P.GOPICHAND
Badminton Player

Pullela Gopi Chand is the brightest star to emerge on the Indian badminton scene in a long time, after Prakash Padukone He was born on November 16th 1973, in Nagandla in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh, India to parents Pullela Subhash Chandra Bose and Subbaravamma who were both interested in sports. Gopichand is indeed a story of sheer hard work, dedication and pure determination for the game of Badminton.

Though Gopichand nicknamed Gops, favoured cricket earlier, his elder brother made him switchover to Badminton. Gopi’s skill at Badminton was the talk at St.Pauls where he had his schooling, when he was hardly around 10 years old. He suffered a setback in 1986, when he suffered a multiple ligament rupture. But this young fighter came back to the field with sheer determination and reached the finals of Andhra Pradesh State Junior Badminton ship in 1987, even though he lost the title to his elder brother Rajashekar. By the time he passed out of school in 1988, he had already made a mark in the Badminton field. He did his graduation in Economics from AV College, Hyderabad. In 1989 he won his first single title at the National Championship at Goa and then went on to win the doubles championship also.

By 1999, Gopichand achieved a world ranking of 26 winning the Indian international, Scottish, Toulouse, French championships etc. He received the SAARC gold medal the same year. Always a fighter, he refused to be crushed by his defeat in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and true to his recognition out played the Olympics champions to reach the finals of the All England Badminton ship, finally arriving at the forefront of international badminton. He defeated Olympic Gold medallist Anders Boeson in the Quarterfinals of this tournament. In the Semifinals he defeated world No.1 ceded player Peter Gade of Denmark, and in the finals he defeated Chen Hong of China. He achieved his career best world ranking of 5 in April 2001.

Gopichand was awarded the ‘Arjuna Award’ India’s highest recognition for sportspersons, in 2000 for his excellent performance in the sport. He has tremendous respect for the rich Indian culture and tradition. He is the follower of ‘The Art of Living’ Guru Sri Sri Ravishankar. He is proficient in yoga and practices it in his spare time which help him to relax and focus better. Gopichand is also interested in music. A disciple of Prakash, this gentleman is considered a good defensive player, precise in his net play. He is employed by the Indian Oil Corporation in Hyderabad, but the IOC has permitted him to spend most of his time training at the Sports Authority facilities in Bangalore. This great player, with the vital combination of mental strength and concentration is sure to take the sport of badminton in India to new heights..

Prakash Padukone is one of the noted Badminton player of India. He was born on 10th June 1955, in Bangalore. At the age of 14, he became the National Junior Badminton Champion and at 15, the National Champion.

He was the National Badminton Champion for nine consecutive years during 1970-78. When he was only 15, he made a record by winning junior boys and men’s singles badminton titles in 1971. In 1980, he won the Badminton Grand Slam by winning three major international badminton tournaments including All England Badminton Championship. He also represented India in Thomas Cup Matches. In the 7th Asian Games, held at Tehran in 1974, he won a bronze medal. In the Common Wealth Games held at Edmonton (Canada) in 1978, Prakash won the final of men’s single’s event by beating Ray Talbot of Britain in straight sets and won a gold medal. In the First World Games held in USA (1981), he was awarded a bronze medal. He also won the Alba World Cup
in the same year defeating Han Jain of China.

He received ‘Arjuna’ award in 1972. He is estimated to have won about 15 International titles in the first half of 1980′s. He was ranked number one in 1980 and 1981 in the world rankers. After his career he served as a chief of Badminton Association of India for a few years. Later he resigned. Now he is concentrating on conducting high standard tournaments, camps and workshops specially for juniors through his academy based at Bangalore.

Prakash currently lives in Bangalore with wife Ujjala and two daughters. His daughter Deepika Padukone is a famous model and actress. .

Hailed as the fastest Indian in the world by the British Motoring Press, Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan is the Ist Formula One driver from India.
Interview with Narain Karthikeyan

Born on January 14th 1977 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, as the son of G. R. Karthikeyan, a former Indian National Rally Champion, Narain got his aspirations in motor sport from his father at an early age. Young Narain’s aim was to become the first Formula one Driver from India, a feat he succeeded to achieve later in life. His first ever race was at Sriperumbudur near Chennai in a Formula Maruti at 16 years of age, which he finished on the podium. He took training at Elf Winfield Racing School, France, and became a Semi Finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault Cars in 1992.

In 1993 he came back to India to participate in Formula Maruti and also competed in Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship in Great Britain. With this experience in European racing he returned to UK in 1994 for racing in Formula Ford Zetec Series as the No.2 driver for the foundation racing team. In that season he had to his credit a podium finish in a support race for the Portuguese Grand Prix held at Estoril. He went on to become the first Indian to win a Championship in Europe at the British Formula Ford Winter Series.

In 1995, Narain Karthikeyan, moved onto Formula Asia Championship for just four races, but proved his talent in the short spell by finishing second in the race at Shah Alam, Malaysia. In 1996 he completed a full season in the series and became the first Asian and Indian to win the Formula Asia International Series. 1997 saw him move back to UK to compete in the British Formula Opel Championship in which he took the Pole Position and had a win at Domington Park and also finished 6th in the overall point standing.

Narain Karthikeyan made his debut at the British Formula Three Championships in 1998 with Karlin Motor sport Team and had a moderately successful spell with them for the next three years. He managed to achieve two 3rd place finishes in the final two races of the season, by competing only in 10 rounds, at Spa Francor Champs and Silver Stone and finished 12th overall. In 1999, he continued the Championship finishing the podium five times including two wins at Brands Hatch Race. He also had two poll positions, three fastest laps and two lap records during the season and finished in the 6th position among 30 drivers in the Championships. The same year, he qualified in the 6th position in the Macau Grand Prix and finished 6th in the second leg of the race. In the year 2000, he continued in the British F3 Championship and finished 4th in overall standing, and also took pole position and the fastest lap in the Macau Grand prix. He also took the podium of the International F3 races at Spa Francor Champs, Belgium as well as in the Korean F3 Super Prix.

Narain, started 2001 in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championships and finished the year as one among the top ten. The same year, he test drew a Formula One Car at Silverstone on June14th for Jaguar Racing becoming the first ever Indian to achieve this feet. Impressed with his performance, he was asked to test drive the Benson & Hedges Jordan Honda EJ 11 again at Silverstone.

In 2002, he moved into the Telefonica World Series with Team Tata RC Motor sport, taking a pole position and setting the fastest non-F1 lap time at the Interlagos Circuit in Brazil. Moving to the World Series by Nissan in 2003, a series considered only next to Formula One, Karthikeyan won two races with the Minardi Teak and took three other podium positions on his way to 4th overall in the championship. This results earned him another Formula One test drive with Minardi. In 2004, he was offered a race drive, but was unable to raise the necessary sponsorship funds to seal the deal. He continued with the World Series by Nissan and won two races at Valencia in Spain and at Magny Cours in France.

In 2005, he was signed by the Jordan formula one team
, making him India’s first Formula One racing driver. He made an impressive debut at Melbourne, but the season was not a great success and he ended it with a crash at the Chinese Grandprix at Shanghai. At the end of the year, Jordan team was taken over by Midland for the 2006 season, and Narain looked elsewhere for work as he could not afford the amount they were demanding for his seat in the team. He ended up at Williams as a test driver in 2006. Williams confirmed Narain as their fourth driver in January 2006. He has remained with Williams in 2007 and has been promoted to third driver position and is participating in A1 grand Prix series. According to Narain, his decision to join Williams as a test driver rather than continue as a race driver with Jordan has helped him explore the intricacies of Formula One technology. His managers are now exploring the options with a couple of teams for him to be a race driver for the next season.

Besides racing cars, he loves Trap and Skeet Shooting, Wildlife Photography, Philanthropy and Tennis. He does weight training, yoga and meditation to keep fit. He is married to Pavarna, the daughter of an industrialist.

Narain has a come a long way and has made the country proud by achieving his ultimate goal of becoming India’s first Formula one racer. He recently opened a motor racing academy ‘Speed NK Racing’ in Coimbatore and is doing his bit to train young Indian race drivers to break into the big league.

Today, he is a sports icon for the young Indians who look forward to compete in the Formula Series Races.

Milkha Singh is one of the most outstanding athletes of India. He has earned the nickname ‘Flying Sikh’ because of his marvelous running speed on the tracks. He was born in 1935 in the Western Punjab of undivided India.

He joined the army in 1953. On joining the army, Milkha Singh paid special attention to athletics and started to train himself for 400 meter race. Soon, he succeeded in establishing a new record in 400 meter race and earned great fame and prestige.

In 1957, he established a new national record of 47.5 seconds in 400 meter race. In the Third Asiad held at Tokyo (Japan) in 1958, Milkha Singh set two new records in 400 meter and 200 meter races respectively. In the 4th Asiad held at Jakarta (Indonesia), Milkha Singh won a gold medal in the 400 meter race. In 1959, Government of India honoured Milkha Singh with ‘Padma Shri’ for his notable achievements in the field of sports. Milkha Singh at present is fully dedicated to the promotion of sports in India.

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.

Top league Doubles Tennis star Mahesh Srinivas Bhupathi, is one of India’s outstanding sporting heroes. He is known for his booming serves and hard-hitting volleys. He was born on 7th June, 1974 in Madras, Tamilnadu. Bhupathi was educated in Dubai, Muscat and in USA. His father Mr. C.G. Krishna Bhupathi coached him right from his formative years, exclusively on hard courts in the Middle East and his son has proved that hard work pays.

Mahesh has traveled extensively from the age of 14 and has played in major tournaments all over the world. He had an outstanding two-year career at the University of Mississippi from 1994-95, earning singles and doubles All-America honors in ’95. He was the finalist in doubles in the Under-18 at Wimbledon. He turned pro in 1995. He teamed with Ali Hamadeh in 1995 to win the NCAA doubles title and finished as the No. 1 player in doubles and No. 3 in singles. He was India’s national champion in 1994 and 1995 and a member of the Indian Davis Cup team since 1995 and represents India in Davis Cup Singles and Doubles. He won a Silver and 3 Gold medals at the SAF Games, represented India at the Atlanta Olympics – 1996, took India to the Quarter Finals of the Elite World Group in Davis Cup along with Leander Paes. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a Grand Slam when he took the mixed doubles French Open along with Japan’s Rika Hiraki.

Bhupathi’s partnership with Leander Paes formed a doubles ‘dream’ team which took Indian tennis to heights of glory. Their first major victory was at the 1997 ATP Gold Flake Open Tennis tournament at Chennai. They made it a hat-trick of triumphs by winning the Gold Flake open titles during 1998 and 1999. The duo captured six ATP doubles titles in seven finals and qualified for ATP World doubles Championship losing to Leach-Stark in final. In 1999, they 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 and became the first team since 1952 to reach the final of all four Grand Slam events in the same year. They also won the doubles title at Rolland Garros in 1999. But, as soon after they started dominating the World Tennis scene, the world top ranked pair separated due to mutual misunderstanding. Fortunately they came back together again after a gap of eight months, 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 and in 2001 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.

Mahesh has won five doubles titles in 2002, with four different partners. Won titles in Chennai and Mallorca with Paes, captured TMS title in Hamburg with Gambill and in Long Island with M. Bryan, and the US Open with current partner Max Mirnyi of Belarus who teamed with him most of the year. In 2003, he won the TMS title in Monte Carlo and in Estoril.

Mahesh- SwethaHe received the ‘ Arjuna Award’ in 1996 and India’s highest honour ‘Padma Shri’ along with Paes on March 26, 2001. His father, the encouraging factor behind him runs ‘The Tennis Village’ at Bangalore, giving training to aspirants. Bhupathi residing in Bangalore got married on November 24th 2002 to a Chennai model girl Shwetha Jaishankar. This talented player keeps winning titles and making India proud.

Mihir Sen was the first Asian who have crossed the English Channel. He was born on 16th November 1930 in Purulia (West Bengal). He was a lawyer by profession, a barrister of Kolkatta High court.

In 1966, he established 5 important records and became an extra ordinary salt water swimmer. In 1958, Mihir Sen swam across the English Channel, in 1966 he crossed the Palk strait, followed by Gibralter Dar-E-Daniyal, Wasphorus and Panama. He thus established the record of swimming the longest distance. He is a matchless swimmer, having swam more than 600km in sea/ocean water.

In 1959 he was awarded “Padma Shree” and in 1967 “Padma Bhushan”. He brought glory to his motherland by creating records and earning a place in Guinness Book of World Record.

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.

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.

Dhyan Chand made great contribution in enhancing prestige of Indian Hockey in the eyes of the world. He was born on 29th August 1906, in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh). He joined army at the age of sixteen. He started playing hockey in army and was included in the Indian Hockey team for the 1928 Amesterdam Olympics.

By his superior play, Dhyan Chand was held in high esteem with in the country as well as abroad. Dhyan Chand helped his country in winning gold medals
in hokey in 3 successive Olympics games; Amesterdam Olympics (1928), Los Angles Olympics (1932) and Berlin Olympics(1936). He was the captain of the gold medal winner Indian Hockey team in the historic 1936 Berlin Olympics. Dhyan Chand scored 101 goals at the Olympic games and 300 goals in other international matches and his record is unbroken. Dhyan Chand had a wonderful command in wielding the hockey stick and this earn him the title ” Hockey Wizard”. India won one gold medal in Hockey at Amersterdom Olympics and out of a total of 28 goals scored by Indian hockey, 11 were scored by Dhyan Chand alone. He died on December 3,1979.