The first Asian Games were held in 1951 in which city?

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.