Sports - Current Affairs for September, 2017

With a winning time of under 7 seconds, speed climbing can claim to be the Olympic Games' fastest sport. Speed climbing is one of five sports that have been included in the programme for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics along with baseball/softball, bowling, karate, surfing and skateboarding. Italy's Ludivico Fossali won the men's event after Russian Stanislav Kokorin committed a false start. But in the small final it was a much closer affair with Italian Leonardo Gontero winning in a time of 6.25 seconds, beating Russian Aleksandr Shikov by three hundredths of a second. In the women's event, France's Anouk Jaubert was triumphant in the final, beating Mariia Krasavina of Russia.

In a move to identify and groom young sporting talent, the Union cabinet on 20th Sept 2017 approved a revamped Khelo India (Play India) scheme under which 1,000 selected athletes will receive an annual scholarship of INR 500,000 each for eight years. The scheme, which would cost the government Rs1,756 crore between 2017-18 and 2019-20, will also promote 20 universities across India as hubs of sporting excellence. The revamped Khelo India programme would impact the entire sports ecosystem, including infrastructure, community sports, talent identification, coaching for excellence, competition structure and sports economy. Until now, sports schemes were focused on building infrastructure such as stadiums. However, the new scheme will focus on nurturing talent and connecting rural India to global games, sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said. Companies could also fund the Khelo India scheme under corporate social responsibility. Some of the salient features of the Programme include:

• An unprecedented Pan Indian Sports Scholarship scheme, which would cover 1,000 most talented young athletes each year across select sports disciplines.
• Each athlete selected under the scheme shall receive an annual scholarship worth Rs. 5.00 lakh for 8 consecutive years.
• This is the first time ever that a long-term athlete development pathway would be made available to gifted and talented youngsters to excel in competitive sports and will create a pool of highly competitive athletes who can compete to win at the world stage.
• The Programme aims to promote 20 universities across the country as hubs of sporting excellence, which would enable talented sports persons to pursue the dual pathway of education and competitive sports.
• The Programme also aims at creating an active population with healthy life-style.
• The Programme would cover about 200 million children in the age group of 10-18 under a massive national physical fitness drive, which will not only measure the physical fitness of all children in the age group, but also support their fitness related activities.

• The power of sport in promoting gender equity and social inclusiveness is also fully recognized and special measures are provided for to achieve these objectives.
• The programme also aims at engaging youth living in disturbed and deprived areas, in sporting activities, to wean them away from unproductive and disruptive activities and mainstream them in the nation-building process.
• The programme strives to raise the standards of competition, both at school and college level, to have maximum access to organized sports competitions.
• It also includes the use of latest user-friendly technology in all aspects of sports promotion such as, use of mobile apps for dissemination of sports training; National Sports Talent Search portal for talent identification; interactive website for indigenous sports; GIS based information system for locating and using sports infrastructure, etc.
• This programme strives to promote “Sports for All” as well as “Sports for Excellence.”

India's PV Sindhu won her third Super Series title beating Nozomi Okuhara 22-20, 11-21, 21-18 in the women's singles final of the Korea Open in a thrilling encounter in Seoul on 17^th Sept 2017. Sindhu, who had lost to Okuhara in an epic World Badminton Championships final three weeks back, got the better of the eighth seed in an encounter that lasted one hour and 24 minutes. The two 22-year-olds, who were involved in the second longest match of women's singles at the Worlds final, entertained the crowd once again at another major final. Dedicating her win to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday, Sindhu wrote, “I dedicate this victory for our beloved Prime Minister Shri Modiji on his birthday for his untiring and self-less services to our Country.” Sindhu was replying to a congratulatory tweet from PMO India which said, “Congratulations to PV Sindhu on emerging victorious in the Korea Open Super Series. India is immensely proud of her accomplishment: PM” Ajay Jayaram was the first Indian to reach the final of Korea Open in 2015 and Sindhu became the second one but went one step ahead of Jayaram by winning the title.

Within hours of 18-year-old Ragala Varun winning gold in the 77kg category, his elder brother, 21-year-old Ragala Rahul, clinched the honours in the 85 kg category in the Commonwealth weightlifting championship. The championship was held in Gold Coast (Australia) on 7th Sept 2017. Rahul is the more seasoned of the two lifters and broke 5 national records on his way to the gold. Their father, Ragala Madhu is a national level kabaddi player and a farmer.

With his game at a high level at the end of an unusually easy path through a Grand Slam field, Nadal overwhelmed first-time major finalist Anderson 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to win his third championship at Flushing Meadows. It is the No. 1-ranked Nadal's second Grand Slam title of the year and 16th overall. Among men, only Roger Federer has more, with 19. Each of those two longtime rivals won two of the four majors in 2017, marking a return of both to the heights of their sport. At No. 32, Anderson was the lowest-ranked U.S. Open men's finalist since the ATP computer rankings began in 1973. The 31-year-old South African never had been past the quarterfinals at any major tournament in 33 previous appearances, so when he won his semifinal on Sept 8 he climbed into the stands to celebrate. Nadal added to his U.S. Open triumphs in 2010 and 2013 and improved to 16-7 in Grand Slam finals. For the first time since 2013, he appeared in three in a single season, losing to Federer at the Australian Open in January and beating Stan Wawrinka for his record 10th French Open trophy in June. Nadal's career haul also includes two trophies from Wimbledon and one from the Australian Open. Not since Pete Sampras at Wimbledon in 2000 had a man won a Slam tournament without facing any opponents ranked in the top 20.

Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has approved to constitute an Empowered Steering Committee (ESC) on the basis of the recommendations of the interim report of the Task Force.

Task Force was constituted in January 2017 for preparation of a comprehensive action plan, including short-term and medium to long-term measures for effective participation of Indian sportspersons in the next three Olympic Games to be held in 2020 (Tokyo), 2024 (Paris) and 2028 (Los Angeles).

The 8-member Task Force submitted its interim report on 22.05.2017 with focus on preparations in the short-term for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Functions of ESC: Know More

• Review the core probable list of each High Priority and Priority disciplines for Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and Olympic Games
• Review the Annual Calendar for Training and Competitions (ACTCs) approved by the Government in consultation with the National Sports Federation (NSF) concerned and make specific recommendations with respect to any additional or supplementary requirements.
• Recommend specific plans / packages for TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) beneficiaries selected by the TOPS committee;
• Recommend names of national and international training institutions for their empanelment for providing training, coaching and other support to TOPS athletes, including negotiated packages;
• Make specific recommendations for strengthening sport sciences within SAI as well as outsourcing sports science support in the short to medium term for providing sports science support to national campers;
• Recommend a panel of names of companies for carrying out athlete monitoring and data analytics work;
• Prepare quality specifications for national camps for different sports disciplines; and monitor the camps;