Jan-feb 2009

SPORTS NEWS IN BRIEF: JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2009

ARCHERY National Championship, 16th: Jharkhand topped the medal tally followed by Services and Assam. Jharkhand bagged five medals—two gold, two silver, one bronze.

ATHLETICS Mumbai Marathon, 2009: Eager to put behind November 2008’s terror attacks in Mumbai, more than 43,000 people thronged the streets to participate in the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon. In men’s section Kenya’s Kenneth Mun Gara won. In the women’s event, Ethiopia’s Haille Kebebush was winner.

CRICKET West Indies-New Zealand One-Day Series:New Zealand beat the West Indies by five wickets via Duckworth-Lewis in a rain-shortened fifth and final ODI to win the five-match series 2-1.

Australia-South Africa One-Day Series: Australia were dethroned as the number one team in one-dayers by South Africa who demolished the hosts by 39 runs in the fifth and final match to clinch the ODI series with an emphatic 4-1 margin. Jacques Kallis became the second all-rounder to aggregate 10,000 runs and bag 200 wickets or more in ODIs. Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya was the first to achieve this feat.

Pakistan-Sri Lanka One-Day Series: Sri Lanka bull-dozed Pakistan by 235 runs in the third and final match to win the three-match series 2-1. Pakistan’s defeat was the second biggest in terms of runs suffered by a Test-playing nation in ODIs.

Sri Lanka-India One-Day Series: An all-round display by the Indian team helped them to win the five-match series 4-1. M.S. Dhoni became the most successful Indian captain with this series victory. Dhoni also established an Indian record for most wins (9) in succession. For Sri Lanka, Jayasuriya became the oldest centurion in one-day internationals and went past the 13,000-run mark during the series.

Ranji Trophy: There was no stopping the Mumbai juggernaut from rolling to victory in the 75th edition of Ranji Trophy. Mumbai crushed Uttar Pradesh by 243 runs to record their 38th title win in the competition.

Duleep Trophy: West Zone defeated South Zone to win the Duleep Trophy for the 15th time.

CYCLING National Track Cycling Championship: Kerala won the overall team championship Trophy. Punjab was placed second. The men’s Trophy was bagged by Railways, while Punjab stood second. In women’s section the Kerala eves gained the top slot while Manipur was second. FOOTBALL Ronaldo crowned player of the year: Cristiano Ronaldo has been crowned world

player of the year, making him the first Europe- based footballer to win the FIFA award since its inception in 1991. It gives the 23-year-old a clean sweep of all recognized major individual and club honours available to a footballer. TABLE TENNIS National Championship, 70th: Olympian Achanta Sharath Kamal retained the men’s singles title for the Maharaja Pithapuram Cup, while top seed K. Shamini lifted the Travancore Cup by winning the women’s singles competition. TENNIS Australian Open, 2009:  Men’s Singles title: Rafael Nadal beat Roger Federer.  Women’s Singles title: Serena Williams beat Dinara Safina (Russia).  Men’s Doubles title: Bob and Mike Bryan beat Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.  Women’s Doubles title: Serena and Venus Williams.  Mixed Doubles title: Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza.  The win gave Sania her first Grand Slam title and Bhupathi his seventh mixed-doubles crown and 11th Grand slam title.  Yuki Bhambri created history by becoming the fourth Indian to win a junior Grand Slam title, when he won the boys’ final.

Chennai Open 2009: Marin Cilic of Croatia beat Somdev Devvarman to win the title. Americans Eric Butorac and Rajeev Ram won the doubles title.