Sports GK Mixed Quiz: Set 2

The correct answer is C, Karnam Malleswari. She won a bronze medal in weightlifting at the Sydney Games of 2000, the first Olympic medal won by an Indian woman, and the achievement is the standard one-line fact set from this chapter.

Option A, P. T. Usha, came agonisingly close at Los Angeles in 1984, finishing fourth in the 400 metres hurdles by the smallest of margins, and her name is placed in the options precisely because students remember that race. Option B, Mary Kom, won a bronze in boxing at London in 2012, and Option D, Saina Nehwal, a bronze in badminton at the same Games, both after Malleswari. The reliable way to answer is to hold the year 2000 and the sport weightlifting together, since every other woman medallist from India belongs to 2012 or later.

The correct answer is B, England. The 2019 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, the 12th edition, was played in England and Wales from 30 May to 14 July 2019. In the final at Lord's, England and New Zealand both scored 241, the super over was also tied at 15 each, and England were declared champions on boundary count, 26 to 17, their first World Cup title, under captain Eoin Morgan; Ben Stokes made 84 not out and was Player of the Match. Kane Williamson of New Zealand was Player of the Tournament, Rohit Sharma scored the most runs (648, with five centuries) and Mitchell Starc took the most wickets (27). Option A is wrong because Pakistan finished fifth and missed the semi-finals on net run rate. Option C is wrong because India topped the league table but lost the semi-final to New Zealand at Manchester. Option D is wrong because Australia lost the other semi-final to England at Birmingham. Exam tip: 2019 = England beat New Zealand at Lord's on boundary count; 2023 = Australia beat India at Ahmedabad.

The correct answer is B, the 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi. Shera, an animated tiger, was chosen as the mascot of the nineteenth Commonwealth Games, whose slogan was Come Out and Play and which remain the only Commonwealth Games hosted by India.

Option A, the 1982 Asian Games at New Delhi, had Appu the elephant as its mascot, and this is the swap the question is built on. Option C, the 1951 Asian Games, is wrong on a second count as well, since mascots were not part of that first edition. Option D, the 2010 Asian Games at Guangzhou, is placed to catch candidates who fix on the year 2010 without noticing which Games are named; Guangzhou is remembered instead for cricket entering the Asian Games programme. Read the year and the name of the event together before marking.

The correct answer is A, Badminton. The Sudirman Cup is the world mixed team championship of badminton, organised by the Badminton World Federation (BWF). It was first held in 1989 in Jakarta and is named after Dick Sudirman, the founder of the Badminton Association of Indonesia. Each tie has five matches, men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles, so a country needs strong men and women players to win. It is held every two years. The other two team trophies of badminton are the Thomas Cup for men and the Uber Cup for women. B is wrong because baseball's top events include the World Series in the United States and the World Baseball Classic. C is wrong because volleyball has the FIVB World Championship and the Volleyball Nations League. D is wrong because basketball's world event is the FIBA World Cup, and the William Jones Cup is another basketball trophy. Exam tip: badminton team trophies, Thomas Cup (men), Uber Cup (women), Sudirman Cup (mixed).

The correct answer is C, West Indies. The first World Cup was played in England in 1975 over 60 overs an innings, and West Indies beat Australia in the final at Lord's under Clive Lloyd. They retained the trophy in 1979, so Lloyd is the only captain to win it in two successive editions.

Option A, Australia, lost that 1975 final and had to wait until 1987 for its first title, which it then followed with five more. Option B, England, hosted the 1975, 1979 and 1983 tournaments and lost the finals of 1979, 1987 and 1992 before finally winning in 2019. Option D, India, was a minor side in 1975 and won its first title in 1983 at the same ground, beating West Indies. The safest way to hold this question is to remember that the first two World Cups were both in England and both won by West Indies.

The correct answer is C, Football. All three are Indian football tournaments. The Durand Cup, first played in 1888 and named after Sir Mortimer Durand, then Foreign Secretary of British India, is Asia's oldest football tournament and is still organised with the help of the armed forces. The Santosh Trophy is the national football championship for state teams, first held in 1941. The Rovers Cup was a famous club tournament played in Mumbai from 1891. Papers often mix these with trophies from other sports, so learn them in sets. A is wrong because hockey's well-known Indian trophies include the Beighton Cup and the Aga Khan Cup. B is wrong because cricket's domestic trophies are the Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Irani Cup and Vijay Hazare Trophy. D is wrong because badminton's world team events are the Thomas Cup for men, the Uber Cup for women and the Sudirman Cup for mixed teams. Exam tip: Durand, Santosh, Rovers, Federation Cup = football; Ranji, Duleep, Irani = cricket; Beighton, Aga Khan = hockey.

The correct answer is C, Uruguay. The first FIFA World Cup was staged in Uruguay in 1930, the country having been chosen partly because it was celebrating the centenary of its independence and partly because it was the reigning Olympic football champion. Uruguay also won the tournament, beating Argentina in the final at Montevideo, so the host became the first world champion.

Option A, Brazil, hosted the World Cup for the first time in 1950 and again in 2014, and although it has won the trophy more often than anyone else, it did not host the first edition. Option B, Italy, hosted the second World Cup in 1934 and won it, and hosted again in 1990. Option D, France, hosted the third edition in 1938 and hosted again in 1998, when it won the title at home; the Frenchman Jules Rimet was FIFA president when the tournament began, which is the source of the confusion.

The correct answer is D, Olympic Council of Asia. ASIAD is the short name for the Asian Games, the continent's multi-sport event held every four years, and it is run by the Olympic Council of Asia, OCA, headquartered in Kuwait City. The OCA was formed in 1982, taking over from the Asian Games Federation that had organised the Games since the first edition in New Delhi in 1951; New Delhi hosted again in 1982, the year Appu the elephant became the mascot. The Games are recognised by the International Olympic Committee, but the day-to-day regulation is the OCA's job. A, International Olympic Council, is a distorted name for the International Olympic Committee, which runs the Olympic Games, not the Asian Games. B, the Commonwealth Games Federation, governs the Commonwealth Games. C, Indian Olympic Council, points to the Indian Olympic Association, India's national body, which only sends the Indian team. Exam tip: Asian Games = OCA, Kuwait; first held 1951 in New Delhi; motto "Ever Onward".

The correct answer is C, Manipur. M. C. Mary Kom was born in Kangathei village of Churachandpur district in Manipur.

Mary Kom is the only woman boxer to have won six world championship titles, and she is nicknamed Magnificent Mary. She took the bronze medal in the flyweight class at the London Olympics of 2012, the first Indian woman boxer to win an Olympic medal, and she has also won gold at the Asian Games of 2014 and the Commonwealth Games of 2018. She received the Arjuna Award, the Padma Shri, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, and served as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha.

Option A is wrong because Mizoram is best known in Indian sport for footballers. Option B is wrong because Assam is the home state of the boxer Shiva Thapa and the sprinter Hima Das. Option D is wrong because Meghalaya has produced no boxer of this record.

Exam tip: Mary Kom of Manipur, six world titles, bronze at London 2012, called Magnificent Mary.

The correct answer is B, 776 BCE. The ancient Games were held at Olympia in Greece in honour of Zeus, and 776 BCE is the earliest celebration for which a written record of the winner survives. The prize was a wreath of olive leaves, and only free Greek men were allowed to compete.

Option A, 1200 BCE, belongs to the legendary period before any record of the festival exists. Option C, 490 BCE, is the year of the battle of Marathon, which gave the modern marathon race its name and its story, so it is placed here as a deliberate distraction. Option D, 393 CE, is the year the ancient Games were abolished by the Roman emperor Theodosius I, who treated them as a pagan festival, so it is the closing date rather than the opening one. Learn the two dates 776 BCE and 393 CE as a pair, because papers ask for one and offer the other.

The correct answer is C, Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat. The Dronacharya Award, India's honour for coaches who produce outstanding sportspersons, was given for the first time in 1985, and Bhalchandra Bhaskar Bhagwat, a wrestling coach, was among the first three to receive it, along with O.M. Nambiar in athletics and Om Prakash Bhardwaj in boxing. The award is named after Dronacharya, the teacher of the Pandavas and the Kauravas in the Mahabharata, and it carries a bronze statuette of Dronacharya, a certificate and a cash prize. It is given in two categories, regular and lifetime. Option A is wrong because Hansa Sharma was not among the first recipients. Option B is wrong because Karan Singh did not receive the award in 1985. Option D is wrong because Hawa Singh, the boxer, was honoured as a coach much later, not in the first list. Exam tip: the Dronacharya Award began in 1985, the Arjuna Award in 1961 and the Khel Ratna in 1991-92.

The correct answer is C, New Delhi. The first Asian Games were held at the National Stadium in New Delhi in March 1951, two years after the Asian Games Federation was formed in the same city, and eleven nations took part. Jawaharlal Nehru declared them open.

Option A, Manila, hosted the second edition in 1954, which makes it the most tempting wrong answer in this set. Option B, Tokyo, hosted the third edition in 1958 and later became the first Asian city to host the Olympic Games. Option D, Bangkok, came in only in 1966 but then hosted more often than any other city. Candidates lose this mark by remembering that Delhi hosted an Asiad and then attaching the memory to 1982, which was the second Indian edition. Keep both Delhi years, 1951 and 1982, in mind together.

The correct answer is B, Fencing. Chadalavada Anandha Sundhararaman Bhavani Devi is an Indian fencer from Chennai who competes in the sabre event. She became the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympic Games, at Tokyo in 2021, and won her opening bout there. She has taken gold at the Commonwealth Fencing Championship and a medal at the Asian Fencing Championship, and she trains with support from the Target Olympic Podium Scheme. Fencing is a sword-fighting sport with three weapons - foil, epee and sabre - fought on a strip called a piste, where hits are recorded electronically. Option A is wrong because rowing is a water sport, in which India has been represented by athletes such as Bajrang Lal Takhar. Option C is wrong because Bhavani Devi has never been a boxer. Option D is wrong because she is not a wrestler. Exam tip: Bhavani Devi is a fencer in the sabre event and the first Indian fencer at the Olympics.

The correct answer is C, Baron Pierre de Coubertin. The French educationist believed that sport built character in the young, and at a congress at the Sorbonne in Paris he founded the International Olympic Committee on 23 June 1894, which led directly to the first modern Games at Athens in 1896. He also designed the five-ring symbol in 1913.

Option B, Demetrius Vikelas of Greece, was the first president of the IOC, a fact often confused with founding the movement; Coubertin was the second president and served much longer. Options A and D, Avery Brundage and Juan Antonio Samaranch, were later presidents of the IOC who shaped the Games in the twentieth century but had no part in reviving them. The safe way to answer is to separate two ideas: the founder of the movement is Coubertin, while the first president is Vikelas.

The correct answer is B, the 10 metre air rifle. Abhinav Bindra won that event at the Beijing Games of 2008, giving India its first individual Olympic gold medal in any sport and its first gold of any kind since the hockey team's win in 1980.

Option A, the 10 metre air pistol, is a different shooting event and is offered because the distance is the same; the discipline in the question is the rifle. Option C, the 50 metre rifle three positions, is a separate rifle event in which Indian shooters have competed but which is not the one Bindra won. Option D, double trap, is the shotgun event in which Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won a silver at Athens in 2004, India's first individual Olympic silver, so it belongs to a different shooter and a different Games. The three details to hold together are the name, the event and the year 2008.

The correct answer is A, Ever Onward. The motto was adopted with the first Asian Games of 1951 at New Delhi and it goes with the emblem of a bright rising sun ringed by interlocking circles, which stands for the new energy of the Asian nations after the Second World War.

Option B, Faster, Higher, Stronger, is the motto of the Olympic Games, not of the Asiad. Option C, Humanity, Equality, Destiny, is the motto of the Commonwealth Games, and this is the swap examiners most often try in this chapter. Option D, Come Out and Play, was only the slogan of the 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi, a single edition, not a standing motto. Learn the three mottoes as a set, one line each for the Olympics, the Asian Games and the Commonwealth Games, and the whole family of questions becomes safe.

The correct answer is C, Beijing in 1990. Kabaddi entered the Asian Games programme as a medal sport at that edition and India won the gold, which began a long run of Indian success in the event and is the reason the fact is set so often.

Option A, New Delhi in 1982, is the edition at which kabaddi was played only as a demonstration sport, so it is the deliberate trap of the question. Option B, Seoul in 1986, is remembered in Indian sport for P. T. Usha's haul of medals in athletics rather than for kabaddi. Option D, Hiroshima in 1994, came after kabaddi was already an established event. The clean line to memorise is demonstration at Delhi in 1982, medal sport at Beijing in 1990, with cricket added much later at Guangzhou in 2010.

The correct answer is B, Lord's. India beat West Indies in the final on 25 June 1983 at Lord's in London, defending a total of 183 and winning by 43 runs; Mohinder Amarnath was named player of the match and Kapil Dev was the captain who received the trophy on the famous balcony.

Option A, The Oval, hosted a semi-final of that tournament, which makes it a plausible distractor. Option C, Old Trafford, is where India beat England in the other semi-final, and it is also the ground most often confused with Lord's in this question. Option D, Edgbaston, staged group matches in 1983 and the 2013 Champions Trophy final, but not the 1983 final. Note the pattern in the paper: the 1983 and 2019 finals were both at Lord's, and the 2011 final was at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

The correct answer is B, Brazil. Brazil has won the FIFA World Cup five times, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002, more than any other nation. It is also the only country to have appeared in every edition of the tournament since it began, which is a favourite second question of examiners on the same fact.

Option A, Germany, has four titles, won in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014, the first three as West Germany. Option C, Italy, also has four, won in 1934, 1938, 1982 and 2006, so Germany and Italy are tied in second place. Option D, Argentina, has won the trophy in 1978, 1986 and 2022, which places it with Uruguay on two before 2022 and three afterwards, still short of Brazil's tally.

The correct answer is C, the Berlin Games of 1936. The flame itself had been lit at earlier Games, but the relay in which runners carry the torch from Olympia in Greece all the way to the host city began at Berlin, and it has been part of every Olympics since.

Option A, Antwerp in 1920, is where two other symbols appeared for the first time, the Olympic flag with its five rings and the Olympic oath, taken there by the Belgian athlete Victor Boin. Option B, Amsterdam in 1928, is where a flame was first kept burning in the stadium through the Games, and is also the Games at which India won its first gold medal in hockey. Option D, London in 1948, is the first Games held after the Second World War. Attach each symbol to its own Games: flag and oath to 1920, cauldron flame to 1928 and the relay to 1936.