5 – The first ever Indian constructors team in F1. The launch of Force India F1 Team owned by Vijay Mallya.
4 – Saina Nehwal breaks into top 10 rankings in badminton and becomes first Indian to do so.
3 – India overpowering world champions Australia and reclaiming the Border Gavaskar Trophy.
2 – India’s dream run in the Olympics powered by Abhinav Bindra, Susheel Kumar and Vijinder Kumar.
1 – Vishwanathan Anand is crowned the World Champion in Chess defeating Vladimir Kramnik.
According to me, these are the top 5 sporting moments in 2008 which brought us glory. Sorry if I have missed any more significant name/event.
In walked the little master with a determined look on his face. He had unfinished business there at Chennai. It was there a few years back, he had played a superb knock against Pakistan, braving a back spasm, and almost stole the victory out from Pakistan’s hands. But he got out when India were 17 runs short of the target and India lost the match by 12 runs. Sachin was disappointed that he hadn’t stayed till the end of the innings and won the match for India.
But today all that can be said about him is “He came, He Saw, He Conquered”. With a responsible, controlled yet fluent innings of 103 with 9 fours and no sixes, Sachin guided India to the fourth highest run chase in the history of cricket and the highest run chase in the sub continent. He stood there for over 5 hours like a fort and he hit the winning four which also brought up his 41st ton. It was evident that the little master was overjoyed at getting this century as he punched the air in delight.
What does he do after this? He dedicated this ‘very very special’ hundred to the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai Attack. Kudos! to Sachin Tendulkar and wishing him many more centuries.
Abhinav Bindra, at the age of 25, did something which each and every Indian wanted to do. He won a gold medal at the Olympics in the 10 metre air pistol event, which incidentally is India’s first ever individual medal at the Olympics. The day (August 11, 2008) will go down in history as one of India’s biggest achievements in sports. Well done Abhinav! Some complain that his medal victory is hyped too much but I think otherwise. It is a reason to celebrate and celebrate we will. Anyways, we now know who the flag bearer for India would be at London 2012.
Abhinav qualified for the final round with a 2 point deficit on the leader which is a big margin in shooting. But he did a superb final round to clinch the gold. What I liked most about this man was his composure on winning. He is just 25 but has shown the maturity even pros don’t. He was cool, calm and just smiled and never went into hyper mode. When the National Anthem played behind him, his pride and joy was evidend. I was so happy that I skipped studying for today’s exam for an hour or two. Abhinav has set the bar and now it is up to the other members of Indian contingent to match it.
So my congrats Abhinav Bindra and all the very best to the Indian Team at Beijing 2008.
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