Sports Current Affairs 2021

Rankings related to Sports

♦ International Hockey Federation (FIH) Rankings
• Rank of Indian Men’s Hockey teams – 4th
• Rank of Indian Women’s Hockey teams – 10th
• Topped by – Australian Men’s team
• Netherlands Women Team hold the Top position in the World Hockey Rankings.

♦ FIDE Rankings (International Chess Federation)
• World’s Number -1 chess player – Norway’s Magnus Carlsen
• World’s Number -1 Women chess player – Hou Yifan (China)
• Top Ranked Indian – Vishwanathan Anand (World rankings – 15)
• Top Ranked Indian Women – Koneru Humpy (World Rankings – 3)

♦ MRF Tyres ICC Women’s ODI Batting Rankings
• Topped by Indian Women’s Team Captain (for ODIs) Mithali Raj.

Important Sports Event

♦ Croatia Grand Chess Tour 2021
• Held at Zagreb, Croatia.
• Vishwanathan Anand finishes 2nd in this event.

♦ Serbia Open Chess Championship
• The event, held in Belgrade, Serbia.
• Indian Chess Grandmaster Nihal Sarin won the chess event.
• Nihal Sarin is a 16-year-old boy from Kerala.
• This is his 2nd consecutive win.
• Previously, he won the Silver Lake Open Chess Tournament.

♦ ‘No-Castling (NC) World Masters of Sparkassen Chess Trophy
• The Trophy won by India’s no.1 chess player Viswanathan Anand.
• Viswanathan Anand defeated Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik.

♦ Austrian Grand Prix 2021
• Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen from Belgium, won the Austrian Grand Prix 2021.
◘ Max Verstappen wins in 2021
• Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
• Monaco Grand Prix
• French Grand Prix
• Styrian Grand Prix
• Austrian Grand Prix

♦ British Grand Prix 2021
• Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (Britain) won the British Grand Prix 2021.
• This event held at Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, United Kingdom (UK).

♦ World Cadet Wrestling Championships 2021
• India wins 13 Medals at World Cadet Wrestling Championships 2021.
• 13 Medals (5 Gold, 1 Silver, 7 Bronze)
• The Indian Men’s Team were crowned as Freestyle Champions.

◘ Medals Table

♦ ISSF Shooting World Cup 2021 • ISSF Shooting World Cup 2021 held in Osijek, Croatia.
• India bagged 4 Medals (1 Gold, 1 Silver & 2 Bronze) in this event. • Also, India finished 10th at the ISSF World Cup 2021.
• Top 3 country – Russia (18 medals) > Italy (10 medals) > Germany (10 medals)

◘ Indian Medal winners

Recent Retirement

♦ Cricket
• Indian Bowler Pankaj Singh retires from all forms of Cricket.
• Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah retires from Test Cricket.

♦ Football
• Germany’s Toni Kroos announces retirement from International football.

Sports Event Host Countries/States

♦ 2032 Summer Olympics to be hosted by Brisbane, Australia..

♦ ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 Shifted to UAE and Oman due to COVID-19 Pandemic in Inida.

♦ Haryana postpones ‘2021-Khelo India Youth Games’ to February 2022.
• Khelo India Youth Games will be held in 5 cities – 3 in Haryana (Panchkula, Shahbad, Ambala) & 2 Union Territories (Delhi & Chandigarh)
• Mascot of Khelo India Youth Games for 2021 – ‘Dhakad’.
• Maharashtra was the Champions of 2020-Khelo India Youth Games.

♦ Mumbai & Pune to host 2022’s AFC Women’s Asia Cup football tournament.

♦ India to host BWF (Badminton World Federation) World Badminton Championships 2026.

◘ Venues of Upcoming Summer Olympic games
• 2020 Olympics – Tokyo, Japan
• 2024 Olympics – Paris, France
• 2028 Olympics – Los Angeles, USA

♦ Karnataka set to host 2nd Edition of Khelo India University Games in March 2022.

Important Sports News

♦ Gokulam Kerala FC (GKFC) has been nominated by All India Football Federation (AIFF) to represent India in the AFC Women’s Club Championship 2020-21 to be held in Amman, Jordan.

♦ Sports Ministry recognises WAKO India Kickboxing Federation.

♦ Indian American Abhimanyu Mishra Became the Youngest Chess Grandmaster.
• Age of Abhimanyu Mishra – 12 years 4 months, 25 days old.
• He is the youngest ever Chess Grandmaster after he scored his third Grandmaster (GM) norm in Budapest, Hungary.

♦ Harika Dronavalli becomes runner-up in Women’s Speed Chess Championship.

♦ Jabir became the 1st Indian Male to participate in 400m hurdles in Olympics.
♦ Maana Patel became the 1st Indian female ever to qualify for the Olympics.

♦ Babar Azam (Captain of Pakistan Cricket team) becomes fastest Cricketer to score 14 ODI centuries.

♦ Hockey India launches ‘Heroes Connect’ Web-based Platform.

♦ Mongolia, Tajikistan and Switzerland were inducted as Members of the International Cricket Council (ICC) during ICC’s 78th Annual General Meeting.

♦ World No. 1 Para-shuttler Pramod Bhagat was named as the Differently Abled Sportsman of the Year by Indian Sports Honour for 2019.

♦ Madhya Pradesh Cricketer Anshula Rao becomes 1st Woman Cricketer to be banned for doping.

Important Sports Event

♦  Formula One
◘ Winner • Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2021 — Sergio Perez (Mexico, Red Bull Car)
• 2021 French Grand Prix — Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Red Bull car)

• 2021 Catalunya MotoGP — Miguel Oliveira (Portugal , KTM Bike)

♦ Emilia-Romagna Open tennis tournament 2021
◘ Held at Parma, Italy.
◘ Winner …
• Men’s singles – Sebastian Korda (America)
• Women’s Singles – Coco Gauff (America)

♦ UEFA Champions League 2020/2021
◘ Chelsea Won the UEFA Champions League. (2nd Title)
◘ Runners-up – Manchester City
◘ Chelsea defeated Manchester City 1–0 in the final.
◘ This is Europe’s premier club football tournament organised by Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)

♦ 2020-21 La Liga Title
◘ La Liga Title or officially known as LaLiga Santander.
◘ Atletico Madrid has won the 2020-21 La Liga Title.

♦ Hockey5s World Cup
◘ It is a brand-new International Hockey Federation (FIH) competition.
◘ This Hockey tournament will be host by Muscat capital of Oman.
◘ This brand-new International Hockey Federation (FIH) competition held in January 2024.

♦ ASBC Asian Boxing Championships
◘ ASBC Asian Boxing Championships held in Dubai.
◘ India’s Sanjeet Kumar & Pooja Rani wins Gold medals.

♦ 2021 Belgrade Open Singles
◘ Novak Djokovic won his 83rd Career Title.
◘ 2021 Belgrade open is an outdoor clay courts tournament.

♦ 2021 World Junior Weightlifting Championship
◘ Indian weightlifter Achinta Sheuli from West Bengal won the silver medal in the men’s 73kg category at the International Weightlifting Federation’s Junior World Weightlifting Championships 2021 held at Tashkent.

◘ IPL’s Remaining Matches To Be Held In UAE In September-October 2021.

◘ Indian Wrestler Vinesh Phogat wins gold at Poland Open ranking Series.

◘ Madhya Pradesh shooter Rubina Francis creates world record at World shooting Para Sport Cup.

◘ Indian Cricketer Shafali Verma Became the 1st Women Cricketer to Hit 3 Sixes in Test Match.

◘ Ireland Cricketer Kevin O’Brien has announced his retirement from One-day International (ODI) Cricket.

◘ Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has roped in mobile gaming platform MPL Sports Foundation as the principal sponsor for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

◘ New Zealand win Inaugural Edition of ICC World Test Championship 2021.

◘ Kiren Rijiju launched India’s Olympic theme song titled “Lakshya Tera Samne Hai”.

◘ World’s second youngest Grandmaster D.Gukesh of India won the $15,000 Gelfand Challenge chess title.

◘ Deepika Kumari wins hat-trick Gold Medals in Archery World Cup held in Paris.

◘ Sajan Prakash an Indian Swimmer from kerala has become first-ever Indian swimmer to qualify for the Tokyo Olympic 2020 by breaching the ‘A’ standard time in the men’s 200m butterfly event at the 2021 Sette Colli Trophy in Rome, Italy.

◘

♦ Tennis-2021 Madrid Open
◘ Winner • Men’s Singles — Alexander Zverev (Germany)
• Women’s Singles — Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus)

♦ World Snooker Championship 2021
• Winner Mark Selby
• He defeated Shaun Murphy.
• Judd Trump was ranked as World’s No.1 snooker player

♦ 2021 St.Petersburg Governor’s Cup (Russia)
•Indian Boxer, Amit Panghal won the Bronze medal.

♦ 2020-21 League Cup or EFL Cup or Carabao Cup
• Manchester City won the title for the fourth consecutive time.

♦ Uzbekistan swimming Open Championship
• Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj won his second Gold in 50m backstroke swimming.

♦ ICC Men’s Team Ranking 2021
◘ ICC T20 Rankings • England – 1st
• India Ranked – 2nd
• 3rd rank holder – New Zeland

◘ ICC ODI Format Rankings
• Topped by – New Zealand
• 2nd Rank holder – Australia
• Rank of India – 3rd

◘ ICC Test Team rankings
• Topped by – India
• 2nd Rank holder – New Zealand
• 3rd Rank holder – England

◘ ICC Test Player Rankings for Bowling • Second Position – Ravichandran Ashwin (India)
• First position – Bowler Pat Cummins (Australia)

♦ Tennis – 2021 Italian Open
◘ Winner • Men’s Singles Title – Rafael Nadal (Spain)
• Women’s Singles Title – Iga Swiatek (Poland)

♦ Tennis – 2021 Geneva Open
◘ Winner• Casper Ruud (Norway) defeated Denis Shapovalov (Canada).

♦ UEFA Women’s Champions League 2020/21
◘ UEFA – Union of European Football Associations
◘ Winner
• Barcelona won its 1st Women’s Champions League Title by defeating Chelsea.

◘ About Women’s Tennis Association (WTA)
• Chairman & CEO – Steve Simon
• Headquarters – Florida, USA

◘ About Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP)
• CEO – Massimo Calvelli
• Headquarters – London, United Kingdom

◘ Foorball
• Sami Khedira – Germany

◘ ICC Banned Sri Lanka’s Nuwan Zoysa from Cricket for 6 years due to Corruption.

◘ 2021 Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) decided to conduct the 2021 Asian Elite Men and Women Boxing Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) from New Delhi, India.

◘ 2021 Men’s World Boxing Championships to be held in Belgrade, Serbia.

◘ Indian rowers Arjun Lal and Arvind Singh qualifies for Tokyo Olympics 2020.

◘ The All India Chess Federation (AICF) launched the ‘Checkmate Covid Initiative’ to support the chess community affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

◘ Rugby World Cup-New Zealand to Hold Women’s Rugby on October 2022.

◘ Palak Kohli And Parul Parmar Became The First Indian Para Shuttlers To Qualify For Tokyo Paralympics 2021.

◘ 2021 edition of the Asia Cup has been postponed by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to be held in 2023 due to COVID-19.

◘ India’s Tejaswini Shankar Wins Consecutive High Jump Titles In USA