(Study Material) SPORTS: Aspirants Times Vol - 3 (June 2009)

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SPORTS

l As part of the ‘Win in India with India’ programme launched by FIFA President Sepp Blatter in 2007, the football’s world governing body has sanctioned 10 international standard artificial turf fields to the All India Football Federation (AIFF).The AIFF is understood to have picked states where the I-League clubs are based and where the ambitious Asian Football Confederation programme ‘Vision India’ is being implemented to lay the turfs. States like Goa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Manipur, Punjab, Delhi, Sikkim, Maharashtra and Karnataka stand a good chance to get the turfs. FIFA is expected to handle the project independently in terms of bidding process, contract signing and testing. Each artificial turf is expected to cost a minimum of Rs four crore.

l In Table Tennis World Championship held at Yokohama in Japan, China swept away the championship bagging all the gold and silver medals in the in the eight-day bonanza. Remaining three bronzes were won by Hong Kong, South Korea and host Japan. Wang Hao of China won men’s singles final defeating compatriot Wang Liqin and Olympic champion Zhang Yining won women’s singles title defeating fellow Chinese Guo Yue.

l Barcelona registered 2-0 victory against holder Manchester United in the European Champions League Football final on May 28 at the stadium in Rome, Stadio Olimpico. Manchester United lost for the first time in 26 Champions League matches and failed to defend its 2008 title. This was the third title of the season for Barcelona. Thus it became the first team to win the Spanish treble of La Liga, the King's Cup and the Champions League. Manchester United earlier won European Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1968, then 1999 and 2008. Barcelona won first European Champions Cup in 1992 and then in 2006. The UEFA Champions League is usually referred to as simply the Champions League or less frequently as the European Cup. It is an annual football cup competition organised by UEFA since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It is the most prestigious club trophy in European football. Prior to 1992 the tournament was officially called the European Champion Clubs' Cup. The all-time record-holder is Real Madrid, who won the competition nine times, including the first five seasons it was contested.

l Inter Milan retained their Series A title with three games to spare after second-placed AC Milan put in a weak performance to lose 2-1 at Udinese on May 17,2009. Inter's triumph, in former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho's first season in charge, is their fourth straight scudetto and their 17th overall. Mourinho now won titles with Porto, Chelsea and Inter. It was Mourinho’s fifth title in seven years in three different countries having claimed the Portuguese crown with Porto in 2003 and 2004 and the English Premier League trophy in 2005 and 2006 with Chelsea. Similarly in Spain, Barcelona was gifted its 19th Primera Liga title without kicking a ball on Saturday when second placed Real Madrid was beaten 3-2 at Villarreal.

l England won the three matches one-day Cricket series 2-0 by defeating West Indies’ in the third and final match at Edgbaston. England posted a daunting total of 328 for seven after being put in by West Indies captain Chris Gayle. It was their sixth highest one-day total.

• Deccan Chargers clinched the nail biting finals by six runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore to win the Indian Premier League —Season II at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on May 24,2009. Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble won the toss and put Deccan Chargers to bat led by Adam Gilchrist. Deccan scored 143 for the loss of 6 wickets. It was Kumble's four-wicket haul that restricted Deccan Chargers to a sub-150 score. Chasing a modest 144 for win, Bangalore scored 137 for nine. Put into bat, the Chargers had earlier found their nemesis in Anil Kumble (4/16) and it took Herschelle Gibbs' unbeaten 48-ball 53 and Andrew Symonds' brisk 33 to reach 143 for six. Rajashtan Royals had won first edition of IPL held in India in April-May 2008, defeating Chennai SuperKings.

FACTS

» 19-year-old Manish Pandey become the first Indian to hit an IPL century when he made 117 for Bangalore against Deccan in a round-robin match.
» Bangalore skipper Anil Kumble was named Man of the Match.
» Left arm seamer RP Singh of Deccan Chargers won the Purple Cap by taking maximum scalps (23) in the event.
» Matthew Hayden of Chennai Super Kings grabbed Orange Cap for scoring maximum runs (573) in Twenty20.
» Adam Gilchrist of Deccan Chargers was adjudged Golden Player of the Tournament.

• East London’s 34-year-old actress and model Dune Kossatz was crowned Miss IPL Bollywood South Africa at a glittering event at the Monte Casino entertainment complex in Johannesburg on May 24. She represented Chennai Super Kings.

• South Korea won Asia Cup hockey title after beating Pakistan 1-0 in a tough title-clash on May 16. World's top goal scorer Sohail Abbas of Pakistan, who was recalled for the tournament, failed to convert any of the three short corners. Drag flick specialist Kim Byung-hoon of South Korea scored the winner in the 65th minute and finished as tournament's top scorer with six goals. It was third Asia Cup hockey title for South Korea. Their previous two titles came in 1994 and 1999. Korea now holds both the Asian Games and the Asia Cup titles and also secured a place at the 2010 World Cup in India.

• National champion Sayali Gokhale won the women’s singles title in the Spanish Open badminton championship at Madrid on May 24. She beat Lianne Tan of Belgium 21-9, 21-18 in 23 minutes. The rest of the Indian team wasn’t able to climb the highest step of the podium. English and Danish won four titles. In the men’s singles final, P. Kashyap lost to Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark, while the women’s doubles pair of Shruthi Kurien and Aparna Balan went down to the second-seeded Danish duo Line Damkjær Kruse and Mie Schjøtt-Kristensen. In the mixed doubles final, the English pair of Robin Middleton and Mariana Agathangelou beat Arun Vishnu and Aparna Balan.

Champions League Twenty20: Inaugural Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) tournament will be played in India from October 8-23,2009. Earlier the tournament was scheduled to be held in 2008 but was postponed because of the Mumbai attacks. CLT20 is a joint venture of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Cricket Australia (CA) and Cricket South Africa (CSA). IPL chairman and Commissioner Lalit Modi will also be Chairman of CLT20. The Royal Challengers, Deccan Chargers and Delhi Daredevils will represent India.

Champions League Qualifiers:-
» Deccan Chargers (Ind)
» Royal Ch'gers Bangalore (Ind)
» Delhi Daredevils (Ind)
» Cape Cobras (SA)
» Eagles (SA)
» Victoria (Aus)
» New South Wales (Aus)
» Otago (NZ)
» Trinidad & Tobago (WI)
» Wayamba (SL)
» Twenty20 Cup winners and losing finalists (Eng)

• Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly won the Asian chess championship following a draw against China’s Zhou Jianchao in the 11th and final round at Subic, Olongapo City in the Philippines, on May 24. Sandipan Chanda and his ONGC colleague K. Sasikiran joined Ganguly as the qualifiers for the World Cup scheduled to be held at Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, from November 21 to December 14, 2009. Among the women, Air-India’s Subbraman Meenakshi defeated second seed China’s Ju Wenjun and tied for the third place.
• World champion Viswanathan Anand was formally presented the Chess Oscar on May 6,2009 by the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Baku, Azerbaijan. He was awarded for the year 2008 for his outstanding play while retaining his World Championship title in Bonn. It was his sixth Oscar. Thus he became only non-Russian to have won the award more than 5 times. To put this achievement in perspective, the late Robert.J.Fischer, chess genius from U.S.A, won it three times.

The maximum number of chess Oscars has been won by the Chess Master, Garry Kasparov-a record 11 times. The first winner of Chess Oscar was Bent Larsen in 1967 and the award ceremony was held in Madrid. In 1988 Puig died and the award was not given until 1995. They were reinstituted in the year 1995, by the popular Russian chess magazine-'64'.

• Pei-Ying Tsai of Taiwan’s (271) won the Malaysian amateur Open golf tournament title by three strokes. Rashid Khan signed off with a three under 69 to leapfrog 10 places and finish tied third. Vikram Rana slipped to 16th place after a round of 76, while Gagan Verma, finished tied 23rd carding 77.

• Nike Golf athlete Paul Casey won BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth Club in the United Kingdom. Paul Casey (271) carded 68 to win the title ahead of Ross Fisher (64), who fell just one stroke behind. Shiv Kapur of India signed off with a level-par round to finish tied 35th while compatriot Jyoti Randhawa ended tied 64th after returning his best card of the week.

• Indian judoka Ram Ashrey Yadav won a silver medal in the 73kg event at the Asian Judo Championship held from May 21-24,2009 at Chinese Taipei. Among other Indians, Anil Kumar(100kg), I Sanju Singh (66kg), KH Tombi Devi (48kg) and L Nirupama Devi (57kg) reached the semifinals. Five other Indians ended up at the seventh place in their respective categories.

• Gold eluded Sandeep Singh who lost final but India managed its best-ever haul of four medals at the AIBA World junior boxing championships which concluded in Yerevan, Armenia on may 30,2009.India, which had claimed two gold and a silver medal in the previous edition held in 2007, ended its campaign with a silver and three bronze medals this time around. Pin weight (46kg) pugilist Sandeep was the lone Indian to make it to the finals after Namit Bahadur (50kg), Shiva Thapa (52kg) and Vikas Khatri (54kg) lost in the semis to settle for bronze medals. Up against host Armenia’s Koryun Soghomonyan, Sandeep was tied 1-1 with his rival at the end of the first round but it all went downhill for the Indian thereafter. The second round belonged to Soghomonyan, who landed a flurry of punches to notch up five points and establish a 6-3 lead over Sandeep. The deciding third round followed a similar script and Sandeep could add just one more point to his tally and Soghomonyan eventually won 10-4.

• Suranjoy Singh won the flyweight gold in boxing after beating Armenia’s H Danielyan 4-1 on May 16,2009 at the European Grand Prix event in Usti Nad Labem, Czech Republic. With Suranjoy’s gold, Indian boxers grabbed four medals in he event. Earlier, Beijing Olympics bronze
medallist Vijender Singh (75kg), Manoj Kumar (64kg) and Jai Bhagwan (60kg) ended with bronze after losing in the semifinals.

• Zhu Qinan of China and Artur Aivazian of Ukrain got first and second place respectively in the air rifle event of the shooting World Cup in Milan on May 23,2009. World record-holder Suma Shirur finished fifth with a total of 499.7. The 35-year-old who had shot a world-record equaling 400 out of 400 in the Asian Championship in Kuala Lumpur in 2004, shot her best score in a World Cup with a 398. Lajja Gauswami shot a 397 but had to settle for the ninth place from among 90 shooters.

• Helio Castroneves won Indianapolis 500 on May 24,2009 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway. It was third victory of Castroneves at Indianapolis 500. Castroneves, a Brazilian who won at the Indianapolis in 2001 and 2002, also became the first foreign-born driver with three Indy 500 wins, and the victory marked Penske Racing’s record 15th in the race. He became the ninth driver to win the historic race three times, and his timing couldn't have been better.

• Jorge Lorenzo won the French Grand Prix and took the overall MotoGP championship lead from Valentino Rossi on May 17,2009. The Spanish rider finished 17.71 seconds ahead of Marco Melandri of Italy, with Dani Pedrosa of Spain overtaking Italian racer Andrea Dovizioso took third place with a stunning late burst.

• Valentino Rossi won the MotoGP world championship table after taking his first win of the season in Spain on May 3,2009. Dani Pedrosa was on secon and Casey Stoner on third place.

• The Indian archery group won three gold and four silver medals in the second Asian Grand Prix meet held at Tehran from May 18 to May 24,2009. The men’s recurve team, consisting of Tarundeep Rai, Muni Ram Tirkey and Kapil, grabbed the gold medal beating Iran 217-211. Bangladesh won the bronze medal defeating Nepal. The third gold medal was earned by compound archer L. Haridas Singh in the individual event. The men’s and women’s compound teams finished second best to Iran in the final. The men’s and women’s compound teams finished second best to Iran in the final. The men lost 220-227 and the women went down 207-208 to Iran. Tarundeep Rai won the third silver medal losing the final 107-108 to Iran’s Milad Vaziri Teymoorlooei in the men’s recurve individual event. Compound women archer Sweety Kumari too settled for silver going down 102-108 to Seyedeh Vida Halimian Avval of Iran. Tirkey and Sushma lost to Nadar M. and Zahara Nemati of Iran respectively in the individual recurve bronze medal play-off.

• Qualifier Duan Ying Ying of China defeated the fifth-seeded Keren Shlomo of Israel 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament at the DLTA Complex on May 30,2009.Though the tall Chinese allowed things to drift a bit towards the end, when she missed three matchpoints while trying to serve out the match in the eighth game of the second set, she was easily the better player against the stocky Israeli. The 20-year-old Chinese served well hit the flanks with punch and accuracy that proved too good for Shlomo.

Results

• Singles Final: Duan Ying Ying (Chn) bt Keren Shlomo (Isr) 6-3, 6-4

• Doubles (final): He Chun Yan (Chn) and Rushmi Chakravarthi bt Kristina Pejkovic (Aus) and Keren Shlomo (Isr) 6-2, 6-1.

• Roger Federer of Switzerland won the Madrid Masters Tennis defeating World No.1 Rafael Nadal of Spain 6-4, 6-4 on May 17,2009. The second-ranked Federer broke Nadal once in both sets before firing his sixth ace to win his 15th Masters Series title on the second match point. Federer also won in Madrid in 2006. Federer ‘s win ended a five-match, 18-month losing streak against the Nadal of Spain.
 

• Dinara Safina of Russia won Italian Open Tennis tournament defeating compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome on May 9,2009. Safina won her first singles title in 2009, playing her fourth final of the season. Her victory was worth 350000 US dollar.

• World number one Rafael Nadal of Spain won his record fourth Rome Masters Tennis on May 3,2009 beating defending champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 (2), 6-2. Earlier Nadal had won the title in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

• Romanian qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru won Warsaw Open on her WTA Tour debut beating eighth-seeded Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine on May 23,2009.

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