What are some of your most memorable moments in Indian sports (non cricket)?

[Gollum]

I wasn't alive when Indian hockey was ruling the world or when Padukone, Ramanathan Krishnan, Amritraj, Milkha Singh, P T Usha, etc were setting the world stage on fire in their respective domains. So my choices are all post 1999 when I was old enough to follow sports. Please do share your favorite memories also, they may not be the greatest in terms of achievements but if they made you swell with pride or gave you unmeasurable joy please do mention them. 1. Anand beating Topalov in Sofia in the 2010 Title match:

Anand had already won in Tehran(2000), Mexico(2007) and Bonn(2008) but this one was a grudge match. Topalov and his ******* manager, Danailov threw many insults at the Indian star before the match and the situation leading to the match was very toxic. Danailov also made fun of Vishy's age, his motivation levels, Aruna's qualifications to be his manager etc in the lead up. Moreover Topalov was always viewed with suspicion by other elite level players because of many cheating controversies around him(San Luis 2005, Elista 2006). He and Danailov were used to fighting dirty and the match was held in Sofia, Bulgaria. The Bulgarian organizers tried their level best to make Vishy feel as uncomfortable as possible before/during the match. There was this Icelandic volcanic eruption 5 days before the opening ceremony and all modes of transport in that part of the world were affected. Vishy had to make the trip via road and arrived just 1 day before the opening ceremony. Due to fatigue he lost game 1 badly but bounced back to win the very tense match. Only instance apart from Fischer-Spassky in 1972 that someone had won a match after losing game 1. Anyone who followed that match live must be knowing what a classic that was with Vishy adopting a passive approach to beat an ultra aggressive Topalov(similar to Ali's rope-a-dope against Foreman in Rumble in the Jungle) 2. Battle of Bonn:

Anand's smooth victory over Kramnik(conqueror of Kasparov) again was memorable. Kramnik had a colossal reputation as a match player while at that time Vishy was more of a tournament player. Again the match was loaded with barbs with Kramnik boasting that he had simply lent the crown to the Indian in Mexico and that only the winner of a match would be a true champion in the eyes of the public. While there isn't much denying over the fact that Kramnik's claim was backed by a 140 year old history passed on from Lasker through the likes of stalwarts like Capablanca, Botvinik, Fischer,Karpov and Kasparov(while Anand hadn't won the title in match format) the manner in which the Russians attacked Vishy was below the belt. But Vishy did turn up for the match and gave Big Vlad a nice thrashing to become till date the only player in history to win the crown in all formats(knockout, tournament, match, blitz, rapid, blindfold, advanced chess). I was so charged up when Vishy rolled over the Russian in the first half of the match ending all hoped for the Russian by game 6 :haha:. In all my years of following chess that was the highest level of chess attained by any player, the level Vishy was playing there was unfathomable. Even Magnus Carlsen is yet to reach those heights and in the words of the mighty Kasparov that was the most amazing chess he had seen in his lifetime sealing Anand's spot in the pantheon of chess titans. 3. Bindra's gold in Bejing:

Whilst I may not be a big fan of shooting and didn't follow the event live, I did watch the medals ceremony. I had tears rolling around my cheeks when I heard our national anthem play in an Olympics for the first time in my life. We missed out the gold in 96, '00 and '04 and that fact always bothered me. To see an Indian get the 1st individual gold in the Olympics was a very memorable occasion. 4. Gopichand winning 2001 All England Open Badminton Championships(Men's Singles)

Great moment from an unknown entity in the world stage in badminton. I never saw Padukone play so this was special(I watched only the finals BTW). Hope Srikanth, Kashyap, Sindhu and Saina bring us many more laurels in the coming years. His poster(from SportsStar) is still hanging in my room, besides Laxman-Dravid Kolkata, 2001 poster...... Nostalgia 5. Sushil Kumar's London 2012 Silver

Gutted that he missed gold :(( but was comprehensively outclassed by the Jap in the finals. Nevertheless a stellar show from the Delhi lad who became the 1st Indian to win 2 Olympic medals in individual events. 6. Gold in men's hockey in 2014 Asian Games

Whilst we played much better in our victorious campaigns in the 2009 and 2010 Azlan Shah editions against better opposition this was special because we won the Asian Games gold after 16 long years and beat Pakistan in the finals. The crowd was viciously anti India and the abuse our players endured from the predominantly Pakistani majority crowd was :((. But boy did we silence them, that too in a thriller winning in the penalty shoot out. What a day that was !!!!:yay: 7. Somdev Devvarman's run in the 2009 Chennai Open

I don't rate doubles majors:giggle:. Paes or Bhupathi or Sania winning a doubles event and media channels comparing them to Federer, McEnroe gets me all :hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: Never saw Ramanathan Krishnan or Amritraj beat real legends of the game in their days so this one was the only consolation for me. Somdev took out Moya, Karlovic and Schuttler before losing to Cilic. That was one hell of a run. 8. Anju Bobby George's bronze in the World Athletics Meet 2003 & gold in World Athletics Finals 2005

One of the greatest feats in athletics by an Indian, if not the greatest. Pity her 6.83 m couldn't fetch a podium place in Athens.