Indian Sports and Entertainment Industry

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 19 Feb 2014 16:34

final official scoring on first run on giant slalom

himanshu comes in at 79th, 30 competitors did not start, did not finish or were disqualified

not bad considering he's young, this is his 3rd international outing and he only got his racing kit and new skis two weeks ago - and he's certainly not had the sports science, coaching and ski wax technician support that the top guys will have had, nor the facilities to practice

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 19 Feb 2014 17:07

and so the 2nd run is complete

6 more guys didn't finish, 1 guy disqualified, and 1 more missed a gate, walked back up a bit and continued

himanshu finishes 72nd overall and muhammad karim (pak) finishes 71

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 19 Feb 2014 23:13

nadeem iqbal is at the high altitude warfare school. he was picked by the army to compete in the cross country ski event
i hope that he goes back energised from sochi and the haws sends 3 guys to the korean winter olympics in 4 years time, and one of them gets in the top 30
i also hope that they enter in multiple events (cross country)

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 19 Feb 2014 23:37

Unlike luge, both alpine and cross country skiing, as well as biathlon, are part of the Winter Asian Games too. It's a pity luge is not included, or we'd probably have at least one gold there from Keshavan.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 20 Feb 2014 14:22

it looks like a lot of events are held in iran and some indians have previously held asian champion status before

also, looking at thakur's FIS record - he has raced in quite a few official FIS events in both iran and turkey. he has also taken part in a few senior competitions in italy, france and austria. so thank goodness somebody is taking their sport seriously. for these events, exposure to the high end of the sport is crucial. my own view is that thakur needs to muscle up a lot more and do his time on the racing circuit. his performance at sochi will definitely raise his overall ranking and make him eligible for more events. some desi media painting a picture of him as having come "last" - which is not entirely fair. he is last amongst those left standing, but lets not forget that in an event where 30% of competitors have crashed out, to remain standing is not a bad outcome!

incidentally, the iranians had a number of skiiers in the downhill events, they looked pretty good, but obviously not as fast as the more hardcore euro and north american snow bums. the pakistani skiier seems to be a fauji as well, from gilgit

keshavan has been training for luge in germany and currently he is travelling/training with team usa - good for him. whilst it is not feasible for india to build a full blown sliding facility, we should look to lease time from the russians or germans. for x-country skiing, i am sure that with a private-public partnership with HAWS, we can produce several good x-country skiiers and biathletes and hire a retired norwegian dude as coach!

downhill - probably need to send the guys out for extended camps to european or north american locations - need to get mittal to sponsor them!

the british skiers similarly train a lot in france even if privately (with some brits actually skiing for france now!) and also norway, with some training with the norwegian olympic team

i didn't see where the jamaican bobsled team is training, but they are cool dudes and they are keeping the spirit of "cool runnings" alive and well! they finished last i think, but they are having a good time!

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 24 Feb 2014 06:35

Sochi 2014 Medal Count

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 24 Feb 2014 14:12

yesterday norwegian women swept the board at the 30km x country mass start ski, and the russian men did the same at the 50km - very impressive

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 24 Feb 2014 14:35

Sochi Olympics 2014 Opening and Closing Ceremony ( Photos )

Opening Ceremony ---> http://www.sdelanounas.ru/blogs/46887/
Closing Ceremony ---> http://www.sdelanounas.ru/blogs/47414/

Austin · Post by **Austin** » 26 Mar 2014 12:24

Sochi Paralympics medal count 2014: Final standings

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 14 Apr 2014 05:01

Good news for Chess in Aravindh: http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-little ... n-the-rise A total SDRE with vibuthi-kungumam combination.

VenkataS · Post by **VenkataS** » 23 May 2014 00:28

India reach Uber Cup semis

Indian women's badminton team reach Uber cup semis for the first time ever. They are assured of a bronze.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 26 May 2014 06:16

India has over 35 chess grand masters now and to think we had our first one only in 1988 and only three GMs till 2000. Now only if some of them can go on to become world champions.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 26 May 2014 06:20

http://www.niticentral.com/2014/05/22/e ... 26061.html

Everest climber girl goes missing after conquering Kangchenjunga
Priyadarshi Dutta22 May 2014

Celebrations turned into mourning within hours at Kolkata residence of Chhanda Gayen on Tuesday. The news of her conquering the 8,585 metre high Kangchenjunga Main was followed by report that she had gone missing in a blizzard. She was on her way to conquer the 8,505 metre high Kangchenjunga West (Yalung Kang) when an avalanche overwhelmed her. Gayen (33) was in news last year when she conquered the world’s tallest mountain peak Mount Everest on May 18, 2013. She made the first anniversary of her feat memorable by planting the national Tri-colour on Kangchenjunga Main on Sunday. Kangchenjunga Main, one of the five peaks of the range, is the second highest mountain peak in the world.

But, 33-year old Chhanda was unwilling to stop at it. She returned to the summit camp only to set out towards Kangchenjunga West (Yalung Kang) accompanied by three Sherpas. No civilian expedition let alone any mountaineering mission comprising women had ever stepped on that perilous path. Even daring military mountaineers generally avoid that height. One has to advance at snail’s pace for 17-18 hours on a ridge flanked by gorges on both sides. There is not even a suitable place to set up a summit camp. That makes conquering Kangchenjunga West more difficult than conquering the Mt Everest.

Yet, Chhanda was close to her target when bad weather forced them to halt. Disappointed they had decided to return when they were run over by an avalanche. Channda and two other Sherpas slipped and fell down. Only Sherpa Tashi could survive the blizzard, and returned to the base camp 24-hours later to narrate the horrific tale. Chhanda’s fellow mountaineers from West Bengal had been waiting at the base camp. Rajiv Bhattacharya, member of the expedition, broke the news over satellite phone.

The gradient where Chhanda and her companions went missing is referred to as ‘Great Shelf’. A snowslide is not an uncommon phenomenon at that point. An attempt is being made from Kathmandu to recover the remaining team mates by helicopter. But experts say helicopter would find it difficult to operate at that altitude.

Meanwhile the Government of India has reached out to Nepalese Government for search and rescue operation.

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 06 Jun 2014 06:06

India holds Spain to a draw (1-1) after losing to Belgium and England (referee was RACIST for awarding penalty corner in less than 2 minute of game where the TV reviewest told him that ball has not hit the foot but it is his own prerogative ) in world cup hockey!! (KPS GILL the MF has ruined Indian hockey for this reason alone he should be hanged till death!!!!!)

and this is before Dawood and his idiotic MUSLISMS start their entry into Hockey when it will become garbage like cricket!!!

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 07 Jun 2014 09:38

But India is ranked higher(8) than Spain (10), so Indian should have won the match. I saw the match against UK and we played very well. The stick work shown by Indians was beautiful, but a couple of times, we took more time in firing a shot at the goal than necessary. Also according to the commentator, we are not as fit as the other teams. Even against the 5th ranked Belgium, we conceded a last minute goal (last 17 seconds I think) to lose 2-3. I don't know if we will ever get across than hump and get into the top 4.

sooraj · Post by **sooraj** » 09 Jun 2014 19:18

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO): FIFA and the World Cup

[youtube]/watch?v=DlJEt2KU33I[/youtube]

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 14 Jun 2014 21:49

India finished 9 in the hockey world cup, 1 place below its ranking of 8, though overall its not a bad performance.
India played excellent hockey against England and Malaysia, were ok against Korea, sucked against Belgium and Spain, were absolutely horrible against Australia. Two of our starting players were injured and could not make it to the world up or else our standing could have been higher.

You can watch the replays on youtube. Search for "rabobank hockey world cup 2014".

We have a very young side. The old player is the captain Sardara Singh at 27. Most of the players are 25 or below, many being below 23 and a couple of them 19 year olds. And with the Hockey India League, there is now some financial security to the players which should encourage more promising players to take up hockey as a career. We should see some podium finishes in the coming years.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 15 Jun 2014 02:12

I saw some of those World Cup hockey videos on youtube. The Indian goalkeeper (Sreejesh ?) looks really good. Against Spain in particular, he stopped three hits on goal in a row, diving and falling again and again over a few seconds, before the last hit overwhelmed him. We have a fast young frontline, but looks like our defense is comparatively weaker, without someone like Pargat Singh in the back. Good performance overall. They look fit and muscular, and in the India-Korea match, outran the Koreans, who are famous for this during their original rise - lacking any prior history in the sport they used sheer fitness and the ability to run the other team to exhaustion, as their differentiator. That's the tactic they used in 1986 in the Seoul Asian Games when they ran the traditional rivals India and TSP ragged, tiring them out and not letting them play their game. Nice to see the wheel come a full circle and to see us beat them 3-0 .

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 15 Jun 2014 03:32

^^After the stops by Sreejesh, the India defender(Raghunath) must have cleared the ball out of the side lines or atleast hit hard out of the circle. Instead, he made a meek clearance right to the spanish player. The play at our goal itself resulted because of a poor pass that got intercepted by the spanish player near our 23. A lot of the poor passing could be seen against Oz too. On occasions, our players trapped the ball accurately to a dead stop, without letting the ball go away from their stick, while on other occasions, they just let the ball slip away to the opponent. The poor passing and first touch resulted in many turn overs. The top teams, especially Aus and Netherland do this accurately every time on a consistent basis. If not for Sreejesh, the score against the aussies could have read 0-10

One more perennial weakness is penalty corner conversions. We got 5 against malaysia, and the stopper could not even stop the ball on top of the circle for the first three (even though the first PC actually resulted in a goal). Against England, of the three PCs we got, the ball was not even injected properly to the stopper for two of those. The striker had to both stop and hit the ball towards the goal.

A lot of foreign people are now dependent on IPL and HIL for some significant moolah. You can see that in the reverence they hold India and Indian players now.

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 15 Jun 2014 03:51

Hockey itself has become a very fast and exciting game after all the rule changes.

wasu · Post by **wasu** » 29 Jun 2014 12:28

Saina back to her winning ways..this is even more satisfying given the way she beat shixian wang in semis.

http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/bmHJrs ... eries.html

hanumadu · Post by **hanumadu** » 30 Jun 2014 07:09

The video of the semifinal and final

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 21 Jul 2014 00:27

Commonwealth Games begins on 23rd. Defending champion Saina Nehwal has pulled out citing injury, so Sindhu is our main hope in badminton, and her primary opponents should be the Singapore and Malay girls.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 25 Aug 2014 17:23

Aravindh Chidambaram becomes GM @ 14 yrs.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 29 Aug 2014 17:23

Saina is unable to overcome her Chinese problem and looses to Li Xurei in the quarters of world cup but Sindhu beats Wang Shixian, the No. 2 to enter the semis. A new star is rising.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 30 Aug 2014 12:35

A good report on the Chess Olympiad win. Read it all with tables and photos. Ensoy onlee: http://en.chessbase.com/post/their-prou ... ad-history

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 30 Aug 2014 13:03

SwamyG wrote:Aravindh Chidambaram becomes GM @ 14 yrs.

Hope he is guided properly and doesn't become another Koneru Hampy.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 30 Aug 2014 22:29

Sindhu lost in the semis. Her game suddenly dropped from her previous aggressive style. She has raw talent but needs a lot of work to be a champ.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 31 Aug 2014 04:15

She played two long three-game matches in her prequarters and quarters the day before. No energy left in semifinal .

I'm shocked to read about the Chess Olympiad . I did not realize we won the bronze there. Amazing. We finished above typical champs Russia and Armenia, with a very low average ELO compared to the others who finished in the top 5.

Yayavar · Post by **Yayavar** » 05 Sep 2014 22:31

US-Open Mirza (with Soares of Brazil) wins the mixed doubles

. Nice game. She lost in the semis in doubles.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 05 Sep 2014 22:44

yayavar wrote:US-Open Mirza (with Soares of Brazil) wins the mixed doubles . Nice game. She lost in the semis in doubles.

And people were complaining that she didn't win anything and making her the ambassador was wrong. I think many people have a grudge that she married a Paki. Not to do with her winning.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 20 Sep 2014 09:14

Asian Games have begun with a bang.

Jitu Rai of India wins gold in 50m men's air pistol
Shweta Choudhry wins bronze in 10m women's air pistol

Quite a start by India. Rai beat the Korean Olympic and world champion and home hope Jin Jong Oh, as well as two Chinese former world or Olympic champions. The kid is phenomenal. He now has gold in this event both at CWG2014 and AG2014, as well as silver in 2014 world championships. He's just 25, and has at least 2 Olympics in him.

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 20 Sep 2014 13:56

Where is the official AG website? Can't find it. I am following the TOI blog

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spor ... 952117.cms

Supratik · Post by **Supratik** » 20 Sep 2014 19:16

India in semi-finals of women's badminton - assured of bronze medal - will face Korea. Also Deepika and Jyotsna will play each other in squash QF and one of them will go through - so bronze is assured.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 20 Sep 2014 22:41

Supratik wrote:Where is the official AG website? Can't find it. I am following the TOI blog

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/spor ... 952117.cms

http://www.incheon2014ag.org/index

Very bad website. poorly organized.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 20 Sep 2014 22:57

The Games website is an aggravating mess. It keeps switching between English and Korean when you click links, and you have multiple drop down menus just to find something like the full result of a final.

Despite everything, the CWG2010 Delhi website was better than what the Scots put together in CWG2014, or the Koreans now.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 21 Sep 2014 06:01

Jitu Rai completes 10m Air Pistol qualification in 2nd position and makes the final. He kept his nerve to shoot 99 in the last round, better than anyone else. Great shooting. He outdid bit names like former champions Pang Wei and Pu Qifeng, as well as Olympic and world champ Jin Jongoh again. Lets see how he does in final.

1 1163 YUNUSMETOV Rashid KAZ - Kazakhstan KAZ 98 96 98 98 99 97 586-23x
2 1094 RAI Jitu IND - India IND 97 99 95 98 97 99 585-27x
3 1046 PANG Wei CHN - China CHN 99 99 99 99 95 94 585-26x
4 1195 KIM Cheongyong KOR - Korea, Republic of KOR 97 99 94 99 100 96 585-23x
5 1047 PU Qifeng CHN - China CHN 98 96 97 96 98 98 583-25x
6 1509 HOANG Xuan Vinh VIE - Vietnam VIE 97 98 96 96 98 98 583-13x
7 1193 JIN Jongoh KOR - Korea, Republic of KOR 96 97 100 95 97 96 581-29x
8 1517 TRAN Quoc Cuong VIE - Vietnam VIE 98 96 96 96 97 97 580-23x
9 1087 JUNG Samaresh IND - India IND 97 97 97 95 96 98 580-18x
10 1162 PODLESNYY Vyacheslav KAZ - Kazakhstan KAZ 97 97 98 97 96 95 580-17x

Samaresh Jung missed out the final by a whisker. He finished with 580, same as the 8th position, but had fewer bulls eyes. Rai on the other hand had the 2nd highest bulls eye count after World and Olympic champ Jin Jong Oh, who barely made it into the final with 581 .

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 21 Sep 2014 06:05

World Youth Chess Championship begins in Durban. Let's see how India performs.

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 21 Sep 2014 06:31

Just goose pumps reading this.... we need more movies from Indian movie industries on sports.

http://www.newindianexpress.com/sport/G ... 441815.ece

For Jitu Rai, the mind is where the art lies. The diminutive shooter staunchly believes in simplicity. Humble to the core, he will bow and greet anyone who approaches him. His teammates, for whom he is a champion on and off the shooting range, simply love him.

Even without speaking, Rai has the ability to cheer and motivate. Shy and reticent, he is usually more confident away from the media glare. “Seekh raha hoon mein (I am learning),” is what he says.

If someone thought athletes can peak only once or twice a year, Rai’s phenomenal run — he has won medals at world championships, world cups and Commonwealth Games before India’s first gold here — has reinforced that if you carry a sound head on your strong shoulders, nothing is impossible.

Even on Saturday, he demonstrated his mental and physical strength. In precision sports, even a small niggle might botch days of preparations. At one time in the final, he was placed seventh, a spot ahead of multiple Olympic and world champion Jin Jong Ho of South Korea, who was eliminated soon after.

Most of the finalists were either former world or Olympic champions. And like in life, when he had to exorcise the demons in his head when sent back twice from the Army Marksman Unit for non-performance (in 2008 and 2011), he had to steady his head to stage a comeback.

Rai’s ever-smiling face can be a façade, sometimes hiding his inner turmoil. You just cannot read his mind when he presses the trigger. Even on Saturday, there were instances his head had gone dizzy. Points of 7.4 in the 18th forced him to second place after tying at the 17th shot. And he was aghast at himself.

Placed second before the penultimate shot, he knew he had to produce his best. He had to pull the trigger somewhere within the black hole. As time ticked along, he stood there motionless, with the left hand in pocket, the right stretched, eyes on the pistol sight and mind benumbed to the applause around. He took more than his usual time and shot 9.6 after Nguyen Hoang Phuong had managed 8.7. From a .7 deficit, he took a .2 lead. The last shot was not great but 8.4 ensured gold as Nguyen had fired 5.8.

A relieved Rai explained the turmoil within: “I had to ensure a good shot, so I took my time. I knew I was behind him and this was my last crack at the gold medal. I did not want to lose the opportunity of winning gold. It’s not that I was waiting for the other guy to shoot. I just took my time. I had to keep my mind steady.”

In shooting, everything has to be synchronised. The mind has to send the right signal to the finger after sighting the target. In the final round, there were moments his fingers failed to press the trigger at the precise moment. “At times, I was not able to press the trigger well,” said the lone Indian to have qualified for the Rio Olympics so far.

So intense was the concentration in the final round that after winning, Rai furiously ruffled his hair and told a waiting scribe, “Dimag thoda thanda hone do (let my brain cool down a bit.).”

Rai’s forte, according to the shooting team’s mental trainer Vaibhav Agashe, is physical strength. “You have to be physically fit to be mentally strong,” he explained. “You have to train to control your mind and heartbeat. His conditioning now is perfect. It’s not easy to win medal after medal in each competition.”

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 21 Sep 2014 07:15

The Men's 10m Air Pistol Team (Jitu Rai, Prakash Nanjappa and Samaresh Jung) claim bronze. It was a close fight. Korea won gold with 1744. China and India finished with 1743, but China had one more bulls eye (65 vs 64), because China has more team depth - three former world/Olympic champions on their team vs one old horse (Jung) and two newcomers (Rai and Nanjappa) in ours.

We're clearly competitive at Asian level in shooting now. Kazakhstan finished 4th at 1742, but 5th onwards (Vietnam) is way behind scoring only 1728 or less, so we're in the upper medal bracket at Asian level in pistol shooting now. We finished 4th in the 50m men's team event, where Rai won gold in the individual event.

Rai is in the 10m air pistol individual event final as well. Best wishes to him. He has a gold and bronze from 3 events so far. His 585 in the 10m air pistol qualification would easily get him a place at both Olympics and World Championship finals.

Added: No medal for Rai in 10m final. He was leading after 6 shots, but badly flubbed his 9th and 10 shots, and finished 5th. Korea takes gold.