Current Affairs July 2016 - Sports

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News 1 - Sameer emerges as the fastest athlete at the 56^th National InterState Athletics

Sameer Mon won the gold in 100m dash in 10.60 secs on the third day of the 56th National Inter-State Senior Championships held at the G M C Balayogi Stadium, Hyderabad. He represented Manipur and emerged as the fastest male athlete.

The other results are as follows:

• Women's 100 Meter Dash − Reena George of Karnataka won Gold by clocking 11.99 seconds.

• Women's Pole Vault − Khyati Vakharia of Karnataka cleared the season’s best 3.80 meter to win Gold.

• Women's 100 Meter Hurdles − M Sugina of Kerala clocked a personal best of 14.17 secs to win gold.

• Men’s 110 Meter Hurdles − D Sreekanth of Kerala won Gold by clocking personal best of 14.54 seconds.

• Women’s Triple Jump − Shilpa Chacko won third gold for Kerala by clearing 13.22 meters.

• Men's 20 Km Walk − Gujarat's Babubhai Panocha took his third Inter-state title in men's category with a time of 1 hour 31 minutes 26 seconds.

News 2 - Gurpreet Singh Sandhu became the first Indian to play in the Europa League

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu became the first Indian footballer to play for a team in the top flight Europa League Championships after he was named in the playing XI for Norwegian Tippeligaen Club Stabaek FC in a Europa League qualifier against the Welsh side Connah’s Quay Nomads FC. The Europa League is a rung below the UEFA Champions League.

Sandhu, who signed for Stabaek in 2014, made headlines in May after he became the first Indian to start in the first team in a top-division league of Europe.

News 3 - India won men’s singles and doubles title at the 2016 Canada Open Grand Prix Badminton

B Sai Praneeth and Rio-bound men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy won the singles and doubles title clash respectively at the 55,000 dollars Canada Open Grand Prix badminton tournament in Calgary.

Praneeth who was seeded fourth defeated Korea's Lee Hyun 21-12 21-10 in the men's singles final to the win the trophy. Manu and Sumeeth Reddy defeated local combo of Adrian Liu and Toby Ng 21-8 21-14 to win the title. The duo became the first Indian men's doubles pair to qualify for the Rio Olympics.

News 4 - Lewis Hamilton won the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton won the Austrian Grand Prix. He closed the gap on the Championship Leader and Teammate Nico Rosberg with the win. Rosberg leads Hamilton by 11 points.

Max Verstappen finished second while Kimi Raikkonen stood third. Nico Rosberg finished fourth while Sebastian Vettel crashed out of the race.

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was the winner of the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix.

News 5 - India to host world's first MMA 'Super Fight League'

India will be hosting the world's first Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) 'Super Fight League' from August 26 to October 1. The franchise based league will feature eight teams – Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Haryana, Bangalore, Punjab, Pune and Goa. Each team will consist of nine Indian fighters and three international fighters. A total of 96 fighters will be involved in both men and women combined.

Renowned British boxer Amir Khan is the chairman of the league. A total of 72 bouts will be played in the league stage followed by two semi-finals, third place and the final bout.

News 6 - Bangalore’s Niranjan Mukundan wins eight medals in IWAS World Games

Niranjan Mukundan, a para-swimmer from Bangalore, won eight medals, including three golds, at the recently-concluded IWAS (International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports) U-23 World Games in Prague, Czech Republic. He won gold medals in 200m freestyle, 50m butterfly and 50m breaststroke, silver in 100m fly and 50m freestyle, as well as bronze in 100m freestyle, 100m breaststroke and 100m backstroke events.

Niranjan is born with a medical condition called Spina Bifida and clubbed feet. GoSports Foundation is supporting Niranjan through the Para Champions Program.

News 7 - Javelin Thrower Annu Rani creates a National Record at the National Inter-State Athletics Championships

Javelin thrower Annu Rani created a new national record with a massive 59.87m throw at the recently concluded 56th National InterState Senior Athletics Championships. Her previous best was 59.53m at the Incheon South Asian Games to win the bronze medal. Suman Devi with a throw of 55.88m came second while Sharmila Kumari was third with a 53.80m throw.

Javelin thrower Amit Kumar (24) won the men's event with a notable personal best 79.14m ahead of Ravinder Singh Khaira (78.11m) and Vipin Kasana (77.94m).

News 8 - Saudi Arabia elected as ICC’s 39^th Associate Member

Saudi Arabia was unanimously elected as the International Cricket Council’s 39^th Associate Member.

The Saudi Cricket Centre (SCC) has been an Affiliate Member of the ICC since 2003 and, as per the 2014 census, boasts of 4,350 cricketers and 80 dedicated cricket facilities. Recently, the SCC signed a lucrative three-year deal with MoneyGram, which is also one of the ICC’s valued partners. The ICC also ratified the suspensions of the USA Cricket Association (USACA) and the Cricket Association of Nepal (CAN).

News 9 - International Gymnastics Federation declared Dipa Karmakar as World Class Gymnast

Dipa Karmakar was informed that she will receive a gold pin from the international parent body for being a ‘World Class Gymnast’ due to her outstanding performance at the World Championships in October - November 2015. It is honored to the top 30 qualifiers in multiple apparatus events or to event finalists at Worlds and is a once-in-a-career induction into Gymnastics’ Elite. With this, she became the first-ever Indian gymnast to receive this prestigious award.

The official ceremony of handing over the pin will be arranged soon.

News 10 - ICC releases Test, ODI, and T20I Rankings

The International Cricket Council (ICC) unveiled the official ICC men’s Team Rankings for Test, One Day International (ODI) and T20I cricket.

News 11 - 2016 Wimbledon Championship results announced

2016 Wimbledon tennis championship results concluded, held for two weeks at the All England Club in Wimbledon, London.

Winners of Wimbledon:

News 12 - Euro 2016 Football Championship won by Portugal

Portugal won the Euro 2016 Football Championship after defeating France by 1-0 in the final held at Paris, France. Portugal have beaten France for the first time since 1975 and first loss for France at home in a major tournament at home. Eder scored the winning goal with 11 minutes of extra time left to stun France.

Man of the match was awarded to Pepe from Portugal and the ‘Young player of the tournament’ was honored to Renato Sanches. Antoine Griezmann of France was named Player of the Tournament.

News 13 - Lewis Hamilton won the 2016 British Grand Prix Title Championship

The 2016 British Grand Prix title of Formula One championship was claimed by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton to make it a hat trick of victories at Silverstone. It was his fourth win of the season and the 47^th of his career as he equaled Nigel Mansell’s British GP record of four wins.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was second, Nico Rosberg third and Ricciardo was fourth. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen was fifth.

News 14 - GM Harika Dronavalli wins Fide Women’s Grand Prix trophy in China

India's Grand Master Harika Dronavalli won the Fide Women’s Grand Prix trophy in Chendu in China. It is her maiden career GP title.

Harika finished on 7 points in the round robin tournament featuring the world’s top 12 players to be crowned the champion. Other India Grand Master Koneru Humpy too rounded off her campaign with a victory to also finish on 7 points. Harika, however, was declared winner for finishing with a better tie-break record in the tournament.

News 15 - India jumps to the 152^nd position in the FIFA rankings

In the latest FIFA rankings released by FIFA, India has jumped by 11 places to the 152^nd position. According to reports, India is the fourth best positive mover among the Asian countries. Iran (at 39^th position) remains Asia’s number one ranked team, followed by Korea Republic (at 48^th position), Uzbekistan (at 56^th position), Japan (57^th position) and Australia (59^th position).

The Indian ranking was based on its achievement in the 2019 Asian Cup qualifying tournament and its match with Laos. FIFA rankings list was topped by Argentina followed by Belgium, Colombia, Germany and Chile at second, third, fourth and fifth positions while Portugal moved up two places to be at sixth position.

News 16 - Misbah-ul-Haq becomes the oldest captain to score a Test Hundred

Misbah-ul-Haq at the age of 42 years, became the oldest captain to score a Test century and the oldest ever to score a Test ton in the 21^st century. Misbah is also the oldest visiting player to play a Test on English soil in the last 31 years.

Misbah-ul-Haq is the current Test captain of the Pakistan national cricket team. He holds the record of the fastest test half century. He also scored the fastest test century, equaling the record of Sir Vivian Richards, which was later broken by Brendon McCullum.

News 17 - Vijender Singh slams Kerry Hope to claim the WBO Asia Pacific Title

Indian boxer Vijender Singh took all 10 rounds to beat the 34-year-old Welsh-born Australian boxer Kerry Hope and claim the WBO Asia-Pacific Super Middleweight title by score 296-274. Haryana’s boxing legend scored 98-92, 98-92, 100-90 to become the winner.

Vijender was looking for a knockout blow from the very beginning even though Kerry was the more attacking of the two. Vijender has been the winner of India's first Olympic and World Championship.

News 18 - Dipika Pallikal Karthik, Saurav Ghosal clinched National Squash Championship

The 73^rd Senior National Squash Championship was held from 12^th July – 17^th July 2016 in Mumbai. Dipika Pallikal Karthik (World No. 19) defeated the defending champion Joshna Chinappa to win the women's title.

In the men’s category, title holder and top seed, Saurav Ghosal defeated fourth seed Harinderpal Singh Sandhu in five hard-fought games to claim the title. Saurav created history by winning it for the 11^th time and he also went past R.K. Narpat Singh’s record of 10 wins from 1946 to 1955.

News 19 - Yasir Shah of Pakistan scales the number one spot in ICC Test rankings

Wrist spinner Yasir Shah has scaled the number one spot in the ICC Test rankings, becoming the first Pakistani bowler to do so since Mushtaq Ahmed achieved the feat in December 1996. He reached the number one spot after bowling Pakistan to a 75-run victory over England in the first Test at Lord's.

In the Test Batsmen rankings, Australia's Steve Smith maintained his top spot ahead of New Zealand's Kane Williamson. In Test team rankings, Australia and India currently take the top two places, followed by Pakistan and England at third and fourth spots.

News 20 - Himachal wins the Champions Trophy in All India Electricity Board Kabaddi tournament

Himachal Pradesh won the Champions Trophy in the 41^st All India Electricity Board Kabaddi tournament held at Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu. In the final, Himachal Pradesh defeated Punjab 3622.

More than 15 teams from Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Delhi, Haryana Electricity Boards competed in this four-day tournament. Tamil Nadu Minister for Tourism Vellamandi Natarajan, Minister for Backward classes and minority welfare S Valarmati gave away the Champions trophy and prizes.

News 21 - Abdul Wahid Tanveer clinches the two wheeler MRF Rally of Coimbatore

Mr. Abdul Wahid Tanveer of Team TVS, won the overall title in the MRF Rally of Coimbatore. It was the fourth round of the MRF MoGrip FMSCI National Rally Championship for two-wheelers. Tanveer was riding a TVS RTR 450 motorcycle. He clocked 1 hour 02 min, 13 seconds to complete the challenging Special Stages set around the wind farms near the Kethanur (Palladam) area.

R. Nataraj of Team TVS on a TVS RTR 450 motorcycle, came overall second while SD. Vishwas, a privateer took the third position overall on a Yamaha 250F motorcycle.

News 22 - SC accepts structural reforms of the Lodha Committee in BCCI

The Supreme Court accepted major recommendations of the Lodha Committee on reforms in BCCI which included a bar on ministers and civil servants and those above 70 from becoming its members. The court left it to the Parliament to decide whether BCCI should come under the RTI and betting on the game should be legalized.

The court accepted the recommendations of the committee to have a CAG nominee in the BCCI. A Bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice F M I Kalifulla also accepted the committee's recommendation about 'one state, one vote'.

News 23 - Herbalife associates with the Indian Olympic Association as their Nutrition Partner

Herbalife International India has entered into a 2-year exclusive partnership with the Indian Olympic Association to be the official nutrition sponsor of the Indian Olympic contingent to Rio De Janeiro. Herbalife will work with various sporting federations after the Olympics are over in order to help with the nutrition needs of various athletes.

Herbalife International is an American multinational multi-level marketing corporation that develops, markets and sells nutrition supplements, weight management, sports nutrition and personal-care products.

News 24 - Sports Ministry recognizes the Paralympic Committee of India

The issue of grant of recognition to a duly constituted National Sports Federation representing Paralympic Games in India has been under consideration. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has granted recognition to Paralympic Committee of India after having conducted free and fair elections with a former Justice of Allahabad High Court as Returning Officer, and after recognition by International Paralympic Committee.

This timely step will help Indian contingent for Paralympic Games to be held in Rio in September 2016 and help the cause of Paralympic Sports in India.

News 25 - Feliciano Lopez wins the 2016 Swiss Open Gstaad

Feliciano Lopez of Spain won the Swiss Open Gstaad after he defeated Robin Haase of Holland in the final in Gstaad, Switzerland. It was his first title on clay and his fifth overall. Lopez finally managed to win the tournament after he lost it a decade ago.

He was the winner of the 2004 Vienna Open, the 2010 Johannesburg Open and the Eatsbourne open in 2013 and 2014. The 34year-old Spaniard is currently No. 21 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

News 26 - Lewis Hamilton wins the 5^th Hungarian Grand Prix to take lead in the Drivers' Championship

Mercedes Driver, Lewis Hamilton, won the Hungarian Grand Prix to take the F1 Drivers' Championship lead for the first time this season. Nico Rosberg secured the second position while Daniel Ricciardo scored the final podium spot.

With 192 points, he is now six points ahead of his team mate Nico Rosberg. It was Hamilton's 3^rd successive win at the Hungarian Grand Prix and 5^th overall.

Top 5 Rankings after 2016 Hungarian Grand Prix:

• 1^st Position − Lewis Hamilton (Britain) of Mercedes

• 2^nd Position − Nico Rosberg (Germany) of Mercedes

• 3^rd Position − Daniel Ricardo (Australia) of Red Bull

• 4^th Position − Sebastian Vettel (Germany) of Ferrari

• 5^th Position − Max Verstappen (Netherlands) of Red Bull

News 27 - Manavaditya Rathore and Anant Naruka clinch Bronze in the Junior World Cup

Promising Indian Shooter Manavaditya Rathore has won the trap bronze medal in the Champion of Champions match at the Junior World Cup in Porpetto, Italy.

While Manavaditya, son of Athens Olympics silver medalist, Col Rajyavardhan Rathore, won the bronze in trap event, Anant Naruka bagged a bronze in skeet.

In the Champion of Champions event, the medalists of the three Junior World Cups of the year compete against each other.

News 28 - Ravichandran Ashwin regains the top spot in the ICC Bowler Rankings

India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has surged to the top of the ICC player rankings for Test bowlers after a superb outing in the first Test against the West Indies in Antigua. Ashwin, with a knock of 113, also strengthened his grip on the top spot among all-rounders.

Ashwin has replaced Pakistan leg-spinner Yasir Shah. In the rankings for Test batsmen, Australian Captain Steve Smith is still at the top. England's Joe Root has gained 2 places to be second after his double century against Pakistan. New Zealand's Kane Williamson is third. Indian captain Virat Kohli is 12th after moving 2 places.

News 29 - Muralidaran, Lohmann, Morris and Rolton to be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame

The International Cricket Council announced that Muttiah Muralidaran, Karen Rolton, Arthur Morris and George Lohmann will be inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame later this year.

Muralidaran became the first Sri Lankan player to be inducted. Rolton will be the sixth woman and the third Australian to get onto the coveted list, while Morris will be the 22^nd Australia cricketer in the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. England’s George Lohmann, the 19^th century fast bowler who took 100 wickets in just 16 Tests will be the 27^th Englishman in the list.

News 30 - Virat Kohli became the first Indian captain to score a double century outside India

Captain of the Indian Test Cricket Team, Virat Kohli became the first Indian captain to score a double century outside India after he scored 200 runs against West Indies on day two of the first Test against West Indies. Mohammad Azharuddin had scored 192 against New Zealand in Auckland in 1990.

It was also his highest score in first-class cricket and highest in Test cricket. It is the first double century for India outside the subcontinent since Wasim Jaffer's 212 in St. John's in 2006.

News 31 - American Hurdler Keni Harrison creates a world record

At the London Anniversary Games, American Keni Harrison created a world record by completing 100m hurdles in 12.20 seconds and breaking a 28-year-old world record in the 100m hurdles of 12.21 seconds.

In the finals, Harrison made a great jump out of the blocks and had a previous advantage by the fourth hurdle. Harrison extended her performance in the final hurdles, winning the race by a considerable margin. Harrison was followed to the finish line by fellow Americans Brianna Rollins, Kristi Castlin and Nia Ali.

News 32 - Wrestler Narsingh Yadav fails a dope test

India's Olympic wrestler Narsingh Yadav failed a dope test. However, the wrestler claimed it to be a conspiracy against him. His coach and support staff also backed Narsingh, saying they suspect that his food might have been contaminated.

Narsingh is a former Commonwealth Games gold-medallist and he had to fight a lengthy legal battle with Sushil Kumar to get the chance to compete for India at the Olympics. National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) Director General Navin Agarwal said it was too early to comment if Narsingh would miss the Rio Olympics.

News 33 - Neeraj Chopra becomes the 1^st Indian to create a world record at the IAAF championships

India's javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra created a world record at the IAAF world Under - 20 athletics Championship at Bydgoszcz in Poland. He won the gold after setting a world record of 86.48 meters and gave India its first world record and the country’s first ever gold in any World Athletics Championship. He bettered the previous U-20 record of 84.69m held by Latvian Zigismunds Sirmais by nearly two metres.

Sports Minister Vijay Goel has announced a ten lakh rupee cash award to Neeraj for his achievement.

News 34 - Rio bound shot putter Inderjeet Singh failed a dope test

India's Rio Olympics build-up was rocked by another dope scandal after shot putter Inderjeet Singh's 'A' sample has returned positive for a banned steroid. The reigning Asian Champion's out-of-competition test was done on June 22.

The NADA has asked the Punjab-born athlete, who had won a bronze in the 2014 Asian Games, if he wants to test his 'B' sample. If the 'B' sample also tests positive, he will have to miss the Rio Games beginning August 5^th, besides facing the prospect of being banned for four years under the new WADA Code.