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Saina Nehwal
Even as India woke up to the news of Bindra winning a 1st individual gold in 10m air rifle shooting, as the day progressed we saw 18 yr old Saina Nehwal proceeding to the Badminton quarters at the Beijing Olympics. Currently ranked world no 15 Saina beat Hong Kong's world No 5 Chen Wang to ensure an entry to the Olympic Badminton's quarter finals, a feat first for an Indian woman in Olympic Badminton Tournament. Kudos to Saina! We wish her good luck in the course of the tournament.
Out of the 9 Indian shooters who have earned a berth at the upcoming Beijing Olympics 08, two of them are women - Anjali Bhagwat & Avneet Kaur Sidhu.
Anjali Bhagwat
Anjali Bhagwat became a household name after reaching the finals of the 10m Air Rifle shooting event at the Sydney Olympics 2000 on her first attempt. Though she could not make a mark during the 2004 Olympics, she has represented India & won many laurels at various International Events. Amongst her latest achievement include winning a bronze medal at the Europe Circuit Championships 2007 in the Air rifle event. In the Beijing Olympics she is all set to represent India in the Sport Rifle 3 Position event. Her latest achievements in the sport rifle 3 position event is winning a silver medal at the commonwealth games in 2006.
Avneet Kaur Sidhu
This Bathinda girl sure has made her mark. Today she is one of the Ace shooters in the country. She has earned herself a berth at the Beijing Olympics in the Air Rifle event. Her notable achievement includes winning a silver medal at the Commonwealth games in 2006.
Shikha Tandon
At the Telstra Australian Swimming Championships, Shikha Tandon broke her own national record in the 100m freestyle event. She clocked 58.09 secs surpassing her previous record of 58.32 secs. She missed the Olympic "B" qualifying mark, which stands at 57.17 by even less than a sec (0.92 secs to be precise).
Reference: GoswimIndia
Sushmitha celebrates achieving Olympic B standard.
With a tally of 5866 points, Sushmitha achieved the olympic "B" standard in the heptathlon event in the Indian Federation Cup Championships. She was the only athlete in this championships to have achieved an olympic standard.
Heptathlon Olympic B standard - 5800
Heptathlon is an athletic event which comprises of 7 events. A Woman's heptathlon consists of the following events:
1) 100m hurdles
2) High Jump
3) Shot Put
4) 200m
5)Long Jump
6)Javelin Throw
7) 800m
Her attempts in each of the above events including her 4 personal bests are as follows:
1) 100m hurdles - 14.39
2) High Jump - 1.73
3) Shot Put - 11.44 (personal best)
4) 200m - 23.97(personal best)
5)Long Jump -6.25(personal best)
6)Javelin Throw - 40.11(personal best)
7) 800m - 2:18.28
Paulose in action at the Doha Asian Games
Sinimol Paulose won a 2nd gold in the Doha Asian games in the 800 m event. With her performance in this event she managed to qualify for the same in the world indoor championships as well!
Previous Post About Sinimol
Sinimol Paulose in DohaSinimol Paulose won the gold in the ongoing 3rd Asian Indoor Athletics Championships(Doha) in the 1500 m event. She had won gold in the same event in the previous Championship as well. She clocked 4.15.42 seconds , thus qualifying for the World Indoor Championships benchmark being set at 4.16.00. Her previous achievements also include a silver medal in the 800m event in the 2nd Asian Indoor Athletics event in Amman in 2006.
After her spectacular display in the Australian open 08, Sania Mirza is now ranked 29th in the world. In singles she reached the third round only to be defeated by Venus Williams. Also she lost the mixed doubles finals along with her partner Mahesh Bhupathi. Looks like we have a chance for an Olympic medal in the tennis arena at Beijing this year.
Her jump in the rankings make her the no1 in Asia & the first Indian woman to do so. This hardly comes as a surprise because of her current form & she has more places to go still. But I'm disappointed she has decided to pull out of the Banglore Open. People have been on Sachin Tendulkar or even Sourav Ganguly's case since forever. But they din't quit. Maybe Sania should learn to ignore what everyone in the world has to say & listen only to those who matter.
In our male dominated , sports deprived(yeah ok! cricket worshipping) country who does everyone think to be our best bet for a medal at the upcoming Beijing Olmpics in August 2008? None other than our long jump athlete Anju Bobby George. She is a world class athlete having won the gold in Busan Asian Games - 2002. As it is sports other than cricket are neglected in our country, and being a woman sports person is no mean feat. It requires determination & unwavering enthusiasm & we know Anju is made of strong stuff.
There were many firsts for Anju when she won medals at world competitions. Like- she was the first Indian to have won a medal(bronze) ever at the Paris World Championships - 2003 & she was also the first Indian to have won a medal(silver) at the 3rd IAAF World athletics final 2005. Her most recent achievement was being placed 9th in the finals of th11th IAAF World Championships in athletics in August 07.
Though she is mostly know for her long jump prowess, Anju is also a triple jump athlete. Though she may not have won medals for the latter but she came in th 4th place in the Asian games -2002(when she won gold in long jump). One can find more information about this great athlete on her own official website - AnjuBobbyGeorge
And definetly our country has showered her with accolades from time to time. She is an Arjuna Awardee(2002),Padmashree Awardee(2004) & also the winner of the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award(2003).
I wish she does get a medal this year at Beijing & preferably Gold. In last Olympics the Russians wrecked her chances of a medal by jumping over 7.0 m. I wish her goodluck!
Almost every Indian knows who she is! Sania Mirza - just 21 yrs old and has already achieved the highest ranking in tennis by an Indian woman. She has been seeded 31 in the upcoming Australian Open beginning on 14th Jan 2008. She has already played 3 Australian Opens before. Her opponent in the 1st round is Iroda Tulyaganova from Uzbekistan. The schedule for her match is not out yet but I'm going to post it as soon as I know of it(I just hope its not early in the morning IST). I think the 1st match will be easy for Sania to win but it definetly won't be a cakewalk. With her current form I expect her to atleast reach the 3rd round this year. I wish her goodluck for the tournament & look forward to seeing her play.
