Sports GK Mixed Quiz: Set 32

The correct answer is B, the Black Pearl. Pele of Brazil, the only player to win three World Cups, was called Perola Negra, the Black Pearl, and also the King of Football. Option A is wrong because the Black Panther was Eusebio of Portugal, who was born in Mozambique and was the leading scorer of the 1966 World Cup. Option C is wrong because the Golden Boy, El Pibe de Oro, was Diego Maradona of Argentina, the captain who won the World Cup of 1986. Option D is wrong because the Flea, La Pulga, is Lionel Messi, named for his small build and quick turns. All four nicknames belong to footballers, which is what makes this question worth attempting carefully rather than quickly. A single line holds all four: Pearl for Brazil, Panther for Portugal, Golden Boy for Argentina and Flea for the modern Argentine, which turns a four-option question into a one-step recall.

The correct answer is A, Kapil Dev. The all-rounder from Chandigarh who played for Haryana was called the Haryana Hurricane for the pace of his bowling and the speed of his hitting, and he captained India to the World Cup of 1983. Option B is wrong because Virender Sehwag, who comes from Najafgarh in Delhi, is the Nawab of Najafgarh and also Multan ka Sultan, after his century at Multan. Option C is wrong because Chetan Sharma, although also a fast bowler from Haryana, carries no such nickname and is remembered chiefly for the first hat-trick in a World Cup. Option D is wrong because Yuvraj Singh, from Punjab, is called the Sixer King for his six sixes in an over, and Yuvi by his team-mates.

The correct answer is B, Odisha. The 2018 Hockey World Cup was played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar, and the 2023 edition was shared between the Kalinga Stadium and the newly built Birsa Munda Stadium at Rourkela, both in Odisha. Belgium won in 2018 and Germany in 2023. The state also sponsors the Indian national hockey teams, which is why it appears so often in sports questions. Option A, Punjab, is the state that has produced the largest number of Indian hockey internationals but has not hosted a World Cup. Option C, Maharashtra, hosted the 1982 Hockey World Cup at Mumbai, so it belongs to the list of Indian hosts but to a different year. Option D, Jharkhand, has the Birsa Munda name in common with the Rourkela stadium and hosts major domestic and Asian hockey events at Ranchi, but the 2018 and 2023 World Cups were not held there.

The correct answer is C, New Delhi. The first Asian Games were held at the National Stadium in New Delhi in 1951, after Guru Dutt Sondhi of India proposed a games for the newly independent countries of Asia in place of the older Far Eastern Games. Eleven nations competed and India finished second in the medal table behind Japan. Option A, Tokyo, hosted the third Asian Games in 1958 and is the city most associated with the Summer Olympics of 1964 in Asia, not the first Asian Games. Option B, Manila, hosted the second edition in 1954, so it comes immediately after Delhi in the sequence and is the commonest wrong answer. Option D, Jakarta, hosted the fourth edition in 1962 and again in 2018 along with Palembang. Remember the opening order as Delhi 1951, Manila 1954, Tokyo 1958 and Jakarta 1962.

The correct answer is A, Rahul Dravid. The Karnataka batter was called The Wall for the long innings with which he held up an end for India in Test cricket, and Jammy within his team. Option B is wrong because Cheteshwar Pujara, who played a similar role for a later generation, is often described as the new wall but is not the answer to the nickname question itself. Option C is wrong because Gundappa Viswanath, the wristy batter of the nineteen-seventies, carries no such name. Option D is wrong because Dilip Vengsarkar, famous for his centuries at Lord's, was called the Colonel. Fixing one nickname to one era is the way to clear this question, since every option here is a specialist Test batter for India.

The correct answer is C, Moscow 1980. Misha, properly Mishka, was the bear chosen for the Moscow Games of 1980 and became the best known Olympic mascot of its time, partly because of its appearance at the closing ceremony. Option A is wrong because Seoul in 1988 had Hodori, a tiger cub, the tiger being a figure of Korean folklore. Option B is wrong because Los Angeles in 1984 had Sam, an eagle wearing a hat in the colours of the United States flag. Option D is wrong because Barcelona in 1992 had Cobi, a Catalan sheepdog drawn in a modern style. All four of these mascots are animals, which is why the matching question works: tie each animal to its country, bear to Russia, tiger to Korea, eagle to the United States, dog to Spain.

The correct answer is A, Mahabalipuram near Chennai. The forty fourth Chess Olympiad was held in 2022 at Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, the first time the event came to India and the first time it was held in Asia in several decades. The mascot was Thambi, a knight in the form of a boy, and the torch relay for the Olympiad started from New Delhi, a practice begun with this edition. Option B, Goa, hosts major chess tournaments and the national championships but not that Olympiad. Option C, Hyderabad, is the city of the only Afro-Asian Games, held in 2003, which is why it belongs in this chapter for a different reason. Option D, Bhubaneswar, is associated with hockey and athletics events rather than chess. Chennai is also the home city of Viswanathan Anand, India's first grandmaster, which helps fix the answer.

The correct answer is B, Abhinav Bindra. He won the gold medal in the men's 10 metre air rifle at Beijing in 2008, India's first individual gold in any sport and the first gold of any kind since the hockey team's win at Moscow in 1980. A is wrong because Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won silver in double trap shooting at Athens in 2004, which was India's first individual silver but not a gold. C is wrong because Neeraj Chopra won gold in the javelin throw at Tokyo in 2020, India's first gold in athletics but thirteen years after Bindra's. D is wrong because Vijay Kumar won silver in the 25 metre rapid fire pistol at London in 2012. The pair to keep separate is Bindra for the first individual gold and Neeraj Chopra for the first athletics gold.

The correct answer is B, Jhulan Goswami. The fast bowler comes from Chakdaha in the Nadia district of West Bengal, and her nickname joins that town to her pace, in the manner of the Payyoli Express and the Rawalpindi Express. Option A is wrong because Mithali Raj, the batter who captained India for many years, is called Lady Tendulkar, and these two names are regularly offered as each other's distractors because the two players were team-mates for so long. Option C is wrong because Harmanpreet Kaur, the batter remembered for her innings against Australia in the 2017 World Cup semi-final, has no such nickname. Option D is wrong because Smriti Mandhana is likewise known by her own name rather than by any nickname of this kind.

The correct answer is B, cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. In the biathlon a competitor skis a cross-country course and stops at a range to shoot at targets, with a penalty of extra distance or time for each miss; the sport grew out of military patrol skiing in Scandinavia. Option A is wrong because the combination of ski jumping with a cross-country race is the Nordic combined, which is the event most often confused with the biathlon. Option C is wrong because speed skating and figure skating are separate ice sports and are never combined into one event. Option D is wrong because alpine skiing and snowboarding are also separate disciplines with their own medal events. The modern biathlon is contested over several distances, with sprint, pursuit, individual, mass start and relay events, and the shooting is done both prone and standing.

The correct answer is A, Hyderabad. The Afro-Asian Games were conceived to bring together the medal winners of Africa and Asia, and the single edition that was actually staged was held at Hyderabad in 2003, mainly at the Gachibowli Stadium. A second edition was planned but never held, so the event belongs to Indian sports history as a one-off. Option B, Pune, hosted the Commonwealth Youth Games in 2008, which is a different multi sport event and a common confusion. Option C, Jaipur, has hosted national games events and cricket but no continental games. Option D, Kochi, hosted the National Games in 1987 and matches of the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, so it also belongs in a list of Indian venues but not for the Afro-Asian Games. Pairing Hyderabad 2003 with Pune 2008 keeps the two events apart.

The correct answer is B, India. The shuttle-and-racket game was played at Poona, now Pune, where British officers took it up; it was long known simply as Poona, and they carried it home where its rules were later settled. Option A is wrong as the country of origin, although England is where the modern rules were codified and where the All England Championships, the oldest tournament in the sport, began; this split between the folk game and the written rules is the heart of the question. Option C is wrong because China, though dominant in the modern sport, is linked in origin questions with cuju, the ancient ball game that prefigures football. Option D is wrong because Scotland is the home of golf. Along with chess, polo and snooker, badminton is one of the four origin answers that go to India.

The correct answer is C, Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard's record on clay courts, above all at the French Open, earned him the name King of Clay, and he is also called Rafa. Option A is wrong because Roger Federer is the Fed Express and the Swiss Maestro, names drawn from his speed and his style rather than from one surface; his own best surface was grass. Option B is wrong because Novak Djokovic is called Nole or Djoker and is not identified with a single surface. Option D is wrong because Pete Sampras was Pistol Pete, for his serve, and in fact never won the French Open, which makes him the clearest wrong answer to a clay-court question of this kind. The rule of thumb for tennis nicknames is that a surface makes the king, a serve makes the gunman and speed makes the express, so clay points to Nadal, the serve to Sampras and the express to Federer.

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, the Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida. Built in Uttar Pradesh near Delhi, the Buddh International Circuit held the Indian Grand Prix in 2011, 2012 and 2013, after which the race was dropped from the calendar; Sebastian Vettel won all three editions. Option A, the Madras Motor Race Track near Chennai, is India's oldest permanent racing circuit and holds national and Asian championship rounds, but never a Formula One Grand Prix. Option C, the Kari Motor Speedway at Coimbatore, is a shorter circuit used for junior formula and karting events. Option D, a street circuit at Hyderabad, has been used for electric racing rather than Formula One. For the exam, remember Buddh International Circuit with Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh and the three years 2011 to 2013.

The correct answer is B, Services Sports Control Board. The Services Sports Control Board enters a single contingent known simply as Services, made up of sportspersons serving in the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and because the armed forces recruit and train athletes from across the country this team has been among the most successful in the medal table across editions. Option A names the Railways Sports Promotion Board, which does run a large sports establishment and fields teams in national championships of individual federations, but it is the Services contingent that is the standing non-state team at the National Games. Option C is wrong because the Sports Authority of India trains athletes and supports the event rather than entering a team of its own. Option D names a combined universities side, which belongs to the inter-university championships and to the Khelo India University Games rather than to the National Games.

The correct answer is B, Virender Sehwag. The opening batter came from Najafgarh on the outskirts of Delhi, and the title Nawab of Najafgarh was coined for him in play on the real royal title held by an earlier India captain; he is also called Multan ka Sultan for the triple century he scored at Multan. Option A is wrong because Gautam Gambhir, his opening partner for Delhi and India, carries no such nickname. Option C is wrong because Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was the actual Nawab of Pataudi and was known as Tiger Pataudi, which is the royal title the Sehwag nickname plays upon. Option D is wrong because Bishan Singh Bedi, the left-arm spinner from Delhi, belongs to an earlier generation and to a different kind of fame.

The correct answer is C, Table Tennis. The Corbillon Cup is the trophy of the women’s team event at the World Table Tennis Championships, and its companion, the Swaythling Cup, is the men’s team trophy. Option D, Badminton, is the distractor the setter counts on, because badminton has its own pair of team cups — the Thomas Cup for men and the Uber Cup for women — and candidates who remember only that cups exist in racket games mix the two sets. Option A, Golf, is wrong: golf’s team trophies are the Ryder Cup, the Presidents Cup and the Solheim Cup. Option B, Hockey, is wrong as well; Indian hockey is associated with the Dhyan Chand Trophy, the Rangaswami Cup and the Beighton Cup. Keep the four cups in two pairs, table tennis against badminton, and this family of questions becomes easy marks.

The correct answer is A, the 10th Hockey World Cup at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium. New Delhi hosted the tenth edition of the Hockey World Cup in 2010 at the stadium named after Major Dhyan Chand, the same ground that had been built for the first Asian Games in 1951; Australia won that tournament. The next Indian edition, in 2018, moved to the Kalinga Stadium at Bhubaneswar. Option B pairs the right stadium with the wrong edition number and year, since the Kalinga Stadium came in 2018. Option C is wrong because the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata is a football ground and hosted the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup final. Option D is wrong because the Wankhede is a cricket stadium; Mumbai's 1982 Hockey World Cup was played elsewhere in the city.

The correct answer is B, Monaco. The body was founded in 1912 as the International Amateur Athletic Federation, became the International Association of Athletics Federations, and was renamed World Athletics in 2019. Its offices are in Monaco, and it fixes the rules, ratifies world records and organises the World Athletics Championships, first held at Helsinki in 1983.

Option A, Lausanne in Switzerland, is the seat of the International Olympic Committee, which is a different organisation and the commonest confusion in this question. Option C, Zurich, hosts the headquarters of FIFA, the world football body, and a famous annual athletics meet, but not World Athletics itself. Option D, Paris, is the city where the body was founded at a meeting of national federations and where the 2003 World Championships were held, which makes it a well-placed distractor.