The young Indian women tennis sensation Sania Mirza, was born in Mumbai on November 15, 1986. Presently the highest ranked Indian, Sania started playing Tennis at the tender age of six at the Nizam club in Hyderabad

Born to parents, father Imran Mirza a sports journalist and mother Nasima, it was Sania’s father Imran who initiated her into the game and who has always encouraged her to be the best. She started practicing under CK Bhupati, India’s top tennis player Mahesh Bhupati’s father. She learnt the professional game at Sinnet Tennis Academy in Secunderabad before moving to Ace Tennis Academy in the USA. Now she is managed by Mahesh Bhupati’s company Global Sports and has a specialist advisor Bob Brett who was Boris Becker’s coach earlier.

Sania played her first international tournament in 1999 when she represented India at the World Junior Championship at Jakarta. Mirza’s big boost came in 2002 when Paes decided to take her as his mixed doubles partner at the Asian Games. The duo went on to claim the bronze medal. The rise has been steady since then. In 2003, Sania at 16years did India proud by becoming the youngest and first ever Indian to figure in the main draw of the girls’ doubles junior Wimbledon tennis championship and winning the Grand Slam title. Sania partnered 13-year-old Russian Alisa Kleybanova and defeated Katerina Bohmova of the Czech Republic and Michaela Krajicek of the Netherlands 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. It was after a long haul of 51 years that an Indian girl figured again in the final of a Grand Slam, the last being Rita Dabur, who had finished runner-up in the singles event in 1952.

A winner of 21 International Tennis Federation (ITF) titles, Sania won over Petra Mandula of Hungary defeating her 6-2, 6-1 in the second round of the women’s singles at the Australian Open grand slam. With this victory, she has become the first Indian woman to reach the third round of a Grand Slam event. Sania Mirza outlasted the Ukraine’s Alonya Bondarenko to win the Open WTA tour event in her native town Hyderabad and became the youngest and first Indian woman to win a WTA Tour title.

This 18-year-old girl became the brand ambassador of Lotto Sports Italia and the company said that it would soon launch a signature line series. With its launch, Sania would become only the fourth player after Andre Agassi of USA, Germany’s Steffi Graf and Stephen Edberg of Sweden to have a signature line of her own.

She is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 18 in doubles. Mirza’s powerful forehand strokes, confidence and positive attitude combined with good looks and charm have floored Indians and attracted sponsors in hordes. On the personal front, Sania likes dancing and listening to Rap, hip-hop and Hindi remix, likes cricket and swimming. She is very religious and never misses her daily prayers and Quran reading. She is now living with her parents and her little sister Anum in the posh suburbs of Jubily Hills, Hyderabad. Mirza, who idolises German tennis great Steffi Graf, has dreams of being the Wimbledon singles champion one day.

The first Indian woman (and the fifth Indian) to reach the final of an Olympic event by winning her 400 m hurdles Semi-final. She was born in Kerala in 1964. When she was just 12, she joined a Sports school at Cannanore where she received guidance and training from O.P. Nambiar, the noted athlete coach. Her full name is Pilavulakandi Thekkeparambil Usha.

In the 10th Asian Games held at Seoul in 1986, P.T.Usha kept the flag of India flying high by winning 4 gold and 1 silver medal in the track and field events. Here she created new Asian Games records in all the events she participated. P.T.Usha also won the most medals at a single championship -six at Jakartha in 1985. Her five gold at the 6th Asian Track and Field Championship is also a record for the most number of gold medals by a single athlete in a single international meet.

Usha’s success story begins from the 1982 Asiad in which she won two gold medals in 100 meters and 200 meters respectively. At the Los Angels Olympics held in 1984, Usha missed a medal and she had to remain content with 4th place. Yet, she was the first Indian woman runner to have the honour of coming at the 4th place in the history of Olympics missing a bronze medal by 1/100 of a second. She won 17 medals -13 gold , 3 silver and a bronze in four Asian Track and Field Championship during the period from 1983-89.

Usha has won 101 international medals so far. At present she is employed as an officer in the Southern Railway. In spite of her age, married status and motherhood she is still active in sports.

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.

By Kamesh Srinivasan

ATHENS, AUG. 17. He looked good for the gold, but the wind took it away. Major Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won the silver for India in the Olympic games after a below par performance in the preliminary phase to assert his undisputed class as one of the best shooters in the world in double trap.

The Indian shooting contingent, after the disappointing shows by Abhinav Bindra, Suma Shirur and Anjali Bhagwat, heaved a huge sigh of relief as Rathore shot a 179 out of 200, one point ahead of Wang Zheng of China, to finish second.

The windy conditions during the second round saw Rathore shoot a 43, but Rathore put up a spirited show with nerves of steel in the final.

Ahmed Almaktoum had already taken a virtually unbeatable lead, while Rathore showed great character to beat the rest.

He needed to shoot both the birds on the last attempt to deny the silver for the other three contenders. He did it in style and punched the air, even as the Indians greeted him with applause.

Self belief

“I am happy that people will now believe we can win silver medals in the Olympics. Self-belief is the key to success. It will be great if people started focusing more on the Olympic disciplines,” Rathore said after receiving the medal.

It was a nerve-wracking experience in the final as Rathore just missed one bird till he reached the 34th, while the rest of the pack, whom he was trying to catch up, were missing a lot. Though he missed five more birds, Rathore managed to retain the lead for the silver.

“I wouldn’t like to go through it again. I probably died many times before winning the medal,” said Rathore, who had stayed in Europe for nearly four months to prepare for the Olympics.

“He did very well. I am very proud of him. He showed his true character in the final. I had seen it in the Commonwealth Games and I saw it again today,” said Russell Mark of Australia, who has been coaching Rathore for the last few months.

Mark had won gold in Atlanta and silver in Sydney and had also won the world championship in double trap. He had qualified for the Olympic games in Athens too, but could not make the Australian squad following the selection trials.

“Before the final, I knew that Rathore wouldn’t get the gold as Almaktoum was in great form today. Rathore had beaten him three weeks back. That is the beauty of this sport. I thought that it was important for Rathore to get the best medal in that situation. He would win the gold some day,” said Mark, who was quick to add in typical Aussie style that Rathore deserved to enjoy every moment and receive all the accolades for his great achievement.

“I knew that he would do it. He is brilliant. He has put shooting right on top with this fantastic effort. I am happy that we have graduated to the individual silver now from the bronze in the last two Games,” said six-time Olympic shooter Randhir Singh, Secretary General, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), who was quite aptly invited to present the medals.

It was a moment to rejoice and it was understandable that both Rathore and the national coach Prof. Sunny Thomas were glued to their mobile phones as the whole of India looked to be in a hurry to congratulate them.

Right attitude

It has been a pleasure following the man who has been in this sport only for the last six years. He has the right attitude and has been learning with every outing. He was not cleared for the Commonwealth Games in Manchester in 2002. He also missed the World Championship final in Lahti a fortnight earlier, by a mere two points, when he hit a rare 50 out of 50 in the first round.

Rathore had defeated the Olympic champion Richard Faulds, the Olympic silver medallist Russell Mark and a horde of world-class shooters with a 49 out of 50 in Bisley in the final of the Commonwealth Games to show that he had it in him