Sports Current Affairs: August 2016

India to host 2016 Kabaddi World Cup

India is going to host 2016 Kabaddi World Cup scheduled to be held in October 2016. It was announced by the International Kabaddi Federation (IKF). In this edition of World Cup 12 international teams are going to participate. They are US, India, UK, Australia, Canada, Poland, Iran, Pakistan, Bangladesh, South Korea, Japan and Kenya. Kabaddi became a part of Asian Games in 1990 and India has won all the gold medals since.

Kabaddi

Kabaddi is a contact sport that had originated in ancient India. It is the national game of Bangladesh and is known as hadudu. In India, it is the state game of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. It also encompasses similar sports known by their regional names in Indian states such as chedugudu in Andhra Pradesh, sadugudu in Tamil Nadu and hututu in Maharashtra.

“World Peace and Environment”- Theme of Olympics

The 31st edition of Summer Olympic Games opened in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. It was declared open by Acting Brazilian President Michel Temer at the Maracana Stadium. The theme of the 31st edition of Summer Olympic Games was “World peace and Environment“. India was represented by a biggest ever contingent of 120 sportspersons and was led by flag-bearer and Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra.

2016 Rio Olympics games

The 2016 Rio Olympics games are took place from 5 to 21 August 2016. It is officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad. It is for first time the summer Olympics will be held in South American Continent and Brazil is hosting it for the first time. The opening ceremony was held at the Maracana Stadium and the events retraced the history of Brazil from the arrival of the Portugese, the African influence on its culture, the immigration of Arab and Japanese communities and the rise of great cities.

Commonwealth Chess championship

Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta has won the 20th Commonwealth Chess championship crown 2016 held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. With this victory he has retained the Commonwealth Chess championship crown which was won earlier by him in 19th edition. Besides, International Master Tania Sachdev also finished with a gold medal. In this edition all the medals were won by the Indians players in the senior category.

Dipika Pallikal

India’s top squash player Dipika Pallikal has won the prestigious PSA Australian Open held in Melbourne.

Sakshi Malik clinched Bronze medal in Rio Olympics

Freestyle wrestler Sakshi Malik (23) won India’s first medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games by clinching the bronze in the 58kg category. With this victory she created history by becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to win an Olympic medal. Sakshi Malik’s bronze medal was India’s fifth wrestling medal in the Olympic Games. KD Jadhav was the first Indian wrestler to win a medal in Olympics with his bronze at the 1952 Helsinki Olympic Games

With this medal, she became only the fourth woman athlete from India to win an Olympic medal. Weight-lifter Karnam Malleshwari was the first Indian to win an Olympic medal. She had won a bronze medal in weight lifting event at the 2000 Sydney Games. Boxer MC Marykom and Shuttler Saina Nehwal also had won a bronze medal each in boxing ad badminton respectively at the 2012 London Games.

Narsingh Yadav banned for 4 years by CAS

Indian wrestler Narsingh Yadav was banned from all competitive sporting events for four years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) based in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was banned by CAS following an appeal by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as there was no evidence to accept his claim that his food was spiked by banned doping substance. With CAS ruling, was not able to participate in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

CAS

CAS is an international quasi-judicial body established to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its Headquarter is located in Lausanne (Switzerland). Its courts are located in New York, Sydney and Lausanne. According to rule 61 of the Olympic Charter, all disputes in connection with the Olympic Games can only be submitted to CAS.

PV Sindhu wins silver medal in Rio Olympics

India’s ace shuttler Pusarla Venkata Sindhu won the silver medal in women’s singles badminton event at 2016 Rio Olympics. With this, Sindhu became the:

• First Indian woman to win silver medal in Olympics.
• Fifth woman player from India to win a medal in Olympics.
• Fourth Indian to win a silver at the Olympics after wrestler Sushil Kumar (2012 London Olympics) and shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004 Athens Olympics) and Vijay Kumar (2012 London Olympics).
• Second Indian female shuttler to win an Olympic medal after Saina Nehwal who had won Bronze medal at 2012 London Olympics.

Usain Bolt becomes first athlete to win 9 gold medals in sprinting events of Olympics

Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt created an unprecedented record of a triple treble (first athlete to win 9 gold medals in sprinting events of Olympics) by winning third Gold medal in Rio Olympics 2016. He achieved this feat after Jamaica won gold medal in 4x100m relay final at the Rio Olympics. Earlier, Bolt had won gold medal in the 100-metre final at the Rio Olympics, becoming first athlete to win the event three times at consecutive Olympic Games. It was followed by his second win in the 200-metre final with a gold medal. With this, Bolt created a new record of three sprinting gold medals in three consecutive Olympics. He has won gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4×100 meters in Beijing 2008, London 2012 and now in Rio 2016.

US at the top of medals tally in Rio Olympics

United States ended the 31^st Summer Olympic Games by being at the top of the medals tally. They finished with 46 Gold, 37 Silver and 38 Bronze. Great Britain finished on second spot with 27 Gold, 23 Silver and 17 bronze. China finished on third position with a tally of 26 Gold, 18 Silver and 26 Bronze. India finished at joint 67th position in the medals tally with two medals won by Sakshi Malik (Bronze medal in 58 kg weight class of Wrestling) and PV Sindhu (Silver medal in Badminton).

National Sports Awards 2016

The Union Government bestows National Sports Awards every year to recognize and reward excellence in sports in India. These awards include Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Dronacharya Award, Arjuna Award, Dhyan Chand Award, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy and Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar.

• 2016 Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award: Recipients are PV Sindhu (Badminton), Sakshi Malik (Wrestling), Dipa Karmakar (Gymnastics) and Jitu Rai (Shooting). Khel ratna is India’s highest sporting award given for the spectacular and most outstanding performance in the field of sports by a sportsperson over a period of four years.
• 2016 Dronacharya Award Recipients are Nagapuri Ramesh (Athletics),Sagar Mal Dhayal (Boxing), Raj Kumar Sharma (Cricket),Bishweshwar Nandi (Gymnastics), S. Pradeep Kumar (Swimming) and Mahabir Singh (Wrestling). Dronacharya award is bestowed upon coaches for producing medal winners at prestigious international sports events.
• 2016 Arjuna Award: Recipients are: Rajat Chauhan (Archery), Lalita Babar (Athletics),Sourav Kothari (Billiards & Snooker), Shiva Thapa (Boxing),Ajinkya Rahane (Cricket), Subrata Paul (Football), Rani (Hockey),Raghunath V.R. (Hockey), Gurpreet Singh (Shooting), Apurvi Chandela (Shooting), Soumyajit Ghosh (Table Tennis),Vinesh (Wrestling), Amit Kumar (Wrestling), Sandeep Singh Mann (Para-Athletics) and Virender Singh (Wrestling). Arjuna award is India’s second highest sporting award bestowed upon sportsperson for their consistent outstanding performance for four years.
• 2016 Dhyan Chand Award: Recipients are Satti Geetha (Athletics), Sylvanus Dung Dung (Hockey) and Rajendra Pralhad Shelke (Rowing). Dhyan Chand award is bestowed upon sportspersons for life time contribution to sports development.
• 2015-16 Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (MAKA) Trophy: MAKA trophy is bestowed upon overall top performing university in inter-university tournaments. Recipient for 2015-16 is Punjabi University, Patiala.

Abhinav Bindra to Head NRAI Review Committee on Rio Debacle

The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has constituted five-member review committee to probe the Indian shooters’ Rio Games debacle. The committee will be headed by India’s first and only individual Olympic gold-medallist Abhinav Bindra. It will submit the report within a maximum period of four weeks. Other members of the committee include former tennis player Manisha Malhotra, NRAI Secretary Rajiv Bhatia and two journalists. The committee will examine and identify causes behind the shooters not securing any medals at the Rio Olympics. It will also recommend concrete steps that NRAI must immediately undertake to ensure that this is not repeated in future Olympics.

Wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s London Olympics bronze medal upgraded to silver medal

Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt’s bronze medal from the 2012 London Summer Olympics has been upgraded to silver. This up gradation comes after second-place finisher and silver medalist late Besik Kudukhov from Russia was stripped off his medal for failing a dope test. As a result, Yogeshwar, who had bagged a bronze medal in men’s 60kg freestyle category in the London Games, has now joined Sushil Kumar as the other silver medalist wrestler from the 2012 Olympics. With this upgradation, India’s silver medal tally in Olympics has gone to five. Silver medallists are wrestler Sushil Kumar (2012 London Olympics) and shooters Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (2004 Athens Olympics) and Vijay Kumar (2012 London Olympics) and Shuttler PV Sindu (2016 Rio Olympics).

Prime Minister constitutes Task force to avoid Rio repeat

Prime Minister has constituted a task force to prepare a comprehensive plan of action for India’s effective participation in the next three Olympics – 2020, 2024 and 2028. The task force will be mandated to prepare the overall strategy for matters like selection procedure, sports facilities, training etc. Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has also asked the Sports ministry to submit a detailed report on the reasons for the disappointing performance of Indians at the Rio Olympics by the end of September.

Black power salute

Black power salute was a political demonstration conducted by African-American sprinters John Carlos (bronze medallist) and Tommie Smith (gold medallist) by raising their gloved fists at the 1968 Olympics held at Mexico City, while the U.S. national anthem played during the presentation of their medals. Their action was a show of defiance against oppression that was taking place in America at the height of the civil rights struggle. Though in the initial years the black power salute was condemned, in the later years the black power salute was applauded and the men involved in it were honoured for standing up for the human rights.

Dipa Karmakar and the Produnova vault

Produnova vault, is named after the Russian athlete Yelena Produnova tried for the first time in 1999. It is so risky to perform that it is nicknamed as the ‘vault of death’. It involves doing a front spring with hands and completing two somersaults in-flight before landing on feet. The manoeuvre is so risky because the impact on the body while landing is tremendous. Even the best of gymnasts hesitates to do Produnova vault. Many people have even made calls to ban the vault due to the risk factor associated with it.

But, Dipa Karmakar, who became the first Indian gymnast to qualify for the Olympics did the daredevil act of attempting the vault. With this she became one among the five women in the world who were able to successfully complete the Produnova vault. Dipa finished fourth in Rio to miss the medal by a whisker.