Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Sports Ka Superstar

For the last two months, I have been hooked to a certain quiz show on Doordarshan channel - Sports ka Superstar. This is a sports quiz produced by BIG Synergy productions (Siddhartha Basu), anchored by Mini Mathur and Shera (the mascot for Delhi CWG 2010).

The sports quiz puts forth a great collection of questions, with multiple choice (4 choices) and buzzer, visual/direct (without choice/shootout) variants. Ten participants contest each time, with only 2 qualifying at the end of the show to the next round. The quiz show aired on DD on Mondays and Wednesdays at 10pm, has so far, handpicked 50 sports whizkids out of 25 episodes. The contest is now, on between these 50 players for selection to finals, with already 2 clearing the semi final hurdle on 30th Aug 2010.

The quiz is a must-watch as it is well anchored, the participants have immense knowledge of the subject and there is definitely lots to learn from the questions thrown. For long, I watched the show intently, answering questions along with the contestants, researching on unknown topics the next day. From now on, I intend to note down as many questions as possible and post it onto my blog for future reference.

I have jotted down some questions (see below) from the Aug 30, 2010 show (not all, some of them) and some questions from the previous episodes (some that I remember starkly) -

Set 1: (the answers to these questions will appear as a comment from me in the comments section)
1) Who said these words - It's hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am.
2) The name of the military leader who participated in the Stockholm Olympics 1912 modern pentathlon event.
3) Who is the only player to have scored a hat trick in FIFA finals?
4) Who is the first Indian member of the International Olympic Committee?
5) Which sport does the body FISA represent?
6) With which sport will you associate FIDE?
7) K.M Beenamol won gold in 800m track event in Busan 2002 Asian games. Her brother, KM Binu, won the silver medal in which sporting event the same year, same games?
8) Name this tennis player from Sweden who lost to Rafael Nadal in 2010 French Open.
9) Name the golfer who has the nick name – The Great White Shark
10) The 1934 CWG were held in London. Which was the initially proposed venue/city for the games?
11) The Merdaka tournament is associated with which game?
12) Name the game that was first introduced in Doha 2006 Asian Games.
13) Shaolin martial arts hail from this country.
14) Name the Olympian after whom a Cricket stadium is named in Gwalior.
15) This is a unit of measurement of length and is roughly equal to/little over 600 feet. Name this unit
16) Name the sport that is going to be demonstrated in Delhi CWG 2010.
17) With which sport will you associate the terms – glide and spin techniques?
18) Who is the only athlete to have won 4 consecutive Olympic golds in the same individual event and also bettered the record with every win?
19) With which sport will you associate the famous sportsperson – Jehangir Khan?
20) The book “From gloom to glory” is the story of which Indian coach?
21) Straight from the Heart is an autobiography of which sportsperson?
22) The Four Minute Mile is associated with which famous athlete?
23) Breaking the Surface is the story of which famous sportsperson?
24) Venus Rosewater Dish is presented to the winner of which tournament?
25) Which famous tournament in Tennis is named after a French Aviator?
26) It’s not about the bike is a book by a famous sportsperson. Name him
27) With whom will you associate the Rope a Dope technique in boxing?
28) With which sport will you associate terms like castling, the fortress, Alekhine’s gun?
29) Name the air pistol specialist who claimed 5 golds, 1 silver, 1 bronze in 2006 Melbourne CWG.
30) Which country won the most number of golds in Beijing Olympics 2008 and which country won the maximum number of medals at the same event?

Set 2: (the answers to these questions will appear as a comment from me in the comments section)
After yesterday's episode (01/09/2010), here I update the post with another set of questions, as many as I could note down. Good to note that of the two selected to finals from this episode, one Mr. T.B. Srinath belongs to my school (PS Senior Secondary School) and college/graduated from BITS, Pilani.
Below are the questions:
1) Who is the only Indian prime minister to have received the Olympic Gold Order?
2) Who along with Sir Roger Bannister ran a mile under 4 minutes in the 1954 Common Wealth Games?
3) Name the S.African cricketer whose autobiography is known as “White Lightning”
4) Which other country apart from England, Wales, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand has attended every edition of the Common Wealth games?
5) Who was named the greatest female athlete of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated for Women magazine?
6) Their national netball team features a silver fern for its symbol, name the country.
7) Which sport has a technique named after Mitsuo Tsukahara?
8) Name the chess grandmaster who is diagnosed with a kind of spondiloarthritis.
9) Which other nation, apart from China and Indonesia, has won the Thomas Cup since its inception from the year 1948?
10) Name the athlete, who in 1913, was stripped off his Olympic Gold medals on grounds of violating the amateur rules.
11) Which football club was sometimes known as Jubilee club, Hamidia club, Crescent club?
12) Name the first recipient of Arjuna Award for achievement in athletics.
13) Name the only player to have won twice, all the four grand slams singles title (each set of 4 grand slam titles was won in the same calendar year)
14) Which Ethiopian long distance runner is nicknamed Neftenga?
15) Name this athlete who four Olympic Gold medals in the year 1948, nicknamed “The Flying Housewife”
16) With whom will one associate the book “The good, the bad and the bubbly”?
17) Name the remarkable invention made by Mr. Stuart Robertson, the marketing manager of ECB.
18) With which sport will you associate the term small/little slam?
19) Which other city apart from Melbourne and Sydney has hosted both Common Wealth Games and Summer Olympics?
20) Question from one of the earlier episodes: What was awarded to the victor in Ancient Olympics?
Set 3: (the answers to these questions will appear as the third comment from me in the comments section)
Yesterday's episode (06/09/2010) was a very high scoring session. Questions were relatively easier - my personal opinion. My favorite contestant from prelims- Pradipta Chattopadhyay, qualified for the finals. He has tremendous knowledge of sports trivia and yesterday he scored a neat 100/100 in MCQ s rounds. Along with him qualified Mr.Anand from Mumbai, outsmarting fellow contestants - Kinshuk and Sairam by a very narrow margin.
Below are the set of questions from yesterday's show. I have added two (that came to my mind) from the prelims.
1) Name the grand slam tennis tournament held last in a calendar year.
2) Who received the Golden shoe award for the best athlete in the 1986 Asian Games held at Seoul?
3) Name the only sport in which women took part in the 1930 Commonwealth Games, its first edition.
4) An annual hockey tournament, Sultan Azlan Shah Cup is named after which country’s monarch?
5) With which Olympic sport will you associate the terms – Epee, Foil and Sabre?
6) Which sport was introduced in the year 1895 for those who found playing basketball very tiresome?
7) Which sport introduced in the year 1895 was known then as Mintonette and was initially designed to be played indoors?
8) Besides lawn tennis, which other sport’s name features/is associated with Wimbledon?
9) Who is the author of the book Letters to a Young Gymnast?
10) Which was Sania Mirza’s first grand slam win?
11) The first three editions of Cricket world cup were officially known by what name?
12) Which victory came first for India, the Cricket world cup victory or the Hockey world cup victory?
13) Which nation is hosting the 2014 FIFA world cup?
14) In which water based sport is the eggbeater technique used?
15) Name the British athlete who won 100m gold in 1924 Paris Olympics, the feat that was depicted in the movie “Chariots of Fire
16) What does the WADA monitor?
17) Which city hosted the equestrian events for 2008 Beijing Olympics?
18) What did the Czech athlete Jan Zelezny hurl for a distance of 98.48m at Jena, Germany in the year 1996?
19) What is the name provided to the four-year period between two Olympic Games?
20) Name the football tournament, introduced in 1888 to provide recreation for the British soldiers and Shimla secretariat personnel.
21) Which Indian tennis player’s mother played basketball for India?
22) In 1967, two warring factions in Nigerian civil war agreed for a 48-hour ceasefire to watch which player play?
23) Who announced retirement from hockey after 2010 hockey world cup?
24) With which sport will one associate the terms – Amar, Surjeevani and Gaminee?
25) With which sport was Leander Paes’ father Vece Paes associated?
On Friday, Sept 3rd 2010, Viswa and I went to Bangalore Cantonment station to see the Commonwealth Games exhibition train/CWG Express. The train arrived from Mysore and was scheduled to leave to Hubli on 3rd night. Open for public viewing from 10 am to 7 pm, the train in green color (the 2010 Delhi CWG is also known as the Green Commonwealth Games) had 5 coaches dedicated to information on Commonwealth Games and 6 other coaches for information on e-governance and Information technology.
The 5 coaches dedicated to CWG were laden with information on CWG, its birth, its history, its different venues/hosts, stadia/venues and their details for Delhi 2010 CWG, Indian sportstars, superstars in Indian sports who serve Indian Railways etc.
The mascot - Shera for 2010 CWG was completely adorable in the many cartoon strips displayed on information charts in train.

4 comments:

Divya Shankar said...

Answers :
Set 1:
Answers:
1) Muhammad Ali
2) Sir George Smith Patton
3) Geoff Hurst of England in 1966 FIFA world cup final (Eng vs W Germany)
4) Sir Dorabji Tata
5) Rowing
6) Chess
7) 800m
8) Robin Soderling
9) Greg Norman, Australia
10) Johannesburg, S Africa – due to apartheid shifted out
11) Football
12) Chess
13) China
14) Roop Singh, Hockey
15) Stadium
16) Kabaddi
17) Shot put
18) Alfred Oerter (Discus throw)
19) Squash
20) Mir Ranjan Negi
21) Kapil Dev
22) Sir Roger Bannister
23) Greg Louganis, the famous American diver
24) Wimbledon, women’s singles
25) The French Open, Roland Garros
26) Lance Armstrong
27) Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay
28) Chess
29) Samaresh Jung ,he was dubbed as the Gold finger
30) China – most golds (51) and USA for most number of medals (110)

Divya Shankar said...

Answers for SET 2:
1) Indira Gandhi, Olympic Order is given to a person who makes a distinguished contribution to Olympic movement. Related Trivia: Nadia Comenci is the only athlete to have won the Olympic Order twice.
2) John Landy, Australia. Roger Bannister (3 min 58.8 s) and John Landy (3 min 59.6 s), a bronze sculpture depicting these two men exists in Vancouver where the games where held in 1954.
3) Allan Donald
4) Canada
5) Jackie Joyner Kersee, all time greatest in women’s heptathlon and long jump.
6) New Zealand
7) Gymnastics, Tsukahara vault is the name of the technique
8) Vladimir Kramnik (this question appeared in the visual round and question has been modified by adding a bit of trivia to it)
9) Malaysia
10) Jim Thorpe, found playing two seasons of semi professional baseball, violated the amateur rules.
11) Mohammedan sporting club
12) In the year 1961, Gurbachan Singh Randhawa (a visual round question, this one has been modified from a mere “identify” question)
13) Rod Laver, Australia, first in 1962 as an amateur and then in 1969 as a professional (distinction from Roy Emerson is that Rod Lavers’ is a calendar year grand slam)
14) Haile Gebrselaisse, Neftenga in local language in Ethiopia means the Boss. Adidas had even released a racing shoe in his honor, named it Neftenga
15) Fanny-Blankers Koen, Dutch, she won gold in 100m, 80m hurdle, 200m and 4*100 relay. At 30, a mother of 2 children, she won them all in 1948 Olympics in London. Her background/performances earned her the name “The Flying Housewife”
16) George Best, an Northern Ireland footballer. Local admiration for him is summed up as "Maradona good; Pelé better; George Best."
17) 20-20 cricket
18) Bridge
19) London
20) Olive Wreath/crown (the modern Olympics started from year 1896)

Divya Shankar said...

Answers for Set 3:

1) US Open
2) PT Usha , she won 4 gold and 1 silver in that Asian games edition
3) Swimming
4) Malaysia, Sultan Azlan Shah is an avid fan of field hockey. This tournament commenced in the year 1983.
5) Fencing, they are names of the three weapons used in the game.
6) Volley ball
7) Volley ball
8) Croquet, the name of the club is All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Wimbledon. Croquet is an infant form of lawn tennis.
9) Nadia Comaneci
10) The mixed doubles championship that she won with Mahesh Bhupathi in Australian Open, 2009.
11) Prudential cup
12) Hockey world cup victory in the year 1975
13) Brazil
14) Synchronised swimming. This was a contentious question on the show as the multiple choices provided for answers included water polo as an option. It may be true that this technique is used in synchronized swimming but it is also true that it is used in water polo, to keep afloat and throw the ball around. The contestant provided water polo as the answer and it was declared wrong. This question resulted in the contestant’s elimination though all his other answers were correct.
15) Harold Abraham
16) Drug abuse, World Anti Doping Agency is expansion of WADA
17) Hong Kong
18) Javelin
19) Olympiad
20) Duran cup, the oldest football tournament in India
21) Leander Paes, his mother Jennifer Paes, was the captain of Indian national basketball team in the year 1982
22) It was to watch Pele play, an exhibition match in Lagos.
23) Pakistan team
24) Kabbadi, they are forms of Kabbadi.
25) Hockey, in the team that won bronze in 1972 Munich Olympics

Divya Shankar said...

Correction: Set 3: Answer for q20) Durand Cup