Sports - Current Affairs for November, 2015

Two time defending champion PV Sindhu has completed a hat-trick of singles titles winning a match for the third time in the row at the Macau Open Grand Prix Gold. She defeated Minatsu Mitani in the finals in a game 21-9, 21-23, 21-14 against the sixth seeded player in a long match. Sindhu is currently World Number 12.

The match is to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, will start from 28 November 2015 and close on 5 December 2015. Kathleen Cross (New Zealand), Claire Polosak (Australia), Sue Redfern (England) and Jacqueline Williams (West Indies) are the four names selected for the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier. Criss is the first first woman to be named in an ICC umpires’ panel when she was added to the ICC Associate and Affiliate panel of umpires in 2014 while Polosak is the youngest official at the tournament.

Anju Bobby George, a former long jump world champion has been appointed as the TOPS/Target Olympic Podium Scheme chairperson on 24th November 2015. She will assume charge w.e.f December 2015. Her appointment was given approval by Union Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs following the resignation of BJP parliament member and BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur. She is also a member of the TOPS identification committee along with Pullela Gopichand and Rahul Dravid. She is the first Indian sportswoman to win a bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships in Paris, 2003. She is also a winner of several honours including Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, Arjuna Award and Padma Shri.

Sports Authority of India and Pullela Gopichand Badminton Foundation (PGBF) inked an agreement to form SAI Gopichand National Badminton Academy at Gachibowli, Hyderabad.The Academy is being established for optional utilization of the facilities being set up with National Sports Development Fund assistance at PGBF. SAI will also utilise the Academy for national training camps and competitions. It will select 50 players in the national wide talent search scheme.

Indian cueist Pankaj Advani won the IBSF World Snooker Championship held at Egypt. He defeated Zhua Xintong of China 8-6. This was the 15th World title for him. He won his 14th World title in the form of IBSF World Billiards Championship.Wendy Jans of Belgium won the Women World Snooker Championship defeating Anastasia Nechaeva (Russia) in what was her 5th World title and 4th in a row.

Djokovic defeated world number 1 Roger Federer 6-3, 6-4 to win the ATP Tour Finals title following a record 4th successive year. He is the first player in the 46 year old history of the tournament to win the trophy 4 year in a row. He has also joined Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendl on 5 victories at the season ending event. Federer with 6 tour final crowns has won the tournament many more times. Djokovic scored his 82nd victory from 88 matches in the year. Federer and Djokovic have lifted the trophy 10 times between them in the past 12 years and made it to a final combined 15 times.

Ex world number 1 champion Lee Chong Wei has won his 3rd consecutive Super Series title at Hong Kong Open on 22nd November 2015. The Malaysian player beat China’s world number 10 Tian Houwei 21-16, 21-15 to take the crown after a marathon final rally. Lian is back to the game after back to back titles in China and France.

Two time world champion Carolina Marin of Spain got her 6th title of the year at Hong Kong Open on 22nd November 2015 beating Nozomi Okuhara from Japan in a tightly contested three sets. the final lasted for 84 minutes making it the longest match in the women’s singles during this tournament. Marin won the game 21-17, 18-21 and 22-20. Okuhara took her first title at Super Series in September.

Ex national champion and winner of the 2014 German Open, Arvind Bhat has retired from international badminton, to focus on coaching stints with a Hyderabad academy. He won the national championships in 2008 after making it to the finals 4 times in the previous 7 years. The 36 year old who clinched a national title in 2011 as well will be working with White Peacock Badminton Academy. In a career spanning 13 decades, Arvind has represented the country at many global events including Thomas Cup 7 times, 2010 Asian Games and World Championships 4 times.

Tennis champion and Hollywood filmmaker Ashok Amritraj has been conferred an honorary doctorate by University of East London for promoting talented moviemakers. He has made 100 film generating USD 2 billion in worldwide revenues. He has directed numerous Hollywood stars including Bruce Willis, Sandra Bullock and Jennifer Anniston. His company, Hyde Park Entertainment Group offers an east-west connect in the world of filmmaking.

Australian cricketer Mitchell Johnson announced his retirement from test cricket. He will retire as Australia’s fourth-highest Test wicket taker (311), behind only Shane Warne (708), Glenn McGrath (563) and Dennis Lillee (355).He is ranked 25th among Test wicket-takers from all nations. He was identified as a talented cricketer by Dennis Lillee.

Tyre maker CEAT has inked a three year bat endorsement deal with cricketer Rohit Sharma. Rohit is the first player to score consecutive centuries in history ODIs. His bat will now display the CEAT insignia. CEAT has also announced a partnership with Suresh Raina for the bat association. It has also partnered with the IPL for a strategic time out segment.

Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashypa dropped to number 13 in the latest BWF men’s singles ranking, overtaken by South Korea’s Son Wan Ho. Kidambi Srikanth, H.S. Prannoy and Ajay Jayaram maintained their rankings at No.5, 21 and 25 respectively. Saina remained at No.2 while P.V. Sindhu did not move from no. 13. Sumeeth Reddy also remained at No.20 of men's doubles while Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa remained at No.11 of women's doubles.Currently, there is no Indian pair in the BWF mixed double’s ranking among the top 25.

Off spinner Ravichandran Ashwin on 6th November 2015 became the first Indian to reach the 150 wicket mark in the Indian test cricket history. This feat was attained when Imran Tahir’s wicket was taken by him in the first innings of the first test against South Africa in Mohali, Punjab. Ashwin also became the first bowler to reach 50 wickets after opening the bowling in a century. This feat was attained in 12 matches off 1888 balls. Previous record was held by Colin Blythe who captured 74 wickets between 1902 and 1910 in 13 tests. This is part of the 4 match test series for winning the Freedom Trophy.

Indian shooter Heena Sindhu on 6th November 2015 won the gold medal at the 10m air pistol women’s event at the 13th Asian Shooting Championship. Championship commenced on November 1 and will be held for up to 2 weeks in Kuwait City. She had previously won the gold medal at the 10m air pistol event in the 8th Asian Air Gun Championship held in September 2015 at New Delhi. Other Indian medal winners included Nivetha (10m air pistol junior women’s event), Shivam Shukla (25m pistol men’s junior event). Angad Bajwa secured gold in the junior skeet men’s competition.

Indian chess players won 11 medals- 5 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze- at the World Youth Chess Championships at Greece. Gold medals were won by M. Mahalakshmi, R. Vaishali, Rakshit Ravi and Bharath Subramaniyam while Nihal Sarin managed a silver. Other silver medallists were Dev Shah and V. Varshini. Bronze medals were bagged by Vatinka Agrawal, Saina Salonika and Divya Deshmukh.

Indian boxer Shiva Thapa was on 3rd November 2015 ranked world number 2 in the latest global rankings in the 56 kg category moving up by 5 places compared to previous rankings. Top spot was occupied by Michael Conlan from Ireland with 2150 points. Thapa got 1550 points. The next top ranking Indian boxer was Vikas Krishan Yadav.

Yuki Bhambri won the KPIT MSLTA challenger on 31st October beating second seeded Evgeny Donskoy in a a 6-2, 7-6(4) defeat. Bhambhri is currently ranked world number 105. He won the title in Shanghai previously after which he was runner up in Taiwan and semifinals in Vancouver and Tashkent. This is the fifth career title for Yuki at Challenger level, having won two Challengers in a season. He had previously won a single one from 2012 to 2014.

WTA has honoured the World No. 1 players in singles and doubles categories with trophies. Trophies were conferred on Serena Williams (WTA singles number 1) and doubles players Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza.