Chess: Sankalp Gupta becomes India’s 71st Grandmaster
18-year old Sankalp Gupta secured the three required GM norms in just 24 days toachieve the Grandmaster title. Sankalp Gupta has become India’s 71st Grandmaster by scoring 6.5 points in the GM Ask 3 round-robin event at Arandjelovac in Serbia. He won five games, drew three, and lost one to Rudik Makrarian (Russia) to take second place in the chess...
Sjoerd Marijne’s bitter-sweet relationship with Indian Hockey ends in a sour tone
Sjoerd Marijne, who guided the Indian Women's Hockey team to their best-ever Olympic outing, has ended his tenure with Hockey India. But he is yet to receive his final salary from SAI and a reward from UP government. Sjoerd Marijne was first appointed the head coach of the Indian Women’s Team in February 2017. But just after 7 months of...
Cheerleading as sport- Rewind to Johnny Campbell on 2nd November, 1898 at Minnesota
Though Cheerleading originated in Britain, but an American is regarded as the first Cheerleader. Johnny Campbell’s Cheerleading at a Football match in 1898 made him the very first cheerleader and November 2 the official birth date of organized Cheerleading. Cheerleading is an organized sports activity; it combines dance, gymnastics, and stunt elements, performed by cheerleaders in one-or two minutes, to...
14-year old Tajamul Islam fights all her way to win World Kickboxing Champion title
Tajamul Islam is a remarkable athlete in Kickboxing whose grit and passion for her art will inspire other young athletes for generations to come. Young Tajamul Islam from Kashmir has won the title of World Kickboxing Champion at Cairo in Egypt, after defeating Lalina from Argentina, in the final. This is 14-year-old Tajamul's second World Kickboxing Champion title, after the...
In this T20 World Cup, Cricket Namibia resurges under their ‘golden generation’ of players
Namibia reached the T20 World Cup second round for the first time when they defeated Ireland by eight wickets. The lowest-ranked team in the tournament is now placed in the same super 12 category as India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Scotland. Resurgence, that is the word that can be applied to Namibian cricket. After a long absence of 18-years...
‘Messing’ with the ‘Tradition’ of the sport, T20 Cricket takes blistering steps into its 7th World Cup
The curtailed form of Cricket, Twenty20, has changed the whole cricketing landscape. The formula of hitting hard and scoring high has made a lot of the 'traditional' Cricket lovers indifferent to this format. However, like its blistering pace, T20 Cricket has reached quickly to its 7th World Cup that is being played at Oman after one-year postponement due to...
India gets its 21st Woman Grandmaster; but isn’t it still a gender disparity packaged as a title?
Divya Deshmukh created history after becoming India's 21st Woman Grandmaster (WGM) at just 15-years old. However, with FIDE's separate Grandmaster title for women, the underlying problem of gender bias remains in Chess. Divya Deshmukh became the country's youngest Women Grandmaster after she got her 2nd International Master (IM) at First Saturday Grand Master (GM) in Budapest. In a total of...
Beijing Winter Olympics to be held under strictest COVID-19 safety rules
The Winter Olympics, scheduled to be held in Beijing from the 4th to the 20th of February 2022, will follow the strictest COVID-19 safety rules as has been declared by the hosts. In order to ensure maximum protection against the ongoing global pandemic, a host of stringent security measures are being put in place by the Winter Olympics organising committee....
A natural leader, Pranay Tari wants to lead Dueball to newer heights
Hailing from the state of Goa, Pranay Gajanan Tari is a budding Dueball player, who wants to make a mark on the international Dueball scene. A natural leader, Pranay Tari feels right in his element when given the chance to take a group of people forward. His first introduction to Dueball came in April 2014 and since then he has...
‘Operation Soccer Balls’- the safe evacuation of the Afghanistan Girls Football Team to provide asylum in Portugal
Due to the ban on female participation in sports imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the international effort to evacuate members of Afghanistan's Girls Soccer Team has come to fruition under Operation Soccer Balls. Titled “Operation Soccer Balls”, the rescue mission of the Afghanistan National Girls Soccer Football Team is successful with ‘divine intervention and luck’. Nic McKinley, the Air...