(Current Affairs For SSC Exams) Sports | July 2014

July-2014

The unprecedented success achieved in the last edition in India would be hard to replicate this time after the dropping of a few disciplines, a 215-strong Indian contingent would nonetheless seek a top-five finish in the 20th Commonwealth Games.
India finished second behind Australia with a record 101 medal haul in New Delhi Games.
The Delhi CWG triggered an ascent in sports achievements with another record-breaking show in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou where India won 65 medals. Two years later, the country won six medals in London, almost half of the individual medals won in the entire Olympic history.
The Games will see 4,500 athletes from 71 nations of the erstwhile British empire compete for the top honours with superstar sprinter Usain Bolt of Jamaica and middle and long distance king Mo Farah of England expected to set the Hampden Park Stadium ablaze.
India, which has sent 215 athletes in 14 sports, will be hit hard by the scrapping of archery and tennis from Glasgow Games and the reduction in the number of medal events in shooting and wrestling. The country had won a combined 12 medals from archery and tennis in 2010 while bagging 14 medals from the 18 events dropped this time from shooting. Greco-Roman category in wrestling, from which India won eight medals in 2010, has also been done away with in Glasgow.

Germany’s Mario Götze kicks in second half of extra time to win 1-0 against Argentina in final of the FIFA World Cup 2014. Germany became the first side from Europe to win a World Cup in South America.
Lionel Messi Of Argentina was awarded Golden Ball, which is given to best player of the tournament.
This was Germanies fourth world cup, last coming in 1990 against the same opponent. This is the first World Cup for unified Germany, the previous three having been won by West Germany in 1954, 1974 and 1990.
Argentina last won world cup in 1986, which was played in Mexico.
Manuel Neuer of Germany won the Golden Glove, award for best goalkeeper.
James Rodriguez of Colombia won the Golden boot award for most number(6) of goals in the tournament.

Two great players nudged each other to even greater heights to produce a Wimbledon final that will go down as one of the finest in its history. One of them, Novak Djokovic, would eventually lift the trophy having beaten his opponent Roger Federer in five close sets 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-6(4), 5-7, 6-4.
But the scoreline and the victory seemed to pale before the tennis itself, which was the real winner as these two champions outplayed themselves. This was a match that was undeserving of being assessed by the twists and turns and the thrills and spills, even if there was enough of that edge-of-the-seat suspense which left the audience gasping.
When remembered as a great tennis match, the Federer-Djokovic final will not be read like an exciting pot-boiler, but like a literary novel that produced classical tennis of great quality and refinement. Every shot in the book was used and the exchanges forced the two players to constantly innovate, take risks and play boldly, often in an audacious manner.

Chess greats Viswanathan Anand (India) and Boris Gelfand (Israel) have been selected for the Russian Federation’s ‘Order of Friendship’ award.
The awards recognise foreign nationals’ contribution to expanding friendship and cooperation with the Russian Federation and to the development of economic, scientific and cultural ties.
Anand and Gelfand played the FIDE world chess championship match at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 2012.

Led by Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh, Indian pugilists stole the limelight on the ninth day of the competitions with four of them assuring silver medals for India while paddlers Achanta Sharath Kamal and Anthony Amalraj bagged a silver in the men’s doubles event of the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Indian powerlifter Sakina wins bronze
Indian powerlifter Sakina Khatun won the bronze in the women’s lightweight (up to 61kg) category to give the country its first medal of day 10 of the 2014 Commonwealth Games on Saturday.
Sakina lifted a total weight of 88.2 kg to finish third.
Esther Oyema (136kg) of Nigeria took home the gold while England’s Natalie Blake took home the silver with a 100.2kg lift.
India with the latest addidtion of medal take their tally to 52, including 13 golds, 23 silvers and 16 bronzes.
Seema Punia takes discus silver
Seema Punia gave India a second track and field medal by clinching the silver in women’s discus throw of the athletic events of the Commonwealth Games.
The Indian had a season’s best throw of 61.61m off her fifth effort as she finished second best behind Australian gold medallist Dani Samuels.
Samuels had a best of 64.88m through her fourth trial, to save the top place of the podium, after towering over the field all along.
Krishna Poonia, the gold medal winner at the New Delhi Games in 2010, finished fifth with a best effort of 57.84m against her name.