ARCHERY
Asian Championship, 16th
Indian compound archers made history by clinching their first ever gold medal in the 16th Asian archery championship at Bali. India also bagged two silver medals in the men's recurve and women's compound sections, according to the Archery Association of India (AAI). The Indian trio of C. Srither, Ratan Singh and Isiah R. Sanam edged past Iran 231-230 in a nerve-wrecking contest to reign supreme in the compound section. The Indian men's recurve team, comprising Rahul Banerjee, Jayanta Talukdar and Mangal Singh Champia lost to Korea 219-222 in the summit clash to settle for a silver medal. In the women's compound team final India once again were beaten by Korea as the trio of Jhanu Hansdah, Namita Yadav and Manjudha Soy had to be content with a silver medal.
ATHLETICS
Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, 2009
Deriba Merga of Ethiopia retained his title, while Kenya's Mary Keitany won the women's event in a race joined by over 30,000 participants.
Deepchand Saharan bettered 2008's third-place finish to win in the Indian men category. Saharan had won the inaugural Delhi Half Marathon in 2005. He shaved off 56 seconds from his 2008 performance to register his personal best at 1 hour 4 minutes.
The top honour in the Indian women's section went to Sukanya Mall of Uttar Pradesh.
Asian Championship, 2009
China once again showed its supremacy in the continental athletics topping the medals tally (18 gold, 19 silver, 10 bronze) of 18th Asian Athletics Championships, held at Guangzhou, China. Japan (12 gold, 5 silver, 5 bronze) finished second.
India, who sent a 60-strong squad, ended the five-day competition at third with 12 medals (one gold, 4 silver, 7 bronze).
CHESS
Anand wins rapid four-game series
World Champion Viswanathan Anand tamed former World Champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia in successive two encounters to win the rapid four-game chess series.
World junior girls (u-20) title
India's Soumya Swaminathan won the title when she defeated Kubra Ozturk of Turkey in the 13th and last round at Puerto Madryn (Argentina). The 20-year-old Woman Grandmaster tallied 10 points in this under-20 tournament. D. Harika (girls) and Abhijit Gupta (open) had won the World junior titles on India's Independence Day in Turkey in 2008.
CRICKET
India-Australia One-day series
Australia won the fourth match of the series at Mohali by 24 runs to level the series. Chasing a modest total of 250 runs in 50 overs, India got bundled out for 226.
Sachin Tendulkar scored a breathtaking 175 of 141 balls, but, chasing 351, India fell short by three runs in the fifth match played at Hyderabad. In the process Australia seized a 3-2 lead in the seven match series.
The sixth ODI at Guwahati was won by Australia by six wickets. The visitors thus took an unassailable 4-2 lead in the seven-match series.
The seventh and final one-dayer between India and Australia at Mumbai was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to heavy unseasonal rains in the wake of a cyclonic storm over the Arabian Sea. The wash-out of the day-night encounter meant that Australia clinched the series with a 4-2 margin.
Strapping Australian all-rounder Shane Watson was awarded the man of the series in the seven-match ODI rubber.
Bangladesh-Zimbabwe One-Day Series
Bangladesh took the fifth and final match by one wicket to win the series 4-1.
South Africa-Zimbabwe One-Day Series
South Africa defeated Zimbabwe by 45 runs in the first match. This was followed by a thumping 212-run thrashing of Zimbabwe in the second match.
South Africa-England Twenty20 series
Graeme Smith and Loots Bosman went on a six-hitting spree as South Africa gained a crushing 84-run win over England in the second and final T20 international. Smith and Bosman shared a world record opening partnership of 170 off 81 balls in a South African total of 241 for six, the second-highest in T20 internationals. England, who won the rain-affected first match by just one run, struggled to 157/8 in reply.
India-Sri Lanka Test series
Gautam Gambhir and Sachin Tendulkar hit opportune centuries as India came up with a spirited batting display to salvage a draw in the first cricket Test against Sri Lanka.
Opener Gautam Gambhir conjured up yet another marathon innings of 114 runs, before Sachin Tendulkar (100 not out) took the centre-stage to chase down yet another milestone of 30,000 international runs en route to his 43rd Test ton.
A dominant India took one-and-half sessions to complete the formalities and spank Sri Lanka by an innings and 144 runs in the second Test at Kanpur to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
This turned out to be India's 100th Test victory in their 432nd outing. India became the sixth nation to win 100 Test matches, following Australia (332), England (310), West Indies (152), South Africa (120) and Pakistan (102).
This was also India's biggest victory margin against the Lankans, in terms of innings. The previous mark was their thrashing of the islanders by an innings and 119 runs in the 1994 Lucknow Test.
India is now the sixth team to record 100 Test wins. It took 432 Tests to get there, the slowest among the 6 teams. The victories include 68 wins in 221 home Tests and 32 Tests in 211 'away' matches.
Since 2000, India has won 39 out of 102 Tests. That includes 19 out of 56 Tests played abroad. Before 2000, India had won only 13 of 155 Tests played abroad. M.S. Dhoni has won 7 and drawn 3 of the 109 Tests in which he has led India so far.
New Zealand-Pakistan Test Series
Riding on comeback star and man-of-the-match Shane Bond's brilliant match figures of eight for 153, New Zealand defeated Pakistan by 32 runs in the first Test at Dunedin.
Australia-West Indies Test Series
Australia humiliated West Indies by an innings and 65 runs, within three days, to canter to victory in the first Test in Brisbane. Interestingly, Australia have not been beaten at Gabba ground for 21 years now, while the Windies notched up their ninth straight Test defeat Down Under.
South Africa-England One-Day series
England beat South Africa by seven wickets in the fourth one-day international at St George's in Port Elizabeth to lead the five-match series 2-1.
Tendulkar crosses 30,000 run mark
In yet another landmark in his illustrious 20-year-old career, Sachin Tendulkar became the first cricketer to cross 30,000 runs in international cricket during the first Test against Sri Lanka, played in Ahmadabad in November 2009. Tendulkar, who made his international debut in a Test against Pakistan on November 15, 1989 in Karachi, crossed the milestone when he reached 35 in India's second innings.
Tendulkar ended his 160th Test in Ahmadabad sitting on 12877 runs, with 43 hundreds and 53 half centuries at an average of 54.79. From the 436 one-day internationals he has played so far, Tendulkar has scored 17178 runs with 45 hundreds and 91 fifties at an average of 44.50.
He scored 10 from the lone Twenty20 International he has played before voluntarily deciding not to be part of the Indian squad in the shortest format of the game.
Record sixth wicket partnership
Mahela Jayawardene's epic 275 in the first Test between India and Sri Lanka, played at Ahmedabad, not only gave Sri Lanka a platform from where they could dictate terms in the Test, his sixth-wicket stand of 351 with wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene broke one of cricket's longest-standing records. Way back in 1936-37, Don Bradman and Jack Fingleton had put on 345 for the sixth wicket for Australia against England in Melbourne, a mark that lasted 72 years until Ahmedabad on November 11, 2009.
GAMES
Asian Indoor Games, 2009
The 2009 Asian Indoor Games were held in Hanoi, Vietnam in October-November, 2009. The Games comprised of twenty sports, four demonstration sports, including the Shuttle Cock and Vovinam martial arts offered by the host country.
China topped the medals tally, followed by Vietnam and Kazakhstan. India ranked seventh.
The mascot of the Games was the Ho Chicken, a distinctly Vietnamese rare breed of chicken.
HOCKEY
Asia Cup (Women), 7th
Indian team had to be satisfied with a silver medal after they went down 3-5 to China in an action-packed final at Bangkok.
26th Indian Oil Surjit Tournament
Bharat Petroleum Mumbai clinched the title by defeating Indian Oil Mumbai 3-2. The tournament was held in Jalandhar, Punjab.
TABLE TENNIS
Asian Championship, 2009
Asserting their supremacy, Chinese paddlers completed a clean sweep by clinching all the seven titles, including men and women singles, in the 19th Asian Table Tennis Championships held in Lucknow.
World number two Ma Long defeated compatriot Zhang Jike 4-2 to bag the men's singles title, while Ding Ning won the women's singles by snatching a 4-3 victory over Li Xiaoxia.
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