1) Nadal receives Spanish award.
- [Rafael Nadal] Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy awarded the Gold Medal for Merit to tennis star Rafael Nadal, who stated that “victory is accomplished through work”.
- Nadal was one of the winners of this award, decided last June 13, but he could not pick it up at the ceremony in November because he was still recovering from his recent appendectomy operation.
About Nadal:
- Country: Spain.
- Capital: Madrid.
- Nadal began the year 2015 as the defending champion at the Qatar Open. However, he lost in the first round.
- Nadal opened his 2015 Australian Open by defeating Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets.
- Nadal reached the semifinals of the Rio Open after defeating Thomaz Bellucci, Pablo Carreno Busta and Pablo Cuevas.
- Rafael Nadal won his first singles title of 2015 when he won his 46th career clay-court title with a straight sets victory over Juan Mónaco in the Argentina Open in Buenos Aires.
2) Floyd Mayweather Jr won World Welterweight title of Boxing.
- [Floyd Mayweather] American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. has won the unified World Welterweight title of World Boxing Council, World Boxing Organisation and World Boxing Association.
- Mayweather defeated Manny Pacquiao from Philippines on a unanimous decision with Judges Scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112 in 12 rounds of intense boxing.
- The legendary bout termed as ‘Fight of the Century’ was played at iconic MGM Grand, Las Vegas.
3) Chelsea claim English Premier League title.
- Chelsea won their first Premier League title for five years as Jose Mourinho`s side produced a typically stubborn display to grind out a 1-0 victory against Crystal Palace at a jubilant Stamford Bridge.
- Chelsea have 83 points from 35 games and now cannot be surpassed by closest rivals Manchester City.
4) Roger Federer won the inaugural Istanbul Open Tennis Men’s Singles Title.
- Switzerland tennis player Roger Federer won the TEB BNP Paribas Istanbul Open Men’s singles title by defeating Pablo Cueves of Uruguay.
- With this win, the world No 2 ranking player took his 85th ATP World Tour title and ended a long drought on clay since his previous title of 2012 Madrid Masters.
5) Indian Railway girls clinch 5th national hockey championship title.
- Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) has won the 5th National women hockey championship title by defeating Hockey Jharkhand with a huge margin at Saifai, Uttar Pradesh.
- For the RSPB, Saundarya Yendala scored three goals in the final match while Sunita Lakra and Lilima Minz scored two goals each. Anuradha Devi, Manmeet Kaur, Anupa Barla, Poonam Barla, and Deepgrace Ekka scored one goal each for the winning team.
- Hockey Punjab settled for the bronze medal by beating Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy.
6) Maniram Patel claims gold in 20 km walk.
- [Maniram Patel] Gujarat`s Maniram Patel claimed gold in the men`s 20 km walk in the 19th Federation Cup senior athletics championship, clocking a time of 1:29:51 in the finals.
- Kuldeep of Tata Motors (1:31:04) and Ankit Kumar Kumar of Indian Navy came second and third respectively.
- World University Games silver medallist and defending champion Inderjeet Singh of Haryana became the first athlete in the meet to qualify for the Rio Olympics with a stupendous toss of 20.65m in shot put.
- evender Singh of the Army created the first meet record in the Federation cup in the javelin throw event, setting out the spear to 79.65 m. Singh and the silver medallist Neeraj Chopra of Haryana (73.96m) came under the qualifying grade for the Asian meet at Wuhan, China next month.
7) India’s top shooters win 3 gold, 2 bronze medals at International Shooting Competition.
- At the International Shooting Competition held in Hannover, Germany, India’s top rifle shooters won 3 Gold and 2 Bronze medals. Abhinav Bindra, who got Gold medal in Bijing Olmpics, won both the individual and team gold in his pet 10 metre air rifle event.
- Chain Singh won Gold medal in 50 metre men rifle and team gold in 10 metre air rifle event.
- [Abhinav Bindra]
- Abhinav Bindra
- The gold medal winning 10 metre air rifle team included Abhinav Bindra,Gagan Narang and Chain Singh.
- Gagan Narang won the Bronze medal in men 50 metre rifle 3 positions event and Apurvi Chandela won Bronze medal in women’s air rifle event.
- [Gagan Narag]
- Gagan Narang
- Information on ISSF or International Shooting Sports Federation:
- It is the governing body of Olympics Shooting events in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun categories.
- It was founded in the year 1907.
- Its headquarters is in Munich,Germany.
- ISSF president is Mr Olegario Vazquez Rana.
8) Sandeep Jajodia removed as Boxing India President.
- [Sandeep Jajodia] The administrative turmoil in Indian boxing took a new turn as Federation President Sandeep Jajodia was ousted after an overwhelming vote against him in the No Confidence Motion brought in at a Special General Meeting, a move which was termed "illegal" by the incumbent.
- Jajodia lost the motion 2-55 after 57 of the 64 general body members gathered here in a meeting from which he was conspicuous by his absence.
9) Army athletes emerge champions in Federation Cup.
- At the end of the four-day event at the Mangala stadium the Indian Army team emerged champions in the 19th Federation Cup national senior athletic championship, scoring 123.5 points.
- The Tamil Nadu team came second by securing 114 points. The overall men`s championships also went to the Army and Tamil Nadu with 123.5 and 48 points respectively.
- Kerala claimed the overall championship in the women`s category with 86 points followed by Karnataka with 68 points.
- The best athlete award in the championship in the men`s category was won by Inderjeet Singh of team Haryana for his stupendous toss in the shot put event, which helped him qualify for the Rio Olympics in 2016.
- Srabani Nanda from Odisha was selected as the best athlete in the women`s category for the agility she displayed in the 100m event.
10) Jonathan Trott retired from International Cricket.
- [Jonathan Trott] England batsman Jonathan Trott has retired from international cricket with immediate effect after a disappointing tour of the West Indies.
- Trott only returned to the England side last month following an extended break from the game due to a stress-related illness but scored a meagre 72 runs, including three ducks, at an average of just 12 in the three-test series against West Indies.
- South African-born Trott played 52 tests, scoring 3,835 runs at an average of 44.08 after scoring a century on his debut in the 2009 Ashes series.
- He also played 68 one-day internationals, scoring 2,819 runs at an average of 51.25.
11) Stuart Bingham won World Snooker Championship.
- [Stuart Bingham] Stuart Bingham won the Betfred World Championship for the first time by beating Shaun Murphy in an extraordinary final at the Crucible.
- Murphy looked to have the momentum when he came from 15-12 down to 15-15, but Bingham won a crucial hour-long 31st frame and went on to take the next two to win the famous trophy and £300,000 top prize.
12) Geeta Phogat wins bronze in Asian championship.
- [Geeta Phogat] Geeta Phogat bagged a bronze in the Women`s freestyle 58kg category, while Hitender Beniwal lost his bronze-medal play-off bout to return empty-handed in the Men`s 125kg division in the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship in Doha.
- Geeta defeated Thi Loan Nguyen of Vietnam by fall verdict in the bronze medal play-off, to settle for the third position last night, according to the Wrestling Federation of India.
About Geeta Phogat:
- Belongs to Haryana, She is the first-ever Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for the Olympics. Phogat won a gold medal in the Wrestling FILA Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament that concluded at Almaty, Kazakhstan in April 2012.