♦ India’s Table Tennis (TT) icon Achanta Sharath Kamal announced his retirement from the sport on 5 March 2025.
♦ The upcoming WTT Star Contender in Chennai will mark the end of his illustrious career. Sharath Kamal leaves behind a legacy as a 10-time national champion and the country’s top-ranked men’s singles player, currently placed 42nd in the WTT rankings.
♦ In a career spanning over two decades, Sharath has won 13 Commonwealth Games medals, including seven golds, two Asian Games bronze medals, and two ITTF Pro Tour titles.
♦ Sharath’s career took off in 2003 when he claimed his first national title, and his international breakthrough came in 2004 when he won his first medal at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships.
♦ The same year, he earned a spot at the 2004 Athens Olympics, marking the beginning of his Olympic journey.
♦ The Arjuna Award was bestowed on him in 2004, followed by a historic singles gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
♦ In 2022, Sharath earned India’s highest sporting honour, the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award.
Posted Date: March 5, 2025Sports
♦ Bihar will host Men’s Hockey Hero Asia Cup 2025 with support of Hockey India from August 29 to September 7, 2025. This will be the 12th Edition of Asia Cup.
♦ A MoU was signed on 31 March 2025 at Patna between Hockey India and Bihar State Sports Authority (BSSA) to handover the baton of host.
♦ A total of eight teams including India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, China, and Malaysia. The remaining two teams will secure their spots through the qualifying tournament, the AHF Cup.
♦ South Korea stands as the most successful team in the history of the Men’s Asia Cup with five titles (1994, 1999, 2009, 2013, and 2022), followed closely by India (2003, 2007, and 2017) and Pakistan (1982, 1985, and 1989), who have each won the tournament three times.
Posted Date: March 31, 2025♦ India's Deepak Punia (92kg) and Udit (61kg) won silver medals in the Asian Wrestling Championships 2025.
♦ Up against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Amir Hossein Firouzpour in the 92kg final, Deepak Punia succumbed 10-0.
♦ This was Deepak Punia’s fifth medal at the continental championships and the third silver.
♦ The other two are bronze medals. All of Punia’s previous medals had come in the 86kg category.
♦ Udit, on the other hand, lost to Japanese wrestler Suda Takara in the 61kg final by a 6-4 margin.
Posted Date: March 30, 2025♦ Indian table tennis legend Achanta Sharath Kamal played his final international match at the WTT Star Contender in Chennai on 29 March 2025.
♦ The 42-year-old icon fell 0-3 (9-11, 8-11, 9-11) to 24-year-old Snehit Suravajjula.
♦ Sharath is a record 10-time national champion, is currently India’s top-ranked men’s singles player, placed 92nd in the latest WTT ranking list.
♦ Sharath has won 13 Commonwealth Games medals (including seven gold) and two Asian Games bronze medals, five Olympic Games appearances, and two ITTF Pro Tour titles under his two-decade-long career.
♦ He won his first national title in 2003 and his maiden international medal at the 2004 Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships.
♦ His career graph reached a new high when he qualified for the 2004 Athens Olympics. In 2004, Sharath was conferred the Arjuna Award and won five national titles in a row.
♦ A historic singles gold medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and another gold in the men’s team event capped a successful year.
♦ In 2010, he became the first Indian table tennis player to win an ITTF Pro Tour title when he won the Egypt Open.
Posted Date: March 29, 2025♦ Indian wrestler Manisha Bhanwala clinched gold medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships 2025 in Amman, Jordan on March 28.
♦ In women’s 62 kg category, Manisha defeated Korea’s Ok J Kim by 8-7 in the final to secure India's first women's freestyle wrestling gold medal at the continental meet since 2021.
♦ Vinesh Phogat and Sarita Mor won their respective categories at the 2021 edition.
♦ Meanwhile, Antim Panghal secured a bronze medal in the 53kg category. She defeated Jin Zhang of the People’s Republic of China in the final.
Posted Date: March 28, 2025♦ Reetika Hooda bagged a silver medal in the women's freestyle 76kg division at Asian Wrestling Championships 2025 in Amman, Jordan on 27 March 2025.
♦ She narrowly lost to Kyrgyzstan’s Aiperi Medet Kyzy in the gold medal bout, with a score of 6-7.
♦ Reetika clinched the bronze medal at the 2023 edition of the Asian Championships.
♦ Meanwhile, Muskan and Mansi Lather claimed bronze medals in the women's 59kg and 68kg, respectively. Muskan (17-year-old) defeated Kazakhstan’s Irina Kazyulina, 12-2 in the bronze medal match.
♦ Mansi Lather (18) defeated Mongolia’s Altjin Togtokh 4-0 in the final.
Posted Date: March 27, 2025♦ India’s men’s regu team clinched the gold medal at the 2025 Sepaktakraw World Cup in Patna, Bihar on 26 March 2025.
♦ India defeated Japan in the final.
♦ The men’s regu team had previously finished third in the 2017 ISTAF World Cup in Hyderabad and again secured bronze at the 2022 World Cup in Daejeon, South Korea.
♦ The Indian contingent managed to finish the Sepak Takraw World Cup 2025 with 7 medals, with some spectacular showings at the Patliputra Stadium in Patna.
♦ India won gold in the men’s Regu category, while the women picked up a bronze in the gender-variant of the event.
♦ Indian women and men picked up the silver and bronze medals at the doubles event.
♦ The men and women’s quad sides each picked up bronze before the mixed quad unid claimed silver.
Posted Date: March 26, 2025♦ Indian wrestler Sunil Kumar secured a bronze medal in the 87kg Greco Roman category at the Asian Championship in Amman, Jordan on 25 March 2025.
♦ He defeated China's Jiaxin Huang in the bronze medal match.
♦ This was Sunil Kumar’s fifth senior medal at the Asian Wrestling Championships.
♦ He won the silver medal in 2019 and ended India’s 27-year-long wait for a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the Asian Championships in 2020.
♦ He also clinched successive bronze medals in 2022 and 2023.
♦ At Hangzhou 2023, Sunil Kumar won India’s first Asian Games medal in Greco-Roman wrestling since Ravinder Singh and Sunil Kumar Rana won bronze medals at Guangzhou 2010.
Posted Date: March 25, 2025♦ The Swimming Federation of India announced that India will host the 11th Asian Swimming Championship at Ahmedabad's Naranpura Sports Complex from October 1 to 15.
♦ The 10th Asian Age Group Championships in 2019 was the last international swimming event hosted by India.
♦ The championship will feature swimming, diving, artistic swimming, and water polo.
Posted Date: March 21, 2025♦ The International Olympic Committee executive board on 17 March 2025 recommended the inclusion of boxing in the Los Angeles 2028 summer Olympics.
♦ The IOC last month (February 2025) granted provisional recognition to World Boxing in a major step towards the sport’s inclusion in the 2028 Olympics.
♦ The boxing competition at the Paris 2024 Games was run by the IOC after it had stripped the International Boxing Association of recognition in 2023 over its failure to implement reforms on governance and finance.
♦ The IOC had not included the sport on the initial LA 2028 programme, having urged national boxing federations to create a new global boxing body.
♦ World Boxing, now with more than 80 national federations as members, was launched in 2023.
Posted Date: March 17, 2025♦ Mumbai Indians clinched the Women's Premier League (WPL) title at the Brabourne Cricket Stadium, Mumbai, on 15 March 2025.
♦ They defended Delhi Capitals in the final.
♦ This is Mumbai's second title. In 2023, Mumbai beat Delhi Capitals in the final of the Women's Premier League to clinch the title in the inaugural season of the women's domestic league.
♦ Harmanpreet Kaur was awarded player of the match for her knock.
♦ Nat Sciver-Brunt was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
♦ She also won the Orange Cap for her 523 runs this season.
♦ Amelia Kerr won the Purple Cap for her 18 wickets this season while Amanjot Kaur won the Emerging Player of the Season award.
Posted Date: March 15, 2025♦ The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has changed its name to Commonwealth Sports under the ‘More in Common’ brand campaign on 10 March 2025.
♦ The announcement was made on the occasion of Commonwealth Day, an annual celebration of the Commonwealth of Nations held on the second Monday in March.
♦ The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games is the first edition of the Games to incorporate this logo into the event mark.
♦ The Commonwealth Day also marks the launch of the Commonwealth Sport King’s Baton Relay at Buckingham Place, starting the relay with 500 days to go to the Opening Ceremony of Glasgow 2026.
Posted Date: March 10, 2025♦ India clinched the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on 9March 2025.
♦ It defeated New Zealand by four wickets.
♦ This marks India's third Champions Trophy title, having previously won in 2002 and 2013.
♦ The win follows India's T20 World Cup victory in 2024, underlining their resurgence in global cricket.
♦ In 2002, India were joint winners with Sri Lanka after the final was washed out.
♦ Under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, India won their second Champions Trophy in 2013, also known as the ICC Knockouts, after a dramatic victory in a rain-curtailed final against England.
♦ The winners' got Rs.19.54 crore prize money. The runners-up, New Zealand received Rs. 9.72 crore, while each losing semi-finalist will take home USD 560,000 (Rs.4.86 crore).
♦ The ICC Champions Trophy was originally known as the ICC KnockOut when it was first staged in 1998 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and later in 2000 in Nairobi, Kenya. In 2002, the tournament was renamed the ICC Champions Trophy and was held every two years until 2009.
♦ The 2008 edition, originally scheduled to take place in Pakistan, was cancelled, and the event was instead held in South Africa in 2009.
Posted Date: March 9, 2025♦ India's Pranav Venkatesh (18 years) clinched the FIDE World Junior Chess Championship (Under-20) title.
♦ He defeated Slovenia's Matic Levrencic in the final round at Petrovac, Montenegro on 7 March 2025.
♦ Pranav became India’s 75th Grandmaster in 2022, did so by picking up two of his three GM norms and crossing the 2500-Elo mark in two months.
♦ Pranav becomes the fourth Indian to win the World Junior title, following Viswanathan Anand (1987), Pentala Harikrishna (2004), and Abhijeet Gupta (2008).
Posted Date: March 7, 2025♦ India’s Yuki Bhambri and Australian Alexei Popyrin won the doubles title at the Dubai Tennis Championships 2025 on 2 March 2025.
♦ This was Yuki Bhambri's first ATP 500 men's doubles title.
♦ They defeated Finland's world number 14 Harri Heliovaara and British player Henry Patten in the final.
♦ They defended four match points after coming back from a set down to win 3-6, 7-6, 10-8.
Posted Date: March 2, 2025♦ Vidarbha won their third Ranji Trophy title at the VCA Stadium in Jamtha, Nagpur, on 2 March 2025.
♦ Vidarbha defeated kerala in the final. Vidarbha put scores of 379 and 375/9 in the two innings while Kerala had the opportunity to bat just once, scoring 342.
♦ Due to this win, Vidarbha team got Rs.5 crore in prize money.
♦ It is for the third time that Vidarbha have won the Ranji Trophy title, having done so earlier with their two consecutive wins in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons.
Posted Date: March 2, 2025♦ Indian Grand Master D Gukesh climbed to a career-high No. 3 rankings in the latest FIDE classical ratings list released on 1 March 2025.
♦ He is third with an Elo rating of 2787, behind second-placed Hikaru Nakamura (2802) and Magnus Carlsen (2833).
♦ Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi is fifth with an Elo rating of 2777. Also, Praggnanandhaa, who recently won the Tata Masters, is eighth with an Elo rating of 2758.
♦ Chess legend Viswanathan Anand has slipped out of the top-ten and is now 14th in the standings with an Elo rating of 2743.
♦ American GM Fabiano Caruana is fourth with an Elo rating of 2783, and Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2773) is sixth.
Posted Date: March 1, 2025