Gama Pehalwan
(1880
- 1960)
Ahmad
Baksh Gama was born in Datiya (MP). He was fond of
wrestling since his childhood. By 20, he had defeated
all most all the national level wrestlers.
"Rustam-e-Hind"
Gama pehalwan, who brought the Indian style of wrestling
to international sports and lend it credentials, had
tricks of the trade running in his blood. In 1910,
a wrestling match was organized for the award of the
title "Rustam-e-Hind", Gama defeated all
the wrestlers and earned the title. Gama's last match
was with J.C Peterson whom he defeated in 45 seconds.
Gama
wrestled for many years and always emerged victorious.
One of his greatest quality was that he had not only
a sense of self respect but was very friendly in nature.
Indian wrestling owes its popularity to Gama. He died
in Lahore on 22nd May in 1960.
Sunil
Gavaskar
(1949 - )
Sunil Manohar Gavaskar was at one time the world's
top batsman. Sunil Gavaskar, the 'little master' of
cricket, was born on 10th July 1949, in Mumbai. As
an opening batsman, Gavaskar has been the home burn
of the aggressive bowling of the opponent teams.
He
has scored more than 10,000 runs with 34 centuries,
the highest by any batsman. Sunil Gavaskar is the
only cricket player in the world who has scored 100
runs in a single cricket year thrice. Sunil Gavaskar
has proved himself as a good skipper and Indian team
made such notable achievements under his leadership
by winning the 'Asian Cup' and the 'Benson and Hedges
World Cup' tournament. He played 125 test matches.
Gavaskar started his test life in 1971, during Indian
team's tour to West Indies. He is the only Indian
batsman with the highest score for India. In 1975,
he received the 'Arjuna.' award and in 1980, he was
honoured with 'Padma Bhushan'. In 1980, he was also
honoured by 'Wisden'. Gavaskar is also a writer of
popular books on cricket such as Sunny Days, Idols,
Runs and Ruins and One Day Wonders.
Sachin
Tendulkar
(1973 - )
The
pride of Indian cricket Sachin Tendulkar, was the
first batsman to score 10,000 runs in one-day cricket,
in a five-day match series against Australia on the
31st of March 2001. He has scored a world record,
28 hundreds and 50 half-centuries in his 10,000 runs.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on April 24, 1973,
in Mumbai. Young Sachin wanted to be a fast bowler.
He even undertook trials at the MRF pace foundation,
Chennai, but his short stature proved to be a hindrance
for bowling. Meeting Mr. R. Achrekar, his Cricket
Coach and changing his school to Shardashram Vidya
Mandir in Dadar marked a turning point in Sachin's
cricket career.
Sachin
at the age of 16, made his International debut in
ODI’s India v Pakistan at Gujranwala and Tests
debut India v Pakistan at Karachi around 1989/90.
He then went to England as a part of the national
team, and has not looked back ever since. He knows
every shot in the book and and makes his own improvisations.
His shots have tremendous power and he times the ball
perfectly, making him one of the best batsman in the
world. He is also an effective bowler and also one
of the best fielders.
This
all rounder has been the captain of the Indian cricket
team twice. On the personal front, Sachin is god fearing
and he is married to a doctor Anjali and they have
a daughter Sarah. In1998, he won the Coopers and Lybrand
Award for 'Player of the year' and has been in the
number one position in the Wisden Cricket ratings.
Leander
Peas
(1973 - )
Leander
Paes, India's Tennis pride, was born in Goa on June
17,1973 and brought up in Kolkata. Born into a family
of sportsmen; His father, Vece was a member of the
Indian field hockey team which won a bronze medal
in the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and mother, Jennifer
a member of the basketball team; Leander began playing
tennis at the age of 5.
He
captured the 1990 Wimbledon Junior title and was ranked
as the No.1 junior player in the world at one time.
Since then he has been representing India at various
international events winning matches bringing glory
to the country. He is also a member of the Davis Cup
squad since 1990, compiling a 32-19 career record
(21-12 in singles). In 1996 Atlanta Olympics, he won
the bronze medal in the Tennis event and made India
proud with this individual medal won after a long
gap of 44 years. The last individual medal being the
wrestling medal won by K.D Jadhav in1952 Helsinki
Olympics.
He teamed up with Mahesh Bhupathi to form the Indian
doubles team and the duo in 1999, showed their class
by winning the French Open and Wimbledon and entering
the finals of the two other Grand Slam Tournaments;
the Australian and US Opens. But the dream team separated
soon after, due to mutual misunderstanding. They came
together again in time for the Sydney Olympics and
started regaining their lost prestige at the end of
2000, winning the Men's Double title in Japan Open
2000 followed by Worlds Doubles Championship in Bangalore,
Verizon Atlanta Challenge, US Clay court Championship
in Houston and at Roland Garros defeating the Czech
pair of Petr Pala and Pavel Vizner, ranked no. 2 in
the world.
Viswanathan
Anand
(1969
- )
Viswanathan Anand, popularly known as "Vishy,
the Tiger from Madras" learnt chess at the tender
age of six from his mother. His assets, his lightning
speed of play & intuition saw him through as the
Youngest National Champion at the age of 16. In 1987
he became the First Asian to win the World Junior
Championship. In that year he earned the coveted Grandmaster
title. He carved a special place on the chessboard
by winning the strongest tournament at that time,
The "Reggio Emilia" in Italy in 1991 ahead
of Kasparov & Karpov. The pinnacle of his career
was achieved on 24th December 2000 when Anand became
the 15th World Chess Champion in Teheran. Anand won
the championship by remaining unbeaten. By winning
the title, Anand becomes the First Asian to win the
title ending many years of Soviet Domination of the
Ancient Indian game.
He has the distinction of winning one of the Strongest
knock out tournament in recent chess history in Groningen
in December 1997. He won the Linares Super Torneo
in 1998, one of the strongest tournaments of all times.
In May 2002 Anand won the "Eurotel World Chess
trophy", in Prague where 32 of the strongest
chess players in the world participated. His other
great victories include the Melody Amber tournament
(1994 & 1997), the Credit Suisse Masters (1997),
Dos Hermanas (1997), Wijk Aan Zee (1998), Torneo de
Madrid (1998), Dortmund (1996 and 2000), Tilburg (1998)
and Merida (2001).
The
year 2002 has been a year of hat tricks for the Indian
chess genius. Anand won the World's Strongest rapid
Chess Event in Germany, three times in a row. In 2000
at Frankfurt, 2001 in Mainz against Kramnik and 2002
against Ruslan Ponomariev, defeating both World Champions
in consecutive years.(He won the same event in 1997
and 1998). At The Corsica Masters in Bastia he performed
the same feat, defeating Karpov in 2002 in the finals
to complete consecutive wins in 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Anand is the winner of the First and Second FIDE World
Cup held in Shenyang (2000) and Hyderabad (2002).
Anand has been awarded many prestigious titles in
India like the Arjuna Award, the prestigious Padmashri
(the youngest recipient of the title), the first recipient
of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, the Soviet Land
Nehru award, the BPL Achievers of the World, Sportstar,
Sportsworld "Sportsman of the year 1995"
Award, One of the highest awards, the Padma Bhushan,
the Sportstar,"Sportsman of the Millennium"
award and the Birla "Living Legends Award".
Anand received the "Jameo de Oro", One of
Spain's highest civilian award given to a foreigner.
He was conferred the prestigious International "Chess
Oscars for 1997" and the " Chess Oscars
for 1998" by chess journalists from among 55
countries in the world .The award is given to the
star performer of each year.
His first book "My best games of Chess"
has been released in English and German. Anand shares
his time between India and Spain. Being Fluent in
Spanish, the little town of Collado Mediano near Madrid
has adopted him as their "Hijo Predelicto"or
famous son. Anand holds a degree in commerce and a
Doctorate for Chess.
P.T. Usha
(1964 - )
P.T. Usha is one of India's best-known athletes, the
queen of Indian track and field for two decades, the
woman who was nicknamed 'Payyoli Express' because
of her speed on the race-track.
Payyoli Tevaraparampil Usha was born in a poor family
in the village Meladi-Payyoli near Calicut, Kerala.
She won a scholarship worth Rs. 250 per month from
the Kerala government, which entitled her to study
at a special sports school in Cannore. That Rs 250
went a long way in the making of Usha's career. It
was at the sports school that she was noticed by O
M Nambiar, who took her under his wing and became
her coach for years to come. Usha made her international
debut at the Moscow Olympics in 1980 but she shone
into the limelight in the 1982 Asian Games in New
Delhi, winning the silver in the 100 m and 200 m event.
The finest moment in Usha's career and also perhaps
the saddest however came in a single race at the 1984
Olympics in Los Angeles. In the 400m hurdles Usha
missed winning the bronze by just 1/100th of a second.
She recorded her best time of 55.42secs in that race
-- still an Indian national record -- but lost the
medal in a photo-finish.
In 1991 Usha married V Srinivasan, a sub-inspector
in the Central Industrial Security Forces. The next
year son Ujjwal was born and Usha found herself enjoying
motherhood. However, she was soon back on the tracks.
Her old interest revived, Usha decided to give athletics
one more go and four years after her retirement the
'Payyoli Express' returned at the Hiroshima Asiad
at the age of 33 and won a silver in the 400m relay.
Her last international appearance was at the Asian
Meet in Fukuoka, Japan in 1998. She managed to shock
some of the younger participants by winning a gold
in the 4x100m relay, silver in the 400m relay and
a bronze each in the 200m and 400m. Usha hung up her
boots for good at the age of 36 in July 2000 with
a promise to groom bright young athletes in her upcoming
sports academy in Kerala.
Karnam Malleswari
(1976 - )
Karnam Malleswari is an Indian weightlifter from Andhra
Pradesh. She became the First Indian woman ever to
win an Olympic medal.She won bronze in 69kg category
at Sydney Olympics 2000. She has also won gold in
Istanbul World Championship (1994) and Asian Championships
(54-kg category) at Pusan, Korea (1995). In World
Weightlifting Championship at Guangzhou (China) on
November 19, 1995 Malleswari set a new world record
by winning three golds in 54-kg category. She was
awarded 'Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award' in 1994-95.
