Mumbai Marathon 2007

So Mumbai Marathon was flagged off today.
And here are the results:

Winner of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2007: The 42.195 km race
John Kelai of Kenya finished the race in first place in 2:12.28 hours
followed by Ethiopians Gashaw Melese with a time of 2:12.33
and Tariku Jufar with a time of 2:12:50

Video Link:
http://www.business-standard.com/general/broadband.php?videoid=2221

Run, Mumbai Run!

I want to tell you about a race, which has grown up into something more than a Sport. Mumbai Marathon.

The Mumbai Marathon is an annual international event. It is held on a January Sunday since 2004 and has attracted over four thousand Athelets in three short years.

Last year, over 27,500 people participated and the number will increase to 30,000 this time.

Race Categories:

Marathon (42.195 km)

Half Marathon (21.097 km)

Dream Run (7 km)

Senior Citizens' Run (5 km)

The Wheelchair Event (3.5 km)

The prize money

The fastest runners in Men's= $30,000

Women's=$20,000

the fastest Indian citizen in each of these categories=$2,000

The Mumbai Marathon, especially the Dream Run, is a "Run for A Cause".

So at the same time you have lots of Celebrities - from Filmstars to Models, from Sportspersons to Politicians- along with common people running in the Streets of the City of Mumbai. And there are thousands of spectators on the roadsides cheering for the participants. That's what makes it so special.

The Mumbai Marathon is part of "The Greatest Race on Earth", sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank. The other three legs of this four-marathon race are the Singapore Marathon, the Nairobi Marathon and the Hong Kong Marathon.So be there on the this Sunday, January 21st, 2007

Site: http://mumbaimarathon.indiatimes.com/

BTW, Mumbai Marathon means something special for me. I have worked as an Event Executive for MM2005 and also got a Silver Medal as a momento.

A comment Australian Open!

Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Amelie Mauresmo and Serena Williams all posted straight-set victories on Wednesday to advance to the third round of the Australian Open, serving notice they're rounding into form after some opening-match nerves and glitches.

But luck was not on his side for Crowd-favourite Marcos Baghdatis, finalist here last yea. He was defeated by Frenchman Gael Monfils, who won 7-6 (5), 6-2, 2-6, 6-0.

Earlier, top-ranked Roger Federer defeated Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

Sixth-seeded Roddick beat Marc Gicquel of France, 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-4 he'l face 2005 Australian Open champion Marat Safin.
Safin benefited from a rain break to rally from a set down to oust Dudi Sela of Israel 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-0 in a match with 20 service breaks.

So both Roger and Safin have had very entertaining clashes.
I am not gonna forget today's matches. I enjoyed them so much!

I was actually doing some other stuff and then my brother came to my room and screamed: "You wanna miss it?, it's a great battle going on over there." He's a great Safin fan (and even I like him) Thanks bro!

Serena Williams celebrated a 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Luxembourg's Anne Kremer.

Other Results: courtesy: NDTV

Thailand's Danai Udomchoke upset No. 24 Juan Carlos Ferrero to oust the former world No 1. A former Australian Open champion also tumbled, with 2002 winner Thomas Johansson losing to No. 16 David Ferrer.Veteran Australian Wayne Arthurs beat American qualifier Zach Fleishman, who had his hair dyed in red, white and blue stripes. Other men's winners included No 7 Tommy Robredo, No 9 Mario Ancic, No 18 Richard Gasquet, No 20 Radek Stepanek and No 22 Dominik Hrbaty.Among those advancing on the women's side were former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the No 3 seed, along with Petrova, No 7 Elena Dementieva, No 8 Patty Schnyder, No 9 Dinara Safina, No 10 Nicole Vaidisova, No 11 Jelena Jankovic, No 15 Daniela Hantuchova.Three seeded women lost: Lucie Safarova beat No 14 Francesca Schiavone, Victoria Azarenko downed No 18 Marion Bartoli and Anastasiya Yakimova ousted No 23 Ai Sugiyama.

An NDTV Story: Tsunami kidney racket busted in Chennai

Tsunami kidney racket busted in Chennai

http://www.ndtv.com/template/template.asp?template=tsunami&slug=Tsunami+kidney+racket+busted+in+Chennai&id=21181&callid=0&category=National

Another Day another place another Cheating and Curruption...

Well, what's happening to this country?

AO:Sania through to the Round two

"Well, I feel a lot fitter, I'm moving lot better.
Probably my serve obviously is the weakest point in my game right now but
it's not exactly a weakness, but it is not a strength.
So it is just a matter of consolidating on that playing.
I guess playing some quality games against some quality players,"

-Sania Mirza.

Sania Mirza started her Australian Open Dream with a straight set victory over Olga Savchuk of Ukrain.
Sania defeated Olga 6-3, 7-5

In other major mathces:

Top-seeded Maria Sharapova got over the heat, the cramps and her own mistakes to enter the Round Two. She beat Camille Pin 6-3, 4-6, 9-7.

Third-seeded Kim Clijsters to beat Vasilisa Bardina 6-0, 6-0 rout. Bardina won only two points on her own serve.

Sixth-seeded Martina Hingis, had a 6-0, 6-2 win over Nathalie Dechy on the second show court.

13th-seeded Ana Ivanovic advanced with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Vania King.

Second-ranked Rafael Nadal bt. American Robert Kendrick 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2. He played on Center Court with Roof on.

Eighth-seeded David Nalbandian advanced to next round as Janko Tipsarevic retired with heat exhaustion in the fifth set, final scores were 6-7 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0, 2-1.

Robby Ginepri advanced in five sets over Spain's Nicolas Almagro, seeded 32nd.

No. 13 Tomas Berdych beat South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

No. 31 Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland beat Kevin Kim in four.

AO: Roger Through to the Second Round

Top seed Roger Federer, began his 2007 Grand Slam Journey in a great fashion beating German Bjorn Phau 7-5, 6-0, 6-4 and clouded away all the doubts raised after his Saturday defeat to Andy Roddic. (Who raised the doubts BTW?)

After a patchy start in the first set, the Swiss Maestro managed to keep his nerves. In the Second set, Federer put a bagel on an edgy Bjorn and won the third set to register a straight win.

Andy Roddick too, advanced to the next round beating French wild-card Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the marathon opening tiebreaker and rallying from 2-5 in the second set to win 6-7 (18), 7-6 (2), 6-3, 6-3.

In women's, Amelie Mauresmo started her title defense with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Shenay Perry.

Other important results are as follows. (Courtsy: NDTV)

Seventh-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia advanced 6-1, 6-2 over Stephanie
Foretz of France.
No. 16 Shahar Peer, No 20 Tatiana Golovin and No 26 Maria Kirilenko also
advanced to the Second Rounds

No 18 Richard Gasquet, the 2002 world junior champion, won his first match
in four trips to the Australian Open, advancing 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 over Italian
Filippo Volandri.
Ninth-seeded Ancic beat Japan's Go Soeda 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

Spaniards Juan Carlos Ferrero and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez progressed to the
second round as well. Former top-ranked Ferrero, was leading Jan Hajek 3-0
when the Czech player retired because of stomach illness. Garcia-Lopez was 1-1
with Joachim Johansson when the 6-foot-6 Swede pulled out because of severe
blisters on his feet.

Sania Rising High

After a semi-final appearance at last week's Moorilla International in Hobart, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza has jumped 13 places to 53 in the latest WTA rankings.
The 20-year-old Sania had beaten world number 29 Maria Kirilenko en route to the semis.
However, she's is down one place to 25 in the doubles ranking though.

Sania's AO journey will begin from tomorrow, with a first round match against Olga Savchuk of Ukrain. Come On Sania!

Australian Open to start tomorrow:

Two weeks from tomorrow,

Melbourne will be again on toes to cheer the game os Tennis...

Two weeks from tomorrow,

The Players will toil hard to perform on the heated Courts in the City...

The year’s first Grand Slam Tournament is back again!

Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova are Men’s and Women’s Top Seeds respectively, while Sania Mirza will try to improve her record Down Under.

Well, the Matches will be shown Live on Star Sports in India and I don’t want to miss the fabulous Commentary by my favorite duo, Alan Wilkins and with him, the One and only- Vijay Amritraj… and I don’t want to miss it.

So Good Night!

Makar Sankranti

It’s Makar Sankranti today …

More than a religious event, Makar Sankranti is The fiesta of Nature. It’s a day when Sun starts its virtual journey in the Northern Hemisphere, ginimg the message that the chilling days will soon go away and Spring will come again.

So during this time of year, one is supposed to be dressed in Black or other dark sheds. The colour Black has a special importance on Makar Sankranti and it’s considered auspicious as it absorbs heat and keeps the body warm. And we also have a special diet for this season, which consists of food rich in calories to help protect from cold outside.
You know what? Today, I have eaten so many of those Sweets that now I’m feeling Sweet...

Shubh Sankranti!

National Youth Day Vivekanand Jayanti

"Beware of everything that is untrue. Stick to truth and we shall succeed.

Fifty centuries are looking on you, the future of India depends on you.

Work on.."

- Swami Vivekananda

It's the Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananad and the day is celebrated as The National Youth Day.

As a young Indian, I have many things to face, many things to overcome and many things to do.

I have many Dreams and Need to toil hard to make them come true..

And I have many things to earn and many more to give to my society..