Sports GK Mixed Quiz: Set 8

The correct answer is C, 16. The Laws of Badminton require a feathered shuttle to carry sixteen feathers fixed in a cork base covered with thin leather, and the feathers, usually from the wing of a goose or a duck, must be of the same length in one shuttle. Its weight lies between 4.74 and 5.50 grams, and this pair of numbers — sixteen feathers and a weight under six grams — is what papers ask for. Options A, B and D, twelve, fourteen and twenty, are the usual near misses offered to a candidate who remembers only that the number is somewhere around a dozen and a half. Note also that synthetic shuttles are allowed for practice and in some tournaments, but the sixteen-feather shuttle remains the standard used at international level, so the figure quoted in an examination is always sixteen.

The correct answer is D, Karnataka. Karnataka won the 2017-18 Vijay Hazare Trophy, beating Saurashtra in the final played in Delhi. The tournament is India's premier domestic limited-overs competition for state teams, run by the Board of Control for Cricket in India since 2002-03, and it is named after Vijay Hazare, the batsman who led India to its first Test victory, against England at Madras in 1952. Karnataka's Mayank Agarwal was the story of that season, scoring 723 runs, the highest total by any batsman in a single edition of the trophy. Option A is wrong because Uttar Pradesh did not reach the 2017-18 final. Option B is wrong because Kerala was knocked out before the final that season. Option C is wrong because Maharashtra also failed to reach the final; Karnataka's opponent was Saurashtra. Exam tip: Vijay Hazare Trophy is the one-day tournament, the Ranji Trophy the first-class one and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy the Twenty20 one.

The correct answer is B, Payyoli Express. P. T. Usha comes from Payyoli in the Kozhikode district of Kerala, and her speed on the track earned her the name of her village. At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics she finished fourth in the 400 metres hurdles, missing the bronze by one hundredth of a second, and at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games she won four golds and a silver.

Option A, Dhing Express, belongs to Hima Das of Dhing in Assam, who won the 400 metres at the 2018 World Under-20 Championships. Option C is a loose description, not the nickname papers use. Option D, Udan Pari, or flying fairy, is a name associated with the sprinter Dutee Chand in press reports and not with Usha. Since two of the four options are genuine athletics nicknames, the question turns on knowing which village goes with which runner.

The correct answer is A, Javelin throw. Neeraj Chopra won the men's javelin throw at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which were held in 2021, and that medal was India's first Olympic gold in athletics and its first individual gold since shooting in 2008. He went on to take the world title at Budapest in 2023.

Option B, badminton, is wrong because India's badminton medals at the Games have been a silver and bronzes, not a gold, and none of them belongs to Chopra. Option C, tennis, is wrong because India has won only a bronze in tennis at the Olympics, in 1996, and Chopra is not a tennis player. Option D, weight lifting, is wrong because Mirabai Chanu won a silver in weightlifting at the same Tokyo Games, which is why the option looks tempting to a candidate who remembers only the Games and not the event. Chopra is a thrower, and his event is the javelin.

The correct answer is D, 1.524 m. The badminton net sags very slightly at the middle, so the laws fix two heights: 1.524 metres at the centre of the court and 1.55 metres over the side lines, at the posts. Option B, 1.55 m, is therefore a true figure placed in the wrong slot, and it is the answer most candidates pick when they read the question in a hurry; note carefully whether the question says centre or posts. Option A, 1.50 m, is a rounded-off number that appears in loose writing but is not the legal height. Option C, 1.62 m, is nowhere in badminton; it is close to the height of a volleyball net for women, which is 2.24 metres, and simply serves as a distractor. The court itself is 13.4 metres long, 6.1 metres wide for doubles and 5.18 metres for singles.

The correct answer is D, Field hockey. A 16-yard hit is the free hit given to the defending team in field hockey when an attacker sends the ball over the back line without a goal being scored. The ball is placed in line with the point where it crossed the line, 16 yards or about 14.63 metres out from the inner edge of the back line, and a defender takes the hit while opponents stand at least five metres away. The same hit is awarded when an attacking player commits an offence inside the shooting circle. A is wrong because golf is measured in holes, pars and the yardage of fairways and has no such hit. B is wrong because lawn tennis uses terms such as deuce, ace, let and smash. C is wrong because cricket's restarts are the no-ball, the wide and a free hit of an entirely different kind. Exam tip: hockey terms - 16-yard hit, penalty corner, and the penalty stroke taken from 6.4 metres.

The correct answer is C, ten. The word decathlon is built from the Greek deca, meaning ten, and athlon, meaning contest. It is a men's combined event held over two days, and its ten disciplines take in sprints, hurdles, the middle-distance 1500 metres, jumps and throws. Points are awarded by a fixed table and the highest total wins.

Option A, seven, is the number of events in the heptathlon, the women's combined event, and is the commonest wrong answer because the two are always taught together. Option B, eight, matches no combined event in athletics. Option D, twelve, is likewise not a recognised total. A third combined event worth noting is the pentathlon, with five events, which survives in the modern pentathlon and in indoor competition. Count the Greek prefix and the answer follows at once.

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, 21. Since 2006 badminton has used rally point scoring, in which a point is won on every rally whoever served, a game runs to 21 points and a match is decided over the best of three games. From 20–20 a side must take a lead of two clear points, and if the score climbs to 29–29 the thirtieth point settles the game. Option A, 15, was the older system for men’s singles and doubles, where only the serving side could score, and it is the commonest wrong answer. Option C, 11, was the older score for women’s singles and is also the length of a table tennis game today, so it belongs to a different game. Option D, 25, is the score of a set in modern volleyball and has no place in badminton.

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, 3000 metres. The Olympic steeplechase is a 3000-metre race in which runners clear solid barriers and a water jump on every lap. Over the full distance an athlete takes twenty-eight barrier jumps and seven water jumps, and the barrier before the water jump is fixed and does not tip over.

Option A, 1500 metres, is a flat middle-distance race called the metric mile and has no barriers. Option B, 2000 metres, is the distance of the junior steeplechase in some meets and so is a plausible trap, but the senior championship event is 3000 metres. Option D, 5000 metres, is a flat long-distance track race. Remember that the steeplechase is the only Olympic track race with a water jump, and that both men and women now contest it over the same 3000 metres.

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, 40 mm. The International Table Tennis Federation enlarged the ball from 38 millimetres to 40 millimetres after the Sydney Olympics of 2000, so that the slower, more visible ball would make rallies easier to follow on television. The ball weighs 2.7 grams and is white or orange. Option B, 38 mm, is the old size and is the trap in this question, because it was the standard for decades and still appears in older books. Option A, 36 mm, and option D, 44 mm, are invented figures that have never been used. Remember one more change of the same period: celluloid balls gave way to plastic, or poly, balls from 2014, and the game itself was cut from 21 points to 11 in 2001, so the modern ball, the modern score and the plastic material all belong to the years after 2000.

The correct answer is A, Golf. The Ryder Cup is a team golf tournament, played between teams representing the United States and Europe. It began in 1927 and is named after Samuel Ryder, the English seed merchant who donated the trophy. The event is held every two years, the venue alternating between American and European courses, and unlike most professional golf it is a match-play team contest in which no prize money is paid to the players. The women's equivalent is the Solheim Cup. B is wrong because table tennis has the Swaythling Cup and the Corbillon Cup. C is wrong because cricket's main trophies are the World Cup, the Ashes and the Ranji Trophy. D is wrong because hockey has the Azlan Shah Cup and, in India, the Dhyan Chand Trophy and the Rangaswamy Cup. Exam tip: link golf with the Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup, the Walker Cup and the Presidents Cup.

The correct answer is B, Anju Bobby George. She took the bronze in the long jump at the 2003 World Championships at Paris, and that was the first medal India won at a senior World Athletics Championships. Her best jump of 6.83 metres, set at Athens in 2004, stood as the national mark for many years.

Option A, P. T. Usha, won a mountain of Asian medals and came fourth at the 1984 Olympics, but she never stood on a World Championships podium. Option C, Neeraj Chopra, won the world title in 2023 and a silver in 2022, both two decades after Anju's bronze, so he is not the first. Option D, Hima Das, won her 400 metres gold at the World Under-20 Championships in 2018, which is a junior meet and a different competition from the senior Worlds. The word first, and the word senior, decide this question.

The correct answer is D, disqualification. Badminton umpires use three cards, and the black one is the last of them: it removes the player or the pair from the match altogether, and the referee is informed. Option C, warning, describes the yellow card, which the umpire shows for a first offence such as delaying play or leaving the court without permission. Option B, fault, describes the red card, which punishes a repeated or a serious offence by awarding the rally, and therefore a point, to the opponent. Option A, suspension, is not a card decision at all; a ban from future tournaments is imposed later by the federation on a disciplinary report, not by the umpire on court. Learn the three cards as a rising ladder — yellow for a warning, red for a point to the other side, black for disqualification — because papers ask for any one of the three.

The correct answer is A, 76 cm. The laws of table tennis fix the playing surface at 76 centimetres above the floor, with the table 2.74 metres long and 1.525 metres wide, and the net across the middle 15.25 centimetres high. Option B, 72 cm, option C, 80 cm, and option D, 74 cm, are near values placed to catch a candidate who recalls only that the height is about three-quarters of a metre. A convenient way to hold the set is to notice that the length in metres, 2.74, and the height in centimetres, 76, are the two numbers examiners return to most often, while the net height of 15.25 centimetres is exactly one-tenth of the width of the table. Papers also ask for the weight of the ball, 2.7 grams, in the same question family.

The correct answer is C, 800 grams. The rules fix the men's javelin at a minimum of 800 grams with a length of about 2.6 to 2.7 metres, while the women's javelin weighs 600 grams and is shorter. A throw counts only if the metal tip strikes the ground first and the athlete stays behind the arc.

Option A, 600 grams, is the weight of the women's javelin and is the trap the question is built around. Option B, 700 grams, is not a competition weight in athletics at all. Option D, 1 kilogram, is the weight of the women's discus, so it belongs to a different event. Keep the four throwing weights in one line: shot put 7.26 kilograms for men and 4 for women, discus 2 kilograms and 1, hammer 7.26 kilograms and 4, javelin 800 grams and 600.

The correct answer is B, men’s team table tennis. The Swaythling Cup, presented by Lady Swaythling, is the trophy of the men’s team event at the World Table Tennis Championships, held since the first championships of 1926. Option A, women’s team table tennis, is the Corbillon Cup, and the two are the pair a paper setter most likes to swap. Option C, men’s team badminton, is the Thomas Cup, and option D, mixed team badminton, is the Sudirman Cup, both from the other racket game. A single sentence keeps all four in place: in table tennis the men play for the Swaythling Cup and the women for the Corbillon Cup, while in badminton the men play for the Thomas Cup, the women for the Uber Cup and mixed teams for the Sudirman Cup.

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.