Sports GK Mixed Quiz: Set 9

The correct answer is C, Prakash Padukone. He won the men’s singles title at the All England Open in 1980, the first Indian to do so in the oldest badminton tournament in the world, first held in 1899. Option D, Pullela Gopichand, is the second Indian to win it, in 2001, and he later coached a generation of Indian players, so papers use the two names against each other and expect the candidate to know which came first. Option A, Nandu Natekar, was one of India’s finest early players and won many international titles, but not the All England. Option B, Syed Modi, was an eight-time national champion who won the Commonwealth Games gold in 1982, again without an All England title. Fix the pair by year: Padukone in 1980, Gopichand in 2001.

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, 400 metres. Milkha Singh reached the 400 metres final at Rome in 1960 and finished fourth in a race so close that the first four all broke the existing Olympic mark. His time stood as the Indian national record for close to four decades, and the near miss is the single most quoted moment in Indian athletics before 2021.

Option A, 200 metres, was an event he ran and won at the 1958 Asian Games, but not the Rome final in question. Option C, 800 metres, is the event in which Sriram Singh reached an Olympic final, at Montreal in 1976. Option D, 110 metres hurdles, is where Gurbachan Singh Randhawa finished fifth at Tokyo in 1964, another famous fourth-or-fifth place that papers deliberately mix with this one. Tie the three together: Milkha 1960, Randhawa 1964, Sriram 1976.

The correct answer is C, Golf. Birdie and eagle are scoring terms used in golf. Every hole on a golf course is given a par, the number of strokes a good player is expected to take on it. A birdie is a hole finished in one stroke under par and an eagle is two strokes under par. The same family of bird names continues with the albatross, or double eagle, which is three strokes under par. Scores above par have their own words: a bogey is one over par and a double bogey is two over. Since a lower score wins in golf, birdies and eagles mark good play. A standard course has 18 holes. A is wrong because basketball uses terms such as dunk, dribble and rebound. B is wrong because shooting uses bull's eye, range and sighter. D is wrong because boxing uses knockout, jab, hook and uppercut. Exam tip: albatross, eagle, birdie, par, bogey, double bogey, in that order.

The correct answer is B, Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav. Jadhav, a wrestler from Satara in Maharashtra, won the bronze medal in freestyle bantamweight wrestling at the Helsinki Olympic Games of 1952, and that was the first Olympic medal won by an individual athlete of independent India, all earlier medals having come to the men's hockey team. Option A is wrong because Sushil Kumar's medals came much later, a bronze at Beijing in 2008 and a silver at London in 2012, which made him the first Indian with two individual Olympic medals but not the first medallist. Option C is wrong because Guru Hanuman was a celebrated coach who received the Dronacharya Award and the Padma Shri; he trained wrestlers rather than competing at the Olympics. Option D is wrong because Yogeshwar Dutt won his bronze at the London Games of 2012.

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 A, Chaturanga. Chaturanga was played in India in the Gupta age and its name means four limbs, standing for the four divisions of an ancient army: infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots. These four survive on the modern board as the pawn, the knight, the bishop and the rook. The game passed to Persia, where it was called Shatranj and where the phrase shah mat, meaning the king is helpless, gave English the word checkmate, and reached Europe through the Arabs. Option B is wrong because Pachisi is a race game played on a cross-shaped cloth with cowrie shells, the ancestor of Ludo. Option C is wrong because Gilli Danda is a village bat-and-stick game with no board. Option D is wrong because Chausar, the dice game of the Mahabharata story, is a relative of Pachisi and not of chess.

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 D, Manika Batra. At the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games of 2018 she became the first Indian woman to win the singles gold in table tennis, beating Singapore’s Yu Mengyu in the final, and she also took team gold at the same Games. Option A, Mouma Das, was a senior member of that Indian squad and a long-serving international, but she did not win the singles title. Option B, Madhurika Patkar, and option C, Ankita Das, are Indian internationals of the same period who likewise have no Commonwealth singles gold. Alongside her, remember Achanta Sharath Kamal, India’s most decorated table tennis player, whose Commonwealth medals run across several editions. For badminton the parallel names are Saina Nehwal and P. V. Sindhu, and papers often ask for one of them in the same set.

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, triple jump. Field events are those in which an athlete jumps or throws rather than races, and the triple jump, with its hop, step and jump, is measured for distance in a sand pit. The other field events are the long jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put, discus, hammer and javelin.

Option A, the 110 metres hurdles, is a track event: it is a race over ten hurdles in lanes. Option B, the 4 x 400 metres relay, is also a track event, run by four athletes who pass a baton within a 30-metre take-over zone. Option D, the 3000 metres steeplechase, is a track race over barriers and a water jump, and its obstacles tempt candidates into calling it a field event. If the athlete is timed against a clock it is a track event; if the result is a distance or a height, it is a field event.

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, Greco-Roman. In Greco-Roman wrestling a competitor may not seize the opponent below the waist and may not use the legs actively to trip or lock, so every attack must be made with the arms and the upper body and the style is famous for its high throws. Option A is wrong because freestyle wrestling permits the whole body to be held, including leg attacks such as the single-leg and double-leg takedown, and it is the only style in which women compete at the Olympic Games. Option C is wrong because sumo is a separate Japanese sport fought in a clay ring where the aim is to push the opponent out or make him touch the ground, and it is not an Olympic wrestling style. Option D is wrong because beach wrestling is a variant played on sand with its own simplified rules and is not the style defined by the waist restriction.

The correct answer is B, 42.195 km. A marathon is run over 42.195 kilometres, which is exactly 26 miles and 385 yards. The odd figure was fixed at the London Olympics of 1908, when the course was extended to finish in front of the royal box, and it became the official distance a few years later.

Option A, 40 km, is close to the distance of the earliest marathons of the 1890s but is not the standard today. Option C, 45 km, matches no athletics event at all. Option D, 50 km, was for many years the longer of the two Olympic race-walking distances, which is why it appears here as a distractor, but walking and the marathon are separate events. A half marathon, worth remembering with this, is 21.0975 kilometres, and the marathon is a road event, not a track event.

The correct answer is B, Viswanathan Anand. Anand, born in Mayiladuthurai and brought up in Chennai, earned the Grandmaster title in 1988 while still a teenager and became the first Indian to hold the highest lifetime title awarded by FIDE. His speed at the board earned him the nickname Lightning Kid. He went on to win the FIDE world title in 2000 and became undisputed world champion in 2007, holding the crown until 2013. Option A is wrong because Pentala Harikrishna took the title much later, in the following generation. Option C is wrong because Manuel Aaron was India's first International Master, in 1961, a lower title, and he never became a Grandmaster. Option D is wrong because Dibyendu Barua, though an early Indian talent who beat Viktor Korchnoi as a boy, became a Grandmaster after Anand.

The correct answer is B, 1928. India played its first Olympic hockey tournament at the Amsterdam Games of 1928 and won the gold medal at that first attempt, with Jaipal Singh Munda as the captain and Dhyan Chand as the leading scorer. It was also India's first Olympic gold medal in any event.

Option A, 1920, is the year of the Antwerp Games, at which India took part in athletics and wrestling but not in hockey. Option C, 1932, is the Los Angeles Games, India's second gold, remembered for the 24–1 win over the United States. Option D, 1936, is the Berlin Games, the third gold in the row, where India beat Germany 8–1 in the final with Dhyan Chand as captain. All three of these are golds or Games in which India took part, which is what makes them plausible, but only Amsterdam was the first.

The correct answer is B, Barcelona 1992. Badminton had appeared earlier as a demonstration game, but medals were first awarded at Barcelona in 1992, in men’s and women’s singles and doubles; mixed doubles was added at Atlanta in 1996. Option A, Seoul 1988, is the trap, and a useful one to understand: badminton was only a demonstration sport there, while table tennis became a full medal sport at those very Games. Option C, Atlanta 1996, is when the fifth badminton event, mixed doubles, joined the programme, not when the sport entered. Option D, Sydney 2000, is unrelated to either game’s debut. Pair the two dates in the mind — table tennis 1988, badminton 1992 — and add India’s Olympic record: Saina Nehwal’s bronze in 2012, P. V. Sindhu’s silver in 2016 and her bronze in 2020.

The correct answer is C, 400 metres. Hima Das, who comes from Dhing in Assam and is called the Dhing Express, won the women's 400 metres at the World Under-20 Championships held at Tampere in Finland in 2018. She became the first Indian to win a gold medal in a track event at a world championship of any age group.

Option A, 100 metres, is a sprint she has run at domestic meets but not the race of that gold medal. Option B, 200 metres, is the event in which she has also competed and won Asian-level relay and individual honours, so it reads plausibly. Option D, long jump, is a field event and belongs to the Anju Bobby George line of Indian achievements rather than to Hima Das. The pairing to remember is Hima Das with the 400 metres flat and P. T. Usha with the 400 metres hurdles.

The correct answer is C, Sakshi Malik. Sakshi Malik of Rohtak in Haryana won the bronze medal in the 58 kilogram freestyle category at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games of 2016, coming back from behind in the last seconds of her repechage bout, and she thus became the first Indian woman wrestler to stand on an Olympic podium. Option A is wrong because Vinesh Phogat, though a Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallist, had not won an Olympic medal. Option B is wrong because Geeta Phogat made history as the first Indian woman wrestler to qualify for the Olympic Games, at London in 2012, and as a Commonwealth Games gold medallist, but she did not win an Olympic medal. Option D is wrong because Babita Kumari's honours are Commonwealth Games medals, not an Olympic one.

The correct answer is A, Koneru Humpy. Humpy, from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh, earned the open Grandmaster title in 2002 while in her teens, and at that time she was the youngest woman in the world to have done so. She has also been a world champion in the rapid form of the game. The open Grandmaster title should not be confused with the separate Woman Grandmaster title, which several Indian players earned earlier. Option B is wrong because Dronavalli Harika, a three-time bronze medallist at the Women's World Championship, took the title after Humpy. Option C is wrong because Tania Sachdev holds the International Master and Woman Grandmaster titles. Option D is wrong because Vaishali Rameshbabu, the sister of R Praggnanandhaa, became a Grandmaster much later, in the present generation of Indian players.