Sports - Current Affairs for August, 2015

The fifth-place finish at the Hockey World League semi-finals earlier in July this year was enough for India to clinch an Olympic berth as a place opened up after the Netherlands and England reached the final of the EuroHockey Championships in London.

Ethiopia's Mare Dibaba won the women's marathon at the world athletics championships after a thrilling sprint finish in Beijing. The 25-year-old Dibaba out-kicked Kenya's Helah Kiprop to win the grueling event by just one second, crossing the finish line in two hours, 27 minutes and 35 seconds. Ethiopia has a long and proud tradition in marathon running but Dibaba was the first Ethiopian female to win the lung-sapping event at the world championships.

International Master Swapnil Dhopade from Indian Railways has clinched the title of the Glocal Square 53rd National Challengers Chess Championship which concluded in Nagpur. FIDE Master K. Praneeth Surya from Telangana secured the second position while Grand Master Murali Karthikeyan from Tamil Nadu had to be content with the third position.

Air India has regained the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hockey title after seven years. Air India defeated defending champions Army XI.

Bolt clocked a world-leading 19.55 seconds to beat Gatlin by nearly two-tenths. The victory meant Bolt has now remarkably won 11 of the last 12 individual Olympic and world sprint titles dating back to Beijing 2008. His only blip came after a false start in the 100 metres at the 2011 worlds in Daegu.

On 26th Aug’15 Karnataka High Court found substance in the claim of Para-athlete H N Girisha who challenged the recommendation of Sania Mirza for the prestigious Khel Ratna award. Justice A S Bopanna, who heard the case on a petition filed by Girisha issued notices to sports ministry and the tennis ace and directed the respondents to reply to the notices within 15 days. Girisha, a Paralympic Games medallist, said in his plea that he deserved to win the coveted award more than Sania because he was the top contender with 90 points against his name and the tennis star was far behind him as per performance-based points system.

The awardees will receive their awards from the President Pranab Mukherjee at a function at Rashtrapati Bhawan on 29th Aug’15. Dhyan Chand Award 2015 will be given to Mr Romeo James for Hockey, Mr Shiv Prakash Mishra for Tennis and Mr T.P.P Nair for Volleyball.

Dhyan Chand Award 2015 will be given to Mr Romeo James for Hockey. Dronacharya Awards will be conferred on Athletics Para-sports coach Naval Singh and Wrestling coach Anoop Singh. An official release issued by the Sports Ministry said, Coach Harbans Singh will be given Dronacharya Awards for his life time contribution to Athletics, Coach Swatantar Raj Singh for Boxing and Coach Nihar Ameen will be conferred Dronacharya Awards for his life time contribution in Swimming.

Indian fast bowler Ishant Sharma was fined 65 percent of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct twice during the fourth day in the second cricket Test against Sri Lanka at P Sara Oval in Colombo. Ishant was charged with breaching the ICC Code of Conduct which relates to using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batsman upon his dismissal during an International Match on both the occasions.

In the Ashes, Australia defeated hosts England by an innings and 46 runs to win the final Test of the 5-match series at the Oval. England had already clinched the series with victories in three of the first four games.

U Mumba won the STAR Sports ProKabaddi League’s second season as they defeated Bengaluru Bulls team in the final match.

This was his ninth world championship title, more than any athlete in history. He completed the race in 9.79 seconds.

He is an Olympian 100m runner and President of the Athletics Federation of India (AFI), was elected as one of the nine individual members of the all-powerful IAAF Council at the IAAF’s 50th Congress held at Beijing.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal regained the number one spot in world badminton rankings by toppling Spaniard Carolina Martin to whom she had lost in the summit clash of the just-concluded World Championships. Olympic bronze medallist Saina, who was beaten by Carolina at Jakarta on 16th Aug’15, dethroned the Spaniard in the latest Badminton World Federation ranking released on 20th Aug’15.

She is India’s international football goalkeeper and made her debut for the women’s team of the West Ham United in the opening game of the season against Coventry City.

The selection committee headed by former Indian hockey captain Zafar Iqbal on 18 August 2015 recommended the names of TPP Nair (former captain of Volley ball team), SP Misra (former captain of Davis Cup) and Romeo James (former goalkeeper of the Indian hockey team)for 2015 Dhyan Chand award. In 2014, the award was conferred on three individuals, namely Gurmail Singh (Hockey), KP Thakkar (Swimming-Diving) and Zeeshan Ali.

On 18th Aug’15 Bangladesh Under-16 team won their first-ever South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) under-16 title by defeating Indian team. The tournament was participated by India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and the Maldives.

Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane created a world record as he became the first non-keeper player to take eight catches in a Test match. He achieved the feat on the third day of the ongoing first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle when he caught Rangana Herath at slip off Amit Mishra.

Anirban Lahiri finished tied 5th at the US PGA championship at Whistling Straits which is the highest position by an Indian at a Golf Major. The 28-year-old Lahiri and American Brooks Koepka, shared the fifth position while Australia's Jason Day lifted the PGA Championship title. World No. 53 Lahiri won his first European Tour title at the Malaysian Open in February before adding a second later that month on home soil at the Indian Open.

World number two Murray won to record his first victory against the top seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic since the 2013 Wimbledon Final. It was Murray's 11th Masters title. Djokovic, who lost for just the fourth time this year, had won 12 consecutive Masters Series Finals before this.

At Wroclaw, the world number 18 was at his best in the individual final as he held on to his lead to wrap up the issue against Esmaeil Ebadi of Iran.

She lost the women's singles summit clash to Spain's Carolina Marin in Jakarta. This was India's fifth medal at the World Championship after PV Sindhu clinched the bronze twice in 2013 and 2014 and Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa notched up a bronze in women's doubles at the 2011 edition. Legendary shuttler Prakash Padukone was the first Indian to win a bronze at the 1983 edition.

The award is given to Sports Coaches for their life time work in the field. This time, 3 Sports coaches were recommended, including Nihar Amin for Swimming and Harbans Singh for Athletics.

Indian Men's Hockey Team on their European tour beat Spain in their third and final match at Teresa in Spain on 14th Aug’15 and won the three match series 2-1.

Australia captain Michael Clarke will retire from international cricket at the end of the current Ashes series. He averages only 16 from eight innings and Australia are 3-1 behind with one match left at The Oval on 20 August 2015.

The decision to suspend Gurbaj was taken after a meeting of Hockey India's disciplinary committee headed by Harbinder Singh with the midfielder and former India coach Jude Felix. The coach levelled the charges against Gurbaj in his report after last month's Hockey World League Semifinals in Antwerp, Belgium.

Led by Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth, India will be fielding its biggest contingent at the prestigious championships which will be held at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium. It is for the first time that India will have two players in the top 5 -- Saina (World No 2 in women's singles) and Srikanth (World No 3 in men's singles).

The recognition was granted at IOC’s session as Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia).

Chinese Yan Wang defended her title with 14.988 points followed by Japanese Sae Miyakawa with 14.812 points.

Joshna defeated second seeded Line Hansen of Denmark. It is Joshna's tenth WSA title, the last being the Richmond Open title win in April last year.

The Chinese capital beat Almaty, Kazakhstan in a secret ballot of 85 IOC members. Now Beijing will be the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games. Beijing successfully hosted the Summer Olympics in 2008.

The event is being held at Los Angeles, USA. Sekhon is a student of ASHA School in Lucknow Cantt where he was coached and selected for various camps at State and National level as one amongst the 241 participants representing India.