Sports Current Affairs

 

·         Lewis Hamilton overtook title rival Max Verstappen and Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to win the Portuguese Grand Prix. Verstappen finished second, while Bottas, who started from pole, came in a disappointing third place. Sergio Perez took the flag in fourth, with Lando Norris fifth for McLaren.

·         Sri Lankan all-rounder and former captain, Thisara Perera has announced his retirement from international cricket, ending his international career which spanned nearly 12 years. Perera played six Tests, 166 ODIs (2338 runs, 175 wickets), and 84 T20Is (1204 runs, 51 wickets) for Sri Lanka, after making his debut in December 2009. The 32-year-old would continue to play domestic and franchise cricket.

·         The Badminton World Federation announced that India shuttler PV Sindhu and Canada’s Michelle Li have been nominated as athlete ambassadors for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) ‘Believe in Sport’ campaign aimed at preventing competition manipulation.

·         In Snooker, English professional player Mark Selby has become the World Snooker Champion for the fourth time. He won the Championship title after defeating fellow mate Shaun Murphy by 18-15 victory at a professional snooker tournament, that took place from 17 April to 3 May 2021 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England. Prior to this, Selby won the Championship title in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2021.

·         Former Sri Lanka player and coach, Nuwan Zoysa has been banned from all cricket for six years after an ICC Anti-Corruption Tribunal found him guilty of breaching the ICC anti-corruption code. The ban for Zoysa is backdated to 31 October 2018, when he was provisionally suspended.

·         The All India Chess Federation has launched the ‘Checkmate Covid Initiative’ to help the chess community affected by the pandemic. The initiative was launched at an online event in the presence of FIDE (World Chess Federation) president Arkady Dvorkovich, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, World Rapid Chess Champion Koneru Humpy, AICF president Sanjay Kapoor and secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan.

·         Indian gymnast Pranati Nayak, who had claimed a bronze in the vault at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championships in 2019, is set to compete at the Tokyo Olympics after qualifying through the continental quota. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-Great Britain) won the 2021 Spanish Grand Prix, held on 09 May 2021. This win is the fifth successive Spanish Grand Prix title of Lewis Hamilton and the third win of this season. Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing-Netherlands) came second followed by Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes-Finland) at third position. The race was the fourth round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship.

·         In tennis, the world number seven, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, defeated world number one Ashleigh Barty of Australia to win the 2021 Madrid Open women’s singles title.

·         German Alexander Zverev earned his second Mutua Madrid Open title 2021 when he defeated Matteo Berrettini 6-7(8), 6-4, 6-3 to lift his fourth ATP Masters 1000 trophy. He won his first Madrid title in 2018 in a final against Thiem.

·         New Zealand wicketkeeper-batsman BJ Watling has announced he would be retiring from international cricket after the three Tests, including the World Test Championship final against India, on their upcoming England tour. Watling has played 73 Tests, 28 ODIs and 5 T20Is for the BlackCaps.

·         Manchester City has crowned Premier League champions for the third time in four seasons after Manchester United crashed to a 2-1 defeat against Leicester. United started the century dominating English football, now City is the force with five titles in 10 seasons and the biggest spenders on transfers and salaries.

·         Rafael Nadal beat world number one Novak Djokovic to win a 10th Italian Open title. Second seed Nadal won through 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in 2hr 49min against the defending champion in the 57th career showdown between the pair.

·         In the women’s category, Polish teenager Iga Swiatek crushed Czech ninth seed Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-0 to win the Italian Open title. Swiatek, ranked 15, claimed her third WTA title.

·         Representing Kansas State University, India’s Tejaswini Shankar won back-to-back men’s high jump titles in the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Manhattan, USA. He is the third Indian to compete in the highly competitive USA circuit, the breeding ground for many US track and field Olympians.

·         Arjan Bhullar became the first Indian-origin fighter to win a world title in a top-level MMA promotion when he beat Brandon Vera to become the heavyweight world champion at the Singapore-based One Championship.

·         The Asia Cup T20 tournament, which was scheduled to be held in June in Sri Lanka, has been postponed indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The tournament which was originally scheduled to be held in September 2020 in Sri Lanka was moved to June 2021 due to COVID-19.

·         Barcelona Women beat Chelsea Women to win the Women’s Champions League trophy. Chelsea conceded four goals in the first 36 minutes as Barcelona blew them away to win their first Women’s Champions League in Gothenburg.

·         Shiv Sunder Das, the former India men’s Test opener, has been appointed as the batting coach of India Women for the upcoming tour of England, while Abhay Sharma has been named the fielding coach. Shiv Sunder Das, who previously worked with the India women’s A team, including during the 2020 quadrangular series in Patna.

·         Leicester won the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s 137-year history as Youri Tielemans’s sensational strike beat Chelsea 1-0. Four times they had previously lost the final, but the last of those was 52 years ago.

·         The U-17 women’s World Cup will be held in India from October 11 to 30 next year, Fifa Council said on 21st May. India was earlier scheduled to host the 2020 U-17 World Cup but it was postponed to 2021 before being cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The FIFA Council approved key dates for the international match calendars, including the dates of the 2022 U-17 World Cup in India.

·         Atletico Madrid pipped city rivals Real Madrid to the La Liga title on 22nd May Luis Suarez fired them to a 2-1 comeback win at Real Valladolid. Atletico finished top of the standings on 86 points while Real, who snatched a late 2-1 win over Villarreal, came second on 84. Valladolid finished 19th and was relegated to Spain’s second division.

·         Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won the Monaco Grand Prix for the first time to take the Formula One championship lead from Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. finished second, while McLaren, L. Norris came in a disappointing third place.

·         Norway’s Casper Ruud has won the ATP Geneva Open final with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory over Denis Shapovalov. Victory in Geneva means the Norwegian world number 21 is going to be among the top 16 seeds in Paris. A second career title lifted Ruud’s record to 2-2 in finals, all at clay-court events. The 22-year-old Norwegian’s previous title was at Buenos Aires last year.

·         American professional golfer, Phil Mickelson has created history by winning the 2021 PGA Championship, at the age of 50. With this victory, Mickelson became the oldest player to win a major title in the history of the PGA Tour. This is his sixth major title.

·         Ashok Kumar will be the only referee from the country to officiate in wrestling matches of the Tokyo Olympic Games. He was named in the list of officials released by the United World Wrestling (UWW). Ashok, who will officiate in his second consecutive Olympics. He is a UWW referees’ educator as well.

·         Pooja Rani won the gold medal in the 75kg Women’s Middle category final at the Asian Boxing Championships. She defeated Mavluda Movlonova in the gold medal clash. Indian pugilist Mary Kom, lost to two-time world champion Nazym Kyzaibay of Kazakhstan, to settle for silver medal at the 2021 ASBC Asian Boxing Championships in Dubai.

·         Chelsea defeated Manchester City 1–0 in the final, to lift the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League title, on May 29, 2021, played at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal.

·         The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed that the IPL 2021 Phase 2 will be held in the UAE during the September-October window. In a Special General Meeting chaired by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed to the State units that the tournament will have to be shifted out of India on account of ‘monsoon.’