Category: Sports

First differently-abled Indian Athlete to win Gold at IPC Athletics World Championship, France . July 2013 .

Devendra Jhajhaira scripted history and became the first differently-abled Indian to win Gold as he bagged the first position in the Javelin event at the 6th IPC Athletics World Championship held at the Rhone Stadium in Venissieux near Lyons, France on Monday – July 22nd, 2013.

Jhajhaira also created the record of the event in France by hurling the Javelin to 57.04m in the F-46 category meant for one-armed athletes. He led the 11-athlete field from the very beginning.

India was represented by a 10-member contingent in this July 19-28 Championship. The Paralympics Committee of India (PCI) President, Sultan Ahmed congratulated Devendra Jhajhaira and the PCI announced an award of 5 lakhs.

The 2013 6th edition IPC Athletics World Championship featured over a 1000 athletes from 100 countries and is the biggest gathering of internationally disabled athletes since the 2012 London Olympics.

Devendra Jhajhaira, 32 year old, who lost his left hand in an accident is the son of a farmer Ram Singh hailing from the desert terrain Churu district of Rajasthan, the gateway to the Thar desert. He is a class IV employee of the Indian Railways and is thankful to the Railyways who allowed him to practice and train throughout the year.

It was in 1997, that Jhajhaira was spotted by his coach Ripudaman Singh Aulak, a Dronacharya Awardee in Javelin. He shifted to the nearby town of Kasab for better training facilities. Soon he was training at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala (Punjab).

Devendra Jhajhaira is the (1) 2nd gold medallist at the Paralympics after Murlikant Petkar (2) At Athens (Greece) he created a new world recored of 62.15m throw (3) He won a Gold medal at the 8th FESPIC Games in Korea.

Following his spectacular performance in the 2004 Paralympics Games, Jhajhaira was conferred the ‘ Arjuna Award ‘ in 2005. He is also the first Paralympian* to be awarded the ‘Padma Shree’ in March 2012. (* Paralympian…. Paralympic sports person).

Indian Girls Win Historic First-Ever Medal in Womens Hockey Junior World Cup . August 2013 .

The first Womens hockey team from India to win a Bronze medal in the Junior Womens World Cup history in Monchengladbach, Germany on Sunday – August 04th, 2013.

It was a thrilling match where the score remained tied 1-1 at full time after 70 minutes of play, leading to a penalty shootout. In a battle of nerves the Indian girls held their own, to beat a fancied England 3-2 in a shoot-out-victory on penalties to claim the bronze medal in the ‘Junior Womens’ World Cup’. The winning goal was scored by 17 year-old Navneet Kaur. 18-year old Rani was later named as ‘Player of the Tournament’.

This was the best finish by the Indian eves team in the event, having finished outside the top-eight in their earlier 3 attempts.

At the World level, across all age groups this was the maiden succes for the Indian Women’s Hockey team . The Indian eves best before was a 4th place finish at the 1974 World Cup and the 1980 Olympics.

Hockey India (HI) Secretary General Narinder Batra announced a cash reward of Rupees one lakh for each player of the team and Rupees fifty thousand for the support staff. The Chief Coach Neil Hawgood will also receive a cash reward of Rupees one lakh.

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.

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.

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 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 Krishnan 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.

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.

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.