(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) Sports | August : 2012

Sports

CRICKET

MAHENDRA SINGH DHONI APPOINTED BRAND AMBASSADOR

Indian Criket Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was appointed as a brand ambassador of Nepal Cricket Association, Nepal on 17 June 2012.The announcement was made by Posta Bahadur Bogati, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal. Dhoni will promote and develop cricket in Nepal. Dhoni  also advised Nepal cricket officials  to get permission from International Cricket Council to construct a stadium. The stadium would likely to promote cricket in the country. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was born on 7 July 1981 in Ranchi, Bihar. At present, he is the captain of the Indian ODI, Twenty20 team and Indian Test team. India won the 2011 Cricket World Cup under his captaincy.

DANISH KANERIA WAS BANNED BY ECB

Pakistani Cricket player Danish Kaneria was banned by England and Wales Cricket Board on 21 June 2012. He was given a lifetime ban because he was found guilty for corruption. He is the third Pakistani player who is banned because of match fixing. In addition, in the year 2000 Salim Malik and Ata-ur-rehman were banned for lifetime from Cricket because of match-fixing. Moreover, Salman Butt, Mohammad Aamer and Mohammad Asif were banned by the International Cricket Council and jailed by the court of United Kingdom in the year 2010 for fixing specific parts of a Test match. Danish Kaneria is 31 years old. He took 261 wickets in 61 Tests
for Pakistan. He had taken 15 wickets in 18 one-day internationals.

KEVIN PIETERSEN ANNOUNCED RETIREMENT

Ace England Batsman Kevin Pietersen announced to retire from limited-overs edition of International cricket. He, however, will continue to play test cricket for the country. Pietersen who had made his international debut in
2004 has played a total of 127 one day internationals and 36 Twenty20 internationals. South Africa-born Pietersen has scored 4184 one-day international runs at an average of 48.14. He is the sixth highest run getter from England. With 176 runs at 37 he is also the only England player to cross four-digit mark in the T20 format of the game. Pietersen decided to retire as the England Cricket Board had put forth a selection policy under which any player deciding to retire from either of the one-day formats, will be considered retire from both formats.

TENNIS

 FRENCH OPEN

Rafael Nadal won French Open Men’s Singles Title Spaniard Rafael Nadal on 11 June 2012 defeated Serbian Novak Djokovic to clinch French Open Singles Title 2012. Second seeded Nadal beat top seed Djokovic in a final clash which lasted four sets. With this victory the Spaniard also surpassed the Legend Bjorn Borg’s 6 French Open title feat. Earlier Nadal had defeated David Ferrer in the Semi Finals to make to the finals of the tournament; While TENNIS Djokovic had overwhelmed Swiss Roger Federer. The French Open title marked his 11th Gand Slam in a career marked by 16 Grand Slam finals. Currently he is one short off Roy Emerson, three off Pete  Sampras and five title away from the arch rival Roger Federer ’s record 16 grand slam titles.

MARIA YURYEVNA SHARAPOVA WON FRENCH OPEN WOMEN’S SINGLES TITLE

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova won French Open 2012 on 9 June 2012. She defeated Saria Erani from  Italy by 6-3 and 6-2. Sharapova is a Russian Lawn Tennis Player. She won French open for the first time in her career. French open was held at Rolland Garros in Paris. The tournament was run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). French Open 2012 was a  sixteen-day long tournament. Thetournament consists of both men’s and women’s singles and doubles and as well as a mixed doubles events. Moreover Sharapova was the winner of Wimbledon in 2004,  the US Open in 2006 and theAustralian Open in 2008.

SANIA MIRZA AND MAHESH BHUPATHI WON MIXED DOUBLES TITLE

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi on 7 June 2012 won their second Grand Slam title together and first French Open trophy after beating Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico and Klaudia Jans Ignacik of Poland in the mixed doubles final, in Paris. Playing their third Grand Slam final together, the seventh seeded Indian pair scored a 7-6, 6-1 win over the Polish- Mexican pair in one hour and 13 minutes at the Court Philippe Chatrier. It is the second career Grand Slam title for Sania, while the 12th Major trophy for Bhupathi, who now has won eight mixed doubles trophies. Sania and Bhupathi had won the 2009 Australia Open and it is their first Grand Slam title since then. Sania had become the first woman tennis player from India to win a Grand Slam with that Australian Open trophy.

DRESS CODE INTRODUCED IN WIMBLEDON FIRST TIME

Dress Code was introduced for the first time in Wimbledon by the organiser All England Club on 24 June 2012. All England Club has been hosting tennis championships from last 150 years. The guidelines for the dress
code were escorted by the picture of a male and female model. The pictures would likely to differentiate in between acceptable dress and unacceptable dress. The Acceptable dresses were lounge suit or tailored jacket, shirt, tie, trousers and dress shoes. Boys under 11were not required to wear a jacket or a tie. Ladies would wear the similar standard dress. The Unacceptable dresses were Tshirts, jeans and trainers, bare midriffs, jeans and flip flops. For Women, Strapless tops and shorts, zipper jackets, casual or scuffed shoes, hoodies, pumps and short skirts.

AITA ANNOUNCED TWO TEAMS FOR MEN’S DOUBLES FOR LONDON OLYMPICS 2012

The All Indian Tennis Association (AITA) on 21 June 2012 announced to send two men’s doubles team for London Olympics 2012. The team involves top player Leander Paes with low-ranked Vishnu Vardhan and second ranked Mahesh Bhupathi with third ranked Rohan Bopanna. The  hassle started when AITA decided to send two teams in London Olympics 2012 which were not acceptable by Paes. Earlier, AITA announced Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi as a team for India’s doubles entry for the London  Olympics 2012. But Bhupathi refused to play with Paes because of differences of their opinions. He appealed to be paired with Rohan Bopanna. Bhupathi and Bopanna showed their strong hope to play together. Moreover, AITA  announced Paes to play with Tennis player Sania Mirza in the mixed doubles tournament at the Olympics. Sania Mirza will get the wildcard entry on 28 June 2012.

SHOOTING/ARCHERY

INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR SHOOTING CHAMPIONSHIP

Tejaswini Mule won Silver medal at International Junior Shooting Championship in Suhl, Germany on 17 June 2012. She won the silver medal in the 50 metre rifle prone women’s event. She shot around 592 and was occupied in a three-way tie with Jaqueline Orth of Germany and Jennifer Messaggiero of Italy. Tejaswini was closer to 10 shots and won silver medal. The gold medal was won by Jolyn Beer of Germany and Orth won bronze medal.

BADMINTON

INDONESIA OPEN

Ace Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal clinched her third Indonesia Open Super Series title after beating China’s Xuerui Li in title clash in Jakarta on 17 June 2012. With this victory, the fifth seed, Saina took the
total number of her title in the calendar year 2012 to 3. The Olympic-bound shuttler had won the Thailand Open on 9 June 2012. 22-year-old Saina had earlier claimed the Indonesia Open title in 2009 and 2010. Prior to the final clash of Indonesia Open Saina had suffered defeat at the hands of Xuerui Li on four occassions and had registered victory on just one occassion in year 2010.

THAILAND OPEN

Ace Indian Badminton player Saina Nehwal clinched her 16th career title as she defeated Thailand’s Ratchanok Inathon in the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold title in Bangkok on 10 June 2012. The Thailand Open Grand Prix is Saina’s second title in the year 2012. Earlier, in April 2012 she had

Sports

SHOOTING/ARCHERY BADMINTON

won the Swiss Open Title. The World No. 5 Saina Nehwal is India’s one of the biggest hopes for the London Olympics 2012. Saina had reached the women singles quarterfinals round at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, which made her the first Indian woman shuttler to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics. She is also  the first Indian to win the World Junior Badminton Championships. Saina Nehwal created a history on 21 June 2009, when she became the first Indian to win a Super Series tournament, by clinching the Indonesia Open Title in Jakarta.

CHESS

FIDE WORLD CHESS TITLE

Ace Indian chess player Vishwanathan Anand claimed the FIDE ( Federation Internationale  des Echec) World Chess Title for the record fifth time. The defending champion Anand beat Israeli opponent Boris Gelfand in a rapidchess tie-breaker. Anand received 1.5 million dollar as the winning amount, while rival Gelfand bagged 1 million dollar. The world title is Anand’s fourth in a row as he had also claimed the title in 2007, 2008, and 2010. The 42-yearold had claimed his maiden world title in 2000 after beating Latvian Alexei Shirov in Tehran. He is also the first Asian to win the FIDE world chess championship. Born on 11 December 1969 in Madras, Anand’s breakthrough success in professional chess came in 1983 when he won the Indian Under-16 and Under-19 championships successively and went on to win a place in the country’s adult championships. In 1985, at the age of 16, Anand was crowned as an International Master, the youngest Asian player to hold this title. In 1986 he won the Indian adult championship, and in 1987, at his fourth attempt, he won the Under-20 World
Championship. Anand had won his first world title in 2000 and reining over the championship since 2007. FIDE FIDE, the international federation for chess, was founded in Paris on 20 July 1924, and got recognition by the International Olympic Committee as an International Sports Federation in 1999. The federation with a total of 170 members is among the biggest sports organizations in the world. It organizes over forty official championships world over for youngsters, men, women and seniors.

VISWANATHAN ANAND ROPED AS BRAND AMBASSADOR OF TVH

Real estate developer True Value Homes (TVH) on 26 June 2012 signed World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand as brand ambassador for all its new projects for promoting its project across the World. TVH will be the first South Indian company to be associated with Anand. Previously, Anand was connected with NIIT from last 13 years. TVS has number of projects for Chennai and Coimbatore which was expanding Viswanathan presence in the south. The new project of TVH Quadrant was launched on 25 June 2012 by Ravichandran, chairman of TVH. Quadrant is 600 crore rupees super premium 18- storied project at Advar. It consists of 100 units with 2.2 acres. The project would likely to be completed in 3 years.The project has the separate sports facilities for chess and other games. The company is also planning to take chess to schools and organise annual tournaments. Viswanathan Anand is the current World Chess Champion. He was awarded by Padma Vibhushan in 2007. He also awarded by Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991-92. He was  the first player in chess history who won the World Championship in three different formats: knockout, tournament and match.

HOCKEY

SULTAN AZLAN SHAH CUP HOCKEY TOURNAMENT

New Zealand beat Argentina 1-0 to win Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament at Ipoh, Malaysia on 3 June 2012. Andy Hayward scored the only goal for New Zeland in the summit clash, which prevented Argentina, the 2008 winner, to reclaim the trophy. In a clash for the third spot and bronze medal, India defeated Great  Britain 3-1. From Indian side Shivendra Singh, Sandeep Singhand Tushar Khandekar scored goals at 42nd minute, 52nd minute and 69th minute respectively. Ashley Jackson struck the only goal for the Great Britain at 35th minute of the game. Earlier the Great Britain had outshined the Indian squad in their round robin league encounter. In another clash for the fifth position the South Korean team defeated hosts Malaysia 3-2 to earn  the fifth position. Pakistan for thefirst time in the history of the tournament ended with the 7th position, bottom most the in the table. While the Fairplay Trophy was given to Great Britain, Sardar Singh of India was awarded with the trophy of the Best Player of Tournament. Kyle Pontifex of New Zealand was chosen the Best Goalkeeper for the tournament. Kyle Pontifex of New Zealand was  awarded with the Man of the Final trophy. Ashley Jackson of Great Britain emerged the top scorer of the tournament

FINAL TABLE
1. New Zealand
2. Argentina
3. India
4. Great Britain
5. South Korea
6. Malaysia
7. Pakistan

Sports

INDIAN HOCKEY GOALKEEPER D’SOUZA SUSPENDED FOR 1 YEAR

Indian Hockey Goalkeeper Adrin D’Souza was suspended on HOCKEY 18 June 2012 for his anti- doping rule violation during World Series Hockey (WSH) tournament 2012.The sample was collected on 21 March 2012 after WSH match in between Mumbai Marines and Sher-E-Punjab at Jalandhar. He was the captain of Mumbai  Marines. In the test, D’Souza was tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is a metabolite of marijuana. According to the statement of Kaithavalappil, D’Souza had smoked cigarettes which were binded with marijuana and he offered the same cigarettes to the players as well. Adrian Albert D’souza was born 24 March 1984 in Mumbai. He is a field hockey Indian goalkeeper. He made international debut for Men’s National Team in January 2004 during the Sultan Azlam Shah Hockey Tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He also represented India at the FIH World Cup 2006 in Monchengladbach, Germany and India at the Doha Asian Games  2006 in Doha, Qatar. World Series Hockey (WSH) is an association for hockey competition in India. It is organized by Indian Hockey Federation and Nimbus Sports. There were 8 teams participated in  the tournament. WSH is the first hockey tournament to live all the matches online on Google video
and You Tube.

WRESTLING

ASIAN JUNIOR WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIP 2012

Indu Chaudhary and Sakshi Malik won gold Medals in Asian Junior Wrestling Championship  2012 at Almaty, Kazakhstan on 13 June 2012. Indu Chaudhay and Sakshi Malik are from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana respectively. The former won the gold medal in 44 Kg and latter in 63 kg. In addition, Pooja Danda won the silver by lifting 59kg of weight. In addition, Lalit, Seema, Ruby Chaudhry, Ritu and Kiran won bronze medals by lifting the weight of 51 kg, 67 Kg, 48 Kg, 55 Kg and 72 Kg respectively. In the freestyle section of boys Satender, Bajrang and Somveer won the silver medals by lifting the weights of 120kg, 60kg and 84kg respectively. Whereas, the bronze medal won by Devi Singh, Praveen Rana, Deepak and Yudhvir by 50kg , 66kg, 74kg and 96kg respectively. Asian Junior Wrestling Championship 2012 held at championship held at Kazakhstan
from 30 May 2012 to 3 June 2012.

ATHLETICS

ATHLETICS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

Indian Athlete Siddhanth Thingalaya marked an Indian Record on 18 June 2012 at Belgium Athletics National Championship in Brussels. He marked the record in 110 metre hurdles with a timing of 13.65 seconds. At Beligum, when he approached the ninth hurdle on 18 June 2012 he felt pain in the hamstring. The pain placed him behind the Adrien Deghelt of Belgium with a timing of 13.64 seconds. He was disqualified for the Olympic 2012, as the Olympic qualification mark of 13.60 seconds and Siddhanth took 13.65 seconds to finish the championship. He was disqualified for Olympics 2012 qualification by five hundredth second. After 1964, he was the first Indian hurdler to compete in Olympics Games. Siddhanth Thingalaya is 21 years old athlete from Mumbai. He improved his own national record of 13.77 seconds marked at Kolkata meet in September 2011.

NATIONAL INTER-STATE SENIOR ALTHLETIC CHAMPIONSHIP

Athletic Tintu Luka won Greenko 52nd National Inter-State Senior Althletic Championship on 24 June 2012 by defeating her competitor Sinimole Paulose. She won the championship in women’s 800 meters. She is India’s best athletic in the two-lap race. Tintu timing was 2m 01.36s. The timing was near to her National record of 1m 59.17s, which was set in Brussels in 2010.Sinimole won silver with the timing of 2:03.71 where S R Bindu was third in 2:09.53. Athlete Tintu Luka is the National Record Holder in 800 meter race. She is trained by P.T.Usha at Usha School of Athletics which is holded by Olympics Gold Quest.

MOTOR RACING/F1

EUROPEAN GRAND PIX 2012

Formula One (F1) racer Sebastian Vettel defeated Lewis Hamilton by 1minute 38.086 seconds and won European Grand Pix 2012, Valencia on 24 June 2012. Vettel became the first F1 repeat winner of the season. Vettel is from Red Bull’s team and Hamilton is from McLaren. There were 57 numbers of Laps on the Valencia Street Circuit in European Grand Pix 2012. The circuit length was 5.419 km had the race distance of 308.883 km. There were 12 teams participated in European Grand Pix 2012. Sebastian Vettel is a German Formula One racer. He was born on 3 July 1987. He won the World Championship in 2012 and 2011. Vettel also won youngest-ever World Drivers’ championship runner-up. He also secured Red Bull’s first pole position and race win in the team’s history.

MONACO GRAND PRIX

Mark Webber of Red Bull raced ahead to emerge victorious in the Monaco Grand Prix on 27 May 2012. He won the Monaco Grand Prix for the second time. He had first won the Monaco race in 2010. His second victory at Monaco helped him to surpass Australian icon Sir Jack Brabham on the streets of Monaco who won the Monaco Grand Prix once. With his second victory Webber thus became the first Australian to win the famous Monaco Grand Prix twice. Webber’s victory at Monaco was the eighth victory of his career. Also with his victory he won Red Bull the team’s third victory in a row. The victory enabled him to join the likes of Niki Lauda, David Coulthard and Juan Manuel Fangio, all of who have two Monaco Grand Prix victory to their credit. Germany’s Nico Rosberg finished second for Mercedes, while Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was third. Mark Webber made his debut in 2002. He had won the first FI race in 2006. In the British Grand Prix 2011, Webber won the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy for 2010.

TABLE TENNIS

BRAZIL OPEN TABLE TENNIS

Harmeet Desai won Under- 21 Men’s Final Brazil Open Table Tennis on 17 June 2012. He had defeated Belgian Cedric Nuytin by 4-2 and won gold medal. He became first Indian to achieve such an accomplishment. Desai won by 11-3, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9, 5-11, 11-6. Previously, the fourth seed had defeated his compatriot Soumyajit Ghosh by 10-12, 11-8, 6-11, 11-1, 11- 4, 11-4 in the semi - final . After that he  was competed
with with Nuytin. Desai was up to his rival tricks in  the decider and won the title with three straight points.

GOLF

MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT

Former world no. 1 golfer Tiger Woods defeated Spencer Levin and Rory Sabbatini to win his 73rd PGA Tour title by two shots at the Memorial tournament on 4 June 2012. The Memorial tournament victory is Wood’s second PGA Tour victory in the current season. Now the ace golfer will be seen competing in the US Open from 14- 17 June 2012. Born on 30 December 1975, Woods started his professional golf career in 1996. His
first major victory came in 1997 when he claimed the 1997 Masters Tournament. He first reached the top of the world rankings in June 1997. Wood’s present world ranking is 4. Considered to be the all time great of golf, he has been awarded PGA Player of the Year a record ten times.