Current Affairs August 2019 - Sports

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1 - BCCI suspended Prithvi Shaw for doping violation

Indian Test opener Prithvi Shaw has been suspended for an eight-month period from 16^th March 2019 to 15^th November 2019 by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a doping violation. Shaw had inadvertently ingested a prohibited substance known as Terbutaline. Terbutaline is commonly found in cough syrups. Terbutaline comes under WADA Prohibited List of Substances.

Prithvi Pankaj Shaw is an Indian cricketer, known as the second-youngest Indian after Tendulkar to make a Test century and the youngest Indian to score a century on a Test debut.

2 - Indian shuttler Sai Praneeth enters top 20 in World Badminton Rankings

Indian shuttler B. Sai Praneeth has jumped four places to enter in the top 20 players in the latest World Badminton Rankings, placed at 19^th rank in Men's Singles badminton ranking. Japan's Kento Momota topped Men's Singles world rakings while Japan’s Yamaguchi topped Women's singles world rankings.

Among other Indian Men's singles shuttlers, Kidambi Srikanth has maintained his 10^th position while Sameer Verma retains his 13^th position. Women shuttler P.V. Sindhu retained her 5^th position and Saina Nehwal 8^th position. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have moved up to 16^th position.

3 - Ellyse Perry becomes first cricketer to reach 1000 runs, 100 wickets in T20Is

Australia’s Ellyse Perry became the first cricketer of either gender to reach all rounder milestone of scoring 1000 runs and taking 100 wickets in the T20 international cricket. Perry picked up her 100^th wicket against England’s Nat Sciver in the World T20 final.

Bangladesh's Shakib Al Hasan with 1471 runs/88 wickets and Pakistan's Shahid Afridi with 1498 runs/98 wickets are players closest to Perry’s world record. Perry is the first Australian to have appeared in both cricket and football World Cups.

4 - Collin Morikawa won the US PGA title

USA's Collin Morikawa won his first US PGA title at the Barracuda Championship. He finished with 47 points for a three-point victory over Troy Merritt. Robert Streb tied for third with John Chin.

Morikawa joins Matthew Wolff of Oklahoma State as players who have gone straight from college to their first PGA Tour victory. He cracked the top 100 in the world ranking. The Barracuda Championship, formerly known as Reno–Tahoe Open, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour in western Nevada.

5 - Lewis Hamilton won Hungarian Grand Prix

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix to earn his 81^st Formula One race victory. He is now only 10 wins behind seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was second in the race followed by Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton leads the driver's table this season with 8 wins and 250 points way ahead of Valtteri Bottas Bottas with 2 wins and 188 points. Mercedes leads the Connstructor's ranking 2019 with 10 wins and 438 points in total followed by Ferrari with 288 points and Red Bull at 244.

6 - Satwiksairaj, Chirag 1^st Indian doubles pair to win Super 500 title

Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty became the first Indian pair to win a BWF Super 500 badminton tournament. The duo beat World champions Li Jun Hui and Liu Yu Chen of China in the summit clash of Thailand Open 21-19, 18-21, 21-18 in Bangkok to win the men’s doubles category.

With this win, the Indian pair broke into the top ten of the world ranking for the first time, making it the first-ever Indian men's doubles duo to enter the elite bracket. The win was also the most prestigious doubles title for India since the inception of the ranking system.

7 - India topped latest ICC Test rankings

India topped the latest ICC Test team rankings while New Zealand is placed 2^nd and South Africa is in 3^rd position. Indian skipper Virat Kohli retains his number one position in the latest ICC Test batsmen’s rankings.

Among the Test all-rounders, Jason Holder of the West Indies tops the list while Ravindra Jadeja is placed 3^rd and Ravichandran Ashwin is in sixth place. Australian speedster Pat Cummins retains his top position in Test bowling.

8 - Aamir Khan launched Mission Shakti sports initiative

Bollywood actor Aamir Khan launched Mission Shakti, an initiative by Maharashtra minister Sudhir Mungantiwar to train athletes from Chandrapur and Gadchiroli for international events like the Olympics. He also felicitated a team of tribal mountaineers from Maharashtra who had recently scaled Mount Everest as part of 'Mission Shaurya'.

Mission Shakti aims to groom tribal student for an Olympic medal by 2024. The mission is directed towards 6 sporting disciplines namely- archery, shooting, volleyball, swimming, weightlifting and gymnastics.

9 - Indian cricketer R. Ashwin named as "PCA Player of the Month"

Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was honored with Professional Cricketers Association's (PCA) Player of the month award for July 2019 for his outstanding performances in the county championships. Ashwin represented English County’s Nottinghamshire and played 3 matches where he scored 197 runs and picked up 23 wickets.

R. Ashwin won the honor with 61% of the supporters' vote. Ashwin won 81.53 MVP points for his efforts of 12/144 against Surrey, the most of any player in a single game this season.

10 - Women's cricket to be part of Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

The Commonwealth Games Federation has announced that women's T20 Cricket has been confirmed for inclusion at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022. Eight teams will compete across eight match days. Edgbaston will play host to all the matches.

Cricket returns to the Commonwealth Games for the first time since 1998 when South Africa won the gold medal in a men's 50-over format competition in Kuala Lumpur. The 2022 Commonwealth Games will take place in England from 27^th July to 7^th August.

11 - Djokovic remains at the top of ATP rankings

According to the latest ATP rankings released, Serbia's Novak Djokovic remains at the top of the table with 12,325 points. Rafael Nadal of Spain is placed second with 7,945 points followed by Roger Federer of Switzerland with 7,460 points. Dominic Thiem of Austria and Kei Nishikori of Japan complete the top five.

In the women's rankings, Naomi Osaka of Japan tops the chart with 6,417 points. Ashleigh Barty of Australia, Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic, Simona Halep of Romania and Kiki Bertens of Netherlands are ranked in the top five respectively.

12 - Rafael Nadal won Rogers Cup 2019

Rafael Nadal of Spain won his 35^th ATP 1000 Masters title in Montreal. He defeated Daniil Medvedev of Russia in the final of the Coupe Rogers in Montreal. This was his 5^th Canadian Masters 1000 crown (2005, 2008, 2013, 2018).

The Spaniard won his third tour-level title of the year (Rome, Roland Garros) and, for the first time in his career, defended a hard-court title. Rogers Cup presented by National Bank is a prestigious professional tennis tournament organized by Tennis Canada.

13 - Aishwarya Pissay becomes first Indian to claim a world title in motorsports

Aishwarya Pissay became the first Indian to claim a world title in motorsports, after winning the FIM World Cup (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme) in the women's category after the final round of the championship at Varpalota in Hungary.

Aishwarya, who won the first round in Dubai and was placed third (Portugal), fifth (Spain) and fourth (Hungary) in the subsequent outings, finished with a tally of 65 points, just four ahead of Portugal's Rita Vieira in the final overall standings for women. The 23-year old from Bengaluru also finished second in the FIM Junior category with 46 points, behind championship winner Tomas de Gavardo (60) of Chile.

14 - Sourabh Verma wins Hyderabad Open title

Reigning national champion, Sourabh Verma, clinched the Men's Singles title in the Hyderabad Open. He beat Singapore's Loh Kean Yew 21-13, 14-21, 21-16 in the final. Sourabh had won the Slovenian International in May 2019.

Winners of other categories

15 - Indian junior shuttlers win 6 medals at Bulgarian Open

Indian junior shuttlers won six medals (three gold, a silver and two bronze) at the Bulgarian Junior International Championships which concluded in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria. Samiya Imad Faruqui won the gold medals in women's singles, the duo of Edvin Joy and Shruti Mishra in Mixed Doubles and pair of Tanisha Crasto and Aditi Bhatt in women's doubles. Men's doubles combination of Ishan Bhatnagar and Vishnuvardhan settled for the silver medal.

Malvika Bansod and Meiraba Luwang won a bronze each in other singles events.

16 - BCCI agrees to come under NADA ambit

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has agreed to come under the ambit of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) after years of resisting the move.

The BCCI had been vehemently opposed to signing up with NADA, claiming that it is an autonomous body, not a National Sports Federation and does not rely on government funding. The BCCI's primary concern with coming under NADA was the contentious whereabouts clause that deals with out-of-competition testing.

17 - Bajrang Punia won gold at Tbilisi Grand Prix

India's Bajrang Punia defended his title at Tbilisi Grand Prix. Bajrang, who had won a gold at the same event last year as well, prevailed 2-0 over Iran's Peiman Bibyani in the 65 Kilogram category final of the men's free style competition in the capital city of Georgia.

It was fourth gold of the season for the Asian Games champion Bajrang after standing atop the podium at Dan Kolov, Asian Championship and Ali Aliev tournament.

18 - World Archery suspends AAI for defying guidelines

The World Archery (WA) has suspended the Archery Association of India (AAI) for defying its guidelines by electing two parallel bodies, asking the federation to put its house in order by the end of August 2019.

The last event in which the archers participated under the Indian flag was the World Archery Youth Championships in Madrid from 19^th to 25^th of August. Indian archers will now have to compete in International tournaments as independents. Two opposing archery factions have been created in India, led by Union Minister Arjun Munda and BVP Rao.

19 - Cricket Australia announced new transgender inclusive policy

Cricket Australia announced a new guideline which enables transgender players to play the game of cricket at the highest levels in line to the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) gender recognition policy and gender diversity guidelines.

The policy sets out a testosterone limit for transgender and gender-diverse players who want to play for state and national women’s teams. Elite female cricketers will need blood testosterone levels below 10 nano-moles per litre (nmol/L) for 12 months.

20 - Ravi Shastri re-appointed as head coach of Indian men's team

Ravi Shastri was re-appointed head coach of the Indian men's team by the Kapil Dev-led Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC). Shastri has been reappointed for a two-year period, ending with the 2021 T20 World Cup in India.

Under the guidance of Ravi Shastri as Indian team coach, India have won 11 out of 21 Tests, 43 out of 60 ODIs and 25 T20 Internationals out of 36. Indian team reached the No.1 ranking in Test matches and won a series in Australia for the first time in 71 years, under his guidance.

21 - Deepak Punia became India’s first junior World Champion in 18 years

Wrestler Deepak Punia claimed a gold medal in the 86kg junior freestyle title at the Junior Worlds Championship by beating Russia’s Alik Shebzukhov at Tallinn, Estonia. With this victory, he became India’s first junior World Champion in 18 years to win a Junior World Championship title. On the other hand, India’s Vicky Chahar won bronze by beating Mongolia's Batmagnai Enkhtuvshin in the 92-kg weight category.

Russia topped the medal tally over all weight categories while India was placed at 5^th rank in the medal tally.

22 - Athlete P.T. Usha appointed as a member of AAA's Athletes Commission

Asian Athletics Association’s (AAA) Athletes Commission appointed Indian sprinter P.T. Usha as one of the six members of Asian Athletics Association. The commission is headed by 1992 Olympics gold medallist hammer thrower Andrey Abduvaliyev of Uzbekistan. Other members include Wang Yu of China, Kazakhstan’s gold medallist triple jumper Olga Rypakova, Lee Hup Wei of Malaysia and Saad Shaddad of Saudi Arabia. Asian Athletics Association is the governing body of Athletics in Asia, headquartered in Singapore.

Legendry athlete P.T. Usha has been winner of 101 international medals. She was honored with Padma Shri and Arjuna Award.

23 - Gymnast Simone Biles created history with a “triple-double” twist

American gymnast Simone Biles created history by becoming first woman to land triple double flip, one of the ‘hardest move in the world’. She won sixth national all-around title with a never-before-seen “triple-double” floor landing with two flips and three twists at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships in Kansas City.

Biles is also known to be the tenth gymnast and first American gymnast to win a World medal on every event. Biles created an American record for most gold medals in women's gymnastics at a single Olympic Games.

24 - Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu won Rogers Cup 2019

19-year-old Bianca Andreescu became the first Canadian in 50 years to make the women's final and win Rogers Cup tennis tournament 2019. She defeated Serena Williams in the finals by 3-1. With this victory, Bianca reached high singles ranking of No. 14 by the Women's Tennis Association and ranking of No. 3 by the International Tennis Federation.

2019 Rogers Cup is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 of the 2019 ATP Tour, held at the Aviva Centre in Toronto.

25 - UEFA's Goal of the Season award 2018-19 bagged by Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi's free-kick against Liverpool won UEFA.com Goal of the Season for 2018/19. Messi's winning effort came in a 3-0 victory over Liverpool in 2018 UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg. It was the Barcelona forward's second of the night and his 600^th for the club. This is the third time Messi has claimed this award.

Cristiano Ronaldo stood 2^nd in the votings and Portugal Danilo stood third. Only goals scored in UEFA club or international fixtures in 2018/19 were eligible for consideration in UEFA.com Goal of the Season.

26 - Indian cyclists win gold at World Junior Track Cycling Championships

Indian cyclists trio Esow, Ronaldo Singh and Rojit Singh bagged a gold medal in the men's sprint event and created history at World Junior Track Cycling Championships held in Frankfurt, Germany. It was India's first ever gold medal in a global cycling competition.

India defeated Australian team in the finals to won the gold medal in team sprint category. India finished with 3 medals in medal tally with one gold, one silver and one bronze. The medal tally was topped by Germany followed by New Zealand, Greece, U.S. and Australia in the top five.

27 - India won T20 Physical Disability World Cricket Series

India won the inaugural world title T20 Physical Disability World Cricket Series 2019 by beating host England by 36 runs. India scored 180 runs for 7 wickets in 20 overs restricting England to 144 runs for eight wickets.

K D Phanase got ‘Man of the match’. The inaugural Six-nation T20 Physical Disability Cricket World Series was hosted by England and Wales Cricket Board.

28 - CISF bagged 5 gold medals at World Police and Fire Games

Sports personnel of CISF won five Gold, three Silver & two Bronze medals in World Police and Fire Games held at Chengdu, China. Kuheli Gangulee, HC Harmeet, Meena Kumari Devi, HC Sangeeta and HC Ankit Rathi won gold medals in Shooting, Judo (60 kg), Boxing (54 kg), Pole Vault and Javelin Throw respectively. Jina Devi , ASI Himani and HC Sangeeta won silver medal in Judo (78 kg), Discuss Throw and High Jump respectively.

The World Police and Fire Games are an Olympic-style competition with 10,000 athletes representing law enforcement, firefighters, and officers from 70+ countries across the world.

29 - Sreesanth's Life Ban on cricket reduced to 7 Years

According to an order passed by BCCI Ombudsman, Justice (Retd) DK Jain, the life ban for alleged spot-fixing in IPL games of former India paceman Shanthakumaran Sreesanth has been reduced to seven years. The ban, that began on 13.09.2013, will now end in 2020.

Sreesanth along with his Rajasthan Royals team mates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were arrested by Delhi police on suspicion of spot-fixing during the sixth edition of the IPL in May 2013.

30 - India win gold at Under- 12 Asian Tennis Team championship in Kazakhstan

India won gold at the Under 12 Asian Tennis Team championship held in Kazakhstan. India defeated Chinese Taipei 2-1 in the summit clash to win the title.

The final was a tie of three matches - 2 singles and one doubles. India won both the singles matches while lost the doubles encounter. Manas Dhamme and Pranav Rethin won their singles matches. However, the doubles team of Manas Dhamme and Arnav Paprakar lost their match.

31 - Hima Das and Mohammad Anas win gold at Athleticky Mitink Reiter event

Top Indian sprinters Hima Das and Mohammad Anas have won a gold each in the women's and men's 300m races respectively at the Athleticky Mitink Reiter event in Czech Republic. This was Hima's sixth gold in 2019 in European races since July 2019.

Mohammad Anas won the gold clocking 32.41 seconds. India’s Nirmal Tom clinched a bronze medal in the same event by clocking a timing of 33.03 seconds. National record holder Anas has already qualified for 400m event for the World Championships to be held in Doha in September-October.

32 - India's junior women boxers win 4 gold medals at Serbian tourney

India's junior women boxers clinched 12 medals at the third Nation's Cup in Vrbas, Serbia. The team won four gold, four silver and four bronze medals and claimed the runners-up trophy. Tamanna (48kg), Ambeshori Devi (57kg), Preeti Dahiya (60kg) Priyanka (66kg) notched up the gold medals.

Tamanna was adjudged Best Foreign Boxer. Over 160 boxers from 20 countries participated in this tournament, for which India sent a 13-member squad.

33 - Marnus Labuschagne becomes first concussion substitute

Marnus Labuschagne became the first concussion substitute in the history of Test cricket as he replaced Steve Smith in the second Ashes Test at Lord's. Smith was hit with a bouncer by Jofra Archer.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) had approved a like-for-like concussion substitute in men's and women's international cricket and first-class cricket worldwide from August 1. The decision was taken after a two-year trial of concussion replacements in Australia's domestic cricket competition, the Sheffield Shield.

34 - Komalika Bari became recurve cadet world champion

India's Komalika Bari became recurve cadet world champion at the World Archery Youth Championships held in Madrid, Spain. She defeated higher-ranked Sonoda Waka of Japan 7-3 in the final and earned India's second gold on the final day of the Championships.

India also won a gold in the compound junior mixed pair event and a bronze in the compound junior men's team event. The 17-year-old Komalika is now India's second recurve cadet world champion (under-18) after Deepika Kumari who won the title in 2009.

35 - Gokulam Kerala FC won Durand Cup

Gokulam Kerala FC won the 129^th Durand Cup, defeating Mohun Bagan 2-1 at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata. Gokulam captain Marcus Joseph scored both the goals. With this victory, Joseph's tally in the current 5 match campaign stood at 11 goals. Gokulam Kerala became the first club from the state in 22 years to clinch the tournament.

The Durand Football Tournament or Durand Cup, the oldest football tournament in Asia and third oldest football tournament in the world, is a football competition in India which was first held in 1888.

36 - Constable Monali Jadhav won 3 medals at World Police Games

Constable Monali Jadhav from Maharashtra won three medals, including two golds, at World Police and Fire Games International Championship held in Chengdu, China. Jadhav is attached to the Jalamb police station in Buldhana district of Maharashtra.

Representing the Indian police force, Jadhav also made a new record with a score of 716 out of 720 points in the game. She won the gold in target and field archery while settled for a bronze medal in the '3D Archery'. She had previously secured a ninth position at the World Championships in Shanghai held in May.

37 - P.V. Sindhu becomes first Indian to win Badminton World Championships gold

PV Sindhu became the first Indian to win the BWF World Championships after she defeated Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in the final. Sai Praneeth won a bronze in men’s singles category.

Sindhu had reached the finals of the World Championship in 2017 and 2018. Apart from the two silvers Sindhu won in the last two editions, she had also won the bronze in 2013 and 2014. It was Sindhu's fifth World Championships medal - joint most for a woman singles player with former Olympics and world champion Zhang Ning of China.

38 - Alex Rins bagged British Grand Prix

Team SUZUKI ECSTAR motorcycle racer Alex Rin won British Grand Prix by defeating MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez by 0.013 seconds. With this victory, Alex won his second MotoGP victory after bagging his first in the Austin GP in the beginning of 2019. Yamaha's Maverick Vinales came third at 0.620s behind the lead riders followed by Valentino Rossi at 4^th place with 11.439s behind top racers.

Spain’s Alex Rin has won 2011 Championship of the Spanish 125GP series and 2019 Grand Prix of the Americas.

39 - Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi to be renamed as Arun Jaitley Stadium

DDCA President Rajat Sharma announced to rename Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi as Arun Jaitley Stadium in memory of its former president Arun Jaitley who passed away recently. The Stadium will be named Arun Jaitley Stadium but the name of the ground will remain as Ferozeshah Kotla Ground.

During Arun Jaitley’s tenure at DDCA, he is credited with renovating Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium into a modern facility, increasing its capacity to accommodate more fans besides constructing world-class dressing rooms.

40 - Virgil Van Dijk and Lucy Bronze won UEFA Player of the Year awards

Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk won the UEFA Men's Player of the Year award while England's Lucy Bronze has been named the UEFA Women's Player of the Year.Van Dijk is the first defender to win the award since the inaugural edition in 2010-11.

Dutch defender Van Dijk helped Liverpool beat Tottenham 2-0 in the Champions League final in Madrid in June.He edged out Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo for the prestigious prize. Van Dijk also won the Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year award and BBC Sport website's player of the year for 2018-19.

41 - Arunachal Pradesh to host 25^th Senior Women’s National Football Championship

The 25^th Senior Women’s National Football Championship will be held in Arunachal Pradesh for the first time in September 2019. A total of 30 teams from across the country, representing various States, Union Territories and Indian Railways will participate in the tournament.

The teams have been divided into eight groups - A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H. Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu &Kashmir and Telangana is in group H. The inaugural match will be played between Railways and Mizoram.

42 - Eric Cantona honoured with UEFA President's Award

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin honored former Manchester United forward Eric Cantona with the 2019 UEFA President's Award. Eric scored 64 goals in 143 appearances for Manchester United and helped the club win their first English league title in 26 years in 1993.

The President's Award recognises outstanding achievements and professional excellence in football career. Previous winners of the UEFA President's Award include former players such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Sir Bobby Charlton, Eusébio, Raymond Kopa, Johan Cruyff, Francesco Totti and David Beckham.