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SPORTS
Eternal India
encyclopedia
AERO SPORTS
Hang gliding
: Hang gliding is a technique of unpowered flying
using air currents. It was perfected by a US engineer named
Rogallo in the 1970s. The aeronaut is strapped into a carrier,
attached to a sail wing of nylon stretched on an aluminium frame
like a paper dart, and jumps into the air from a high place.
Capt. Vivek Mundkur of the Corps of Engineering undertook
the first hang-gliding flight from Dighi Hills near the College of
Military Engineering, Pune on August 31, 1976.
The Federation Aeronautique Internationale recognises world
records for rigidwing, flexwing and multiple flexwing.
Men Greatest distance in straight line and declared goal dis-
tance: 488.19 km (303.35 miles), Larry Tudor (USA), Hobbs Air-
park, New Mexico to Elkhart, Kansas, 3rd July 1990. Height gain
4343.4 m (14,250 ft.), Larry Tudor (USA), Lone Pine, California 8th
April 85.
Out and return distance: 310.302 km, 192.818 miles Larry
Tudor (USA) and Geoffrey Loyns (GB), Lone Pine, 26th June
1988. Triangular course distance: 196 km, 121.81 miles; James Lee
(USA), San Pedro Mesa, Colorado, 4th July 1991.
Women Greatest distance: 335.75 km, 208.63 miles; Kari
Castle (USA), Lone Pine, 22nd July 1991. Height gain: 3657.17m,
11998.62 ft; Tover Buas-Hansen (Norway) Bishops Airport, Cali-
fornia, 6th July 1989.
Out and return distance via single turn: 292.04 km, 181.47
miles Kari Castle (USA), Hobbs Airpark, 11th July 1990. Declared
goal distance: 212.50 km, 132 .04 miles; Liavan Mallin (Ireland),
Horseshoe Meadows, 13th July 1989. Triangular course distance:
Judy Leden (GB), 114.107 km , 70.904 miles; Konsen, Austria,
22nd June 1991.
ARCHERY
This traditional sport is probably man's
oldest pursuit- 50,000 years ago, the bow and
arrow was the only weapon used in hunting
and self-defence. This skill, over centuries,
has been honed and in recent times has be-
come a competitive sport. Modern bows and
arrows are made of wood, plastic & fibre
glass, unlike the early days when bows and arrows were made of
horns, sinews and lacquer.
Archery as an organised sport appears to have developed in the
3rd Century A.D. Competitive archery dates back to the 12th cen-
tury B.C. Archery was introduced in the early modern Olympic
Games, dropped after the 1920 Olympics and revived in the Olym-
pic Games in 1972 at Munich and in the Asian Games in 1978 at
Bangkok. The Sports Authority of India, to spot sports talent, came
out with a special programme called the "Special Area Games".
Limba Ram, Shyam Lai are top archers in the country. The Archery
Association of India was formed in 1973 and the first National
Championships were held in Lucknow. India participated in the first
major International competition in the 1986 Seoul Asian Games
where the Indian team comprising Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, Rajesh
Sharma, Pradeep Kundu and Rajat Haider finished fourth in the final
standings.
Shyam Lai from Rajasthan along with Limba Ram won a bronze
medal in the fifth Asia Cup Archery Championships in Calcutta in
Jan. 1988. Shyam Lai was third in the 50m event. India also got a
team bronze.
India participated at the Olympic Games for the first time in
1988 at Seoul in South Korea. The first gold medal in an interna-
tional competition came in Oct. 1989 when India surprised the world
by toppling world leaders South Korea in the Asia Cup at Beijing.
Arjuna Awards:
Shyam Lai.
ATHLETICS
Perhaps, the most ancient of human sporting
activity, the origins of athletics can be traced as
far back as 1300 B.C. in Greece. However, ath-
letics as an organised sport did not survive the
Greek Olympics. Though there is evidence of
athletic contests in England around the 12th
Century, the first organised athletic meet was
held at the Royal Academy, Woolwich, London in 1849. The first
regular competition, probably, was the one held at Exeter College,
Oxford in 1850.
Athletics spread very fast in the USA with migrating Britishers
introducing the sport in that country and the first U.S. national
amateur athletic championship was held in 1876. The revival of the
Olympics by the French aristocrat, Pierre de Coubertin in 1896 gave
an impetus to this sporting activity. The International Amateur
Athletic Federation was formed in 1913 but refused to concern
itself with women’s athletics, which led to the formation of the
Federation Sportive Feminine International (FSFI) in 1921. The
first world competitions for women were held in Paris in 1922 and
continued till 1934, when it was decided that the IAAF would take
over the conduct of women’s athletics also. The FSFI was dis-
solved in 1936 and the responsibility of promoting women’s athlet-
ics was vested with the IAAF.
The International Olympic Committee, under whose aegis the
Olympic Games are now conducted once in four years, was formed
on 25th June, 1912. The present Olympic flag, comprising five inter-
linked rings signifying the friendship between the five continents,
was introduced in the 1920 Olympic Games at Antwerp.
Though athletics as an organised sport in India dates back to
1928 when a seven-member athletics team officially represented
the country in the Olympic Games at Amsterdam, following the for-
mation of the Indian Olympic Association in 1927 with Sir Dorabji
Tata as the first president and Dr. A.C. Northern (YMCA, Madras)
as the first secretary, the honour of representing as well as earning
the first medals for India goes to Norman Pritchard of Calcutta. An
Anglo-Indian, holidaying in Paris in 1900, Norman Pritchard repre-
sented India at the Paris Olympics and won silver medals in the 200
metres sprint and 200 metres hurdles events. In fact, he was the
first Asian ever to win an Olympic medal.
Subsequently in the 1920 Olympic Games, India was repre-
sented by a two-member team with Chugle finishing 19th in the
gruelling marathon. Thanks to the efforts of philanthropists like Sir
Dorabji Tata, the Indian team at the 1924 Olympics comprised eight
athletes. However, India has been officially sending teams under
the aegis of the Indian Olympic Association since 1928. In the 1932
Olympics at Los Angeles, Mervyn Sutton reached the semi-finals
of the 110 metres hurdles and M.C. Dhawan finished 14th in the
‘triple jump’ event with 44 feet 9 3/4 inches.