It’s the start of a new month of Sport and that means it’s the perfect time yet again to glance back at all that’s happening in a packed July and give you a great idea of Who’s Hot and Who’s Not in the world of Sport at the moment. From the Olympics & the Euros to the world of Formula One and life from Copa America, we’ve got you covered.
WHO’s HOT AT THE MOMENT
▶ Neeraj Chopra
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From an obese kid to winning India’s first-ever track and field medalist at the Olympics, Neeraj Chopra believed, dreamt big and chased the dream down with absolute commitment. Chopra won gold at the World U20 Athletic Championship in 2016 and five years on, he’s an Olympics GOLD medalist. His was the country’s seventh medal and first gold in Tokyo and he joined shooter Abhinav Bindra in the elite club of India’s only individual Gold winners at the Olympic games.
▶ Indian Hockey
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It’s been a long time coming, but Indian Hockey is bouncing back AND HOW! Let’s put things into perspective…India’s women finished 12th out of 12 sides at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and lost 1-6 to Australia. Four years later with Australia still topping their group, India put away the mental scarring as the girls pulled off the unthinkable with Gurjit slotting home and Savita between the posts making 9 saves to hold off the Aussie charge. They may not have left Tokyo with a medal but they may have re-ignited the spark that Hockey needed in India.
The Men meanwhile have been just as special as Manpreet’s men made it to an Olympic semi-final and then came back from behind to beat Germany and win an Olympic medal for the first time in 41 years since India won Gold in 1980 in Moscow. India looked fitter than most squads and that is part of the reason our Men & Women have now finally adapted to the rapid pace of Hockey on the astroturf.
▶ Italy
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July was a great month to be Italian with plenty of sporting success for the Azzurri in Tennis, Football and even Athletics. The headline victory came at Wembley at Euro 2020 when Roberto Mancini’s side defeated England in the final on penalties to win their second European Championship title. This dramatic victory was followed up by an outstanding performance from Lamont Marcell Jacobs in the Men’s 100m Final at Tokyo 2020, who clocked a time of 9.8 seconds to take home the Gold for Italy.
▶ Lionel Messi
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Lionel Messi finally ended his career-long wait for a major international trophy and lifted his first Copa America with Argentina after beating Brazil in Brazil in the final. Messi had previously lost 4 major tournament finals with Argentina but led his team to victory this time around and was named as the player of the tournament after finishing the competition with the most goals and the most assists. Messi also announced a shock departure from FC Barcelona and it essentially makes him the hottest property in world Sport at the moment!
▶ Caeleb Dressel
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One of the headline stars of Tokyo 2020 has been the 24-year-old American Swimmer Caeleb Dressel who produced one of the most outstanding performances in Olympic history to win 5 gold medals for team USA. Dressel won gold in the 50 and 100 metre freestyle, 100 metre butterfly and the 4 x 100m medley and freestyle relays while also setting two World Records and one Olympic Record in the process.
WHO’s NOT HOT AT THE END OF JULY
▶ Red Bull Racing
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After winning the Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull racing has had a tough month as they lost their championship lead to Hamilton & Mercedes after the British Grand Prix where after taking pole, Max Verstappen was taken out in the first lap after a collision with Lewis Hamilton with Sergio Perez finishing outside the top ten. Things went bad to worse for the team when both their cars got involved in a first lap mishap at the Hungarian Grand Prix which resulted in Checo Perez retiring from the race and Max Verstappen picking up just 2 points, the only points the RBR squad managed in July.
▶ India’s Shooters
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India’s highly-rated shooters fired blanks for a second straight Olympics Games, wrapping up their campaign at Tokyo 2020 with just one final appearance from 15 shooters across 8 events. While it’s an incredible achievement in itself to qualify for the Olympics, we’ve also got to be candid with the assessment based on form and expectations from our athletes at Tokyo 2020, and with that in mind and given the squad size, the Indian shooters certainly disappointed. A medal chance aside, not one shooter barring Saurabh Chaudhary even came close to the final at the Tokyo Olympics.
It’s hard to think of what each athlete must be going through at this point and we hope they’ve got plenty of support around them back home.
▶ Conor McGregor
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Conor McGregor who was looking to bounce back from his poor form inside the octagon makes it to our NOT HOT list for the month of July as he lost his trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier after breaking his own ankle and giving Poirier a first-round TKO win. The Notorious now has faced three defeats in his last four fights putting him down to ninth in the Lightweight Division which makes his job of getting to the top of the division much difficult and many would say that his career inside the octagon could come to end.
▶ Novak Djokovic
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After warping through the competition through the first 3 Grand Slams of the year, Novak Djokovic suffered his first defeat of 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics. Djokovic lost to Alexander Zverev 1-6 6-3 6-1 in the semi-final which ended his hopes of winning the coveted calendar Golden slam. To make matters worse, Djokovic left Tokyo empty-handed after losing to Carreno Busta in the singles bronze medal match while breaking a racquet too, before pulling out of the mixed doubles bronze medal match due to injury.
[Image Credit: Hockey India]
Suhail Chandhok
Vertical Head - Sports