FIRST INTERNATIONAL GOLD MEDAL (WOMEN)

Dola Banerjee outclassed Tatyana Dorkhova of Ukraine 102- 96 in the Women's Recurve final to win the first international gold at the 18th Golden Arrow Grand Prix Championship, 2005 at Antalay (Turkey).





BIGGEST PAY CHEQUE

Anju Bobby George collected the biggest pay cheque of $ 20, 000 when she got a silver medal in the Long jump in the world Athletics final in Monte Carlo in September 2005. Her leap on 6.75 m is her second best legal jump ever, next to her Athens Olympics effort of 6. 83 m.




MARATHON MAN

Dr (Wg Cdr) Ashis Roy (b June 1, 1932), New Delhi ran his first Marathon when he was 52 years and by the time he was 74, he had completed 72 marathon races. Roy is the only Asian to have run three Marathons in the USA on three consecutive Sundays and stood first in all three races in the 65 - 69 age group; Toledo Marathon on April 25, 1993 (3 hr 52 min); Cleveland Marathon on May 2, 1999 (3 hr 49 min); Cincinnati Marathon on May 9, 1993 (3 hr 50 min). In many of the world's most prestigious Marathons, Roy has been the only Indian.

The mystery of Norman PritcharFew know that Olympian Norman Pritchard also acted in Hollywood films! Norman Gilbert Pritchard, winner of two silver medals in the 200 m sprint and 200 m hurdles at the 1900 Paris Olympics was born in Kolkata in 1875. Pritchard was also an outstanding footballer who scored the first hat-trick in an official tournament in India. He moved to England in 1905. Olympic historians are unsure whether he was representing Britain or India so it is not known whether he was taking part as an Indian or a Briton. David Wallechinksys The Complete Book of the Olympics till the 1996 edition, credited Pritchards two silver medals to India as do all major reference books on Olympics. But after British historian Ian Buchanan published his findings in the January 2000 International Society of Olympic Historians (ISOH) that Prichard represented England, Wallechinsky awarded the medals to Great Britain in his 2000 edition. Joint research between Wallechinsky and Indian sports journalist Gulu Ezekiel revealed Pritchards date of birth in Thackers Indian Directory. Subsequently, Wallechinsky credited the medals jointly to Great Britain and India.Prichards Hollywood foray is also interesting. And mysterious! Internet movie site IMDb.com has the full listing of Pritchards 27 movies under his screen name of Norman Trevor, starting with After Dark in1915 and ending with The Love Trap and Tonight at Twelve, both in 1929.Pritchard died on Oct 30, 1929 in Norwalk (now part of Los Angeles). At the height of his fame, Norman was one of the biggest names of the New York stage before turning to talkies. Pritchard acted in the silent era of Hollywood films with screen legends like Ronald Colman, Clara Bow and Gary Cooper. It was Ranji Trophy cricketer Raju Mukherji who found his screen name Norman Trevor in the St Xaviers (Prichard had studied there in 1891) school magazine in a review of Pritchards famous movie Beau Geste (1926).Prichard died in September 1929 leaving some intriguing, unanswered questions. Exactly 77 years after his death and over a century after his Olympian exploits, we are left wondering: was Pritchard representing India or Great Britain in the Olympics?

15 GRANDMASTERS
India has 15 GMs - Viswanathan Anand (1987); Dibyendu Barua (1991); Pravin Thipsay (1998); Abhijit Kunte (2000); K Sasikira (2000); P Hari Krishna (2001); Koneru Humpy (2001); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2002); Sandipan Chanda (2003); Tejas Bakre (2004), RB Ramesh (2004), P Magesh Chandran (2006), Neelotpal Das (2006), Deepan Chakkravarthy (2006) and Parimarjan Negi (2006).BEST PERFORMANCE IN COMMONWEALTH CHAMPIONSHIP (MEN)
Indian pugilists won the 4th edition of the Commonwealth Boxing Championship at Glasgow, Scotland bagging four gold, three silver and two bronze medals. England and Scotland finished second and third respectively. Akil Kumar (54 kg), AL Lakra (57 kg), Som Bahadur Pun (64 kg), Jitender Kumar (+ 91 kg) won gold medals. Balbir Singh (48 kg), Arun Kumar (51 kg), Vijender (69 kg) won silver medals and Jai Bhagwan (69 kg) and Parvinder Singh (75 kg) won bronze medals.MOST CENTURIES
Sachin Tendulkar scored 35 centuries - 3 against West Indies in 16 Tests, 7 against Australia in 21 Tests, 2 against Pakistan in 16 Tests, 6 against England in 16 Tests, 3 in 16 Tests against New Zealand, 7 in 16 Tests against Sri Lanka, 3 in 16 Tests against South Africa, 1 in three Tests and 3 in nine Tests against Zimbabwe.