Asian Games and Commonwealth Games: Hosts, Mascots and MCQs

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 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 B, Guru Dutt Sondhi, the Indian sports administrator who put the proposal to the Asian delegates during the 1948 London Olympics. His idea led to the formation of the Asian Games Federation at New Delhi in 1949 and to the first Games there in 1951.

Option A, Jawaharlal Nehru, is closely tied to the event because he declared the 1951 Games open and gave them their public standing, but the proposal was not his. Option C, Pierre de Coubertin, revived the modern Olympic Games and founded the International Olympic Committee, which places him in a different chapter altogether. Option D, Melville Marks Robinson, is the organiser of the first British Empire Games at Hamilton in 1930, so he belongs to the Commonwealth Games half of this topic. Sondhi for Asia and Robinson for the Commonwealth is the pair to remember.

The correct answer is B, Appu, an elephant. The ninth Asian Games at New Delhi in 1982 were the first Games organised under the newly formed Olympic Council of Asia, and their elephant mascot became one of the best remembered images in Indian sport.

Option A, Shera the tiger, is the mascot of the 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi, and the two are the classic pair that examiners interchange, because both belong to Delhi editions. Options C and D name no mascot of either event and are placed only to test whether the candidate has learnt the names or is guessing from Indian animals. The clean way to hold this is by year: 1982 Asiad gives Appu the elephant, 2010 Commonwealth Games gives Shera the tiger.

The correct answer is C, the Olympic Council of Asia. It was set up in 1982 with its headquarters at Kuwait City and took over the running of the Asian Games from that year, which is why the 1982 Delhi Asiad is described as the first Games held under the new body.

Option A, the Asian Games Federation, is the older organisation, formed at New Delhi in 1949, and it ran the Games from 1951 until it was replaced, so it is correct only for the earlier period. Option B, the International Olympic Committee, recognises the Asian Games but does not organise them; it runs the Olympic Games. Option D, the Commonwealth Games Federation, belongs to the other half of this chapter and has nothing to do with Asia as a region. The year 1982 does double duty here: the new body and the second Delhi Asiad.

The correct answer is D, Hamilton, in Canada. The first edition was held there in 1930 under the name British Empire Games, organised by Melville Marks Robinson, and it grew out of a proposal made as far back as 1891 by John Astley Cooper for a festival of the nations of the Empire.

Option A, London, hosted the second edition in 1934, the first in which India took part. Option B, Sydney, hosted a later edition and is placed here because Australia is so closely associated with these Games. Option C, Cardiff, hosted the 1958 Games, which matter for two other facts: the Baton Relay began there and Milkha Singh won the 440 yards there. Each of the three wrong options is therefore a real host city, which is why the year must be learnt with the city rather than the city alone.

The correct answer is A, British Empire Games. That was the official name from the first edition at Hamilton in 1930 until 1950. The title then changed with the politics of the Commonwealth: British Empire and Commonwealth Games from 1954, British Commonwealth Games from 1970 and simply the Commonwealth Games from 1978.

Option B, Empire Olympic Games, has never been an official name of the meet. Option C, the Friendly Games, is a popular nickname and not a formal title, so it is wrong for a question that asks what the Games were known as when they began. Option D, Pan-Britannic Games, is close to the wording of the original 1891 proposal by John Astley Cooper for a Pan-Britannic festival, but that festival was never held under that name, which makes this the most attractive distractor in the set.

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 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, 440 yards. Milkha Singh, the quarter-miler known as the Flying Sikh, won the 440 yards at Cardiff in 1958, giving India its first athletics gold at the Commonwealth Games. The same year he also won gold at the Tokyo Asian Games, which is why 1958 is the year most often attached to his name.

Option A, the 100 yards, was a sprint outside his range; his strength was the long sprint of a quarter mile. Option C, the marathon, is a distance event and belongs to an entirely different kind of athlete. Option D, the 110 metres hurdles, is a technical event he never contested. Candidates also confuse the venue, so hold the pair together: Cardiff in 1958 for the Commonwealth gold in the 440 yards, and the Rome Olympics of 1960 for the fourth place in the 400 metres.

The correct answer is A, the Friendly Games. The nickname records the spirit in which the meet was set up, a gathering of nations bound by a shared history rather than a contest of blocs, and it fits the Federation motto, Humanity, Equality, Destiny.

Option B, the Asiad, is the popular short name of the Asian Games, and it is the swap most commonly tested in this chapter. Option C, the Summer Games, refers to the summer edition of the Olympic Games as distinct from the Winter Olympics. Option D, the Continental Games, is not the name of any single event; several continents run their own regional games. In one line for revision: the Asian Games are the Asiad and the Commonwealth Games are the Friendly Games, with mottoes Ever Onward and Humanity, Equality, Destiny in the same order.

The correct answer is B, Bangkok. The Thai capital has staged the Asian Games on four occasions, more than any other city, and it twice stepped in at short notice when another host withdrew, which is how it built up that record.

Option A, New Delhi, has hosted twice, in 1951 and 1982, and is the answer to the separate question about the Indian editions, not to this one. Option C, Tokyo, hosted the Asian Games in 1958 and is better remembered as the first Asian city to host the Olympic Games. Option D, Seoul, hosted the 1986 Asian Games and then the 1988 Olympics, a pairing examiners like, but it is not the most frequent Asiad host. Read the stem carefully: the question asks for the most frequent host, not for an Indian or an Olympic connection.