Category Archives: Sports

India’s First Gold at the 20th Asian Athletics Championship . July 2013 .

Vikas Shive Gowda (Vikas Gowda) discuss thrower clinched the first gold for India on July 04th the eve of his birthday, amidst much celebration as the crowd listened to the National Anthem being played for the first time in the championship.

He threw the iron disc to a creditable 64.90m in his 4th attempt to win his first gold of the Asian Championship in his 5th appearance. Vikas Gowda had earlier won a silver each in the 2005 and 2011 editions. He holds the national record of 66.28m whilst his season’s best is 65.82m .

Amongst much celebration the home team won 3 medals on the second day at the 20th Asian Athletics Championship held at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi, Pune, State of Maharashtra, India . As the championship concluded on Sunday, India had acquired a total haul of 17 medals. The tally of 9 for the men and 8 for the womens’ events, making it the first time in the last 5 Asian Championships that Indian men had won more medals than women. The total of 17 medals was India’s best since the 1989 edition in New Delhi.

The 29-year old athlete born on July 05th 1983, in Mysore,Karnataka is an ace discuss thrower and shot putter who trains in the US. He grew up in Frederick, Maryland in the US. His father Shive Gowda coached the 1988 Indian Olympic track team.

Vikas Gowda is an alumnus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the US MCAA National Champion 2006 in Discuss.

Vikas Gowda : Records : (2005) came 2nd in the 2005 Asian championships held in Incheon, Korea / (2010) came 3rd in the 2010 Asian Games held in Guangzhou, China / (2010) came 2nd in the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, India / (2011) came 2nd in the 2011 Asian Championship held in Kobe, Japan / (2013) 1st position, won Gold at the 20th Asian Championship held in Pune, India .

India’s first Indoor Roller Coaster . June 2013 .

Called ‘Deep Space’ the country’s first Dark Roller Coaster which also means that it is an Indoor Roller Coaster, was launched by the 26-year old Bollywood actor Anil Dhawan . The rides go completely upside down indoors upto a speed of 86 km/hour

‘Deep Space’ venue is at ADLABS Imagica in Khipoli on the Pune-Mumbai expressway, the Theme based amusement park outside Mumbai city.

The first Indian to participate in the ‘ Lamborghini Super Trofeo ‘ International motor racing series . May 2013 .

Amir Beg, an Indian racing enthusiast is all-set to make his debut, as the first Indian to participate in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo series, Season II. The series also marks India’s debut in the championship.

The Lamborghini race is considered to be the fastest one-design series in the world (where all the vehicles are of the same make and same specifications). The participating race cars in the series are Lamborghini Gallardo 570-4 Super Trofeo. Interestingly this event also coincides with the 50 year celebration of the Italian mega brand Lamborghini. The legendary car manufacturer has decided to support Amir Beg.

Born in hyderabad, on May 01st, 1981  Amir Beg did his schooling at a boarding school in Bangalore. He then headed off to the University of Western Ontario in Canada for higher studies.

NBA’s first India-born majority owner. May 2013 .

Vivek Ranadive became NBA’s (National Basketball Association) first India-born majority owner of ‘Sacramento King’. NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved the sale of Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013.

Vivek Ranadive a minority owner with the Warriors joined a team led by health-club financier Mark Mastrov and billionaire Ron Burkle to bid for the Kings to help keep them in Sacramento. Ranadive emerged as the leader, which also included the Jacobs family from San Diego, another Indian-born businessman Raj Bhathal and Australian Silicon Valley entrepreneur Katrina Garnett. The Investment Group led by Ranadive succeeded in competing and beating the $406 million bid led by Steve Ballmer ,Microsoft Chief Executive Officer. The deal was concluded from the team’s existing majority owner since 1999 – the Maloof family of Las Vegas Hotel fame. A new stadium is part of Ranadive’s package. Sacramento City Council now has a public-private deal in place to build a new 18,500 seat arena and retail centre downtown.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA and Cal Berkeley star says of Ranadive ” He’s a visionary. He understands technology and startups, he’s built businesses “.

Vivek Ranadive was born in Juhu October 07th, 1957. With $50 in his pocket he left Bombay bound for the U.S. at the age of 17. He went on to complete his Bachelors and Masters degree in Electrical Engineering at MIT. Subsequently pursued an MBA at Harvard University in 1983 where he was a Baker Scholar.

Ranadive a slight and unassuming man, worked his way turning his enterprises as Founder and CEO of a multi-billion dollar real-time computing company of Palo Alto’s TIBCO Software.He is a Tae Kwon Do Black Belt and a sports buff. Ranadive has 3 children.

Awards: 1)2002: Info World’s 2002 Top Ten Technology Innovators (2) 2002: Ernst & Young Software Entrepreneur of the Year (3)2005: Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award (WIBTA): North America Technology Change Agent Award (4) 2008: South Asian CEO of the Year – by the South Asian MBA Association (SAMBAA)

Books: Vivek Ranadive has authored the following books. (1) ‘The Power of Now’- 1990 ( a New York Times best seller) (2) ‘The Power to Predict’- 2006 (International best seller and was profiled in Forbes, Harvard Business School and the Wall Street Journal’s – Smart Money (3) ‘The Two Second Advantage – How We Succeed by Anticipating the Future Just Enough’ – 2011 (the book was New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today best seller).

 

Sacramento, is the capital of State of California, USA.

First Asian player to win the Junior Wimbledon’s Boys singles title. 1954 .

Ramanathan Krishnan was the first Indian and the first Asian tennis player to win the boy’s singles title at Wimbledon Championship 1954, beating Ashley Cooper in the finals.

On the playing court Krishnan was a magician, off it, a thorough gentleman. His playing style was known as ‘touch tennis’. Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph described his tennis as “pure oriental charm”. Robert Philip wrote that “each and every Krishnan rally was a thing of rare beauty”. Krishnan was a peerless symbol of a sportsman exuding simplicity that contrasted beautifully with the majesty of his play. Krishnan a prodigy, went on to become the top Indian player of the era. The Kri8shnan saga symbolised a glittering phase in the beginnings of the Indian tennis history.

He has the unique honour of having breakfast with the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in London. A telegram breakfast invitation that he received at his hotel,the day he won the match aginst Jaroslav Drobny in London in 1956.

Singles: In singles his records includes victories against Czech Jaroslav Drobny and Australian legends Rod Laver and Roy Emerson.

Davis Cup: Krishnan made his debut in the Davis Cup at the age of 16 against Belgium in Perth .In the Doubles final against Australia, Ramanathan Krishnan and Jaideep Mukerjea won the doubles rubber against John Newcombe and Tony Roche. Krishnan was a key member of the Indian team which reached the Davis Cup final for the first time in 1966.

National: Krishnan won the Indian national title for eight years consecutively.

Awards: Awarded the Arjuna Award in 1961, the Padma Shri Award in 1962 and the Padma Bhushan Award in 1967.

Book: ‘A touch of Tennis: The story of a tennis family ‘. Krishnan has written a book alongwith his son Ramesh Krishnan and Nirmal Shekar. The book covers 3 generations of tennis-playing Krishnans published by Penguin Books India.

T K Ramanathan his father introduced the 10 year old Krishnan to the game at the Talkatora club in New Delhi. T K Ramanathan was rated third amongst the Indian tennis players in the 1930’s. T K Ramanathan hailed from Tenkasi in Tamil Nadu. The family subsequently moved to Chennai(Madras) to keep up with the frequent travel required for Krishnan to participate in all the tournaments nationally and internationally.

Krishnan’s son Ramesh Krishnan emulated his fathers feat by winning the Wimbledon Junior title and went on to become a leading Indian tennis player of the 1980’s.

Krishnan lives in Chennai where alongwith his son Ramesh they run the ‘Krishnan Tennis Centre’. The Centre has 11 courts and have all been sponsored by the top stars each one named after them. He also manages a gas distribution agency.

First Indian amputee girl scales world’s highest peak Mount Everest on prosthetic leg. May 2013 .

Arunima ‘Sonu’ Sinha became the first Indian amputee to scale Mount Everest. This Indian girl surprised all with her exceedingly rare achievement of scaling the summit on a prosthetic leg.

History was created when 25 year old Arunima Sinha reached the 8,848 metre-high summit, of the world’s highest peak. She left the high camp at 6pm on Monday evening and arrived at the summit at 10.55am on May 21st, 2013 (Tuesday).

Arunima Sinha, a resident of Ambedkar Nagar in Uttar Pradesh (about 200 km from Lucknow) was a part of the 6 member Indian team ‘Eco Everest expedition’ from the Tata Group . Led by India’s former Border Security Force (BSF) staffer Love Raj Singh and accompanied by 9 sherpas on their successful ascent of the summit.

The former national level player, had lost her right leg, in an accident after being thrown off a moving train. Subsequently she joined Tata Steel Adventure Foundation (TSAF) camp in Uttarakashi last year, where she was trained by Bachendra Pal, the first Indian woman to conquer Mount Everest.

Dr.Manmohan Singh, The Prime Minister of India conveyed his congratulations and added “Arunima’s achievement is an example not only to society at large, but also to women everywhere. This young woman looked adversity in the eye and when all seemed lost, decided to make something of her life in the most spectacular fashion possible.”

Arunima’s achievement coincides with the 60th anniversary of Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay’s feat on May 20th, 1953

Indian sisters are the ‘ first twins ‘ in the world to scale Mount Everest. May 2013 .

Twin sisters Nunshi Malik and Tashi Malik became the world’s first twins on May 19th, 2013 to scale Mount Everest, the earth’s highest mountain in the world .

The Uttarakhand sisters from Dehradun were with a 11 member joint Indian and Nepal army expedition. They reached the top with two sherpas, who incidentally were also twins.They were among a team of 135 other people who reached the top of Mount Everest at 8,848 meters above sea level.

Nunshi and Tashi Malik are children of Col.Virendra Singh Malik and Manju Malik of Johri village. The sisters havew previously also scaled Mount Kiliminjaro in Africa

Background: Other women from the state in the past who have reach the top peak of the world are Bachendri Pal (who was the first women mountaineer from the country to climb the mountain), Sumanlata Kuthiyal, Savita Martolaya and Kavita Burathoki.

First Indian Secretary General of Asian Wrestling body (AAWC) . April 2013 .

Raj Singh became the first Indian to be elected Secretary General of ” Asian Associated Wrestling Council ” (AAWC) by vote of the general assembly on Tuesday, April 16th, 2013.

Raj Singh the current Secretary General of the ” Wrestling Federation of India ” (WFI)secured 20 votes and will hold the office for the term of 4 years. Chang Kew Kim was elected President for the 2nd term, as President AAWC after he got 23 votes.

The 24 representatives of their respective Asian countries cast their vote at the General Assembly, held in New Delhi.

India’s first ‘ Mr. Universe ‘ . 1952 .

Manohar Aich won the ‘ Mr. Universe’ title in the Group III Championship category in 1952, achieving greatness in becoming India’s first Mr.Universe. His global achievement came in an era, when the country rarely made heroes of its sports people.

The diminutive Manohar Aich also known as ‘Pocket Hercules’ having a height of 4’11” (approximately 1.5 metre tall). He was born in Dhamti village, Comilla district (now in Bangladesh). With Independence he moved to Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1949.

Manohar Aich attended the Jubilee school in Dhaka. Later he joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 1942 where he began his pursuit in body building. He was encouraged by a British officer named Reub Martin who introduced him to weight training.

In 1950 – he won the Mr. Hercules contest. In 1951 he stood 2nd in the Mr. Universe contest . He went to London for training and in 1952 he won the Mr. Universe title achieving body building glory. In 1955 he stood 3rd in the Mr.Universe contest.

The superfit centenarian Aich currently lives in Baguihati, north of Kolkata and celebrated his 100 years on Sunday, March 17th, 2013.

India’s first-ever pistol shooter scripted history to win gold . April 2013 .

Rahi Sarnobat is the first ever Indian woman pistol shooter to win gold in 25 metres sports pistol at ISSF, Changwon Gold Cup, South Korea.

The 22 year old Indian markswoman hails from Kolhapur, Maharashtra and trains at Gagan Narang’s Gun for Glory Academy in Pune.

Rahi Sarnobat was the youngest Indian shooter at London Olympics 2012. She won 2 gold medals in 2010 Commonwealth Games, Delhi,India. Also won the first gold in 25m pistol event in pair with Anisa Sayyed.