Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

A peep into the history of sports events of 2007 in Vijayawada

VIJAYAWADA: The city dominated sports scene in 2007 with some of the popular sports persons bringing laurels to it in national and international arenas. The city also hosted many State and National-level tournaments, and topping the list was the junior national athletic meet, which saw the cream of talented athletes showcasing their prowess.

Senior national archery, senior national judo, junior national volleyball and a Ranji trophy match between Delhi and Andhra were the other major sporting events hosted by the sports loving city.

Chess Grand Master Koneru Humpy crossed the coveted 2,600 ELO rating, thus earning the sobriquet ‘Super’ Grand Master, while in a fitting manner her father Koneru Ashok was bestowed with the Dronacharya award for his contribution to guiding the fortunes of his precocious daughter. The year saw Humpy reaching the world number 2 position in the women’s segment, and she is being seen as the potential winner of ‘world champion’ title.

Archer Mangal Singh Champia, the city’s adopted son, sprung a surprise by qualifying for the Beijing Olympics in the recurve segment. “I’m quite confident Mangal will bag a medal at the Olympics in 2008,” says Volga Archery Academy chairman and coach Cherukuri Satyanarayana.

Physically challenged swimmer Tirumalai Kumar, who bagged many a medal in international swimming competitions, got the rare opportunity to participate in the discus throw event (sitting posture) in the Beijing Paralympics in September 2008.

Asha Mary, a javelin thrower, hogged the limelight by becoming a member of the Indian junior athletic contingent that participated in the South Asian athletic meet in Sri Lanka, and even bagged a silver medal.

Mandava Rishita won four gold medals and a silver medal in the all-India inter-university archery competitions, representing Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences. Incidentally, she got the opportunity to represent the university only after she got a seat in medicine at the end of a prolonged battle with the varsity authorities over alleged irregularities in admissions under sports quota. Another archer Ch. Lenin emerged as a national champion in archery’s compound segment in the senior nationals held in the city.

Young paddlers K. Spoorthy and Saira Banu brought smiles on the faces of the table tennis fraternity by winning the silver medal in the cadet girls segment of the sub-junior nationals held recently at Chennai.

The year also saw the sad demise of former Olympian and famous weightlifter Kamineni Eswar Rao, who represented the country in the Olympics twice. Thus, 2007 became an eventful year for the sportspersons hailing from the city, raising hopes of more achievements to be recorded in 2008.

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