Gagan Narang proves that Olympic was bad luck

Gagan Narang, the ace shooter from Hyderabad is on a perfect score spree it seems. After a perfect 600 in Bangkok earlier this month he has now shot perfect 400 in Germany.

His team manager Knut Boettig said it was the first time that an international scooter had fired a perfect score in the League. "This is not only the first perfect score of this season of Bundesliga but also is the first shot by an international shooter at the league in the the last 5 years, as far as my memory goes," he said.

The league has a 40 shot format common to both men and women. Narang shot the perfect score of 400 out of 400 leaving Karin Prediger, the three-time German champion, no chance to win at all. Prediger shot 396.

Narang's feat also guided his club team to win the match 3:2 against Petersaurach and now needs to win one more match to enter the finals, from the two matches still to be played against Prittlebach and Der Bund Munchen.

Top four teams will take part in the finals.

Woman weightlifer? Never mind... just prove your GENDER!

Yes!! This is another proof of the narrow mindedness of Indian Sports Authorities. As per the new diktat by Weightlifting Federation of India, all the women weightlifters have to go through a gender determination test.

In effect, female weightlifters undergo a lot more than a medical examination at national camps. After the basic evaluation by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) doctors, they are asked to take the gender test and procure a feminity certificate, it is learnt.

Normally, these tests are done at private clinics and the tags comprising chromosomal details and a confirmation of their gender are given with the assurance that they are for a lifetime.

It's humiliating, but the federation is unperturbed by the criticism. In the junior camp which began here a couple of weeks back, SAI doctors were openly asked whether they would be able to conduct gender tests and issue feminity cards. A firm refusal had the coaches either shelving the idea for the moment or plan similar tests in a private hospital at a later date.

Ever since the Santhi Sounderrajan episode at the 2006 Asian Games, awareness about gender tests has increased.
Weightlifter Monika Devi was asked to take the Buccal Smear - a test where cells taken from the tongue are evaluated for the presence of Barr bodies, a mass seen in a normal female sex chromosome.

Mandatory sex-verification tests are not part of swimming and athletics - two other sports which depend on power, speed and endurance like weightlifting. But even in those sports, with doping being rampant, secondary sex characteristics after prolonged use of drugs can lead to doubts and thus tests.

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India finishes as Leader in the 3rd Commonwealth Youth Games

The III Commonwealth Youth Games were held in Pune from the 12th to 18th October 2008. Over 1,300 athletes and 350 officials from 71 countries participated in these games, in 9 disciplines -Athletics, Badminton, Boxing, Shooting, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Weightlifting and Wrestling were included in the Commonwealth Youth Games 2008.

These games were extremely important for India in the point of view of the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. And guess what, India finished as the topper in the medals tally with 76 medals (33 Gold, 26 Silver and 17 Bronze) to its name. Top Indian performers were Virdhawal Khade (swimming), Saina Nehwal, Sikki Reddy (Badminton), Dheeraj Mishra (Tripple Jump), Ankush Bhardwaj (Shooting), Olympic bronze medalist Vijender Kumar's cousin Balwinder Beniwal (Boxing of course!).

This performance should give India its future stars ready to perform at the bigger stages. 

Congrats Everyone for their splendid show and all the very best for future.

Saina Nehwal: The Indian Shuttler

Saina Nehwal has been causing ripples in the world of Badminton since the day she reached quarterfinals at Beijing Olympics 2008.

So, we decided to put a page on her players profile here.

Saina is the best Indian woman player by quite a margin. She is the first Indian woman to reach the quarterfinals at the Olympics. Currently ranked 11th in the world, she is definitely a force to reckon with.

Here is it all started:

Saina was born in the city of Hisar in Haryana, India. Her foray into the world of badminton was influenced by her father Dr. Harvir Singh, a scientist at the Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad and her mother Usha Nehwal, both of whom were former badminton champions in Haryana.

She started her training at the age of 8 years with coach Nani Prasad. She and her family struggled a lot to get her the trainings, the equipment, shuttles and rackets. So much so that her father had to take a dip into his PF to meet the expenses. This however, ended in 2002, when Yonex sonsored her for the sports kit. As her status and rankings improved, the sponsorships increased. In 2004, BPCL signed the rising star onto their payroll, and in 2005 she was spotted by the Mittal Champions Trust.

Career:

Saina is the reigning Under-19 national champion. Also a regular in the senior circuit, Saina created history by the winning the prestigious Asian Satellite Badminton tournament (India Chapter) twice, becoming the first player to do so.

In 2006, Saina appeared on the global scene when she became the first Indian woman to win a 4-star tournament, the Philippines Open. Entering the tournament as the 86th seed, Saina went on to stun several top seeded players including number seed Huaiwen XU before defeating Julia Xian Pei Wong of Malaysia for the title. The same year also saw Saina as runner up at the 2006 BWF World Junior Championships, where she lost a hard fought match against top seed Chinese Wang Yihan.

She became the first Indian woman to reach the quarter finals at the Olympic Games when she upset world number five and fourth seed Wang Chen of Hong Kong in a three-game thriller. In the quarter-finals Saina lost a nail biting 3-gamer to world number 16 Maria Kristin Yulianti. In September 2008, she won the Yonex Chinese Taipei Open 2008 beating Li Ya Lydia Cheah of Malaysia 21-8 21-19. In the same month, she entered the semifinals of the Chinese Masters by beating world chanpion Zhu Lin 21-16, 21-23, 21-18 in a keenly-contested quarterfinal.

Highlights:

Event	Year	Result
Czechoslovakia Junior Open	2003	Winner
Youth Commonwealth Games Australia	2004	2 Silver
Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament	2005	Winner
World Junior Badminton Championships	2006	Runner Up
Youth Commonwealth Games	2006	3 Bronze
Philippines Open	2006	Winner
Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament	2006	Winner
Beijing Olympics	2008	Quarter Finals
Yonex Chinese Taipei Open	2008	Winner
Chinese Masters	2008	Semifinalist

Her BWF(Badminton World Federation) profile: http://www.internationalbadminton.org/player_info.asp?playerid=52748

Endorsements come calling:

With success comes the celebrity status. Same is the case with Saina. She is reported to be signed up for endorsements worth 45 Lacs. This can be termed as the end of ordeal for her and her family. The endless struggle seems to have bore fruit finally.

We hope Saina would make the country proud in the coming times as well.