Hyderabad: Take a look at the important sports stories that failed to receive its due recognition.
Sports This Week: Take a look at important stories that went unnoticed
- The Sports Ministry is set to organise India's first-ever Khelo India Winter Games in the Union Territory of Ladakh in the third week of February and in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the first week of March. The inaugural edition of the winter games will see an open ice hockey championship, figure skating, and speed skating and the competition will be conducted at a block, district and UT levels with an expected participation of around 1,700 athletes.
- With the deadly Coronavirus spreading rapidly all over Asia, concerns has been raised over Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games from July 24. Rumours doing rounds had suggested that the quadrennial event might be scrapped to prevent players from contracting the virus. However, the CEO of the Tokyo Games Yoshiro Mori has slammed these “irresponsible rumours” and stated that the event will be held as planned. Reportedly, around 1335 people have died in China alone with 60,000 getting infected with the virus.
- Indian hockey team captain Manpreet Singh on Thursday bagged the 2019 FIH Men's Player of the Year award. He thus became the first member of the India national team to win the Best Player award since the awards were instigated in 1999. The midfielder won the accolade ahead of Belgium’s Arthur van Doren and Lucas Vila of Argentina, who finished second and third respectively. Meanwhile, young Indian players Vivek Sagar Prasad and Lalremsiami on Monday were named as the FIH’s Rising Stars of the Year. Vivek was announced as the Men’s Rising Star while Lalremsiami was named as the Women’s Rising Star.
- Indian footballer Sanjeev Stalin, who represented the country at the U-17 FIFA World Cup has signed a two-year contract with Portuguese top division football club Clube Desportivo das Aves (CD Aves). The 19-year-old, confirmed this news through his Instagram handle. Clube Desportivo das Aves is a Portuguese football club from Vila das Aves, Santo Tirso, that plays in the Primeira Liga. They play against some top Portugal clubs like Porto and Benfica, and Sporting Lisbon.
- Amit Panghal has been ranked world number 1 for the Olympic qualifier by the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Boxing Task force. The move comes a month ahead of the Olympic qualifiers which are scheduled for March 2020 in Jordan. It has been over a decade that an Indian pugilist had achieved this position. The feat had been previously been achieved by Vijender Singh in 2009 and now it is Panghal who has repeated the feat.
- India’s GS Lakshmi has been selected by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to referee in the upcoming Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia, making her the first-ever woman match referee in a global ICC event. Along with Lakshmi, a record five other women have been selected as umpires for the prestigious event that will begin from February 21, 2020. India’s Nitin Menon is the only Indian umpire who will stand in the World Cup.
- Karnataka resident, Srinivasa Gowda, has reportedly covered a distance of 100 meters in 9.55 seconds during 'Kambala', an annual buffalo race held in Karnataka. The video of Gowda running alongside a pair of buffaloes in a field filled with mud and water, has gone viral on social media platforms. The villagers claimed that Gowda’s timing was less than that of Usain Bolt, who holds the world record in the 100-meter race at 9.58 seconds, Outlook India reported.
