The Complete Indian Sports Quiz Book

By Vijayan Bala

Vijayan Bala has been an educationist – English teacher, Vice-Principal and Principal in leading schools in India since 1976. In the schools he worked, he was also greatly involved in co-curricular activities such as quizzing and public speaking. Presently, he conducts workshops for English teachers and assists growing schools. In the field of Sports, he has contributed from the age of 18 for magazines such as Sportsweek and Sportsworld. He has been on the statistical committees of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and the Cricket Association of Bengal. He has also written two books on Cricket Statistics. He has been a commentator for All India Radio and Doordarshan covering Cricket, Hockey and Football, both in India and abroad. He has also passed the state level umpiring exam held by the Delhi and Districts Cricket Association. He has also coached school cricket and football sides with success. He still writes and broadcasts on Sports.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roli Books
• Release date: Apr 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9789351941460

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Vijayan Bala

ROLI BOOKS

This digital edition published in 2016

First published in 2016 by

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  Contents  

FOREWORD .

ARCHERY . ATHLETICS . BADMINTON .

BASKETBALL . BOARD GAMES .

BOXING . CRICKET . CUE SPORTS .

FOOTBALL . GOLF .

GYMNASTICS . HOCKEY . JUDO .

KABADDI . SHOOTING . SQUASH .

SWIMMING, DIVING AND WATER POLO .

TABLE TENNIS . TENNIS .

VOLLEYBALL . WEIGHTLIFTING .

WRESTLING . INDIA’S ACHIEVEMENTS

IN OTHER SPORTS .

TEST YOURSELF .

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .

AUTHOR BIO .

Foreword

It gives me great pleasure to introduce The Complete Indian Sports Quiz Book by Vijayan Bala. Vijayan Bala has not only been an outstanding English teacher and a dedicated, inspiring, observant and innovative school educational administrator for over three and a half decades but also a knowledgeable sports writer and commentator for over four decades. He is a walking encyclopedia on sports.

The book deals with the achievements of Indians in the national and main international competitions. Apart from quiz questions with answers, the book has trivia information, profiles of outstanding Indian players and a ‘Did You Know’ feature. The book is an invaluable addition to the sports collection of an individual fan, any library, media institutes, all types of media and different sports associations.

Col Rajyavardhan Rathore

Minister of State for Information &

Broadcasting Government of India

ARCHERY    

1. When did the Archery Association of India come into existence?

8 August 1973.

2. When was Archery first introduced in the Olympics?

In 1900 Olympics, Paris.

3. What did the 1972 Munich Olympics mark in Archery?

It marked the beginning of the modern archery competition at the Olympic Games.

4. When did Indian archers first participate in the Olympics?

1988 Seoul Olympics.

5. How many archers did India send for the Seoul Olympics?

Three, all men.

6. Name the members of the side.

Limba Ram, Shyam Lal Meena and Sanjeeva Singh.

7. How many Olympics have Indian archers taken part in?

Six – 1988 in Seoul, 1992 in Barcelona, 1996 in Atlanta, 2004 in Athens, 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London.

8. How have the Indian archers fared in the Olympics till 2012?

No medals as yet.

9. Which Indian archer has been the maximum number of times with the Indian Archery side to the Olympics?

Limba Ram. As a player he represented India in the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics, while in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics he went as a coach.

10. How was Limba Ram the archer first spotted?

To find top-class archers, the Sports Authority of India conducted a trial in a village in Rajasthan. In this trial held in 1987, Limba Ram was chosen by the selectors of the Sports Authority of India. He was then sent for a four-month training camp in Delhi.

11. How did Limba Ram prove the selectors correct?

By being selected to represent India in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

12. How was 1989 a very successful year for him?

In 1989, Limba Ram first reached the quarter final in the World Championship Cup in Lausanne, Switzerland. In the sixth Asian Cup in Bangkok he finished second individually, while India got the team gold.

13. Why have Indian archers been able to participate in only two Commonwealth Games – 1982 in Brisbane and 2010 in New Delhi?

Archery is an optional sport in the Commonwealth Games. Moreover, India had a set international standard team only towards the late 1980s.

14. How have the Indian archers performed in the Commonwealth Games?

In 1982, India failed to secure a medal while in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi India won eight medals.

15. What did the eight medals comprise of?

Three gold, one silver and four bronze.

16. Who won the gold medals?

Rahul Banerjee in the men’s recurve individual, Deepika Kumari in the women’s recurve individual and Deepika Kumari, Dola Banerjee and Bombayala Devi Laishram in the women’s recurve team events. Deepika thus won two golds.

17. Which were the other medals won by India?

A silver in the men’s compound team and bronze medals in the men’s recurve team, women’s compound team, men’s recurve individual (Jayanta Talukdar) and women’s recurve individual (Dola Banerjee) events. Jayanta Talukdar won two medals.

18. In which events did Dola’s younger brother Rahul participate in?

Men’s recurve individual and men’s recurve team events.

19. What feat did Dola and Rahul Banerjee achieve?

Both won medals in the Games.

20. When did Indian archers start winning medals in the Asian Games?

The Indian archers started winning medals in the 2006 Doha Asian Games.

21. Which medal did Indian archers win and in which event in the 2006 Asian Games?

India won a bronze in the men’s team recurve event.

22. How many medals did the Indian archers win in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games?

Three in all (one silver and two bronze).

23. The men’s and women’s teams both won the bronze medals. Who won the silver for India?

Tarundeep Rai in the men’s recurve individual event.

24. Dola and Rahul Banerjee achieved a unique feat once again in 2010 Asian Games. What was it?

Both, brother (Rahul) and sister (Dola) won medals.

25. What was India’s medal tally in Archery in the 2014 Incheon Games?

Four in all (one gold, one silver and two bronze).

26. Which two players won two medals each?

Abhishek Verma in the men’s category and Trisha Deb in the women’s category.

27. What did Abhishek Verma win?

Abhishek won an individual silver and was a member of the gold winning men’s compound team.

28. What were Trisha’s successes?

Trisha won an individual bronze and was also a member of the bronze medal winning women’s compound team.

29. Who won India’s first individual medal in Archery in the World Championships?

Rajat Chauhan won a silver medal in the compound individual event in the 2015 World Championships in Copenhagen.

30. In which event did Abhishek Verma win a gold for India in the World Cup Archery Stage 3 at Wroclaw, Poland in August 2015?

Men’s compound individual event.

31. Who is the first Indian Compound archer to win a medal in a World Cup final?

Abhishek Verma at Mexico City on 25 October 2015, when he won a silver medal.

32. India won two silver medals in an Archery World Cup final for the first time in 2015. Who won the other silver medal for India?

Deepika Kumari in the recurve event.

ATHLETICS

1. Name the athlete who won the 100m and 200m sprint events in the 1951 Asian Games at Delhi.

Lavy Pinto. He was also in the 4x100m silver-medalwinning relay team.

2. What other distinction did Lavy Pinto achieve in the 1951 Asian Games?

He became the first Indian to win a gold medal in the Asian Games.

3. Name the other short-distance runner who won medals in the 1951 Asian Games.

M. Gabriel. He won silver medals in the 200m sprint and 4x100m relay event. He also won a bronze in the 100m sprint in the 1954 Asian Games.

4. Who is the first Indian woman to win a silver medal for India in the Asian Games?

Roshan Mistry – silver medal in the 100m sprint in the 1951 Asian Games in Delhi.

5. Which woman athlete got a bronze medal in the 200m sprint and was part of the silver medal 4x100m relay team in the 1951 Asian Games?

Mary D’Souza. She also successfully participated in the 1954 Asian Games.

6. Name a mathematics professor, later Reader, who in his youth won the gold medal in the 800m event of the 1951 Asian Games.

Prof. Ranjit Bhatia. He later became a Reader at St. Stephen’s College of the Delhi University.

7. Who were the members of the 4x400m relay side which won the gold in the 1951 Asian Games?

The four members of that gold-medal-winning team were A. S. Bakshi, Gobind Singh, Balwant Singh and Karan Singh.

8. Which Indian shot put and discuss throw specialist won gold medals in both events in the 1954 Manila Games?

Parduman Singh Brar. He was the first Asian to achieve this feat.

9. How many more medals did he win in the shot put event in the Asian Games?

In the shot put event, he followed up his gold in the 1954 Asian Games with a gold in the 1958 Tokyo Games.

10. How many more medals did he win in the discus throw event in the Asian Games?

In the discus throw event, he followed up his gold in the 1954 Asian Games with a bronze in the 1958 Tokyo Games and a silver in the 1962 Jakarta Games.

11. Who is the first and till now the only Indian to have won the gold medal in the men’s 110m hurdles in the Asian Games?

Sarwan Singh, in the 1954 Manila Asian Games.

12. What did Dalu Ram achieve in the 1954 Manila Asian Games?

Dalu Ram won two bronze medals – one in the 3000m steeple chase event and the other in the 5000m event.

13. What was the Indian women’s team that won the gold in the 4x100m relay for women in the 1954 Asian Games?

The Indian team comprised of Violet Peters, Christine Brown, Stephie D’Souza and Mary D’Souza.

14. Apart from the gold medal in the relay what other medal did Christine Brown win in the 1954 Asian Games?

She won a bronze in the 100m sprint.

15. The winning women’s relay quartet in the 1954 Asian Games had one change in personnel in the 1958 Tokyo Asian Games. What was the change?

Mary D’Souza of the 1954 side was replaced by M. Leela Rao.

16. What did the new relay quartet achieve in the 1958 Asian Games?

The new women’s relay team won the bronze medal.

MILKHA SINGH

Milkha Singh was born in the 1930s. He survived the terrible happenings during Partition and joined the Indian Army. It was in the Indian Army that Milkha later known as ‘the Flying Sikh’ became India’s first world-class athlete. Apart from the great 400m race that he was a part of in the 1960 Rome Olympics, Milkha won a gold medal for India in the 440yds event of the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games at Cardiff (Wales) and further golds in the 200m and 400m events of the 1958 Asian Games and the 400m and 4 X 400m relay of the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games. Till the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Milkha Singh remained the only Indian male athlete to win an individual athletics gold in the Commonwealth Games. Vikas Gowda won the discus Gold medal in the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Milkha rose from the rank of a sepoy in the army to that of a Junior Commissioned Officer in 1958 after his success in the Asian Games and later retired from the post of Director of Sports in Punjab. His wife Nirmal Kaur was a former Indian Volleyball captain while his son, Jeev Milkha Singh, has been one of India’s best ever golfers.

The film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was a biopic on him. Milkha sold the movie rights for 1 but inserted a clause stating that the share of the profits would be given to the Milkha Singh Charitable Trust which was founded in 2003 with the aim of assisting poor and needy sports people. It is worth mentioning that in 1999, Milkha Singh and his wife adopted the seven-year-old son of Havildar Bikram Singh who had died in the Battle of the Tiger Hill.

17. What other medal did Stephie D’Souza win in the 1958 Asian Games?

She won a silver medal in the 200m sprint.

18. Which Indian won the 200m and 400m sprint in the 1958 Asian Games?

Milkha Singh.

19. What other gold medal did Milkha Singh win in an international competition in 1958 which became a first?

He won the gold in the then 440 yards sprint in the 1958 Commonwealth Games at Cardiff becoming the first Indian athlete to win a gold in a Commonwealth Games.

20. How did Milkha Singh perform in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games?

Milkha won two gold medals – the 400m sprint and the 4x400m relay.

21. Who were the other members of the 4x400m gold-medal-winning relay team?

The other members of the team were Daljit Singh, Jagdish Singh and Makhan Singh.

22. By what name was athlete Milkha Singh popularly known as?

The ‘Flying Sikh’.

23. Who gave Milkha Singh this title?

General Ayub Khan, the former president of Pakistan gave Milkha Singh the title in 1960 when he ran in Pakistan.

24. Who won the gold in the discus throw in the 1958 Asian Games?

Balkar Singh defeating the defending champion Parduman Singh Brar in the process.

25. Which other Asian Games medal did Balkar Singh win?

He won the bronze medal in the same event in the 1966 Asian Games.

26. Which medal did Elizabeth Davenport win in the women’s javelin throw event of the 1958 Asian Games?

Silver.

27. How did Davenport perform in the same event in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games?

She won a bronze medal.

28. How many medals did sprinter Makhan Singh win in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games?

Makhan Singh won the gold in the 4x400m relay and earned the silver in the 400m sprint finishing second to Milkha Singh.

29. Which long distance Indian runner also picked up two medals in the 1962 Asian Games?

Amrit Pal. He got a silver in the 1500m event and a bronze in the 800m event.

30. Which Indian athlete won the gold in the decathlon event of the 1962 Asian Games?

Gurbachan Singh Randhawa.

31. What honour did he get soon after the Asian Games?

He was declared the best athlete in Asia.

32. In how many Olympics did Gurbachan Singh Randhawa represent India?

Two – 1960 in Rome and 1964 in Tokyo.

33. What was his best performance in the Olympics?

A fifth position in the 110m hurdles event at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

34. What distinction did he achieve as an athlete?

He was the first athlete to receive the Arjuna Award for the year 1961 in 1962.

35. In which events did Ajmer Singh win a gold and silver medal in the 1966 Bangkok Asian Games?

Ajmer Singh won a gold in the 400m sprint event and a silver in the 200m sprint event.

36. In which major competition did Ajmer Singh first represent India?

Ajmer Singh first represented India in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

37. What was unusual about Ajmer Singh winning the Arjuna Award?

He was the only person with a doctorate in Physical Education to win the Arjuna Award.

38. How did discus thrower Praveen Kumar perform in the 1966 Asian Games?

Praveen won the gold medal in the discus throw event and a bronze in the hammer throw event.

39. What achievement of his in the 1966 Asian Games did Praveen Kumar repeat in the 1970 Bangkok Games?

He won the gold medal in the discus throw event for a second time in the 1970 Asian Games.

40. Did Praveen complete a hat-trick of Asian Games golds in the discus throw event in the 1974 Tehran Games?

No. In the 1974 Tehran Asian Games, Praveen could manage only a silver.

41. How many medals did Praveen Kumar win in all at the Asian Games?

In the three Asian Games, Praveen Kumar won two golds and one silver for the discus throw and one bronze for the hammer throw.

42. In which other major competition did Praveen Kumar win a medal in the discus throw event?

In the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston he won a silver medal.

43. How many Olympics did he participate in?

Two – 1968 in Mexico and 1972 in Munich.

44. In which other field is Praveen Kumar quite well known?

Acting. In 1988, he played the character of Bheem in the TV series Mahabharat.

45. Who won the shot put gold in the 1966 Asian Games?

Joginder Singh. He had won the bronze in the 1962 Asian Games.

46. What feat did Joginder Singh achieve in the 1970 Asian Games?

Joginder won the gold medal for the second time in succession in the shot put event.

47. What were jumper Labh Singh’s performances in the 1966 and the 1970 Asian Games?

Labh Singh won a bronze medal in the triple jump event in the 1966 Asian Games and a silver in the same event in the 1970 Asian Games, where, he also won a bronze in the long jump event.

48. Who won the gold medal in the high jump event of the 1966 Asian Games – the second Indian to do so?

Bhim Singh. He also won a bronze in the 1970 Asian Games.

49. Who was the first Indian to win the high jump event in the Asian Games?

Ajit Singh in the 1954 Manila Asian Games.

50. In which Olympics did Bhim Singh participate?

In the 1968 Mexico Olympics.

51. Who won the gold medal in the triple jump event in the 1970 Asian Games?

Mohinder Singh Gill. He also won the bronze in the Commonwealth Games that year.

52. How did Mohinder perform in the triple jump in 1974?

In 1974, he won the silver medal both in the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games.

53. Which long distance runner (3000m steeple chase) improved on his position achieved in the 1970 Asian Games, in the 1974 Asian Games? Gurmej Singh. Gurmej got a bronze in 1970 while in 1974 he won the silver.

54. How many Asian Games and Olympics did Sriram Singh participate in?

Three Asian Games – 1970, 1974 and 1978 and three Olympics – 1972, 1976 and 1980.

55. In which event was he greatly respected?

800m.

56. How did he perform in the event in the three Asian Games he participated in?

In the 1970 Bangkok Asian Games he won the silver medal while in the 1974 Tehran Games and 1978 Bangkok Games he won the gold.

57. Which Olympics marked the high point of Sriram’s athletics career?

It was the 800m race in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Despite never having run on synthetic tracks and the qualifying round, semifinals and finals being on successive days, Sriram led at the 400m mark only to fade away and finish seventh.

58. Who became the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in an Asian Games?

Kamaljeet Sandhu. She won the 400m race in the 1970 Bangkok Asian Games.

59. Which Olympics did she participate in?

1972 Munich Olympics.

60. Which silver medallist in the shot put event in the 1974 Asian Games went on to win gold medals in the 1978 and 1982 Asian Games?

Bahadur Singh Chouhan.

61. What event did T.C. Yohannan specialize in?

Long Jump.

62. Why is Yohannan’s participation in the 1974 Tehran Asian Games remembered?

Yohannan not only won the gold medal in the long jump event but also created a new Asian Games record of 8.07 metres for that event.

63. In which Olympics did Yohannan represent India?

1976 Montreal Olympics.

64. Yohannan’s son played Test cricket and ODIs for India. What was his name?

Tinu Yohannan.

65. Name the great long distance runner who won a gold medal in the 5000m event and a silver medal in the 10,000m event in the 1974 Tehran Asian Games?

Shivnath Singh.

66. How many Olympics did Shivnath Singh participate in?

Two – 1976 in Montreal and 1980 in Moscow.

67. Name an Indian athlete who won medals in two different events in successive Asian Games?

Suresh Babu. He won a bronze in the decathlon in the 1974 Asian Games and a gold in the long jump event in the 1978 Asian Games.

68. Name the famous Indian athletics coach who was named the best coach in Asia after the 1978 Asian Games.

Ilyas Babar.

69. When did Ilyas Babar get the Dronacharya Award?

1994.

70. In the 1978 Bangkok Asian Games which long distance runner won both the 5000m and 10,000m events?

Hari Chand.

71. How many Olympics did Hari Chand participate in?

Two – 1976 in Montreal and 1980 in Moscow.

72. Who was India’s fastest man in the 1978 Asian Games?

R. Gnanasekaran. He won the gold in the 200m sprint and the silver in the 100m sprint.

73. What were the medals Geeta Zutshi won in the 1978 and 1982 Asian Games?

In the 1978 Bangkok Asian Games, Geeta Zutshi won a gold in the 800m event and a silver in the 1500m event while in the