Sports Digest (2020)

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Sports & Games 2020
This article summarizes all the major sports events that happened in the year 2020. Many of the major events such as the Tokyo Olympics got canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Para Athletics

  • President of Paralympic Committee of India – Deepa Malik.
    • First Indian woman to win a medal in Paralympic Games.
  • First Para-athlete of India, who has been awarded the Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award – Satyendra Singh Lohia (Swimmer, Madhya Pradesh).
  • Winner (Men's Single's & Doubles) of Brazil Para-Badminton International Championship 2020 – Pramod Bhagat (Odisha).
    • Held at – Sau Paulo (Brazil).
    • Date – Feb 10-15.
    • Conducted by – Badminton World Federation.
    • First Place – China.
    • Indian Team –  11 medals (4 Gold, 5 Silver & 2 Bronze). 

Badminton

    Pullela Gopichand
  • First Indian to receive International Olympic Committee's Coaches Lifetime Achievement Awards of 2019 – Pullela Gopichand.
  • 2020 Malaysian Open Badminton was held in – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
    • Date – Jan 7-12.
    • Men's Single Winner – Kento Momota
    • Women's Single Winner – Chen Yufei.
  • 2020 Indonesia Masters was held at – Istora Gelora Bung Karno,  Indonesia
    • Date – Jan 14-19.
    • Men's Single Winner – Anthony Sinisuka Ginting (Indonesia).
    • Women's Single Winner – Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand).

Chess

    D. Gukesh
  • First Online Chess Olympiad Winners – India & Russia (jointly).
    • Organized by FIDE (The Fédération Internationale des Échecs).
  • 95th Hastings International Chess Congress Winner – Magesh Chandran Panchanathan (India).
  • Winner of 34th Cannes Open Chess Tournament – D. Gukesh.
  • Name the new Ambassador appointed for the World Wide Fund (WWF) India’s Environment Education programme – Viswanathan Anand.

Cricket

  • First Indian to win the Laureus Award of 2020 – Sachin Tendulkar.
    • Category – Best Sporting Moment: Carried on the shoulders of a nation.
      • Winning Moment: Wankhede Stadium, 2011.
      • Announced by: Boris Baker (Tennis).
  • Newly appointed director of cricket in the United Arab Emirates – Robin Singh.
  • First, fast bowler & fourth bowler in the test cricket to join the 600-Plus Club – James Anderson (England).
    • Muttiah Muralitharan (800, Sri Lanka), Shane Warne (708, Australia) & n Anil Kumble (India, 619).
  • First Female to officiate as the third umpire in a Men's International Twenty20 Cricket – Jacqueline Williams (Jamaica).
  • Youngest bowler in Test cricket to take a hat-trick – Naseem Shah (Pakistan, against Bangladesh).
  • Winners of 13th ICC Under 19 World Cup of 2020 – Bangladesh (3 wickets against India).
    • Held at – South Africa.
    • Date – Jan 17 - Feb 9.
    • Player of the Tournament – Yashasvi Jaiswal (Highest runs 400).
    • Indian Team Captain – Priyam Garg.
    • Suspended – Raqib Shamsudeen (Spinner, Canada) banned from bowling in international cricket & Md Towhid Hridoy, Shamim Hossain & Rakibul Hasan (Bangladesh) and Akash Singh & Ravi Bishnoi (India).
  • First Woman to umpire a World Cup Final – Kim Cotton (New Zealand).
    Kim Cotton
  • Winner of 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup was held at – Australia.
    • Venue – Australia
    • Date – Feb 21-March 8.
    • 2nd – India.
    • Player of the Series – Beth Mooney (Australia).
    • Indian team's captain – Harmanpreet Kaur.
  • Sir Richard Hadlee Medal of 2020 was won by – Ross Taylor.
    • New Zealand's Top Cricket Award.
  • Winner of Men's T20 Player of the Year award – Ross Taylor.
  • Winner of Polly Umrigar Award 2020 – Jasprit Bumrah.
    • Highest Cricket Award in India for Best International Cricketer.
    • Other BCCI Awards –
      • Col. CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award – Kris Srikanth.
      • BCCI Life Time Achievement Award For Women – Anjum Chopra.
      • Best International Cricketer (Female) – Poonam Yadav
      • Best International Debut (Female) – Shafali Verma.
      • Best International Debut (Men) – Mayank Agarwal.

Football

    Bala Devi
  • First Indian woman to sign a professional contract overseas – Bala Devi (Manipur).
    • For the Scottish Club Rangers F.C.
    • First Indian woman to become a professional footballer.
    • First Asian international footballer of Rangers F.C.
    • First Indian woman to score in a professional European football league (against Motherwell).
  • First Asian player to reach 50 goals in English Premier League Football – Son Heung-min (South Korea).
  • Spanish Super Cup Winners of 2020 – Real Madrid.
  • Winner of French Ligue 1's Golden Boot – Kylian Mbappe (Paris Saint-Germain F.C.).
  • FIFA under 17 Women's World Cup 2021 will be held at – India.

Hockey

  • FIH Men's Player of the Year award – Manpreet Singh.

Table Tennis

  • First Indian who became World No. 1 in 2020 Table Tennis Under 21 Championship – Manav Thakkar.

Tennis

  • First Indian to receive the Fed Cup Heart Award 2020 for the Asia/Oceania zone – Sania Mirza.
  • Winner of Australian Open Men's Double with Indian roots – Rajeev Ram (USA, along with Joe Salisbury of UK).
    • Men’s Singles – Novak Djokovic (Serbia, 17th single Grand Slam title & 8th Australian Open title).
    • Women’s Singles – Sofia Canin (USA).
    • Women’s Doubles – Timea Babos & Kristina Mladenovic.
    • Mixed doubles – Barbora Krejcikova & Nikola Mektic.
  • Winner of 27th Hobart International Tennis Tournament Doubles title – Sania Mirza (with Nadiia Kichenok).
    • Woman's Tennis Tournament.
    • Venue – Australia.
    • Date – Jan 18-20.
    • Singles – Elena Rybakina.
  • Winner of Mexican Open 2020 Championship Men's Single title – Rafael Nadal (Spain).
    • Venue – Acapulco (Mexico).
    • Women’s Singles – Heather Watson (UK).
    • Women’s Doubles – Giuliana Olmos (Mexico) & Desirae Krawczyk (USA).
    • Men's Doubles – Marcelo Mela (Brazil) & Lukasz Kubot (Poland).
  • Winner of US Open 2020 Championship Women's Single title – Naomi Osaka (Japan, against Victoria Azarenka).
    • Held at – New York.
    • Without spectators.
    • Women’s Doubles – Laura Siegemund (Germany) & Vera Zvonareva (Russia).
    • Men’s Singles – Dominic Theim (Austria).
    • Men's Doubles – Mate Pavic (Croatia) & Bruno Soares (Brazil).
  • First Indian to win a grand slam singles main draw match in 7 years – Sumit Nagpal (US Open).
  • Winner of Italian Open Men's Singles title – Novak Djokovic (Serbia, against Diego Schwartzman).
    • Venue – Rome, Italy.
    • Women’s Singles – Simona Halep (Romania).
    • Women’s Doubles – Hsieh Su-Wei (Chinese Taipei) & Barbora Strycova (Czech Republic).
    • Men's Doubles – Marcel Granollers (Spain) & Horacio Zeballos (Argentina).

Wrestling

    Sunil Kumar
  • The winner of the 2020 Asian Wrestling Championship – Japan (16 Medals – 8 Gold, 4 Silver & 4 Bronze).
    • Venue – KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium, Indira Gandhi Arena, New Delhi.
    • Date – Feb. 18-20.
    • India won third place with 20 medals (5 Gold, 6 Silver, 9 Bronze).
    • Men's tournament winners – Iran.
    • Countries that didn't participate – China, North Korea & Turkmenistan.
  • First gold medal in Greco-Roman Asian Wrestling Championships after 27 years – Sunil Kumar.
    • First – Pappu Yadav (48 kg category, 1993).