Abhinav Bindra
- The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) on April 30, 2016 appointed 2008 Olympic Gold medalist shooter Abhinav Bindra as the second goodwill ambassador for India’s Rio contingent to be held this year.
- This appointment comes from IOA after the uproar over Salman Khan’s appointment as the good will ambassador for the Rio Olympics.
- The IOA had approached cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar for the same post with reports of the apex sporting body considering ‘more people’ for the role but he ha not responded.
Vishnu Vardhan
- Vishnu Vardhan became the first champion of the Asian Tennis Tour (ATT) after beating Sidharth Rawat in the final on April 21, 2016 held in New Delhi.
- Vishnu Vardhan is a tennis player from Andhra Pradesh. He had played doubles at the London Olympics with Leander Paes.
- He was a member of the bronze medalist Indian men’s team for 2010 Asian games in Guangzhou China. He paired-up with and Sania Mirza for mixed doubles and won silver medal.
Bhokanal
- Indian rower Dattu Babap Bhokanal qualified for the Rio Olympics after winning a silver in the finals of men’s single sculls at the 2016 FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic Qualification Regatta at Chung-ju in South Korea on April 25, 2016.
- Earlier, he won two gold medals in the 2014 National Rowing Championships, representing the Services and represented India at the 2014 Asian Games in China. He also won silver in men’s single scqlls in the 16th Asian Rowing Championships in China last year.
- He will be the ninth rower to represent India in the Olympics. India’s first ever Asian Games gold medal was won by Bajrang Lai Takhar in 2010 but we have never won an Olympic medal in Rowing.
Irfan Ahmed
- On April 22, 2016 Hong Kong all-rounder Irfan Ahmed has been suspended by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for two and a half years on April 22, 2016. He will not be allowed to play any form of cricket until May 4, 2018.
- The Pakistan-born cricketer was provisionally suspended in November with the ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) investigating his role in relative to the activities of another suspected offender.
- He accepted the charges laid against him and decided not to appeal against the decision. He played 6 One-Day Internationals and 8 Twenty20 matches since his debut in 2008.
Durga Thakur
- International Hockey Federation (FIH) has promoted Durga Thakur from India as International Outdoor Umpire following her good performance at the recently-held Hawkes Bay Cup in Hastings, New Zealand.
- She is an addition other young Indian umpires currently officiating at the international level. There are 14 Indians in the elite league of international umpires (10 men, 5 women).
- She started her career as an umpire from the third Hockey India (HI) Sub-Junior Men & Women National Championship (Finals) held in Bhopal in 2013. Her first international assignment was in 2015 at the double six-Nation Cup in Breda, the Netherlands.
