Indian Footballer: Robin Singh

India's Swaran Singh Virk wins gold at Asian rowing championship

Link: http://sports.ndtv.com/othersports/othersports/214868-indias-swaran-singh-virk-wins-gold-at-asian-rowing-championship

Olympian Swaran Singh Virk led the Indian rowers' impressive showing by clinching a gold medal at the 15th Asian Senior Rowing Championship at Luan, China on Sunday.

Besides Virk's gold, India won two silver and as many bronze medals in the championship.

In the finals that concluded this morning, Virk got the better of rowers from Iran and China in 7:31.88 minutes to bag the yellow metal.

The team of Anil Kumar, Robin P Ulahannan, Olympian Bajrang Lal Thakar, Ranjit Singh, Kapil Sharma, Mohammed Azad, Maninder Singh and Davinder Singh took 6:12.47 minutes to win the silver medal in Men's Eights event.

While Kapil Sharma, Mohammed Azad, Maninder Singh and Davinder Singh bagged the Men's Fours silver in 6:03.50 minutes.

India won the bronze in Lightweight Men's Double Sculls with Sonu Laxmi Narian and Shokindar Tomar winning it in 6:57.13 minutes.

Monalisha, Dittymol Varghese, Chaoba Devim and Amusana Devi clinched a bronze in Lightweight Women's Quadruple Sculls with a timing of 7:03.33 minutes.

In Men's Quadruple Sculls, Rakesh Raliya, Deepak Rana, Dushyant and Olympian Manjeet Singh finished fourth with a timing of 6:01.03 minutes.

Virk finished at the 16th place after finishing fourth in a minor placings race in the men's single sculls event at the London Olympics.

Virk had booked his berth for the 2012 London Games by winning the major qualifying event at the FISA Olympic Continental Qualification Regatta for Asia in Chung Ju, Korea.

India Team and Individual Sports Rankings

Indian Team Sports Ranking             World Rank                                     Date: 9/15/13

1. Test Cricket                                     3rd 
2. One Day International Cricket            1st  
3. Twenty20                                         3rd
4. Tennis Davis Cup                             26th
5. Men's Football (Soccer)                    155th 
6. Women's Football (Soccer)               50th 
7. Men's Basketball                              58th
8. Women's Basketball                         40th
9. Boys Basketball                               43rd
10. Girls Basketball                                39th
11. Men's Volleyball                                30th 
12. Women's Volleyball                           103rd
13. Junior Boys Volleyball                       17th 
14. Junior Girls Volleyball                        29th
15. Men's Rugby                                    74th
16. Men's Field Hockey                          11th
17. Women's Field Hockey                     12th

Individual Sports ranking:

Men's Single's Tennis: India's Top 3            World Rank

1. Somdev Devvarman                                     101st (improved)
2. Prakash Amritraj                                         269th (improved)
3. Saketh Myneni                                           312th    

Men's Double's Tennis: India's Top 3          World Rank

1. Leander Paes                                              6th (improved)
2. Rohan Bopanna                                           7th (improved)
3. Mahesh Bhupathi                                         10th    

Women's Single's Tennis: India's Top 3        World Rank

1. Ankita Raina                                               308th (improved) 
2. Rishika Sunkara                                          491st (improved)                                                   
3. Prarthana Thombare                                     556th (improved) 

Women's Double's Tennis: India's Top 3      World Rank

1. Sania Mirza                                                 15th (improved)
2. Rishika Sunkara                                           385th  
3. Prarthana Thombare                                     515th (improved) 

Men's Single's Badminton: India's Top 3       World Rank

1. P. Kashyap                                                   13th (improved)
2. R.M.V Gurusaidutt                                         20th 
3. Ajay Jairam                                                   23rd (improved) 

Men's Double's Badminton: India's Top 2      World Bank

1. Pranav Jerry Chopra                                       40th
2. Akshay Divalkar                                             40th

Women's Single's Badminton: India's Top 3     World Rank 

1. Saina Nehwal                                                  4th
2. P.V Sindhu                                                     10th 
3. Arundhati Pantawane                                       51st (improved) 

Women's Double's Badminton: India's Top 2      World Rank

1. Pradnya Gadre                                                31st 
2. Ashwini Ponnappa                                           31st 

Men's Golf: India's Top 2                                     World Rank

1. Gaganjeet Bullar                                              150th
2. Anirbhan Lahiri                                                 180th

Women's Golf: India's Top 2                               World Rank

1. Aditi Ashok                                                     570th
2. Sharmilla Nicollet                                            618th                     

2013 SAFF Championship Final: India Loses to Afghanistan 0-2

It was Afghanistan's first SAFF championship and they really deserve it. India played well and ended up having many shots on goal but couldn't convert them into goals. Afghanistan played an intelligent game and had great counter attacks for India's missed opportunities.

India won the last two SAFF championships and we just didn't have the firepower to pull of a hat-trick, our team needs to improve more on defense and play smarter football going forward. It is exciting to see a new force rising in South Asia to form a rivalry against India. Good competition is not a bad thing, it will foster rivalries and improve India's footballing quality and South Asia as a whole.

Congrats to Afghanistan, it just wasn't India's turn this time and it certainly won't be the last opportunity. 

India vs. Afghanistan LIVE STREAMING

Click on the link bellow to watch the game live on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn6rsevceiA#t=3512

Afghanistan leads India 2-0.

Wrestling Reinstated Into 2020 Tokyo Olympics

All the wrestling fraternity and wrestling fans from India are elated about the fact that IOC brought back Wrestling into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Over the last two Olympic events India rode a lot of its hopes on the sport of wrestling for winning medals. India won 3 medals in wrestling over the last two Olympic Events. The medal count might not seem like it is a lot but they do mean a lot for the sport of wrestling in India.

Sushil Kumar, who won a Bronze medal in 2008 Beijing Olympics and a Silver medal in 2012 London Olympics is a national hero. Yogeshwar Dutt, who won a Bronze medal in the 2012 London Olympics is someone millions of Indian children look up to for inspiration. There is a clear increase in the number of kids taking up wrestling as a sport in India. Many kids in India dream of achieving what Sushil and Yogeshwar have done. It would have been a disaster for the sport of wrestling in India if wresting got snubbed from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Anyways, a disaster was averted! Thank you IOC for waking up and reinstating wrestling as an Olympic sport.

Here is Sushil Kumar's reaction:

India Beats Maldives To Reach 2013 SAFF Final

Contrary to everyone's expectations, India ended up defeating a stronger Maldives team. Sunil Chhetri (C) wasn't able to play in the semi-final because he got double booked with yellow cards in the prior games of the tournament. With out Chhetri the Indian team was deflated and judging by how strong Maldives' performance was and how weak India's performance was in the prior games of this tournament it was hard to imagine India winning the match.

The final score was 1-0 in India's favor. Arnab Mondal, the Indian Center Back, was the one who scored the game winning goal in the 86th minute. It was Mondal's first International goal, the 23 year old lad scored it at a crucial moment of his national team.

Here is the goal scored by Arnab Mondal:

You can watch the complete India vs. Maldives match here:

This game is a great confidence booster for the Indian side. They will be facing off against Afghanistan in the finals of the tournament. Afghanistan is the highest FIFA ranked team in South Asia (139th) and it will be a tough match for India. The final is scheduled to be played on September 11th. I will keep you updated about the outcome of that match-up.