Continued from first one...
5. Indian men’s and women’s hockey team win at Asia Cup
Indian men’s and women’s hockey teams both earned the top spot in the Asia Cup in October and November respectively. The men’s team brought the cup home after beating Malaysia (2-1). Whereas, the women’s team ended a dry spell of 13 long years by beating China 5-4 in a penalty shoot out. With this, the women’s team also qualified for next year’s World Cup as the Continental champions.
6. India hosts the FIFA U-17
India hosted the FIFA Under 17 tournament in October this year, making it the first time we participated in a global football tournament. Although the Indian team didn’t win any matches, they did manage to score in a goal and bring the country’s rank to 96, the highest it has ever been. However this successful venture did help and open avenues for India to host the Under 20 tournament in the near future.
7. Mary Kom wins 5th gold medal at Asian’s Women Boxing Championship – November 2017
The end of the year proved to be quite fruitful for a lot of our sportspersons, including Mary Kom. The boxer returned to the ring after a long hiatus, and won her first ever gold in the 48 kg category at the Asian Boxing Championship. This win, against China’s Yin Junhua, also marked her the fifth time she has won the championship.
8. Mirabai Chanu wins gold at World Weightlifting Championship
The next woman who made us proud was Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, who ended a twenty year-long wait for India to win the World Weightlifting Championship. The 23-year-old resident of Imphal, lifted 85 kg in snatch and 109kg in clean and jerk, which brought her total to an impressive 194 kg. With this, she broke her own national-record of 108 kg that she’d set in June.
9. Para swimming gold – Kanchanmala Pande
December may be the last month of the year, but this month was far from marking the last of our victories. The month kicked off with the victory of Nagpur’s visually impaired swimmer, Kanchanmala Pande, becoming the first ever Indian to win a gold medal at the World Para Swimming Championship held in Mexico. Pande was the only Indian swimmer to qualify in the women’s category, and went on to secure the first place in the 200 meters medley event in the S-11 category.
10. Rohit Sharma scores his third ODI double hundred
The celebrations continued as we saw Rohit Sharma become the first batsmen ever to score three double centuries in ODI cricket history. The batsman hit 208 runs in 153 balls in the 2nd ODI match against Sri Lanka, which was held in Mohali on December 13. To add the cherry to the cake, with his 16th ODI century, Rohit beat out Virender Sehwag to win the fourth spot on India’s centurion list, following Tendulkar (49), Virat Kohli (32) and Sourav Ganguly (22).
11. PV Sindhu wins silver at BWF Superseries
The celebrations did not end there. Last year, while she took to the court at the Rio Olympics, PV Sindhu had the nation praying for her, and even though she couldn’t secure the gold, she walked home with a silver. This year, at the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Superseries, PV Sindhu did the country proud again by winning a silver. She was closely beaten by Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, but managed to secure the third place in the BWF rankings.
12. Viswanathan Anand wins World Rapid Chess Championship – December 2017
And ending the year on a high note, Viswanathan Anand won the World Rapid Chess Championship. The 48-year-old genius from Chennai, defeated Magnus Carlsen of Norway earlier in the tournament, finished with 10.5 points at the end of the 15th and final round. But there was also a tie between two Russians, Vladimir Fedoseev and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who also scored 10.5. To settle it, Anand played a mini match against Fedoseev, who is 26 years younger, and won 2-0.
13. Virat Kohli shattered record after record
India’s young skipper completely owned 2017. For starters, he broke his own record of having the highest individual runs by any Indian skipper when he scored 243 in the test series against Sri Lanka. He’s also has notched the most double centuries (six) by a captain. He’s levelled with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag’s 6 double centuries in test matches, and we’re sure by he’ll break that record too. He’s also the only Indian captain to score 1000+ runs (1059 to be exact) in two successive years.
14. Sports Social: India’s first Sports Network Launched
Sports Social is the Sports Digital Media and Networking Service that helps you to see what's going around in sports in your locality and let's you chase your passion to play your favorite sport.
Here’s hoping for an even crazier 2018!
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