India's major sporting achievements in 2007

[PKBasu]

We seem to have missed starting this thread this year, although the achievements are now beginning to pile up.

As a reminder, the achievements that qualify here are a podium finish in a world championship (first three positions), gold medal (or title) in an Asian championship.

Off the top of my hand, the following are key ones that qualify so far this year:

Chess

1. Vishwanathan Anand is crowned undisputed world champion after winning the world championship tournament among the world's top 8 chess players in October.
2. After winning the Linares tournament in March, Anand becomes the top-ranked chess player in the world in April -- a position he continues to hold through the rest of the year.

Cricket

India are crowned world champions of the newest and most exciting form of the game International Twenty20, after they beat Australia in the semifinal and Pakistan in the final of the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship.

Tennis

At the age of 15 years and 4 months, Yuki Bhambri wins the Asia/Oceania junior (under-18) tennis (singles and doubles) titles.

I'm sure there are some worthy billiards and shooting achievements, which I will leave for others to fill out...

[suresh]

Hockey

The Indian Men's Hockey team wins the Asia Cup beating South Korea in the final.

[PKBasu]

Archery

Dola Banerjee wins the women's individual recurve gold medal in the archery World Cup finals:

http://in.sports.yahoo.com/071124/48/6nnn7.html

She qualified for the World Cup final by winning one of the four World Cups held during the year -- at Dover.

[usaindian]

gaurav and jyothi winning asian tour titles

[jaydeep]

And in motor sports , Karun Chandhok winning GP2 Series race at Spa, Narain Karthikeyan scored his maiden win in the A1 GP championship at Zhuhai, Armaan Ibrahim finishing second in the Formula Renault Asia V6 championship (where he missed the title by a whisker as his non-finish in the opening round in Malaysia hurt him in the end.) ... Vijay Mallya acquiring Spyker Formula One team as a co-owner and renaming it as Force India.

[PKBasu]

In test cricket, India beating England in England and then Pakistan in India certainly should figure among the achievements of the year. Both sides were among the top-5 in the world, and beating them in the same year effectively annoints India as the second or third best test side in the world this year. (A victory -- rather than a 1-2 defeat -- in South Africa would have ensured that India could legitimately be considered the genuine #2 test side in 2007).