, 92-15, 54-15) in the final of the National billiards and snooker championship on 25 July 2011.
  
• America’s Michael Phelps won gold in the 200m butterfly event in the World Swimming Championship in Shanghai on 27 July 2011.
  
• Uruguay won the Copa Américafoot ball cup for a record 15th time on 24 July 2011 by defeating Paraguay, 3-0, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. With the victory, Uruguay became the competition's most successful team.
  
• Former India striker Shabbir Ali, who took up full-time coaching after retirement on 26 June 2011, became the first footballer to win the prestigious Dhyan Chand award as recognition for his lifetime achievement in sports.
  
• Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was honoured posthumously with the highest Bangladesh award — the Bangladesh Swadhinata Sammanona (Bangladesh Freedom Honour ) on 25 July 2011. The award was meant to honour Indira Gandhi’s for her outstanding contributions to Bangladesh's Liberation War fought in 1971. The award was received by her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi who visited Bangladesh at the invitation of Sheikh Hasina.
  
• The Union Sports Ministry had announced the Arjuna and Dronacharya awards for the year 2010. The Dinesh Khanna-led Arjuna award panel had recommended increasing the number of Arjuna awards to 19 instead of the normal 15. The selection of cricketer Zaheer Khan and Ashish Kumar, who bagged the first medals for the country in gymnastics in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, Swimmer Virdhawal Khade, Swimmer( paralympic category)Prasanta Karmakar , The captains of the men's and women's kabaddi teams, Rakesh Kumar and Tejaswini Bai, shooter Tejaswini Sawant, Archer Rahul Banerjee, boxer Suranjoy Singh, Greco-Roman wrestler Ravinder Singh, weightlifter K. Ravi Kumar, Hockey captain Rajpal Singh, badminton ace Jwala Gutta,volleyball player Sanjay Kumar, footballer Sunil Chetri, and wushu silver medallist in the Asian Games, Sandhya Rani Devi, were the others to be chosen for the Arjuna award.Five coaches were chosen for the Dronacharya award. The awardees are as follows: Ram Phal (wrestling), Devendra Kumar Rathore (gymnastics), I. Venkateswara Rao (boxing), Rajender Singh (hockey) and Kunthal Kumar Roy (athletics).Yashvir Singh, long-time coach of world champion and Olympic bronze medalist wrestler Sushil Kumar, withdrew his nomination on 21 July evening thereby clearing the route for Ram Phal, coach of Yogeshwar Dutt.
  
• Ace Indian shooter Gagan Narang,who won four gold medals at last year's Commonwealth Games, is selected for the country's highest sporting honour – the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. He also won the bronze medal in the World Championships last year. Gagan becomes the fifth shooter to be nominated for the Khel Ratna award which is the highest honour given for achievement in sports. He won two silver medals in the Asian Games in Guangzhou and is the first shooter from India to qualify for the London Olympics.
  
• The International Cricket Council (ICC) released the list of All time Greatest Test team. The ICC’s list includes four Indian cricketers namely- batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag. Sunil Gavaskar and Virender Sehwag were included for opening slot while Indian batting maestro, Sachin Tendulkar found the place in middle order. Four Australians, two West Indians and one Pakistani also made it to Peoples' Dream XI as more than a quarter of million people voted on ICC's official website.Sir Don Bradman, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose and Wasim Akram are the other players in the list.
  
• Japan lifted the women's football World Cup by defeating USA in a dramatic final in Frankfurt, Germany. Homare Sawa, is the captain for the team Japan.
  
• Karnataka's Uma Devi Nagaraj on 21 July deafeted the defending champion Meenal Thakur in a final, and won the women's billiards title at the Hash10-National championships in Chennai. This was Uma Devi's third National billiards title. She had earlier won in 2002 and 2008.
  
• The Indian trio of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Chekrovolu Swuro settled for a silver medal in the Archery World Championship at Turin on 10 July 2011. This was the best finish by the women in the history of the Championships. Their previous best was a fourth place at Madrid in 2005, where they had lost to Russia in the bronze medal play-off. 
• Fernando Alonso of Spain won the formula one British Grand Prix. The 29-year-old Spaniard had in the past won the British race for Renault in 2006. The victory marked Alonso’s 27th career victory and it drew him closer to three-time winner of the British Grand Prix, Jackie Stewart’s record world champion Vettel finished second.
  
• Jack Nicklaus was chosen as the greatest golf player of the last 100 years by the Golf monthly magazine’s reader’s poll. Nicklaus, whose 18 major titles are a record, won 58 per cent of the votes from a list of 20 golfers with nearest challenger Tiger Woods who won 16 percent. Third in the list was Spanish star Seve Ballesteros who won 8 per cent vote. Woods, won the greatest shot of the last 100 years for his chip-in from beside the 16th green at August National as he won the 2005 Masters.
  
• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on 6 July 2011 that Pyeongchang(South Korea) would be the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics.Pyeongchang is the ski resort area located 180km east of Seol. The Winter Olympics will likely put South Korea on the map as a winter sports hot spot. Only two of 21 previous Winter Games have been in Asia after Japan hosted the event in Sapporo in 1972 and again in Nagano in 1998.
  
• Fabiano Caruana of Italy by defeating Filipino Wesley emerged as the winner of the AAI International Grandmasters chess tournament on 2 July 2011.india’s Sasikiran, finished runner-up in this tournament and another Indian Parimarjan Negi, was positioned on fifth.
  
• The ATP rankings released conferred the World No.1 position Novak Djokovic of Serbia who defeated Nadal in the Wimbledon final. His rise to the World No. 1 position was confirmed after he defeated Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the Wimbledon semi-final. 
• The Sports Ministry sacked India's athletics coach, Yuri Ogrodnik of Ukrain. Sports Minister Ajay Maken asked Sports Authority of India, SAI, to immediately relieve coaches attached to the Indian athletes who failed in the Dope test. An inquiry was also ordered into the whole doping episode. Measures were being taken by the National Anti Dope Agency (NADA) to prevent the occurrence of dope in sports and the agency decided to increase the frequency of the dope tests. Seven of the eight athletes tested positive for methandienone or methandrostenolone in the dope tests conducted at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) in Patiala and the National Anti-Doping Agency approved the suspension of the guilty athletes. 
• Australian Michael Jack Nobbswas appointed India's new hockey coach for five-year period. He succeeded Spaniard Jose Brasa. Nobb is a 57-year-old from the part of Australia's Hockey team for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. He also coached the Japan women's team. Nobbs' contract is set to run till the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, and his pay cheque is fixed to start at 10,000 Australian dollars per month. 
• Serbia's Novak Djokovic won his first Wimbledon title by defeating Rafael Nadal with 6-4 6-1 1-6 6-3. It was his 50th win in 51 matches and his fifth win over Nadal this year .He becomes the first Serbian man to win Wimbledon. It is his third Grand Slam title after two Australian Open victories. 
• Petra Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title by beating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final. Kvitova was playing in her first major final and she is the first left-handed woman to win the Wimbledon title sinceMartina Navratilova in 1990. 
• American twins Bob and Mike Bryan won a record-tying 11th Grand Slam men’s doubles titletogether, beating Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (2) in the Wimbledon final. The Bryan brothers won at Wimbledon for the second time and matched Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge’s Open era record of 11 major titles. Kevita pesky(Chek republic) and Katarina Srebotnik(Slovekia) won the womens doubles title. In themixed doubles final event, Miljar(Australia) and Iveta Bensova(Chek republic) defeated Mahesh Bhupathi(india) and Velina Veniva(Russia).

SPORTS JUNE 2011

SPORTS JUNE 2011

• Defending champion Saina Nehwal failed to complete the hat-trick of titles at the Indonesian Open Super Series after losing to Chinese World No. 3 Wang Yihan in the final. Fourth seed Saina, who won the title in 2009 and 2010, suffered a 21-12, 21-23, 14-21 loss to Wang yihan of China. 
• Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland captured his first Major golf titlewith his victory in the 111th U.S. Open on 19 June 2011.The 22-year-old McIlroy became the youngest US Open winner in 88 years. This victory made him become the youngest Major winner since Woods at the 1997 Masters and the youngest US Open winner since Bobby Jones in 1923. 
• Kerala won the overall trophy in the National Senior Athletic Meet held at Bangalore. Kerala became the champion in both categories i.e.men and women getting past Tamil Nadu and Punjab respectively. Meet record holder Mayookha Johny and Sajeesh Joseph were selected best athletes of the meet. Kerala improved its medal tally bagging 27 medals overall; out of which 13 were gold. 
• Shyam Sundar of Chennai retained his Asian junior title, in the Asian Chess championship which concluded in Sri Lanka on 8 June 2011. He scored 7.5 points out of 9 rounds in the championship.IM Srinath won the silver medal. In the girl’s section R Bharathi and J Saranya won the silver and bronze medals by scoring 7 points each. 
• World No. 1 Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-1 at Roland Garros (French Open) and won the title for the sixth time on 5 June 2011. With the victory, the reigning U.S. Open, Wimbledon champ Nadal equaled former tennis great Bjorn Borg’s six titles at Roland Garros. The French Open final victory on 5 June 2011 enabled the Spaniard to move to an astounding 45-1 mark at the world’s lone clay-court major.Rafael is a Spanish professional tennis player currently ranked No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). 
• Chinese tennis palyer Li Na’s won the French Open women singles title on 4 June 2011 by defeating defending champion Francesca Schiavone. She became the first Asian to win grand slam singles title. She had reached the Australian Open final in January 2011 but was defeated by Belgian Kim Clijsters. The Chinese professional tennis player has won 5 WTA and 19 ITF singles titles. She is currently ranked World No. 4 by World tennis Association (WTA). 
• Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel won the Monaco Grand Prix for Red Bull on 29 May 2011. The victory marked his fifth victory in six races. Vettel now has a 58-point lead over McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who scrambled to sixth place. Ferrari's double world champion Fernando Alonso finished second and ahead of McLaren's 2009 winner Jenson Button in third. 
• Spanish soccer club Barcelona led by Lionel Messi defeated Manchester United 3-1 to emerge winners of the Champions League on 28 May 2011. With the victory Barcelona claimed the most prestigious club title in the world, and fuelled a debate about whether they are one of the best teams in soccer history. It was Barcelona’s third Champions League title in six seasons and No. 4 overall. 
• MS Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore to win Indian Premier League (IPL) season 4 title. The comprehensive 58-run victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) was attained at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on 28 May 2011.MS Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore to win Indian Premier League (IPL) season 4 title. The comprehensive 58-run victory over the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) was attained at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on 28 May 2011.
  The winners of the first three seasons of IPL are as follows:
  Season 1: Rajasthan Royals
  Season 2: Deccan Chargers
  Season 3: Chennai Super Kings

SPORTS MAY 2011

SPORTS MAY 2011

• India's middle-distance runnerGhamanda Ram won silver in 800m in the opening leg of the Asian Grand Prix meet in the Chinese city of Jiaxiang on 22 May 2011. Sajeesh Joseph, the second Indian in the race, finished fifth in 1:51.62. India's second medal came in women's discus throw where Seema Antil clinched bronze with a throw of 49.77m. 
• Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel raced ahead of Lewis Hamilton to win the Spanish Grand Prix. It was Vettel's 13th career win and he now has 118 points to lead Hamilton who is on 77 points by 41 points. Vettel representing Red Bull won four of this season's five races. In this race he needed all his skill and nerve to edge out his McLaren rival by just six tenths of a second after 66 laps of the Catalunya circuit near Barcelona. 
• The Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal 6-4 6-4 in the Rome Masters final. With the victory at the Rome masters stretched his unbeaten start to the 2011 season to 37 matches. The second-ranked Djokovic won seven titles already this year, and beaten Nadal in all four finals they’ve played this year.
• Asian Games bronze medalist India’s Virdhawal Khade bagged eight medals, including three gold medals at the 54th Malaysia open swimming championship in May 2011. Khade won gold medals in the 50m, 100m and 200m freestyle events and two silver medals in the 50m and 100m butterfly events at the National Aquatics Centre in Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur. Ashwin Menon won a bronze in men's 200m backstroke with a timing of 2:10.86s. 
• Five-time World champion M.C.Mary Kom (48kg) beat Asian champion Kim Myong Sim of North Korea 4-3 in the final of the Asian Cup Women's Boxing tournament in Haikou, China. 
• Star Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal was defeated by world number three Xin Wang of China in the finals to finish runner-up in the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur. 
• Novak Djokovic won the third edition of Serbia Open on 1 May 2011. The ATP World Tour 250 event top seed, Djokovic captured his fifth title in 2011, and 23rd in his career when he defeated Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 7-6(4), 6-2. The victory marked his second victory at his hometown tournament. Djokovic had also won the inaugural Serbia Open in 2009.Novak won every tournament he’s entered in 2011: the Australian Open, Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami and now Belgrade.

SPORTS APRIL 2011

SPORTS APRIL 2011

• Formula one World champion Sebastien Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix with a dominant drive on 10 April to take an early grip on the Formula One season. 
• Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina clinched their second WTA title together, lifting the Family Circle Cup doubles trophy with a straight-set triumph over Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy at Charleston (USA).
• Shane Watson smashed a record 15 sixes in a career-best 185 not out as Australia clinched a three-match One-Day International series against Bangladesh with a nine-wicket win in the second ODI on 11 April. 
• South African Charl Schwartzel has won the 75th U.S. Masters on 10 April. It is his first Major golf title at age 26. 
• Sanjeev Rajput of India won the gold in free rifle 3-position event in the World Cup in Changwon, Korea and grabbed one of the Olympic quota places for the London Games in 2012. 
• Alok Kumar of India defeated former world champion Praput Chaithanasukan of Thailand 6-0 to clinch the Asian billiards championship title at the Olympic Stadium in Kish Island, Iran. 
• Haryana overpowered Bombay in a 3-1 victory to take the 56th Senior National women's hockey championship, at the KSHA Stadium, Bangalore on 14 April. 
• Rafael Nadal beat fourth-seeded David Federer 6-4, 7-5 to win his seventh straight Monte Carlo Masters tennis title. The top-ranked Spaniard chalked up his 37th straight win at the clay-court event, where he has not lost since 2003. It was his 44th career title and 19th at a Masters event. 
• Britain's Lewis Hamilton by defeating the World champion Sebastian Vettel won the formula one Chinese Grand Prix title at shanghai. Vettel of Germany, after opening season wins in Australia and Malaysia, leads the title race with 68 points with Hamilton second on 47 and Button third on 38. 
• Former World junior champion and Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta defeated BPCL teammate Parimarjan Negi in a battle of nerves to clinch the Dubai International Open chess title in Dubai. He is the first Indian to win the Dubai Open title. 
• Donna Urquhart of Australia, the top seed, defeated India’s Joshna Chinappa in the final of the WISPA-Indian Challenger $16000 squash tournament at the Indian Squash Academy in Chennai on 23 April.
• Indian tennis players Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won their second title of the season by clinching the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami(USA) to become No. 1 in the ATP World Tour doubles team rankings. Third-seeded Bhupathi and Paes rallied to beat the second seeded Belarusian-Canadian pair Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 6-7(5), 6-2, 10-5. 
• Victoria Azarenka defeated Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-4 to win the WTA's prestigious Sony Ericson open Miami hard court crown for the second time. Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated World No. 1 Rafael Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) to win the ATP Miami Masters crown and remain unbeaten in 2011.Djokovic has now won all 24 matches he has played this year, the best start to a season since Ivan Lendl began 1986, 25-0.The Serbian, ranked second in the world, has captured four titles, including the Australian Open, Dubai and, now, back-to-back elite Masters titles at Indian Wells and Miami, both with victories over Nadal in the finals. 
• Indian cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni would soon become the latest high profile celebrity to get an honorary commission in the Territorial Army. Chief of the Army Staff General V.K. Singh made the offer when Dhoni called on him at the Army House, New Delhi. Over the past few years, actor Mohanlal and the former India cricket captain, Kapil Dev, were granted honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army while the Indian Air Force accorded honorary rank of Group Captain to Sachin Tendulkar last year. 
• Anirban Lahiri of India won the inaugural $300,000 Panasonic Open golf tournament. 
• World champion Sebastien Vettel won the Malaysian Grand Prix held in Sepang, Malaysia with a dominant drive on 10 April to take an early grip on the Formula One season. 
• Carnatic vocalist Nisha P. Rajagopal has been chosen as the first recipient of ‘ The Hindu Saregama M.S. Subbulakshmi Award.’ Presented by RmKV, the award, which was instituted on September 16, 2010, seeks to honour and recognise the merit of a young Carnatic vocalist aged between 25 and 35 pursuing music full-time.

SPORTS MARCH 2011

SPORTS MARCH 2011

• Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina clinched the BNP Paribas Open women's doubles trophy after upstaging Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy in Indian wells. This was Sania's 10th WTA doubles title, Vesnina picked up her fourth. 
• Novak Djokovic won the ATP Indian Wells title on 20 March, rallying to beat World No. 1 Rafael Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. 
• India's Saina Nehwal won her first title of the year with a commanding 21-13, 21-14 victory over South Korean Sung Ji Hyun in the Wilson Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold badminton in Basel on 20 March. It is Saina's ninth career title on the international circuit. She has won four Super Series titles, of which three came last year, three Grand Prix Gold titles and two Grand Prix tournaments. 
• Levon Aronian of Armenia won the Amber blindfold and rapid chess tournament held in Monaco. World Champion Viswanathan Anand finished third in the tournament. 
• Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand won the $300,000 SAIL Golf Open title at the Delhi Golf Club course on 27 March. 
• Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei defended his all-England Open men's singles title defeating Lin Dan of China 21-17, 21-17.In the women's section, top-seeded Wang Shixian regained title for China, earning it for the seventh time in 10 years after a 24-22, 21-18 victory in the final against Eriko Hiros. 
• Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal has won the Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold title with a victory over the Korean player Ji Hyun Sung in Switzerland. Nehwal, who was ranked second in the tournament, won 21-13, 21-14 in 43 minutes in the women's singles final. 
• Egypt has won the JSW-SDAT-WSF mixed team Squash World Cup held at Chennai by defeating defending champion England. Ramy Ashour and Raneem El Weleily have made it for Egypt. 
• North zone has won the Devdhar Trophy by defeating West zone held in Jaipur. 
• Chennai is all set to host for the first time the World Squash Federation's World Cup event, partially at the Indian Squash Academy and the final phase at a mega shopping mall from March 8 to 12 
• A.S. Suresh Krishna of Andhra Pradesh and Kyra Shroff of Maharashtra were became the New National grass-court tennis champions of India. 
• Sachin Tendulkar became the First batsman to score Six Hundreds in the world cup tournaments ,after scoring 111 runs against South Africa. 
• The 26-year old Kevin o’brien played an innings of brilliance and brutality and helped Ireland upset England in a World Cup Group B match during a feverish run chase at the Chinnaswamy Stadium,chennai. Kevin's hundred (113, 63b, 13x4, 6x6), the fastest in the premier event's history, sealed a three-wicket victory for Ireland over England. Chasing England's 327 for eight, Ireland scored 329 for seven in 49.1 overs.

SPORTS FEBRUARY 2011

SPORTS FEBRUARY 2011

• India’s SSP Chowrasia won the Avantha Masters Golf Cup at Gurgaon. The triumph was worth €300,000 along with a diamond-studded trophy. This was the 32-year-old Kolkatan's second European Tour title following the 2008 Indian Masters in New Delhi.
• Gymnast Deepak Carmaker of Tripura made a clean sweep of gold medals at the 34th national games gymnastics competition in women’s section. The 17-year-old showed enough grace and fluency on four apparatus — vault, uneven bars, beam and floor — to give her State Tripura five gold medals, including the overall crown. 
• Guru Sai Dutt(A.P) and Arundhati Pantwane(Maharashtra) won the badminton singles men’s and women’s gold medals in the 34th national games. 
• Two-time World under-8 chess champion Ivana Furtado of India secured her Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title after winning a silver medal in the under-12 girls' category at the World Youth chess championship in Greece recently. The 11-year-old chess prodigy from Goa had earlier become the Women Candidate Master (WCM). 
• Caroline wozniacki of Denmark won the Dubai WTA tennis Championship by defeating Russia’s Svetlanakuznetsova. 
• Sameer Mon of Services won the 100 mts sprint title in the national championship. 
• Karan Rastogi(Maharashtra) and Ratnika Batra(Delhi) won gold medals in men’s and women’s Tennis events respectively in the 34th national games. 
• The 34th National Games has closed on 26 February at the Birsa Munda Athletics Stadium, Ranchi with a colourful closing ceremony. The competitions were held in 33 disciplines. Services emerged as the best sporting unit with a whopping haul of 70 gold, 50 silver and 42 bronze medals for a total of 162, a tally that surpassed its previous best of 59-46-37 achieved at the last Games in 2007. The second place was got by the Manipur with 48-37-33, with the total of 118 medals. Richa Mishra of Delhi and Virdhawal Khade of Maharashtra,(both are swimmers) were adjudged as the Best female and male athletes of the Games, were awarded IOA Trophies. Richa Mishra has won total 16 medals including 11 gold medals. Services were given the Raja Phaedra Trophy which was received by Air Marshal J.N. Verma on behalf of the Services Sports Control Board. Manipur was adjudged as the best State and was given a trophy as well. Kerala will be the host of the 35th edition in seven cities spread across the State in December next year. 
• Novac Djokovic of Serbia won the Dubai tennis championship by defeating Roger Federer. 
• Spain's Alvaro Quiros won the Dubai Desert Classic Golf tournament on 13 february.Tiger Woods ended his challenge with a disappointing end in this tournament. 
• Kenyan Mugu Antony Ngudu triumphed at the SDAT Chennai Marathon 2011, comfortably outpacing Indian rival Ramsingh, as he logged just over two hours and 15 minutes in covering the 42.2 km course, on 13 February. 
• Union sports minister Ajay Maken on 13 february visited the Usha school of Athletics at Kinalur, near Kozhikode, and offered a Central assistance of Rs 5 crore to set up a synthetic track at the school. 
• Virdhawal Khade of Maharashtra and Goa's Talasha Prabhu emerged the fastest swimmers of the 34th National Games held at Ranchi. 
• A.V. Jayaveena, a 12-year-old sensation swimmer from Tamil Nadu, was the cynosure of all eyes at the 34th National Games at Ranchi. Jayaveena, who had clinched two bronze medals earlier, emerged with her first silver in her pet event — 50m breaststroke. 
• The 10th ICC Cricket World Cup was ushered in with joy and anticipation at the Bangabandhu Stadium, Dhaka on 17 February. 
• Tamil Nadu bagged its second National Games gold, defeating Kerala 19-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 in the men's volleyball final at the Haribansh Tana Bhagat Indoor Stadium at Dhaka. 
• Tamil nadu won the K.S. Subbaiah Pillai Trophy one day cricket tournament by defeating Hyderabad in Perinthalmanna,Kerala. 
• Virdhawal Khade of Maharashtra and of Delhi are termed to be the best swimmers in the 34th National Games held in jharkand.Khade won two golds with record time on the final day to take home eight gold medals all with record time and a silver. Richa won 11 golds, four silvers and a bronze for a total of a whooping 16 medals. Such a wonderful performance earned them the tag of best swimmers. Tamil Nadu's teenage sensation A.V. Jayaveena won her third bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke while her elder brother Jayawant Vijaya Kumar earned a bronze in a tough field of 100m freestyle. 
• Shooter Sanjeev Rajput was on the high picking up his sixth gold medal, third individual, in the men's 50m rifle three position. 
• Defending champion Orissa retained the football gold edging past Manipur 2-1 in the women's football final at Jamshedpur. 
• Spain's Alvaro Quiros won the Dubai Desert Classic Golf tournament on 13 february.Tiger Woods ended his challenge with a disappointing end in this tournament. 
• Kenyan Mugu Antony Ngudu triumphed at the SDAT Chennai Marathon 2011, comfortably outpacing Indian rival Ramsingh, as he logged just over two hours and 15 minutes in covering the 42.2 km course, on 13 February. 
• Union sports minister Ajay Maken on 13 february visited the Usha school of Athletics at Kinalur, near Kozhikode, and offered a Central assistance of Rs 5 crore to set up a synthetic track at the school. 
• Virdhawal Khade of Maharashtra and Goa's Talasha Prabhu emerged the fastest swimmers of the 34th National Games held at Ranchi. 
• A.V. Jayaveena, a 12-year-old sensation swimmer from Tamil Nadu, was the cynosure of all eyes at the 34th National Games at Ranchi. Jayaveena, who had clinched two bronze medals earlier, emerged with her first silver in her pet event — 50m breaststroke. 
• The 10th ICC Cricket World Cup was ushered in with joy and anticipation at the Bangabandhu Stadium, Dhaka on 17 February. 
• Tamil Nadu bagged its second National Games gold, defeating Kerala 19-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 in the men's volleyball final at the Haribansh Tana Bhagat Indoor Stadium at Dhaka. 
• Tamil nadu won the K.S. Subbaiah Pillai Trophy one day cricket tournament by defeating Hyderabad in Perinthalmanna,Kerala. 
• Virdhawal Khade of Maharashtra and Richa Mishra of Delhi are termed to be the best swimmers in the 34th National Games held in jharkand.Khade won two golds with record time on the final day to take home eight gold medals all with record time and a silver. Richa won 11 golds, four silvers and a bronze for a total of a whooping 16 medals. Such a wonderful performance earned them the tag of best swimmers. Tamil Nadu's teenage sensation A.V. Jayaveena won her third bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke while her elder brother Jayawant Vijaya Kumar earned a bronze in a tough field of 100m freestyle. 
• Shooter Sanjeev Rajput on the high picking up sixth gold medal, d individual, in the men's rifle three position. 
• Defending champion Orissa retained the ball gold g past Manipur 2-1 in women's football final amshedpur. 
• India bagged the overall championship in the fifth Common Wealth Taekwondo Championship, which concluded in Chennai. 
• Tennis legend Andre Agassi inducted into international Hall of fame. 
• Bubba watson won the $ 5.8 million farmers insurance golf open, claimed his second career US PGA title. 
• Top Indian squash player, Dipika Pallikal, reached her career-best ranking in WISPA by rising to the 24th sport. 
• An Anti-corruption tribunal of the ICC has banned former Pakistan captain salman butt, Md. Asif and Md. Amir for 10, 7 and 5 years respectively for their role in a spot-fixing betting scan during a test match against England at Lord's last year. 
• South zone lifted the Duleep trophy after a gap of 15 years beating north zone by 7 wickets at visakhapatnam. 
• Gaganjeet Bhullar won the PGTI players Golf Championship conducted in Kolkata. 
• Japan's Takashi Uchiyama won the WBA super featherweight world title match against Takashi Miura in Tokyo. 
• Former Indian allrounder Robin Singh will coach the United States cricket team in the qualifying rounds (America) for the under-19 World cup. 
• Pakistan won the One-Day series against New zealand 3-2, second match dismissed due to the rain. Pakistan won their first one-day series since November 2008.
• Gordon Greednidge' received the 1979 CEAT player of the award from Sunil Gavaskar in Mumbai on 3/2/2011.
• Former England international and Manchester United full-back 'Gary Neville' retired from football on 2/2/2011
• The tainted Pakistan cricketers Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir together with their agent, Mazhar Majeed have been charged with corruption offences, Egland's prosecution service said on (4/2/2011).They were in the spot-fixing scandal that emerged last year.

SPORTS JANUARY 2011

SPORTS JANUARY 2011

• Novak Djokovic (serbia) claimed his second grand slam title at the Australian open by beating andy murray (britain) in straight sets 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. 
• Gisela Dulko (Argentina) & Flania Pennetta (Italy) have won the Australian open women's double championship 
• Katarina srebotnik (slovenia) & Daniel Nestor (canada) have won the Australian open Mixed double championship./li> 
• Australia claimed the one-day international series against England with a 51-run win in the 5th match at the Gabba stadium, Brisbane./li> 
• USA's Hikaru Nakamura wins Tata Steel Chess Title at Wijkaanzee, near Amsterdam. Viswanathan Anand placed second in this tournament./li> 
• Japan won the Asia cup of food ball for a record forth time by defeating Australia 1-0 in Doha./li>
• South Africa won by 33 runs against India as part of 5th and final one day international mach at Centurian. Man-of the-Mach "Hashim Amla". South Africa clinched the dramatic five-mach ODI series 3-2. 
• French Open champion Francesca Schiavone edged Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6,6-1,16-14 in a four-hour and 44 minute marathon that shattered the women's record for the longest match at a grand slam in the open era.
• Samaresh Jung clinched the standard pistolgold in the 54th National shooting championship at the Dr.Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad.
• Sachin Tendulkar Newly appointed as a Brand Ambassador of Coco-cola, Company. 
• Pandicherry University announced the Honour Degree for the Indian Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar. 
• Belgian Star Player 'Justine Henin' announced that she had been forced to retire from professional tennis once again because of an elbow injury .Henin made a return to the WTA in early 2010, losing the final of the Australian Open in only her 2nd tournament back.
• Indian business man 'Ahsan Ali Syed' purchased (248 Crore) "Racing Santander ". It was a Spain Foot ball Club. Ahsan Ali Syed is the founder and chairman of western Gulf Advisory.
• Rajasthan Cricket Team won the "Ranji Trophy" against Baroda in Vadodara It won the Ranji Trophy for the first time in 77 years after getting the better of Baroda on first innings lead.
• Pakistan has won the series against New Zealand by drawing the second test at Basin Reserve. This is the first time that Pakistan has won the test series during the last four years. Pakistan has won their last test match against West Indies by 2-0 in 2006-07.
• India beat West Indies by 57 runs in the fifth women's One Day International (ODI) in Rajkot. India won the series against West Indies by 3-2 win. 
• Belgian 'Kim Clijesters' won her first Australian Open crown with a 3-6, 6-3, 63 win over China's 'Li Na' at Melbourne Park. The title is Clijesters' fourth Grand Slam overall, 
• Castrol Awards given for following Cricketers - Indian Captain M.S.Dhoni was declared the "Castrol ODI Cricketer of the year", Virendhra Sehwag "Castrol batsman of the year" and Harbhajan Singh "Castrol bowler of the year". Mohinder Amarnath was given the "Lifetime Achievement award” at the Castrol award function in Mumbai.
• American twins "Bob and Milke Bryan" won the 'Australian Open' against Indian Stars "Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander paes" with a 6-3,6-4 victory in the final.
• Thired seed "Novak Djokoveic" won the Australian Open against Britain's "Andy Murray" in Melbourne with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 in the final.
• Indian made history at the Ratmalana courts in Colombo by clinching the boys title for the first time, beating defending champion Pakistan 2-1 in an exciting final of the "Asia junior squash championship" 
• Japan won the Asian Cup -2011 against Australia at Khalifa Stadium in Doha Japan beat Australia 1-0 in the final.
• Left-hand opener Gautam Gambhir was bought by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a record $2.4 million (11.04 crore for each year) on the first day of the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction in Bangalore. 
• The 16th National Scouts and Guides jamboree concluded at Shankarpally in Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh hosted a jamboree after a gap of 57 years. 
• Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka won the Chennai Open Title with 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 over Belgian Xavier Malisse. 
• Leander paes and Mahesh Bhupathi won the Chennai Open Doubles Title. They won over Robin Haase and David Martine in the Chennai Open final. They won their first title together in over six years, 
• Lionel Messi and Marta were awarded for the 'World's best Foot-Ball players' 
• Rafael Nadal won the World Tennis Championship Exhibition Trophy in Abu Dhabi by defeating Roger Federer. 
• England won the Ashes Test Series 3-1 against Australia at Sydney. England Claims the series in Australia after a gap of 24 Years. England opener Alastair cook awarded 'Man of the Mach' and 'Man of the Series'