Indias first

Sport

         * Person to swim across the English Channel: Mihir Sen, 1958

         * Woman to swim across the English Channel: Arati Saha, 1959

         * Formula One race driver: Narain Karthikeyan

         * Formula One team: Force India F1
         * A1 GP race victory: Narain Karthikeyan, Zhuhai, China, 2007

         * Person to equal world record in Archery: Limba Ram, 1992

  

Olympics

         * Olympic team medal: Gold for Hockey at the 1928 Summer Olympics Amsterdam, beating the Netherlands.

         * Olympic Individual medal (in British India): Silver by Norman Pritchard for 200 metres races at the 1900 Summer Olympics, Paris. (This is disputed however. The IOC claims he participated for India. The IAAF records him as participant for Great Britain.)

         * Olympic Individual medal: Bronze by K. D. Jadhav for wrestling at the 1952 Summer Olympics Helsinki.

         * Olympic Individual medal by a woman: Bronze by Karnam Malleswari for weightlifting 54 kg class, at the 2000 Summer Olympics Sydney.

         * Olympic Silver medal: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore for Men's Double Trap at the 2004 Summer Olympics Athens.

         * Olympic Individual gold medal: Abhinav Bindra for 10 m Air Rifle at the 2008 Summer Olympics Beijing.

         * Olympic Bronze medallist in Boxing:Vijender Kumar in Beijing Olympics 2008.

         * Olympic Bronze medallist in Wrestling: Sushil Kumar in Beijing Olympics 2008.

Chess

         * Chess Grandmaster : Male - Vishwanathan Anand, 1988.

         * Female - Koneru Humpy - 2002 - She was also the youngest woman to become a grandmaster at 15 years old.

Tennis

         * Grand Slam title: Mahesh Bhupathi (partnering with Japanese Rika Hiraki) in the Mixed Doubles category of the 1997 French Open.

         * Woman to win a match in a Grand Slam event: Nirupama Vaidyanathan beat Italian Gloria Pizzichini in the first round of the 1998 Australian Open

         * Woman to reach 4th round (highest as of 2009) of a Grand Slam singles event: Sania Mirza in the Singles category of the 2005 US Open.

         * Woman to win a Grand Slam title: Sania Mirza (partnering with Mahesh Bhupathi) in the Mixed Doubles category of the 2009 Australian Open.

Grand Slam junior title: Leander Paes in the Singles category of the 1990 Wimbledon Championship.

         * Grand Slam junior title by a woman: Sania Mirza (partnering with Russian Alisa Kleybanova) in the Doubles category of the 2003 Wimbledon Championships.

Posted in: Today's G.K