November 2013 Sports | Current affairs 2013 | Sports 2013 |

Formula one racing driver Sebastian Vettel won the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix 2013 on 24 November 2013. With this victory Vettel matched Michael Schumacher’s record of 13 victories in a year and equaled the nine consecutive wins of Alberto Ascari. Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber was second in his final F1 race. Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was third. Recently, Sebastian Vettel also won the Formula One Indian Grand Prix 2013 at Buddha International Circuit on 27 October 2013.Sebastian Vettel is a German formulae one racing driver and at present he is driving for the Red Bull a Austrian racing team. He became the youngest driver, who won the World Drivers’ Championship in 2010 and the same year he helped Red Bull to win the first team’s World Constructors Championship.

Sarah Teelow, the world champion water skier of Australia died on 25 November 2013 after a fall during a high-speed endurance race on Australia’s Hawkesbury River. The 21 year old, Teelow fell from her skis after the start of the 75 mile Bridge to Bridge Water Ski Classic near Sydney. She was airlifted to the hospital in critical condition, with spinal and head injuries and later she died in the hospital. She is the seventh water-skier to die in an accident in Australia in last five years. Teelow had won the Formula 2 category at the World Waterski Racing Championships in Spain in last September.

Indian weightlifter, Deepak Lathore won Gold and two Silver medals in the Boys' 50 Kg category of the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships on 25 November 2013 at Penang, Malaysia. On the opening day of the event, Lathore took the Gold in Snatch with a lift of 83 kg. In Clean and Jerk, he lifted 102 kg to claim the Silver. With a total lift of 185 kg, he won another Silver in the event. The 2013 Commonwealth Senior, Junior and Youth weightlifting Championships are being held at Penang city of Malaysia from 24 to 30 November 2013. In this event, India is represented by 41 Weightlifters in three categories.

Jason Day, Australian Golfer won the Golf world cup at The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne on 24 November 2013. Australia team (Jason Day and Adam Scott) also won the team Championships by beating the American team of Matt Kuchar and Kevin Streelman.With this victory Jason Day collected 1.2 million Dollars for sealing individual Title and will share another 6,00,000 Dollars with Adam Scott for winning the team trophy. Indian Golfer Anirban Lahiri finished with 25th place in the tournament. India finished 26th and last in the team Championships.

Mohammed Siddikur of Bangladesh won the 50th edition of Indian Open golf tournament on 10 November, 2013 held at Delhi Golf Club, New Delhi. It was his second Asian Tour title win after Brunei Open victory in 2010. The tournament carries a cash prize of US $ 1.25 million. This win catapulted him from ninth to third spot on the Order of Merit. Siddikur scored a total of 274 to edge past his Indian friends Anirban Lahiri and S.S.P. Chowrasia to win the tournament. Mohammad Siddikur Rahman was born on 20 November 1984. He is a Bangladeshi professional golfer who plays on the Asian Tour.

Novak Djokovic on 11 November 2013 retained the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title after defeating the number one Rafael Nadal. The world number two Djokovic, won 6-3, 6-4 at the O2 Arena in London. The ATP world tour took place between 4 and 11 November 2013. He earned US $ 19,23,000 prize money and 1,500 Emirates ATP Ranking points, while Nadal earned US $ 10,13,000 and 1,000 points as he dropped to a 10-4 record in finals in 2013. Earlier, Djokovic won the same title in the year 2008 and 2012.

The Indian Women Hockey Team on 9 November 2013 won the Silver Medal, losing 0-1 to the hosts Japan in the final of the 3rd Women Asian Champions Trophy played at Kakamigahara in Japan. Indian goalkeeper Rajni Etimarpu was adjudged Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament and Indian Women Team won Fair Play Award in the tournament. Japan won the gold, while India and Malaysia bagged the silver and bronze medals respectively in the four-team event. Malaysia defeated China 3-1 in the bronze-medal play-off match.

India was selected by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on 7 November 2013 to host the Men’s World Cup of Hockey in 2018. The finals will be played from 1 to 16 December 2018. Also, England will host the Women’s World Cup of hockey from 7-21 July, 2018. This was announced by Leandro Negre, the President of FIH at Lausanne during the special ceremony. Hockey's World Cup is held every four years and is second only to the Olympics in significance. India hosted the world cup in 2010 at New Delhi. The 2014 edition of Hockey World Cup would be played in The Hague, Netherlands.

Yuki Bhambri on 4 November 2013 won the ATP men’s singles title of Traralgon event in Australia. He defeated Bradely Klahn of America in the summit clash that was hit by rain. This is the second win of his career. Yuki, the 21 years old Indian defeated higher ranking Bradely by 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the finals in a match played on two days due to rain. This is the third straight win of Yuki over a higher ranked opponent in this tournament. The 277 ranked Yuki earlier defeated, Tatsuma of Japan ranked 191 and the James Duckworth of Australia ranked 147 in the tournament to reach the finals.

Rohit Sharma, the Indian batsman on 2 November 2013 became the third cricketer in the world to score a double hundred in a one-day international (ODI) match. He scored 209 runs off 158 balls against Australia in seventh and final ODI match at Bangalore's M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. His runs included 12 fours and 16 sixes, which also means that he re-wrote the record of highest number of sixes in an ODI match. He out-beat Shane Watson’s record of 15 sixes in the ODI which he hit in the match against Bangladesh. It is worth noticing that all the three batsmen who scored double hundred in one day match are Indians. The milestone was at first achieved by Sachin Tendulkar who scored 200 runs against South Africa in the year 2010. The second one to do so was Virendra Sehwag who scored 219 against West Indies in the year 2011 and the third one is Rohit Sharma to score 209 runs against Australia in 2013. The records broken by Rohit Sharma are - the highest scorer against Australia, highest number of sixes in the ODI innings, second highest ODI score (209) after Virendra Sehwag (219).

October 2013 Sports | 2013 Sports | October Sports

India's ace Squash player Dipika Pallikal, on 20th October 2013, won the ‘Macau Open title’ at Macau, China. In the title clash Dipika defeated former World Number One Rachel Grinham of Australia, 12-10, 5-11, 11-7, 11-9. This was Dipika Pallikal's seventh Women's Squash Association title. The Macau Open 2013 is a squash tournament held in Macau, China on 15 to 20 October 2013. It is part of the PSA World Tour and the WSA World Tour. The prize money for the Macau Open is 35000 Dollars.

North Zone and South Zone were declared joint winners of the Duleep Trophy 2013-14 after the fifth day's play of the final match was called off due to bad weather in Kochi on 21st October 2013.It was the fourth instance in the history of Duleep Trophy when the title has been shared. Previous instances were West Zone/South Zone in 1963-64), North Zone/West Zone in 1988-89 and Central Zone/West Zone in 1997-98.East Zone won the Duleep Trophy in 2012-13 on the basis of their first innings lead against Central Zone at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai.

The BCCI on 26th October 2013 terminated Pune Warriors from the IPL after the Sahara-owned franchise failed to pay its payments and refused to furnish the bank guarantee for the next season. The decision was taken at the Cricket Board's all-powerful working committee meeting. BCCI wanted the team to furnish a bank guarantee of 170.2 crore rupees to remain a part of the league next year. Sahara has been demanding the completion of the arbitration proceedings on the issue of franchise fee, which, it feels, should be lowered since the BCCI did not deliver on its promised number of IPL matches for the team. Pune Warriors were purchased by Sahara for 370 million US dollars (1702 crore rupees) in 2010 and it was the most expensive franchise on the IPL roster.

The Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) on 21st October 2013 unanimously elected Kanwar Deep Singh as the president of the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) for a four-year term. He was succeeded by Dinesh Reddy, Andhra Pradesh's Director General of Police (DGP).He is the Chairman emirate of the Alchamist Group of Companies. He is the member of the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) of the Indian Parliament. He belonged to Trinamool Congress Party. He received the jewel of India award from International Solidarity in New York.

Simona Halep of Romania defeated Samantha Stosur of Australia 7-6 (1), 6-2 to win the Kremlin Cup on 20th October 2013 at Moscow, Russia. It was the fifth WTA singles championship for Simona Halep. With the victory, Halep raised to a career high 15th in the WTA Tour rankings on 21st October 2013. In men’s singles, top-seeded Richard Gasquet of France defeated Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in the final of the Kremlin Cup. It was the 10th WTA singles championship for Richard Gasquet.

A.S.S. Siril Verma of India won the boys’ under-15 singles crown defeating Gatja Putra 21-11, 21-17 in the final of the Bibli.com Flypower Asia youth badminton championship in Kudus, Indonesia, on 13th October.In the boys’ under-17 doubles final, the top-seeded Indian pair of M.R. Arjun and Chirag Shetty clinched the title with a 21-16, 21-15 victory over the pair of Wangcharoen Kantaphon and Narongrit Mek.

World number two Novak Djokovic retained his Shanghai Masters title with a thrilling 6-1 3-6 7-6 (7-3) win over Juan Martin Del Potro of the Argentina. The Shanghai crown is Djokovic's fifth ATP Tour title of the year. The victory also caps a good two weeks in the country for the six-time major winner, who came into the tournament having beaten world number one Rafael Nadal to land his fourth China Open title.

Top English club Liverpool launched a residential football academy in Pune on 16 October 2013 in partnership with city-based DSK Shivajians FC. The academy was named as LFC International Football Academy DSK. It will have a world class residential complex, full size pitches, practice areas, classrooms, residential, medical facilities, lecture theatre and canteen. The academy will support young footballers up to the age of 18. It will provide the players with the opportunity to develop their game in a professional academy environment. Coaches from Liverpool FC will work on the project in India and will provide technical expertise to the players and coaches involved in the Academy. Over time, more full time coaches will come from Liverpool FC to oversee each age group players at the Academy. This is the first time an English football club has partnered with an Indian team to help them bring through local talent.

India’s tennis player Rohan Bopanna with French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin won the Rakuten Japan Open tennis championship (Men's Doubles) on 6th October 2013 in Tokyo. They won the cash prize of the US $ 12,97,000. The fourth seeded Indo-French pair emerged victorious with a 7-6 (5) 6-4 scoreline against the Briton-Australian pair of Jemie Murray and John Peers in one hour and 17 minutes. Bopanna had won his first title of the 2013 season in February 2013 when he triumphed at ATP 250 event in Marseille, France paired with Colin Fleming of Britain.

Afghanistan Cricket team on 4 October 2013 qualified for its maiden ICC World Cup after defeating Kenya by seven wickets at World Cricket League Championship in Sharjah. With this win Afghanistan also became the 20th team to gain entry into the tournament overall. Afghanistan will play its opening match in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 against Bangladesh at Manuka Oval, Canberra, on 18 February 2013.In 2010, Afghanistan qualified for the ICC World Twenty20 West Indies 2010 by winning the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2010. It then finished second to Ireland in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier UAE 2012, to qualify for the ICC World Twenty20 Sri Lanka 2012.Afghanistan also played in the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup 2010 in New Zealand and the 2012 edition in Australia.

Sania Mirza of India and Cara Black of Zimbabwe won the Toray Pan Pacific Open tennis championship women's doubles title by defeating Hao-Ching Chan (Chinese Taipei) and Liezel Huber (USA) 4-6, 6-0, 11-9 in final at Tokyo on 28 September 2013.The Pan Pacific Open is a WTA Tour affiliated professional tennis tournament for women, held every year since 1984 in Tokyo, Japan. It is classified on the WTA Tour as a Tier I tournament since 1993.

Sania Mirza won the China Open tennis championship trophy (women’s Doubles) with Cara Black of Zimbabwe on 5 October 2013 in Beijing. They defeated Vera Dushevina of Russia and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain in straight sets 6-2, 6-2. The Indo-Zimbabwean pair was eighth seeded. Sania and Cara had won Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last week.It is fifth title of the season for Sania Mirza and 19th overall. Sania had won the New Haven event with Chinese Zheng before she teamed up with Cara. Early in the season, Sania Mirza won titles in Dubai and Brisbane with American partner Bethanie-Mattek Sands.

N. Srinivasan was on 29th September 2013 re-elected as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a third term at its 84th annual general meeting (AGM) held at Chennai. He was unanimously re-elected as the president of BCCI for the term of 2013-14. Other office bearers were also elected on the same day. Others who were elected at the 84th annual general meeting (AGM) included Sanjay Patel (honorary secretary), Anurag Thakur (Joint Secretary), Anirudh Chaudhry (Hon Treasurer), S. P. Bansal (Vice-President - North Zone): Rajeev Shukla (Vice-President - Central Zone) Shivlal Yadav (Vice-President - South Zone), Ravi Savant (Vice-President - West Zone) and Chitrak Mitra (Vice-President - East Zone).However, N. Srinivasan will not assume charge of the office immediately because of the directive of the Supreme Court of India. Other office bearers will assume the charge of the office with an immediate effect.

Kalapana Devi on 5th October 2013 won bronze medal at the Judo tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It was India’s first IJF Grand Prix medal. Competing in 52kg weight category, Kalpana defeated Zarifa Sultonova of Uzbekistan but lost to Gili Cohen of Israel. Kalpana, who is with Indo-Tibetan Border Police, had also won a bronze medal in the Women's World Cup Judo Championships held in September 2010 in Uzbekistan. India has sent an eight-member team in the IJF Grand Prix Judo Championships, which will conclude on 7 October 2013. 

September 2013 Sports | Current Affairs 2013 | Sports 2013 |

Defying intense criticism, N. Srinivasan was elected unopposed as BCCI President for a third year during the Board’s AGM held in Chennai on 28 September, even though he will not take charge till further orders from the Supreme Court. Mr. Srinivasan was the lone Presidential candidate put forward by the South Zone, from where he got the proposer and the seconded. But he can resume his duties only after the Supreme Court gives its final verdict on the case filed against his candidature by the Cricket Association of Bihar secretary Aditya Verma. Mr. Srinivasan’s election was on expected lines despite the fact that he is facing intense criticism on the issue of propriety after his son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings Team Principal Gurunath Meiyappan was charge-sheeted in the IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal. Another political heavyweight, Arun Jaitley, relinquished the vice-President’s position due to his political commitments and was replaced by his Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) colleague Sneh Bansal.

Olympian Swaran Singh Virk won a gold medal at the 15th Asian Senior Rowing Championship at Luan, China, on 29th September. Besides Virk’s gold, India won two silver and as many bronze medals in the championship.The team of Anil Kumar, Robin P. Ulahannan, Olympian Bajrang Lal Thakar, Ranjit Singh, Kapil Sharma, Mohammed Azad, Maninder Singh and Davinder Singh took 6:12.47 minutes to win the silver medal in Men’s Eights event. While Kapil Sharma, Mohammed Azad, Maninder Singh and Davinder Singh bagged the Men’s Fours silver in 6:03.50 minutes. India won the bronze in Lightweight Men’s Double Sculls with Sonu Laxmi Narian and Shokindar Tomar winning it in 6:57.13 minutes.Monalisha, Dittymol Varghese, Chaoba Devim and Amusana Devi clinched a brone in Leightweight Women’s Quadruple Sculls with a timing of 7:03.33 minutes. irk had booked his berth for the 2012 London Games by winning the major qualifying event at the FISA Olympic Continental Qualification Regatta for Asia in Chung Ju, Korea.

Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi won the bronze medal in the World Junior Chess Championship (U 20) after settling for a quick draw with Yu Yangyi of China in the 13th and final round that concluded at Kocaeli, Turkey on 26 September 2013.With Yu Yangyi winning the gold, the silver went to Alexander Ipatov of Turkey who defeated Aleksander Indjic of Serbia in the final round. Vidit Gujrathi was a former Under-14 world champion (2008). He was also three consecutive times age group National Champion (Year 2005, 2006 and 2007). Vidit also won many national and international tournaments in the under 14 category.

Milos Raonic of Canada defeated top-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-6 (4), 6-3 to claim his fifth title at the Thailand Open on 29th September. In the doubles final, third-seeded Jamie Murray of Great Britain and John Peers of Australia beat fourth-seeded Tomasz Bednarek of Poland and Johan Brunstrom of Sweden 6-3, 3-6, 10-6. It was Raonic’s fifth tour victory, adding to the three in San Jose from 2011-13 and Chennai in 2012.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 25th September 2013 imposed a life ban on former IPL Comissioner Lalit Modi from participating in any of its activities. The decision to this effect was taken at the special general meeting under the chairmanship of BCCI President N.Srinivasan at Chennai. The meeting which was attended by 30 members of the Board, discussed the findings of the disciplinary committee and found Modi guilty on eight charges including financial irregularities, indiscipline and misconduct. The official statement issued by the BCCI said the Board members will again meet on the 29 September 2013 for the annual general meeting to elect its Chairman. Earlier, Lalit Modi had appealed to the Supreme Court to issue a stay on BCCI’s meeting. The case was dismissed by the Court.

India won bronze medal in the 8th Women’s Asia Cup 2013 as they defeated China 3-2 via penalty shootout in the 3rd/4th place play-off played at the National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 27 September 2013. Ritu Rani captained Indian side in the tournament, whereas Weilin Mao captained the China team. India had to win this tournament to qualify for the 2014 World Cup at The Hague, Holland. However, it came at the third place. Meanwhile, Japan stunned defending champions Korea 2-1 in the final to win the Asia Cup and secure a place in next year's World Cup. The 8th Women’s Hockey Asia Cup 2013 Held at Kualalumpur (Malaysia) from 21 to 27 September 2013.

The sports ministry on 18th September, decided not to confer Renjith Maheshwary with the prestigious Arjuna award as the triple jumper has been found to have used a 'scheduled' substance (ephedrine) back in 2008, putting an end to all speculations regarding his fate. After detailed investigations, the ministry has come to a conclusion that Maheshwary was found to have used ephedrine during the 46th National Athletic Championships in Kochi. The sample was collected on September 8, 2008 and given to the National Dope Testing Laboratory on September 15, 2008.NDTL on October 3, 2008 analyzed the A-sample of Maheshwary and reported levels of ephedrine far above the expected levels, even when ephedrine is consumed for therapeutic purposes.

Kolkata’s Mohammedan Sporting club won the 126th Durand Foot ball tournament as it defeated ONGC 2-1 in the final at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi on 19th September. They have lifted the cup after 73 years having won it back in 1940.The last time Sporting won Durand Cup was before Independence in 1940 by defeating Warwickshire Regiment, and the last time they played a final in the capital was back in 1992.The Durand Football Tournament was started at Simla in the year 1888 by Sir Henry Mortimer Durand, who was then, the Foreign Secretary to Government of India. Durand is the third oldest football tournament in the world and oldest in Asia and India.

Indian wrestler Bajrang Kumar has bagged a bronze medal in the 60 kilogram freestyle category at the World Wrestling Championships in Budapest, Hungary on 17 September 2013.Bajrang Kumar recorded an overwhelming 9-2 win over Mongolia's Nyam-Ochir Enkhsaikhan to bag the Bronze. This is the first time India has won two medals in the Men's events at the World Championship level. Earlier, Amit Kumar had won a Silver medal in the 55 Kg freestyle category, after losing to Iranian Hassan Farman Rahimi.

Former BCCI Secretary Jaywant Lele (78) passed away on 19th September 2013 in Vadodara after he suffered a heart attack. Jaywant Lele had become the BCCI secretary in 1996 and stayed in this post till 2001.In 2003, he was expelled from the BCA, along with two other administrators, for alleged financial irregularities and administrative lapses. Jaywant Lele was also a qualified umpire. In November 2011, he penned a memoir titled I Was There - Memoirs of a Cricket Administrator.

World number one Serena Williams (31) won her fifth US Open title in a thrilling final against Victoria Azarenka(24) at Flushing Meadows on 7 September. The American, won by 7-5 6-7 (6-8) 6-1 over the Belarusian. Williams has now won 17 Grand Slam singles titles, moving her to within one of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, and seven short of Margaret Court's record total of 24.

All-time Grand Slam singles wins--
Margaret Court (Aus) 24
Steffi Graf (Ger) 22
Helen Wills Moody (USA) 19
Chris Evert (USA) & Martina Navratilova (USA) 18
Serena Williams (USA) 17
Billie Jean King (USA) 12
Leander Paes became the oldest man to win a Grand Slam title on 8 September, when he and Radek Stepanek took the US Open doubles title. India’s Paes, 40, and 34-year-old Czech Stepanek, the fourth seeds, defeated Alexander Peya of Austria and Brazil's Bruno Soares, the second seeds, 6-1, 6-3. It was their second major title as a pair, the Asian star's third in New York, eighth in men's doubles and 14th overall. Paes and Stepanek won the 2012 Australian Open .Paes had won the US Open title with Martin Damm in 2006 and Lukas Dlouhy in 2009 and now has eight men's doubles trophies at the majors as well as six mixed doubles crowns. Meanwhile, Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka of czech have won their first U.S. Open women's doubles title. The fifth-seeded Czechs beat Australia's Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-4 on 7 September. They also won the 2011 French Open championship. Hlavackova also won this year's mixed doubles championship at the U.S. Open, hoisting the trophy with Max Mirnyi on 6 September.

South Korea defeated India 4-3 in the final of the Asia Cup Hockey at Ipoh, Malaysia on 1 September 2013. With this, South Korea confirmed its place in the World Cup at The Hague. V.R. Raghunath (India) is the player of the tournament. In the meanwhile, the Asian Hockey Federation gave the details of the participants for the next AHF Champions Trophy to be held in Kakamigahara (Japan) from 1 November 2013 to 10 November 2013. In the men’s section, the participants will be China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Oman and Pakistan. In the women’s section, the participants include China, India, Japan and Malaysia.

Tokyo on 7 September 2013 won the right to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting in Buenos Aires chose the Japanese capital Tokyo. Japan won the right to host Olympic Games for the second time. It had previously hosted the Games in 1964. Olympic is considered world’s biggest sporting event. The decision means it will be the fourth time that Japan plays host to the Olympics, having also organized hosted Olympic winter Games in Nagano (1998) and Sapporo (1972). Asia will also see successive Olympics, as the South Korean resort of Pyeongchang is hosting the 2018 winter edition.

India's Bhuvana Kalva won her maiden 10000 US dollars ITF women singles title on 31 August 2013 after she won over sixth-seeded Akari Inoue of Japan by 6-4, 7-5 at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association complex. Bhuvana Kalva is from Andhra Pradesh. She is 18-year-old. She also defeated top seed Ankita Raina and third seed Keren Shlomo of Israel en route final. Her title win fetched her 12 ranking points while Akari, won 8 ranking points. Akari, had won the doubles title along with Hua-Chen Lee on 30 August 2013.

August 2013 Sports | Current Affairs 2013 |

Top seeds Daniel Nestor and Leander Paes won their first ATP World Tour team title on 24 August, as they defeated Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot 7-6(10), 7-5 in the Winston-Salem Open final. Both aged 40, Nestor and Paes were playing together for just the second time in their careers. Paes clinched his first title of the season and improved to a 52-36 finals record. It was also the first title of the season for Nestor, who was runner-up earlier in the year at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell with Robert Lindstedt.

Former athlete Henry Rebello, who had represented India in the 1948 Olympic Games in London, died in Gurgaon on 27 August after a long illness. He was 84. An avid sports lover till the very end, Rebello was a triple jumper of the highest quality. He took the top spot in a pre-Olympic event for foreign athletes in London, and led the field in the preliminary rounds of the main event. Soon after the London Olympics, he was commissioned into the Indian Air Force, and retired as a Group Captain. He was actively involved in the conducting of the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi, and then served as a Director in the Sports Authority of India

England cricket team won Ashes Test Series-2013 by 3-0 against Australia on 25 August 2013 at England. England and Australia drew the fifth Test as the Ashes series ended in a dramatic draw on the final day at the Oval on 25 August 2013. With this fifth test match draw England finished the five-match contest as 3-0 winners having triumphed in three successive Test series against Australia for the first time since the 1950s. (England won ashes series in 2009, 2011, 2013). Alastair Cook captained the England side in the tournament, whereas, Michael Clarke captained the Australian team. Players of the series are- Ian Bell (England, RJ Harris (Australia). The Ashes is a Test cricket series which has been played between England and Australia since 1882. The Ashes is played biennially between England and Australia taking turns to host it. The Ashes series consists of five Test matches; if a series is drawn, the country holding the Ashes retains series.

Indian women's Recurve team defeated the South Korean team to win gold medal in the World Cup Archery Stage- 4 at Wroclaw, Poland on 25 August 2013. In the Women's Recurve Team final, the sixth seeded Indian team of Deepika Kumari, Laishram Bombayla Devi and Rimil Buriuly defeated the top seeded South Korean team of Yun Ok-Hee, Ki Bo Bae, and Joo Hyun Jung, 219-215 to clinch the Gold. This is the Indian trio's second successive Gold. They had brought success to the country in July 2013, after winning the Stage 3 meet at Medellin, Colombia.

Saina Nehwal-led Hyderabad Hotshots crowned themselves as the champions of the inaugural Indian Badminton League when they defeated Awadhe Warriors 3-1 in the finals at the NSCI Stadium in Mumbai, on 31 August. Indian shuttle queen Saina brought the Hotshots on level terms by trouncing her young challenger P.V. Sindhu in straight games (21-15, 21-7) in 35 minutes after K. Srikanth gave the Warriors an unexpected 1-0 lead by stunning top-20 rival S. Tanongsak in straight games, 21-12, 21-20. Hotshots surged ahead again after Saina's win when their top Malaysian men's doubles team of Goh V Shem and Wah Lim Khim got the better of the scratch Danish-Indonesian pair of Mathias Boe and Markis Kido in three games 21-14 13-21, 11-4.Later Ajay Jayaram did the star turn for the Hotshots with a wonderful turnaround when he got past R.M.V Gurusaidutt after dropping the first game. Jayaram, ranked 24th in the world, beat 20th ranked Guru 10-21, 21-17, 11-7 in 52 minutes to help the Hotshots win the top prize of Rs 3.5 crore. Warriors took home Rs 1.75 crore.

Satywart Kadian of India won a bronze medal in the 96-kg freestyle category at the World Junior Wrestling Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria on 17 August 2013. Satyawart Kadian produced a clinical display of freestyle combat to get the better of Turkey's Ali Bonceoglu to open India's account at the championships. Satyawart's march was halted by Armenia' Viktor Kazishvili in the semi-finals, as he lost the bout in the first period itself. Satywart Kadian has also won a bronze medal at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

Usain Bolt of Jamaica equalled the world record of highest golds after winning the 4x100m relay at the World Athletics Championships on 18 August 2013 at Moscow, Russia.By winning the 4x100m gold medal Usain Bolt’s secured his eighth gold. This was his third gold medal at World Athletics Championships 2013 Moscow. Bolt won the 100m and 200m sprint at Berlin in 2009, 200m in Daegu in 2011, the 100m and 200m in Moscow 2013, as well as golds as part of the winning Jamaican 4x100m relay squads in 2009, 2011 and 2013.With this victory Bolt has joined the club of highest (8) gold medal winners list along with American women's 200m specialist Allyson Felix, and retired US track stars Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson including relays. Usain Bolt (26) holds the world record in the 100m and 200m with record times of 9.58 seconds and 19.19seconds respectively at the World Championships in Berlin 2009. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt is generally called as the fastest man on Earth.

Kush Kumar won the first gold for India when he beat Mohammad Syafiq Mohd. Kamal of Malaysia 11-9, 5-11, 11-9, 11-7 in the boys’ squash final in the second Asian Youth Games at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Centre on 19 August. Incidentally, it was the third medal for India in the Youth Games, following bronze medals by girl judoka Mongjam Kabita Devi in the 44kg class and boy weightlifter Lalchhanhima, who lifted a total of 228 kg in the 56 kg section. Meanwhile, teenager Abhishek Yadav ensured India of a bronze medal after he defeated Malaysia’s Dunley Foo to enter the semifinals of the men’s singles table tennis. The Indian defeated Foo 11-6, 11-5, 15-13, 5-11, 18-16. He will now meet the top-seeded Chinese Zhendong Fan in the semifinal.

Rafael Nadal won the ATP Cincinnati Masters for the first time on 19 August, his ninth title of 2013 lifting him to No. 2 in the world and stamping him as a U.S. Open favourite. The fourth-seeded Spaniard, whose season didn’t start until February when he returned from a seven-month injury absence, proved again the eight-time French Open champion is back in peak form after his shock first round exit at Wimbledon. He beat unseeded American John Isner 7-6(8), 7-6(3) to add the Cincinnati crown to the Montreal Masters title he won a week before, his first ever back-to-back hardcourt trophies.He is the first Spaniard to win in Cincinnati since Carlos Moya 11 years ago. while ,Victoria Azarenka toppled world No. 1 Serena Williams 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) to claim the title.

The National Sports Awards-2013 will be conferred upon the following sportspersons/ coaches/organizations. The Government on 22 August, approved their names, as recommended by the Selection Committees -

A. Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award:

Sl. No.	Name	Discipline
1.	Mr. Ronjon Sodhi	Shooting +

B. Arjuna Awards: 

1.	Ms. Chekrovolu Swuro	Archery
2.	Mr. Ranjith Maheshwari	Athletics
3.	Ms. P.V. Sindhu	Badminton
4.	Ms. Kavita Chahal	Boxing
5.	Mr. Rupesh Shah	Billiards & Snooker
6.	Mr. Virat Kohli	Cricket
7.	Mr. Abhijeet Gupta	Chess
8.	Mr. Gagan Jeet Bhullar	Golf
9.	Ms. Saba Anjum	Hockey
10.	Ms. Rajkumari Rathore	Shooting
11.	Ms. Joshna Chinnappa	Squash
12.	Ms. Mouma Das	Table Tennis
13.	Ms. Neha Rathi	Wrestling
14.	Mr. Dharmender Dalal	Wrestling
15.	Mr. Amit Kumar Saroha	Athletics (Para)

C. Dronacharya Awards for 2013:

Sl.No.	Name	Discipline
1.	Ms. Poornima Mahato	Archery
2.	Mr. Mahavir Singh	Boxing
3.	Mr. Narinder Singh Saini	Hockey
4.	Mr. K.P. Thomas	Athletics*
5.	Mr. Raj Singh	Wrestling*
* Lifetime contribution in coaching

D. Dhyan Chand Awards: 

1.	Ms. Mary D’souza Sequeira	Athletics
2.	Mr. Syed Ali	Hockey
3.	Mr. Anil Mann	Wrestling
4.	Mr. Girraj Singh	Para Sports (Athletics)

Apart from a medal and a citation, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee will receive a cash prize of Rs.7.5 lakh. Arjuna,Dronacharya and Dhyan Chand Awardees will receive statuettes, citations and cash prize of Rs.5 lakh each. Recipients of Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar will be given Trophies. The awardees will receive their awards from the President of India at a specially organized function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on August 31, 2013. 

Double Trap shooter Ronjan Sodhi was recommended for the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award 2013 while cricketer Virat Kohli was among the 15 sportspersons picked for the Arjuna award 2013 by the selection committee in New Delhi. The committee was headed by billiards legend Michael Ferreira. Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is India’s highest honour for a sportsperson. Sodhi had won two silver medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and a gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games. In 2011, he became the first Indian to successfully defend a World Cup title. Rising badminton player PV Sindhu, was also in the list of 15 chosen players for the Arjuna award. She became the first Indian woman shuttler to clinch a bronze medal at the recently-concluded World Championships.

French Lawn Tennis Player and Wimbledon 2013 (Women’s Singles) winner Marion Bartoli announced her retirement on 14 August, during the Western and Southern Open at Lindner Family Tennis Centre in Cincinnati, Ohio. She announced the retirement after losing in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters to Romania's Simona Halep. Bartoli is 28-years-old and ranked seventh in the world. Besides Wimbledon 2013, Bartoli won seven other WTA Tour titles, the first one was in Auckland in 2006. Recently she won two tournaments both in 2011 at Eastbourne and Osaka, Japan, prior to Wimbledon.

India celebrated a rare moment of success in international table tennis as Soumyajit Ghosh on 11 August, clinched the Under 21 men's title while Manika Batra bagged the Under 21 women's trophy at the GAC Group 2013 ITTF World Tour Brazil Open at Santos. After Manika accounted for host nation's Caroline Kumahara 11-5, 9-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-5 to take the Under-21 women's singles crown, Ghosh defeated Benjamin Brossier of France 8-11, 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 11-2 to win the men's singles title. The Indians also won, USD 1500 each for their title wins. 

Meanwhile, Sagarika Ghosh won the Cadet Girls singles title while Birdie Boro had to be satisfied with a silver in the Cadet Boys singles at the Guatemala Junior and Cadet Open Table Tennis championships. Sagarika, the winner of South Asian Junior title recently, beat Sreeja 11-6, 11-5, 11-8 to take gold in the final. Birdie Boro lost 9-11, 8-11, 5-11 to Cuban Livan Martinez in the final of the boys singles event. Earlier, Boro had beaten teammate Anirban Ghosh 3-0 to enter the final. 

The 30-year-old Mo Farah from Britan won the 5,000m title in the 14th World Athletic Championship held in Moscow. On 11th August he had already won the 10,000m gold. Mo Farah's career reached incredible new heights as the Briton became only the second man in history to complete an Olympic and world 'double-double' in the distance events. Mean while, Usain Bolt captured a fourth major event sprint double as the Jamaican superstar stormed to a third straight 200metres title at the IAAF World Championships on 17 August. Bolt won his seventh overall world title in 19.66 seconds.

Fantastic performance by Kolkata based Sayantan Das and Diptayan Ghosh enabled India to regain the gold medal at the World Youth Chess Olympiad, which concluded on 29th July at Chongqing, China. India thrashed Iran 3.5-0.5 in the final round of the team event to win gold, after having started the Olympiad as second seed. 

This is India’s third gold in this prestigious team event. India had won the event previously at Singapore in 2007 and in Turkey 2008. Sayantan and Diptayan won gold in the fourth and silver in the third board respectively. 

Sayantan had a sparkling run to win the yellow metal by getting 7.5 points out of nine games in the ten-round event. Diptayan secured 8.5 points out of ten to win silver. Two other Indian representatives Shardul Gagare (6/9) and Murali Karthikeyan (6.5/10) won bronze in the first and second board respectively. 

Indian girls created history by winning country's first ever bronze medal in the junior women hockey World Cup held in Monchenglabach, as they defeated England 3-2 on penalties on 4 August.18-year-old Rani scored India's only goal in the regulation time and then found the net twice in the penalty shoot-out to script India's memorable victory. Navneet Kaur's strike handed India a 3-2 lead in the shoot out and when Anna Toman missed the following shot, it secured India's win. The two teams had ended 1-1 after regulation time. India had surprised top teams in the competition and they finished their campaign in a superb manner. Hockey India has announced a cash reward for the Indian team. Each player will get Rs 1 lakh each.

A six member team of students picked up from across the country schools which was sponsored by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), an Institution under the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai has bagged two silver and three bronze medals at the 54th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 2013 held at Santa Marta, Colombia during July 18-28, 2013. A total of 528 students from 97 countries participated in the prestigious world event. The silver medal winners are: Sangik Saha (Kolkata) and Shubham Sinha (New Delhi) and the bronze medal winners are Pallav Goyal (Chattisgarh), Pranab Nuti (Hyderabad) and Anish Prasad Sevekari (Pune). 

India's number one snooker player, Aditya Mehta on 31 July 2013 won the gold medal in the World Games, beating China's Liang Wenbo, 3-0, in the final of the quadrennial event at Cali, Columbia. Mehta had earlier defeated Thailand`s Dechawat Poomjaeng 3-1 in the semifinal. Poomjaeng defeated another Indian and eight-time world champion Pankaj Advani 3-1 in the quarterfinals. Poomjaeng won the bronze medal after securing a 3-2 win over Brazil`s Igor Figueiredo in his third-place play-off match.

India's rising shuttler P.V. Sindhu earned a bronze medal at the World Championships after losing the semifinal to world No.3, Ratchanok Inthanon of Thailand in the prestigious event held in Guangzhou, on 10 August. World number 12 Sindhu, playing in her maiden World Championships, had notched up stunning victories against two Chinese players in the run-up to the semifinals but she failed to out it cross Ratchanok, going down 10-21, 13-21 in a 36-minute women's singles match. Ratchanok , 18, eventually won the women’s single title at the World Championship. The Thai girl earlier won the India Open in New Delhi and also the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold this year. She is also a three-time world junior championship gold-medallist. She is also a silver-medallist from the 2010 Asian Games. As for as the IOndia’s concern, Prakash Padukone won the men's singles bronze in 1983 at Copenhagen while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa won another bronze in the women's doubles event in the last edition at London in 2011.

Indian chess player Parimarjan Negi clinched the Politiken Cup 2013 after emerging with a fine score of nine out of a maximum possible 10 points, which was held in Copenhagen on 4 August. Negi, interestingly, won the same tournament in 2009, but this time around he finished a full point clear of the field, which included top seed Ivan Cheparinov, who has also been a second for former World champion Veselin Topalov. Negi, who had won two titles in US recently, scored eight wins and two draws in the Open tournament, which featured about 600 players from all over. Parimarjan, who was the lone Indian invited for this prestigious event of Scandinavia, will continue to stay in Denmark and Norway for few more days to prepare for the World Cup 2013 scheduled from 10th August in Tromso, Norway. 

Indian Junior Women Hockey team won its first ever bronze medal in ERGO Junior Women Hockey World Cup 2013 at Monchengladbac, Germany on 4 August 2013. India beat England by 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out. The tournament was played at Mönchengladbach, Germany from 27 July to 4 August 2013. India ended at third position in the tournament. Indian forward Rani was declared the Best Player of the tournament.The Vice-Captain and forward Rani scored India's only goal in the regulation time. Navneet Kaur's strike helped India a 3-2 lead in the shoot-out. Earlier, India lost to defending champions the Netherlands in second semi-final match on 2 August 2013.The Netherland team won the final against Argentina 4-2 in the shoot-out and clinched the trophy for a record third time. The coach for the Indian team was Neil Hawgood. 

Ministry of Tourism, Government of India on 10 August, has decided to support the Kerala Boat Race that is held annually in the Backwaters of Alleppay and surrounding areas. K. Chiranjeevi, Union Tourism Minister announced on the occasion of the start of the 61st Nehru boat Race in Alappuzha that the State Government of Kerala will contribute Rs.17.50 lakh for the Annual event while Union Tourism Ministry will contribute a matching amount. Kerala Governor Nikhil Kumar inaugurated the race. Speaking on the Occasion, the Minister also announced a Mega Alleppey Backwater Development Project for which a provision of Rs. 47.62 crore shall be made by the Tourism Ministry. He said that the Backwaters of the Kerala and the annual Boat race have immense tourism potential. The Tourism Ministry is therefore making all efforts to convert the Backwaters of Kerala into Internationally sought destination.

The National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) has decided to support up to 50 sportspersons for customized training under ‘NSDF 50’ scheme. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has been asked to recommend names of sportspersons in consultation with the concerned National Sports Federations (NSFs) by the end of August, 2013. It was felt that potential young sportspersons who are medal hopes for 2020 Olympics should be encouraged and supported on a continuing basis. that it would be necessary to evolve a proper and credible selection process to identify such sportspersons, may be in the age of 16 – 20 years, in various sports disciplines included in the Olympics; up to a maximum of 50 such sportspersons can be supported for customized training under NSDF; the continuance of assistance should be subject to review of performance of the selected candidates twice in a year. Similarly, Institutes with world class facilities and coaches of international repute are to be identified for sending the selected candidates for training. Executive Committee of the Fund felt that assurance of continued NSDF assistance to our top medal prospects will enable them to concentrate on their preparation without having to worry about funding. ‘NSDF 50’ is also likely to generate competition for inclusion, leading to overall improvement in performance of sportspersons. 

India Shines on Wrestling Mat at World Police and Fire Games which held in Belfast. A seven member Indian wrestling team finished the Belfast Games by winning 5 Gold, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze medals. The second day of the competition witnessed Free-style wrestling bouts and the results were as under – 

Free-style Wrestling : 

1. Laxmi Narayan from BSF won Gold medal in 60 Kg category. 

2. Manoj Kumar from CRPF won Silver medal in 60 kg category 

3. Naveen Mor from Haryana Police won Gold Medal in +96 Kg category 

4. Jitender Kumar from Haryana Police won Silver Medal in 74 Kg category 

5. Surajbeer Singh of Punjab Police won Bronze medal in 84 Kg category 

6. Vikramjit Singh of CRPF won Bronze medal in 96 Kg category. 

Earlier on August 6, Indian wrestlers had grabbed 3 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze medals in the Greeco Roman category. On the third day of the Archery competition from the Indian team, Dipul Boro of CRPF won a Gold medal in Long Bow (traditional) event. The 3-member Indian team which participated for the first time in the World Police and Fire Games was able to win 4 Gold and 3 Silver medals at this prestigious event.

Serena Williams defeated Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-2 6-0 in the final match of women's Rogers Cup on 11 August 2013. With this, she captured her 54th WTA singles title. The Rogers Cup was held at Rexall Centre, Toronto from 3 August 2013 to 11 August 2013. Serena Williams won the Rogers Cup for the third time. The Rogers Cup initiated in 1881 for the men and 1892 for the women. 

Olympic champion Usain Bolt regained his 100m world title and won a fourth individual World Championships gold with a season's best of 9.77 seconds in Moscow World Athletic Championship. The six-time Olympic champion overtook Justin Gatlin in the final stages, forcing the American to settle for silver in 9.85. Bolt's compatriot Nesta Carter (9.95) claimed bronze, while Britain's James Dasaolu was eighth (10.21). 

Moscow 2013 World 100m result: 

1. Usain Bolt (Jam) 9.77 seconds ,Gold 

2. Justin Gatlin (US) 9.85, Silver 

3. Nesta Carter (Jam) 9.95, Bronze 

July 2013 Sports | Current Affairs July 2013

*Devendra Jhajharia created history by becoming the first differently-abled Indian to win a gold at the IPC Athletics World Championships as he bagged the yellow metal in javelin throw in the sixth edition of the event in Lyon, France on 22nd July 2013. Jhajharia, also a world record holder in the event which he created while winning gold in the 2004 Athens Olympics, hurled the javelin to 57.04m in F-46 category, meant for one-armed athletes, at the Rhone Stadium. The 32-year-old Rajasthan athlete, whose world record stands at 62.15m, led the 11-athlete field from the very beginning as he opened with a throw of 54.71m. He came up with his best of 57.04m in his sixth and last throw.

*Ace Iranian thrower Mirshekari Abdolrasoul won the silver with a throw of 52.62m while Ismail Mahmoud of Egypt was third in 50.22m. With Jhajharia’s effort, India opened their medal account in the Championships organized by International Paralympics Committee and now stands at 19th in the medal tally.

*India is represented by a 10-member contingent in the July 19-28 Championships. All 10 athletes have qualified with ‘A’ standard. IPC President Sir Phil Cravon and CEO Xavier Gonzalez congratulated Jhajharia on his achievement. Paralympics Committee of India President Sultan Ahmed said Jhajharia will be felicitated when he returns home. The PCI also announced a cash award of Rs 5 lakh for Jhajaria.

*The 2013 IPC Athletics World Championships, featuring over 1,000 athletes from nearly 100 countries, is the biggest gathering of international differently-abled athletes since the 2012 London Olympics. Meanwhile, The Paralympic Committee of India announced a cash prize of Rs five lakh for Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia on 22nd July.

*India’s K. Jennitha Anto on 24 July 2013, became the World chess champion for the disabled after winning the 13th IPCA World women’s individual championship in Velke Losiny, Czech Republic. Hailing from Tamil Nadu, Jennitha scored 4.5 points from nine rounds after winning three, drawing three, and losing three games. She competed in a combined group with men and became the highest scorer among the woman players and was awarded the IPCA women’s title. Two Russian women finished tied with Jennitha on points but a higher buchcholz score helped her win the title. The triumph was more special for Jennitha as she also became a Woman International Master (WIM). The new WIM title would allow her direct entry into many National events for women, except the premier tournament. The event attracted 49 physically challenged players from 15 countries.

*Chris Froome from Britain on 21 July 2013 has won the 100th edition of the Tour de France. It was Britain's second successive victory in the race. Earlier in year 2012 Sir Bradley Wiggin became the first Briton to win Tour de France. The Tour de France is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase paper sales for the magazine L'Auto.

*India continues to reign at the top of the table in International Cricket Council’s latest ODI ranking released on 25 July 2013. With 122 rating points, India is the number one team followed by Australia with 114 and England with 112 points. The latest ODI rankings were released by the ICC in Dubai. Among the batsmen, South Africa’s Hashim Amla replaces countryman AB Devilliers at the top. India’s Virat Kohli has maintained his position at number three while skipper Dhoni is at number six.

*32 Year old Swiss tennis legend Martina Hingis was inducted in Tennis Hall of Fame on 13 July 2013. With the induction she became the fourth youngest members to be included in the tennis hall of fame., followed by Tracy Austin (30), Bjorn Borg (31) and Hana Mandlikova (32).She had won three Australian Open titles (1997, 1998, 1999), one Wimbledon (1997) and a US Open title (1997). She held the number one ranking for 209 weeks. She also won nine grand slam doubles titles and a mixed doubles title.

*The clamour may have been for Sachin Tendulkar, but the Sports Ministry has recommended hockey legend Major Dhyan Chand for the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civillian honour. "The letter recommending Bharat Ratna for Dhyan Chand has already been sent to the Prime Minister," Sports secretary P. K. Deb said."The Ministry has only recommended Dhyan Chand's name for the highest honour," he added. Before for the hockey wizard can be conferred the award posthumously, the recommendation, sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will be studied before it goes for approval to President Pranab Mukherjee. Dhyan Chand won three gold medals at the Olympics – 1928 in Amsterdam, 1932 in Los Angeles and 1936 in Berlin. He passed away in 1979. The government, in 2011, ignored a plea of 82 Members of Parliament, who recommended Dhyan Chand's name for the Bharat Ratna, but in January 2012, the Ministry itself forwarded his name along with that of Olympic gold medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra and mountaineer Tenzing Norgay for the award. And, Tendulkar was not considered as the Board of Control for Cricket in India had not recommended him.

*Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta has won the 19th edition of Commonwealth Chess Championship title, Which held at Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth in Republic of South Africa. The South African President Jacob Zuma handed the Gold medal to 23 year old Abhijeet Gupta. So far, Abhijeet has won 20 medals representing India at World, Asian and Commonwealth Chess Championships in sub-junior, junior and senior categories. Nearly 900 participants from 29 countries participated in the event. Amongst the women in the open section, WGM Soumya Swaminathan won the Silver, while national women’s champion Mary Ann Gomes won the bronze. The Indians also clean swept the junior section with G. Akash winning the gold, Sahaj Grover getting the silver and Rakesh Kulkarni ending with the bronze medal.

*Two of the sport’s biggest names Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell had failed drugs tests and tested positive for an Unidentified Substance at an out-of-competition test on 16 May 2013. 30 years old Gay is the second fastest man of all time and has run the three quickest 100m times of 2013, but tested positive for an unnamed substance. Asafa Powell on the other hand has clocked 9.88s but was not selected in Jamaica World Championships team to travel to Moscow in August 2013.The banned drug is named oxilofrine and is a stimulant used to boost the body's ability to burn fat. It helps athletes to boost their power-to-weight ratio with more lean muscle and less fat, and so increase their speed.

*India on 11 July 2013 won the West Indies Tri-Nation Series 2013 – Final after defeating SriLanka with 1 wicket at Port of Spain in Trinidad. Mahendra Singh Dhoni captained the Indian Side in the tri-nation series, whereas, AD Mathews was the captain of the Sri Lanka. Player of the match won by MS Dhoni (India),whereas,Player of the series won by B Kumar (India)

*Former Australia spinner Shane Warne will be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame on July 19 during the tea interval of the second Ashes Test between England and Australia at Lord's. Warne becomes the 69th male member of the Hall of Fame, and joins fellow 2012-13 inductees Brian Lara of the West Indies, England's Enid Bakewell and former Australia team-mate Glenn McGrath in being recognised by the ICC and the living members of the Hall of Fame.Lara and Bakewell were inducted last year at the ICC Awards in Colombo in September, and McGrath during the Sydney Test between Australia and Sri Lanka in January this year. Warne represented Australia in 145 Tests between 1992 and 2007, claiming 708 Test wickets at an average of 25.41. He was the first cricketer to reach 700 Test scalps.He also played in 194 ODIs, claiming 293 wickets at an average of 25.73 and was part of the Australia side that won the World Cup in 1999 at Lord's against Pakistan alongside fellow Hall of Famers Glenn McGrath and Steve Waugh.

*Lajja Goswami on 9 July 2013 won silver medal in women's 50-metre Rifle 3 Position event at the ISSF World Cup in Granada, Spain. Petra Zublasing of Italy won the gold after scoring 459.1 in the medal round. 24-year-old Lajja Goswami, hails from Gujarat and is a silver medalist at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Lajja Goswami had teamed up with Tejaswani Sawant to win silver in pairs 50-m rifle 3 position at the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010.

*In the Women's Singles category of Wimbledon, Marion Bartoli of France on 6 July 2013 won her maiden Grand Slam title. 23rd seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany lost to Bartoli andin the finals, 1-6, 4-6. Marion Bartoli is 28 years old. She is the fifth oldest woman to become a first time major winner in the Open Era. While, Andy Murray on 7 July 2013 defeated Novak Djokovic in straight sets 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 at Center Court of London to become the first Briton in 77 years to win the Men’s Singles Title at Wimbledon 2013. Wimbledon was held from 24 June to 7 July 2013 in London. The 26-year-old became the Britain’s first male winner after almost eight decades, to win the championship. Earlier it was Fred Perry, who won the Championship in 1936. Daniel Nestor of Canada and Kristina Mladenovic of France defeated Bruno Soares of Brazil and Lisa Raymond of USA to win Mixed Doubles – Final at Centre Court.

*Andy Murray ended Britain's agonizing 77-year wait for a Wimbledon men's singles champion on 7 July, when he destroyed world number one Novak Djokovic, 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 in the blistering heat of the All England Club. The 26-year-old became the country's first male winner since Fred Perry in 1936. It was Murray's second Grand Slam title to follow his breakthrough triumph at the US Open in 2012 which followed his Olympic gold medal as well as a heartbreaking, tearful loss to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final.

*In the Women's Singles category of Wimbledon, Marion Bartoli of France on 6 July 2013 won her maiden Grand Slam title. 23rd seed Sabine Lisicki of Germany failed to match Bartoli and lost in title clash in straight sets, 1-6, 4-6. Marion Bartoli is presently French no. 1. She has won one singles major, seven other Women's Tennis Association singles titles and three doubles titles.

*Brazil won the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 on 30 June 2013 against Spain in the final match. Brazil won 3-0 against FIFA World Cup holders Spain. On the Brazilian side, two goals were scored by Fred and one was scored by Neymar. Brazil won the FIFA Confederations Cup for the third time. Earlier, it had won the Cup in the year 2005 in South Africa, 2009 in Germany and 1997 in Saudi Arabia. Fernando José Torres of Spain was awarded with the Golden Boot Award, while Fred of Brazil won the Silver Boot Award. The Bronze Boot Award was given away to Neymar. Italy defeated Uruguay on penalties and secured the third place. The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth cup, held at Brazil from 15 June to 30 June 2013.

June 2013 Sports | Current Affairs June 2013

*Brazil destroyed world and European champions Spain 3-0 to win a third straight Confederations Cup title held in Maracana Stadium on 30 June 2013. The turbo-charged samba stars roared to victory with two goals from Fred and a stunning strike from Neymar, dominating a weary Spanish side whose strength was sapped after edging Italy on penalties in Thursday's semi-final. Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari said the result as the perfect fillip as he plots a course to an assault on next year's World Cup finals in Brazil.

*Spanish counterpart Vicente del Bosque meanwhile admitted his side had been outclassed. There are no excuses. Brazil were better than us. We must congratulate them, del Bosque said.

*The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) on 29 June 2013 was awarded a chance to host two major events of International Cricket namely World Twenty20 for the first time in 2016 and its fourth 50-over World Cup in 2023 by ICC (International Cricket Council). BCCI also got the chance to host the second edition of ICC World Test Championship scheduled in February-March 2021. The inaugural edition of the Test Championship will be hosted by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) June-July 2017.

*Afghanistan was granted the Associate membership of the ICC, making it the eighth Asian nation and the 38th overall to get the status. Looking at the immense progress shown by Afghanistan, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) had last year sent the nomination request in 2012 and the decision to grant Afghanistan the status was taken by the ICC at its ongoing annual conference, which concluded in London on 29 June 2013.

*Afghanistan now join Hong Kong (1969), Kuwait (2005), Malaysia (1967), Nepal (1996), Singapore (1974), Thailand (2005) and UAE (1990) as ICC Associates from the Asian region. The new Associate membership will help Afghanistan get more funds from the ICC and also give much-needed exposure to the team. The ICC is now likely to pay Afghanistan 850000 US dollars based on the Associate status, instead of 700000 US dollars as the annual fund. From a country torn by war to a rising cricket playing nation, it has been a remarkable journey for Afghanistan, who became an Affiliate member of the ICC in 2001 when they travelled to Pakistan for their first tour.

*India won the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 on 23 June 2013 against England at Edgbaston in Birmingham with a five-run victory. India made a total of 129 runs in 20 overs for seven wickets. It then restricted England to 124 for eight. Ravindra Jadeja was declared as the Man of the Match after he took two wickets and scored unbeaten 33 runs. He was also awarded with the Golden Ball for grabbing maximum number of wickets in the series. Sikhar Dhawan was declared as the Man of the Series. This was the second Champions Trophy title of India. Earlier, it had won the title jointly with Sri Lanka in the year 2002. The ICC Champions Trophy is the One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament which is organised by International Cricket Council (ICC). It is considered important event in cricket, only after the Cricket World Cup. The ICC Champions Trophy was inaugurated in the year 1998 as ICC Knock out Tournament. It was later named as Champions Trophy in 2002. Since the year 2009, the number of teams participating in the ICC Champions Trophy has remained eight. These are the eight highest-ranked ODI teams.

*Manjeet Singh bagged a Silver medal for India at the 3rd China Open boxing tournament on 22 June 2013. In the final of the super heavy weight category (+91kg), the 21-year-old Indian went down to china’s Akepeer Yusuf. Although Manjeet lost in the final, he became the only Indian boxer to reach the final of the third China Open boxing tournament. It was his first international tournament.The boxing tournament was held in Guiyang, China. The Indian men's team returns from the event with one silver and three bronze medals won by Sunil Kumar (52kg), Ajay Kumar (56kg) and Jaideep (75kg). The bronze medal winners had lost in the round of four

*Roger Federer on won his first title of the year on 16 june, the world number three beating Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-4 in the ATP final at Halle,Germany.This was the 31-year-old Swiss great's sixth Halle title and the 77th title of his career.

*India topped in the medal tally in the Junior Asian Wrestling Championship by winning 17 medals in the tournament on 16 June 2013. India secured three gold, five silver and nine bronze medals in the championship. The tournament was held from 13 June to 16 June 2013 in Phuket, Thailand. On 16 June 2013 the final day of the tournament, Pradeep Kumar (60 kilogram) and Sumit (96 kilograms), won Gold in the Junior Asian Wrestling Championship in Phuket, Thailand. Vikas (66kilogram) and Pradeep Kumar (74kilogram) captured silver medals after they lost the final bouts at the Saphan Hin Indoor Sports Complex. Mandeep (55 kilogram) secured bronze medal in the championship. With two silvers and one bronze won on the final day of the tournament, India finished at the top of the freestyle team rankings of the championship. The championship was held under new FILA (Federation Internationale Desn Luttes Associees) rules. It is also known as International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles.
Rafael Nadal on 9 June 2013 won his 8th Men's Singles Title of the French Open Tennis Tournament. In the final at Paris, Nadal beat Spanish compatriot David Ferrer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3. With this, he became the first player to win 8 Singles Titles at the same Grand Slam Tournament. It was his 12th Grand Slam title overall. While in other events, Serena Williams won the Women's Singles title of French Open Tennis tournament. She defated Maria Sharapova by 6-4,6-4.Bob and Mike Bryan won their record 14th major doubles title by defeating Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 in the French Open men's doubles final. The Russian duo of Elina Vesnina and caterina Makarova lifted the Women's Doubles title. They defeated top seeded Italian's Sara Irrani and Roberta Vinchi by 7-5, 7-2.

*The Indian players Rajat Chouhan and Manjudha Soy won a silver medal at the World Cup (Stage-II) Archery competition held in Antalya, Turkey on 16 June. They lost against the Italian world champions Sergio Pagni and Marcella Toniolli. This is a second World Cup silver for Railways girl Manjudha, who hails from Jharkhand, while it`s a first-ever silver in the mixed team event in the compound section.Earlier, Rajat Chouhan and Manjudha Soy entered the final of the compound mixed section by defeating Great Britain 151-149, Russia 156-154 and Canada 154-147 en route to the final. India has never won a Gold in the Compound section, and their previous best in this format was in the Ogden World Cup 2011 (Stage-III) when the Women’s team of Manjudha, Gagandeep Kaur and Jhano Hansdah had won a silver.

*Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel won the Canadian Grand Prix Formula One championship. He claimed the 29th victory of his record-breaking career. It was the 25-year-old German’s third win this season. The Canadian Grand Prix is an annual auto race held in Canada starting in 1961. It has been part of the Formula One World Championship since 1967.

*Indian youngster K. Srikanth on 9 June 2013 won the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton trophy. In the Men's Singles title, 13th seed Srikanth defeated top seed and local favourite Boonsak Ponsana in straight games, 21-16, 21-12, to bag his career's maiden title. While, defending champion Saina Newal bow out in the quarterfinals. Thailand Open Badminton 2013 was held in Bangkok.

*The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 10 June 2013 suspended Raj Kundra, the co-owner of Rajasthan Royals for allegedly betting on IPL matches. He has been suspended from having any involvement in cricket till the police probe in the matter was completed. The decision on Raj Kundra was taken by the emergent working committee of BCCI that met on 10 May 2013. The committee also said that the two-member panel comprising Justice T Jayaram Chouta and Justice R Balasubramanian, who are probing similar charges leveled against Chennai Super Kings team official Gurunath Meiyappan, will investigate the case of Kundra and his franchise. The suspension imposed by the working committee on Raj Kundra will stay until the pendency of enquiry.

*Serena Williams won her second French Open title on 8 June, 11 years after her first triumph, defeating title-holder Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 in the final. It was the 31-year-old American's 16th Grand Slam title win, taking her to within two of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova who are tied for fourth on the all-time list. For Sharapova it was a 10th straight loss to her American nemesis dating back to 2004 when she defeated her in the Wimbledon final and the WTA Championships when she was just 17.At 31 years, 247 days she is the oldest women in the Open Era to win the French Open title, taking over from Chris Evert who set the previous mark in 1986.It was Serena Williams 16th Grand Slam singles title She is the second oldest women in the Open Era to win the French Open title

*Top-ranked American twins Bob and Mike Bryan on 8 June 2013 won their record 14th major doubles title by defeating Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 in the French Open men's doubles final. In the tiebreaker, the Bryan brothers rallied from 4-2 down to clinch the victory. The Bryans had won their only other French Open in 2003. They lost in the final in 2005, 2006 and 2012. Llodra and Mahut were hoping to become the first Frenchmen to win the doubles since Yannick Noah and Henri Leconte in 1984.

*Indian Skipper MS Dhoni received the ICC ODI Championship Shield and a cheque of 175000 US dollars for leading the number One ODI team on the annual 1 April cut-off date. Indian team claimed the number-one spot from England after winning the series 3-2 in January 2013. India won eight out of 13 ODIs while losing five in the 12-month period between 1 April 2012 and 1 April 2013.This is the first time since the current ranking system was introduced in 2002 that India finished as the No1 ranked One-Day International (ODI) side. David Morgan, former President of the International Cricket Council (ICC), presented the Shield to Dhoni.

May 2013 Sports | Current Affairs May 2013

*In the final match of Indian Premier League 2013, Rohit Sharma led Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs to lift the title for the very first time at Eden Gardens on 26 May 2013. Mumbai Indians decided to bat first and scored 148 runs for nine in 20 overs. On the other hand, in a chase of 148 runs, the Chennai Super Kings managed to score just 125 runs for nine in 20 overs. This was the first IPL trophy for Mumbai Indians. Earlier they had lost in the finals to the Chennai Super Kings in 2010. Chennai Super Kings, now have lost three times in the final, i.e., in the year 2008, 2012 and 2013.

*Indian boxers won the 2013 Invitational FXTM International Limassol Boxing Cup held in Limassol, Cyprus on 19 May 2013. They won 10 medals which included four gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals which ensured them the first rank. Indian boxers won the tournament on the European circuit for the first time. Reigning national champion Madan Lal (52kg) beat Ayigah Dodsi from Belgium to bag the flyweight title.V Durga Rao (56kg) beat German Dieter Dier to bag his very first international medal on the senior tour. Mandeep Jangra (69kg) beat Victor Vega Blanco of Spain in a completely one sided affair to bag the welterweight title. Super heavyweight boxer Praveen Kumar (+91kg) won the fourth gold for Indiabeating Beguerni Hamza from Algeria.Manoj Kumar (64kg), Olympian Dinesh Kumar (91kg) and Sukhdeep Singh (75kg) won a silver medeal each. Earlier in the tournament, Anil Kumar (60kg), Jagroop Singh (81kg) and L Devendro Singh (49kg) reached the semi-finals and claimed a bronze medal each.

*Preeti Beniwal on 22 May 2013 bagged the gold medal in Senior National Women's Boxing Championship. In the event held at Khatima, uttarakhand, Preeti out-punched Manipur's Y Sandhya 22-9 in the final of the 60kg category. Preeti Beniwal hails from Hisar.

*Ragala Venkat Rahul swept all the three gold in the boys 77kg category as India continued to shine at the 15th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships on the fourth day in Doha on 30 May. Rahul lifted 132kg in snatch and 157kg in clean and jerk for a total lift of 289kg enroute to winning all the gold medals on offer in the weight category. After four days, India now has secured 27 medals (13 gold, seven silver and seven bronze) in the Championship. Rahul has been a consistent performer for India and he had won two medals in the IWF Youth Boys World Weightlifting Championships at Tashkent, Uzbekistan in April. Akshay B. Gaikwad won three gold medals on second day of 15th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships in Doha.

*44 Years old Ang Dami Sherpa from Nepal won the Everest Marathon on 29 May 2013 in women’s category of Year 2013.Ang Dami Sherpa,won the women’s title in 11th Tenzing-Hillary Everest Marathon in a timeline of 6 hours, 2 minutes and 10 seconds. This win is counted as Sherpa’s second title at the 42.2 km race, as she already won another title in year 2006. The Everest Marathon is considered as one of the most strenuous marathon events, which starts at the Everest Base Camp at an altitude of 5,364 meters, and ends at Namche Bazaar at 3,446 metres. The race was coincided with the diamond jubilee celebrations of the first ascent of Everest by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. The Everest Marathon is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the highest marathon in the world

*The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on 29 May 2013 constituted a three-man inquiry commission to probe the allegations against Gurunath Meiyappan and the three Rajasthan Royals players, who were arrested on charges of betting in the IPL-6 matches. The Commission will be initiating the adjudication proceedings at the earliest. The committee consisting of Former Judge of the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu High Courts Justice T. Jayaram Chouta, Former Judge of the Tamil Nadu High Court Justice R Balasubramanian, and Secretary of BCCI Sanjay Jagdale. They will probe charges against M Gurunath, former Team Principal of Chennai Super Kings, as well as the three Rajasthan Royals cricketers who were arrested for alleged spot-fixing. The committee will also probe India Cements Ltd. the owner of the Chennai Super Kings Franchise and Jaipur IPL Pvt. Ltd. the owner of the Rajasthan Royals Franchise.

*Indian Girl's team won the Gold medal while the Boy's team won the silver medal in the Slovak Junior ITTF Open Table Tennis tournament held in Senec, Slovakia on 31 May 2013. In the title clash, the Indian Girls, led by Sutirtha Mukherjee beat Serbia-A, 3-2. The other members of the team were Monika Batra and Reath Tennison. In the boy's section, the Czeck Republic-A beat India 3-1 to win the gold. The Indian team, consisting of Shudanshu Grover, Abhishek Yadav and Rohit Rajshekhar, had to settle for silver.

*Rajeev Shukla resigned as Chairman of IPL on 1 June 2013 in the wake of the raging spot-fixing scandal. The resignation of Shukla came on the eve of the emergency meeting of the BCCI working committee scheduled to be held in Chennai. Rajeev Shukla was an Indian journalist, political commentator, television host and the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Planning, Government of India. He is a Member of Parliament since 2000. He serves as secretary of the All India Congress Committee. Rajiv Shukla was first appointed as the Chief of IPL at the BCCI AGM held on 18 September 2011. Rajiv's appointment came after Chirayu Amin's decision to step down. He was reappointed as IPL Chairman in 2012.

*Jamjang Deru wins three medals in Asian Youth Weightlifting
Doha, May 28: Jamjang Deru of Arunachal Pradesh won three medals, two gold and one silver, on the opening day of 15th Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships here in Doha on 28 May 2013. He won the medals in the boy's 50kg category.

*Deru won a silver with 87 kg lift and bagged a gold with 113 kg lift. Finally, he signed off with the gold with a total of 200 kg. Previously he had secured fourth position at the IWF Youth World Championships at Tashkent in April 2013 with an overall lift of 195 kilograms.

*Indian fast bowler, S. Sreesanth and his two team mates from Rajasthan Royals namely Ajit Chadila and Ankeet Chavan were arrested by Delhi Police on 16 May 2013 on charges of Spot Fixing in Indian Premier League (IPL). The three cricketers were arrested from Mumbai and will be brought to Delhi for being produced in a Court. Apart from the three cricketers the police also arrested seven bookies. Both the cricketers and the bookies are charged under two sections of Indian Penal Code, Section 420 (cheating) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy). The arrests made were a part of the investigations being conducted by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police over months on alleged Spot Fixing in the cash rich, IPL.

*The United States, Russia and Iran have forged an unlikely heavyweight alliance to keep the ancient sport of wrestling in the Olympic Games. While political differences between the three are deep, the national teams from the three wrestling superpowers will grapple with each other in New York’s Grand Central Station railway terminal on Wednesday to back the campaign. Wrestling has been in shock since the International Olympic Committee announced in February that it wanted the sport ejected for the 2020 Games.

*Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federar in the final match played on 19 May 2013 to lift his seventh Italian Open title. He defeated Federar in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 in the clay court match. This was Nadal’s 20th victory against Federar. While in women s category, Serena Williams won the title after thrashing out the former world number one Victoria Azarenka 6-1 6-3 to take the Italian Open on the Rome Clay. This is the second Rome Open title won by Serena, before this Serena won the Rom title 11 years ago in 2002. And this is her fourth consecutive tennis title this year,

*In the Men's Singles title clash of the Madrid Open played on 12 May 2013, Spain’s Nadal Rafael defeated Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka, in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. In the Women's Singles, World Number One Serena Williams bagged her 50th career Singles title. She beat Russian Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-4 to win this title.

*India won 2 Silver and 7 Bronze in the 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships that concluded in New Delhi on 10 May 2013. One silver medal was won by Soumyajit Ghosh and Mouma Das in the mixed doubles event, and the other one was won by the men's team earlier in the tournament. Singapore men and women won the gold. The title for the Singapore women was seventh in succession since 1997. The Singapore men completed a hat-trick of success that began in 2007 at Jaipur and continued at Glasgow in 2009.

*India's rising shuttler PV Sindhu on 4 May 2013 won her maiden Grand Prix Gold title winning Malaysia Open women's final. In a thrilling clash held in Kaulalampur, top seed Sindhu defeated lower seed, Gu Juan of Singapore, 21-17, 17-21, 21-19. With this, the World Number 13 Sindhu has become the second Indian girl to win the Grand Prix Gold competition, after India's shuttle queen and London Olympics bronze medalist; Saina Nehwal achieved the feat in 2006. PV Sindhu was the only Indian who had made it to the final stage of this tournament. Saina Nehwal did not take part in the tournament.

*At the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Jamaica, Kingston, US-based discus thrower, Vikas Gowda clinched Gold on 5 May 2013 with the throw of 61.38 metres. US-based discus thrower, Vikas Gowda, representing India, clinched gold in the World Challenge Meeting at Kingston on 5 May, with a throw of 61.38 metres. He pushed Jason Morgan and Fedrick Dacres (both Jamaica), with throws of 60.96 and 59.30 metres, to second and third spots respectively.In the 100 metres sprint, US’s Tyson Gay recorded 9.86 and secured the top most position. In women category, the best performance was that of US Gia Lewis-Smallwood with 62.41 metres. The IAAF World Challenge meeting in Jamaica was organized at the Kingston's National Stadium.

April 2013 Sports | Current Affairs April 2013

*Haryana on 30 April 2013 defeated Railways 4-1 to win the third Hockey India Senior Women National Championship at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College, Lucknow. However, Haryana clinched the 3rd Hockey India Junior Women National Championship title in the final match on 1 May 2013 in Astroturf Hockey Stadium in Ranchi. Haryana registered a 2-1 victory over Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy. Jharkhand defeated Punjab 6-0 to claim the bronze medal.

*In a historic first, the World team badminton championship, for the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup, will be held in Delhi from May 18 to 25, 2014. The Badminton World Federation (BWF) formally entrusted the hosting of the prestigious championship to the Badminton Association of India (BAI), following the signing of an agreement between the two bodies on 25 April. Siri Fort Indoor Complex, New Delhi will be the venue for the event, to be contested every two years, to decide the world’s strongest men’s and women’s teams. India hosted the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup preliminary stage matches in 1988, 2000 and 2006. It will be a big opportunity for BAI to showcase its organizing skills following the successful hosting of the 2009 World championship in Hyderabad and the annual India Open, a Super Series event on the BWF calendar, since 2011.

*Chris Gayle, the West Indies opener hit the fastest ever century in the history of cricket by reaching 100 in merely 30 balls during Royal Challengers Bangalore-Pune Warriors IPL match on 23 April 2013. Gayle scored a total run of 175 runs in merely 66 balls, which included 17 sixes and 13 boundaries. It is important to note that this is the most number of runs scored in any T20 innings. This was also his fourth century in the IPL career. Jamaican Chris Gayle also became the highest-ever individual scorer in a T20 game, beating Kolkata Knight Riders' Brendon McCullum who had hit 158 off 73 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi holds the record of fastest century in ODI (37 balls) and Viv Richards is the record-holders for fastest century (56 balls) in the Test cricket history.

*At the final round of ASBC Asian Confederation Junior Boxing Championships in Kazakhstan, Prayag Chauhan defeated Azat Ilyubayev in the lightweight category (60kg) on 22 April 2013 to win a gold medal. In an overall performance, India stood at the third position in team rankings. The Indian boxers completed Asian meet with three bronze and one gold medal. Prayag Chauhan, 16, won the match in 60 kg category. On the other hand, the sub-junior national champion Aditya Maan (66kg) grabbed bronze medal at the Asian Championships. He lost to Uzbek boxer, Merjanev Eldar. Pradeep (63 kg) finished the tournament with third position. He lost to Kazakhstan’s Stolbovskiy Vladislav in semi-finals.

*Cheteshwar Pujara and Ravichandran Ashwin are the only two Indian Cricketers to figure out among the top-10 in the latest ICC Test Rankings in batting and bowling respectively released on 21 April 2013. Pujara with 777 ranking points retained his position at number seven in the batting chart of the ICC rankings released. Ashwin was static at the sixth position in the list of top ten bowlers with 757 points. Hashim Amla, the South African batsman was listed as the top ranking batsman in the list and is followed by Shivnarine Chanderpaul of West Indies and A B de Villiers of South Africa. While in the rankings of bowlers, Dale Steyn, the South African pace spearhead was ranked as the best bowler with 905 ranking points. Dale Steyn is followed by his teammate Vernon Philander and Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath. In context of the test-playing all-rounder’s there was no change in the ranking. Jacques Kallis of South Africa remained at first position and is followed by Shakib. The gap between the points of these two increased by 35 points. The Captain of Zimbabwe, Brendan Taylor earned his career best 29th position in the rankings with his undefeated feat of 171 and 102 not out against Bangladesh. He jumped 49 positions to grab this position.

*In the 27th edition of North-East Games played at Imphal, the host state- Manipur claimed the title of overall team champion on 11 April 2013. The North-East Games were played from 8 April 2013 to 11 April 2013. The North-East games included eight states. These games also include Sikkim. Manipur emerged as overall champion with the medal tally of 127. This included 74 gold, 31 silver and 22 bronze. Assam came at the second place with 101 medals which included 31 gold, 30 silver and 40 bronze. Mizoram was at the third place with 72 medals including 20 gold, 19 silver and 33 bronze. Nagaland finished at fourth position with 49 medals and Arunachal Pradesh got 45 medals. At the lowest rank were Meghalaya with 37 medals, Tripura with 36 medals and Sikkim 11 medals. North East Games were earlier known as North East Sports Festival. The North East Games were started with an aim of promoting the sports and games in the North East region. First edition of North East Games was held in Imphal in 1986-87.

*Indian cricket Women made a clean sweep in the three-match One Day International Cricket Series, 2012/13 against Bangladesh on 12 April 2013 after winning the third and the final match at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad. India defeated Bangladesh by 58 runs in the third match. Before the ODI series, the Indian women also made a clean sweep T20 international series against Bangladesh Women with 3-0 on 5 April 2013.

*Hockey India on 9 April 2013 announced its High Performance and Development Committee for 2013-14. The 15 member committee will be headed by Dr Narinder Batra Secretary General of Hockey India and High Performance Director, Hockey India Roelant Oltmans will be the Vice-Chairman. The committee has Ajit Pal Singh (former Captain of 1975 World Cup winning team), Col. Balbir Singh (former Olympian and National Selector), Dilip Tirkey (former Captain and Member Rajya Sabha), Sukhvir Singh Grewal, Thoiba Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Dr RP Singh, Surinder Kaur, Saba Anjum, Michael Nobbs (Chief Coach, National Senior Men Hockey Team), Neil Hawgood (Chief Coach, National Senior Women Hockey Team) and Gregg Clark (Coach, National Junior Men Hockey Team) as its members. Ms Elena Norman, CEO, Hockey India will be the Convener of this Committee. The Sports Authority of India will be the Invitee Members of this Committee. This committee will work on the high performance and development of hockey at grass root level in the country. Committee will prepare blueprints and ensures that same pattern of coaching will be followed in the country at all levels. Since the appointment of Roelant Oltmans as Director, High Performance by Hockey India it was a necessary step to form this Committee so as to ensure that the game of hockey progresses in the country at all levels. The Committee will meet quarterly to discuss the progress and share new ideas.

*Adam Scott of Australia won the Augusta Masters Golf championship on 14 April 2013. He beat Angel Cabrera in the play-off for the title. It was his maiden major title. He became the first Australian to win Augusta Masters. Australian Jason Day, runner up with Scott in 2011, was third at seven under with Tiger Woods (70) and another Australian Marc Leishman (72) tied for fourth at five under.Adam Scott is 32 years old. He turned professional in 2000. His ranking at present is 7. He has 9 US PGA tour wins and an equal number of European PGA tour wins to his credit.

*The Indian Tennis Players Association (ITPA) Secretary, Karti P Chidambaram on 14 April 2013 announced that the tennis star player, Sania Mirza became one of the Vice-Presidents of ITPA. Sania Mirza now became one of the four Vice-Presidents of Indian Tennis Players Association, which is a newly-formed body. Other three Vice-Presidents of the body are Somdev Devvarman, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes. Former Davis Cup captain Jaideep Mukherjea is the President of the Association. Sania Mirza is the first female player from India who won a Grand Slam. She now plays in doubles only.

*India won a 5-0 victory against Indonesia in the Asia-Oceania Group I Davis Cup relegation play-off tie in Bangalore on 7 April 2013 as Somdev Devvarman and Yuki Bhambri posted straight-set wins in their respective reverse singles.Somdev defeated David Agung Susant with 6-3 6-1, while Yuki Bhambari registered a thumping 6-0 6-1 victory over Wisnu Adi Nugroho. India stay in Asia Oceania Group-I and will strive to qualify for the World Group in 2014. India had already retained their place in the group, after they took a lead of 3-0 on 6 April 2013.

*Reigning world champion Rupesh Shah added another feather in his cap by clinching the 12th Asian Billiards championship with win over compatriot Alok Kumar in the fiercely fought final, held in Indore on 7 April. Rupesh Shah finished at 101, 95 and 100 to defeat Alok Kumar. This is India's 10th Asian Billiards title and Rupesh is new entrant in this elite club. He follows previous champions Geet Sethi, Ashok Shandilya, Devendra Joshi,Pankaj Adwani and Alok Kumar.