CHESS
Delhi boy Sahaj is India's youngest IM
Former under-10 world champion Sahaj Grover has become India's youngest International Master, winning the final round game against the higher-rated Nicolas Clery to finish fifth in the International Open Chess meet, held in France. Sahaj played in a strong field comprising seven Grandmasters and eight International Masters.
Though just 2288 as per ELO ratings of September 2009, Sahaj gained the required points to scale his rating well past the 2400 mark. The youngster had made his maiden Grandmaster norm in
CRICKET
Champions Trophy
Australia were crowned the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy winner after Shane Watson's unbeaten century guided the defending champions to a six-wicket victory over a depleted New Zealand in the low-scoring final match played at Centurion, South Africa.
Champions League
New South Wales Blues from Australia, already the most successful domestic outfit in cricketing history, added another feather in its cap by pulling off a 41-run victory over Trinidad and Tobago. The final was played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. The Blues clinically hemmed in the West Indians, and in forcing them to hit out of trouble, ensured they were bundled out for 118 chasing 160. The victory made the Blues richer by $2.3 million while T&T pocketed $1.5 million.
NKP Salve Challenger Trophy
Munaf Patel and Sudeep Tyagi wreaked havoc with seven scalps between them as India Red won the Trophy, steamrolling Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his India Blue teammates by seven wickets in an extremely lop-sided final played at Nagpur.
Irani Trophy, 2009
Rest of India clinched their fourth successive Irani Cup, defeating Mumbai on the basis of first innings lead, after the fifth and final day of the match was called off due to wet ground conditions.
ICC Awards
Cricketer of the Year: Mitchell Johnson (Australia).
Test Player of the Year: Gautam Gambhir (India).
One-Day Player of the Year: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India).
Twenty20 International Performance of the Year: Tillekratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka).
Umpire of the Year: Aleem Dar (Pakistan).
Spirit of Team Award: New Zealand.
Emerging Player of Year: Peter Siddle (Australia).
Associate and Affiliate Player of Year Award: William Porterfield (Ireland).
Women Cricketer of Year: Claire Taylor (England).
The ICC World ODI Team of the Year is (in batting order): Virender Sehwag (Ind), Chris Gayle (WI), Kevin Pietersen (Eng), Tillakaratne Dilshan (SL), Yuvraj Singh (Ind), Martin Guptill (NZ), MS Dhoni (Ind, captain, wk), Andrew Flintoff (Eng), Nuwan Kulasekara (SL), Ajantha Mendis (SL), Umar Gul (Pak). 12th men: Thilan Thushara (SL).
The ICC World Test Team of the Year: M.S. Dhoni (Ind, captain, WK), Gautam Gambhir (Ind), Andrew Strauss (Eng), AB de Villiers (SA), Sachin Tendulkar (Ind), Thilan Samaraweera (SL), Michael Clarke (Aus), Shakib Al Hasan (Ban), Mitchell Johnson (Aus), Stuart Broad (Eng), Dale Steyn (SA), 12th man: Harbhajan Singh (Ind).
India-Australia One Day series
Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh's batting heroics took India agonisingly close to a sensational win before the hosts slumped to a four-run defeat against Australia in the first match, played at Vadodra. Chasing 292, India scored 288 for 8 in the allotted 50 overs.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni struck a breathtaking 124 as India put up an all-round display to crush Australia by 99 runs in the second one-dayer to level the seven-match series 1-1, at Nagpur. Dhoni smashed a 107-ball 124 to guide India to a record 354 for seven, the highest against Australia.
Yuvraj Singh and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni dealt the Australian bowling attack with a mixture of caution and aggression to power India to a six-wicket victory to go 2-1 up in series at the Ferozeshah Kotla, New Delhi.
GAMES
Commonwealth Games, 2010
The Queen's Baton Relay, one of the traditions of the Commonwealth Games, will travel 1,70,000 km and pass through 70 Commonwealth nations before reaching India for the Games starting on October 3, 2010.
It will take the Queen's Baton 240 days to complete the epic journey to all of the other 70 nations. On its 100-day tour in India, the baton will visit all the capital cities in India's 28 States and seven Union Territories and many other cities along the way, covering well over 20,000 km.
On arrival at the opening ceremony, the Baton will have travelled in excess of 190,000 km over a 340-day period. This will make the Queen's Baton Relay one of the longest relays in the history of the Commonwealth Games.
The Baton's run in India for the 2010 Delhi Games will be twice as long as the Manchester and Melbourne relays, which lasted for 50 days each.
Queen's Baton Relays have been the curtain raiser to every game since Cardiff, Wales, in 1958. The Queen's Baton for 2010 Delhi Games contains Queen Elizabeth II's 'message to the athletes.'
President Pratibha Patil joined Britain's Queen Elizabeth II to launch 2010 Commonwealth Games baton relay at a gala Indian ceremony in Buckingham Palace. The 51-year-old tradition took place on the last day of Patil's three-day State visit to Britain, with the Queen formally bidding farewell to Patil at the Palace's Grand Entrance.
The Queen's Baton for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is a delicate mix of aesthetics and technology with an in-built location tracking system and a camera capable of sending images to the Games website.
Built with Aluminium and Gold, this piece of art has Queen Elizabeth's message engraved on a miniature 18-carat gold leaf that is symbolic of the ancient Indian palm leaf 'patras', using laser technology. Designed by Michael Foley of Foley design, along with Titan Industries and Bharat Electronics, it has an embedded system to receive SMSes sent by enthusiasts from across the world. These SMSes can be viewed when baton is docked on its special stands or on the website of the Commonwealth Games.
GOLF
Singapore Open Amateur Championship
Rashid Khan, India's top-ranked amateur, walked away with the title. He shot a last round of two-under 70 to take the title ahead of overnight leader Thai Vasin Sripattranusorn and Singapore's Jerome Ng.
Jeev becomes first Indian to play in World Match-play
Jeev Milkha Singh has added yet another feather to his well-adorned cap. The Indian golf pro has become the first Indian to tee up at the 16-man Volvo World Match-play Championships in Casares (Spain). The Championship was held in Spain for the first time in its history, moving from Wentworth Club to the magnificent 7,439-yard course at Finca Cortesin. The total prize money for the event was $ 3,250,000.
President's Cup
Tiger Woods delivered the clinching point as the United States won the eighth Presidents Cup match play golf tournament.
Hero Honda Indian Open
C. Muniyappa's dream became a reality when he triumphed in the $1.25million Hero Honda Indian Open after beating Lee Sung on the first extra hole. The result saw him lead from 97th position on the Order of Merit to sixth.
HOCKEY
Canada-India series
India rounded off their impressive tour of Canada with a 3-2 victory over the home side in their final game to win the seven-match hockey Test series 6-0, at Tamanawis Park.
MOTOR SPORTS
Raid de Himalaya
Army's Amarinder Singh Brar won his maiden title in X-treme four-wheeler category while Ashish Saurabh Maudgil grabbed his fourth crown in two-wheeler event in the 11th edition of the Raid de Himalaya rally.
Army also won the Team Trophy for their stupendous performance in the six-leg Maruti Suzuki rally which covered more than 2000 kms and is touted as the longest and toughest motorsport event in the country.
In the adventure trial category, the team of Prasad and Pradeep won in the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) category in a Mahindra Scorpio, while Dharampal Jangra and Hari won the car category. The all-women team of Suchi Thakur and Molona (of W+K racing team) were awarded the Coup De Damsel Trophy.
SHOOTING
Asian Clay Shooting championship
World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu shone at the 2009 Asian clay shooting championship. He bagged the gold medal in the trap event in Almaty, Kzakhstan. He shot 121/125 in the qualification round and in the finals he came up with a score of 19/25 to claim the top position.
Mansher Singh won the bronze in the event with a score of 113+21. The team consisting of Manavjit (121), Mansher (113) and Anwer Sultan (109) took the silver with a total score of 343/375. The team gold was won by Kuwait with a score of 346.
Indian shooters finished the event with four gold medals, two silver and a bronze. Three gold were won in individual category by Ronjon Sodhi (double trap), Sangram Dahiya (double trap junior) besides Manavjit.
WEIGHTLIFTING
Commonwealth Championships
Competing in the backdrop of a series of dope flunks, Indian weightlifters began their Commonwealth Senior and Junior Championship campaign in Penang, Malaysia, with a bang by winning six gold and four silver medals.
Out of the six gold, three were won by the senior lifters while the remaining were pocketed by the juniors.
Indians won both gold and silver in senior men's 56 kg and 62 kg. In 56 kg, V.S. Rao clinched the yellow metal while V. Vinoth Kumar came second.
In senior men's 62 kg, Rustam Sarang won gold while Omkar Otari pocketed the silver.
In senior women's 48 kg, Soniya Chanu won gold. Bangaru Usha bagged gold in junior women's 48 kg, while compatriot Deeksha Gaikwad won silver in the same event.
In junior men's 56 kg, Sukhen Dey, who created history by becoming the first Indian male lifter to win a medal at the global level by winning bronze in World Junior Championships in Romania, bagged the gold, while Swapnil Ghagare won the silver.
K. Ramesh Kumar finished first in junior men's 62 kg to complete the tally of six gold and four silver for Indians.
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