Sports GK Mixed Quiz: Set 26

The correct answer is B, Patiala, in Punjab. The institute was founded there in 1961 as the National Institute of Sports and was later named after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose; it is the main centre for training coaches in India and now functions under the Sports Authority of India. Option A, Gwalior, is wrong but very tempting, because the Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education, established in 1957, is situated there and is the leading institution for physical education rather than for coaching. Option C, Bengaluru, hosts an important national centre of excellence of the Sports Authority of India but not this institute. Option D, Kolkata, is wrong despite the Netaji name in the title, which refers to Subhas Chandra Bose and not to the city of his birth.

The correct answer is B, 29 August. The day marks the birth anniversary of Major Dhyan Chand, the hockey player who was part of the Indian sides that won Olympic gold in 1928, 1932 and 1936, and it is the day on which the national sports awards are conferred at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Fit India Movement was also launched on this date in 2019. Option A, 14 August, has no connection with sport in the Indian calendar. Option C, 5 September, is Teachers Day, observed on the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and it is a common distractor because both are commemorative days built on a birth anniversary. Option D, 19 November, is National Integration Day. Candidates should link 29 August, Major Dhyan Chand, the sports awards and the Fit India Movement together as one cluster.

The correct answer is C, Viswanathan Anand. Anand earned the Grandmaster title in 1988, the first Indian to do so, went on to become the world champion in 2000 and held the undisputed title from 2007 to 2013. He was also the first recipient of the country's highest sporting honour, instituted in 1991-92 and now called the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. Option A, Pravin Thipsay, and option B, Dibyendu Barua, were strong Indian players of the same generation and became Grandmasters after Anand, which is exactly why they appear as distractors. Option D, Koneru Humpy, is one of India's finest women players and a Grandmaster, but she belongs to a later generation. The line worth memorising is Anand in 1988 for the first Grandmaster title and in 2000 for the world championship.

The correct answer is B, Indian Olympic Association. The Indian Olympic Association is the national Olympic committee of the country, and it conducts the National Games in partnership with the Olympic association of the host state, deciding the list of disciplines, approving the venues and ratifying the results, with support from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Option A, the Sports Authority of India, is a government body that runs training centres, coaching schemes and sports science support for athletes, so it assists the Games without organising them. Option C, the Board of Control for Cricket in India, governs only cricket and has no role in a multi-sport event; cricket has not been a regular National Games discipline. Option D, the National Sports Development Fund, is a financing mechanism through which money is channelled to athletes and federations, not an organising body. The simple rule is that the national Olympic committee runs the domestic Olympic-style Games.

The correct answer is A, Major Dhyan Chand. The award, instituted in 1991 to 1992 as the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and first given to the chess player Viswanathan Anand, was renamed the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in 2021 in honour of the hockey player who won Olympic gold with India in 1928, 1932 and 1936. Option B, Milkha Singh, is wrong; the great sprinter is commemorated in other ways but not in the name of this award. Option C, K. D. Jadhav, is wrong, although he was the first individual Olympic medallist of independent India, in wrestling at Helsinki. Option D, C. K. Nayudu, is wrong; the cricketer name is attached to a domestic cricket tournament instead. Note that a separate lifetime achievement award has carried the Dhyan Chand name since 2002.

The correct answer is A, Mahendra Singh Dhoni. India beat Sri Lanka in the final at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on 2 April 2011 under Dhoni, who finished the chase himself with a six and was named player of the match; it was the first time a team had won a World Cup final on its own soil. Yuvraj Singh was named player of the tournament, and Gautam Gambhir made 97 in the final. Option B, Rahul Dravid, captained India in the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, from which the team went out in the group stage. Option C, Virender Sehwag, opened the batting in the 2011 final but never captained India in a World Cup. Option D, Sourav Ganguly, captained the side that reached the 2003 World Cup final in South Africa and lost to Australia. Dhoni is also the only captain to have won all three major white-ball trophies of the International Cricket Council.

The correct answer is B, Kapil Dev. India beat the West Indies in the final at Lord's in 1983 with Kapil Dev as captain, and the tournament is also remembered for his unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells earlier in the competition. Option A, Sunil Gavaskar, captained India in other periods and was the first batsman in the world to score ten thousand Test runs, but he was not captain in the 1983 final. Option C, Ajit Wadekar, led the side to its celebrated series victories in the West Indies and England in 1971, which is a different landmark. Option D, Mohinder Amarnath, was the player of the match in both the semi-final and the final of 1983 but never captained India. Keep the three World Cup wins in order: 1983 under Kapil Dev, the 2007 World Twenty20 and the 2011 World Cup under M. S. Dhoni.

The correct answer is B, Eagle. The bird names rise with the achievement: one stroke under par on a hole is a birdie, two under is an eagle and three under is an albatross or double eagle. Option A is wrong because a birdie is only one under par, the commonest of these scores. Option C is wrong because a bogey is the opposite, one stroke more than par, and two over par is a double bogey. Option D is wrong because an albatross is three under par, so rare that most professionals never record one. A hole completed from the tee in a single stroke is a hole in one or an ace, which on a par three hole is also an eagle by this scale. Papers set this question in both directions, giving the name and asking the score or giving the score and asking the name.

The correct answer is B, the best overall performing university in inter-university tournaments. The trophy was instituted in 1956 to 1957 and is a rolling award given each year to the university with the best overall record across inter-university competitions, named after the first education minister of independent India. Option A is wrong because the performance of states in the National Games is recognised through the Games own medal tally and trophies, not through this award. Option C is wrong because the Khelo India Youth Games rank participating states and union territories rather than individual schools, and no national trophy of this name is attached to them. Option D is wrong because the award for coaching excellence is the Dronacharya Award, instituted in 1985. The trophy belongs firmly to the university sports calendar.

The correct answer is B, the Produnova, a front handspring followed by two front somersaults, named after the Russian gymnast Yelena Produnova who first performed it and nicknamed the vault of death for the risk it carries. Dipa Karmakar performed it at the Rio Games of 2016, where she became the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics and finished fourth in the vault final. A is wrong because the Yurchenko, named after Natalia Yurchenko, is the family of vaults that begins with a round-off on to the springboard and is the base of most modern vaults, not Karmakar's signature. C is wrong because the Tsukahara, named after Mitsuo Tsukahara, is a different vault family using a half turn on to the table. D is wrong because the Amanar, named after Simona Amanar, is a Yurchenko entry with two and a half twists and is associated with other gymnasts.

The correct answer is B, the Dronacharya Award. Instituted in 1985 and named after the teacher of archery in the Mahabharata, it is conferred on coaches who have produced medal winners in international competition. Option A, the Arjuna Award, instituted in 1961, goes to players for consistently outstanding performance over several years, not to their coaches. Option C, the Dhyan Chand Award, instituted in 2002, is a lifetime achievement honour for retired sportspersons who continue to contribute to sport. Option D, the Khel Ratna Award, instituted in 1991-92 and now named after Major Dhyan Chand, is the highest sporting honour of the country and its first recipient was Viswanathan Anand. All four are announced on National Sports Day, 29 August, so candidates must separate them by their purpose rather than their date.

The correct answer is B, Saina Nehwal, who won the bronze in the women's singles at the London Olympics in 2012, the first Olympic medal in badminton for India; in 2015 she also became the first Indian woman to reach the world number one ranking in the sport. Option A is wrong because P. V. Sindhu came next, with a silver at Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and a bronze at Tokyo in 2020, which makes her the first Indian woman with two Olympic medals, a different record. Option C is wrong because Jwala Gutta is a doubles specialist with Commonwealth Games gold and a world championship bronze, but no Olympic medal. Option D is wrong for the same reason in the case of Ashwini Ponnappa. Keep the two badminton firsts apart: Nehwal the first medal, Sindhu the first two medals and the 2019 world title.

The correct answer is B, the State List. Entry 33 of the State List in the Seventh Schedule covers sports, entertainments and amusements, so the primary responsibility for sport rests with the state governments, which is why state sports departments and state associations run most competitions and facilities. Option A is wrong because the Union List does not carry a general entry on sport; the Union Government acts through national schemes, national institutions, international participation and infrastructure of national importance. Option C is wrong, although proposals to shift sport to the Concurrent List have been discussed from time to time; a proposal is not the present position. Option D is wrong because sport is expressly named in the Seventh Schedule and is not a residuary subject. This constitutional point explains why Union schemes work in partnership with the states.

The correct answer is B, Gukesh Dommaraju. Gukesh, from Chennai, won the Candidates Tournament in 2024 and then beat the defending champion Ding Liren of China in the title match held at Singapore later the same year, taking the crown at the age of eighteen and becoming the youngest undisputed world champion in the history of the game. He was the second Indian to hold the classical world title, after Viswanathan Anand. Option A is wrong because R Praggnanandhaa, though he reached the final of the FIDE World Cup in 2023, has not won the world championship match. Option C is wrong because Arjun Erigaisi is among the strongest Indian players by rating but has not played a title match. Option D is wrong because Vidit Gujrathi is an Olympiad medallist rather than a world champion.

The correct answer is B, P. T. Usha. Usha comes from Payyoli in Kozhikode district of Kerala, and the speed with which she ran the sprints and the 400 metres hurdles earned her the name Payyoli Express; she is also called the Golden Girl of Indian athletics for her long run of Asian Games and Asian Championships titles. Her best remembered race is the 400 metres hurdles final at Los Angeles in 1984, in which she finished fourth, one hundredth of a second away from the bronze. Option A, Anju Bobby George, won India's first medal at a World Athletics Championships, a long jump bronze at Paris in 2003. Option C, Shiny Wilson, was a fine middle distance runner of the same era. Option D, Hima Das, is a later sprinter known for a world junior title. Nicknames are a favourite one-mark question, so learn them as pairs.

The correct answer is B, the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. India beat Sri Lanka there in the final of the 2011 tournament, which India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh had hosted together, and it was the first time a host country had won the World Cup final on its own ground. Option A is wrong because Eden Gardens at Kolkata, though it staged matches of that tournament and the World Cup semi-final of 1996, did not hold the 2011 final. Option C is wrong because the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru hosted league matches, among them a famous tied game, but not the final. Option D is wrong because the Delhi ground, then still called Feroz Shah Kotla, also held only league matches. A question on this final may be set from either end, the year or the ground, so learn the pair together with the name of the beaten finalist.

The correct answer is B, adventure on land, sea and air. Instituted in 1994 and named after the Sherpa mountaineer who reached the summit of Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary, this award recognises outstanding achievement in adventure activities, with separate categories for land adventure such as mountaineering, water adventure such as sailing and rafting, and air adventure such as paragliding, along with a lifetime achievement category. Option A is wrong because achievement in athletics is recognised through the Arjuna Award and the Khel Ratna. Option C is wrong because para athletes are considered for the same mainstream sports awards and have their own Khelo India Para Games. Option D is wrong because there is no national award of this name for sports medicine, although sports science support is a part of the Target Olympic Podium Scheme.

The correct answer is C, intellectual disabilities. The Special Olympics was founded in 1968 by Eunice Kennedy Shriver and holds its own World Games on its own calendar, separate from both the Olympics and the Paralympics. Option A is wrong because athletes with visual impairment compete at the Paralympic Games, in classes marked for the degree of sight loss, and in sports such as goalball and blind football. Option B is wrong because deaf athletes compete at the Deaflympics, organised by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf and first held at Paris in 1924. Option D is wrong because spinal cord injury is the impairment from which the Paralympic movement itself grew at Stoke Mandeville. Learn the three names together, since the examiner tests only whether you can separate them.

The correct answer is B, Devendra Jhajharia. Jhajharia won the javelin throw gold at Athens in 2004 and again at Rio in 2016, becoming the first Indian Paralympian with two gold medals. Option A, Murlikant Petkar, is a strong distractor because he won India's very first Paralympic gold, in swimming at Heidelberg in 1972, but that was a single title. Option C, Deepa Malik, became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic medal when she took silver in the shot put at Rio in 2016, a first of a different kind. Option D, Avani Lekhara, became the first Indian woman to win a Paralympic gold, in shooting at the Tokyo Games. The four firsts should be stored separately: Petkar for the first gold, Jhajharia for two golds, Malik for the first medal by a woman and Lekhara for the first gold by a woman.

The correct answer is C, 9. A kho-kho team consists of twelve players of whom nine take the field. Eight of these sit in the central lane facing alternate directions, while the ninth is the active chaser who pursues the defenders; the duty passes when the active chaser touches a seated team-mate from behind and calls out kho. A is wrong because seven is the number of players a kabaddi team puts on the court, and the examiner places the two indigenous games side by side precisely so that the numbers get swapped. B is wrong because eight is only the number of chasers seated in the central lane, one short of the full side on the field. D is wrong because eleven is the playing number in cricket, football and hockey, and has nothing to do with kho-kho.