Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar was named a ‘Gymnaste de Classe Mondaile’ (World class gymnast) by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG).
•    In this regard, she received the official letter confirming the distinction from the federation on 6 July 2016.
•    With this, she also became the first-ever Indian gymnast to receive the honour.
•    She is an Indian artistic gymnast from Agartala, Tripura.
•    She rose to recognition when she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games becoming the first Indian female gymnast to do so in the history of the games.
•    She won a bronze at the Asian Gymnastics Championships and finished 5th at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
•    With this, she became the first Indian finalist at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
•    In April 2016, Karmakar became the first female Indian gymnast ever to secure an Olympic berth by garnering a total score of 52.698 points.
•    She is the first woman in the gymnast history to land the Produnova, one of the most dangerous vaults.
•    She won 10 gold medals at two national games. She received the Arjuna Award in August 2015.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on 2 July 2016 approved a change to the DRS (Decision Review System) playing condition relating to the LBW “Umpire’s Call”. The decision will allow changes to the decision review system which will make it easier to overturn not-out LBW decisions.
The decision was taken at ICC’s annual conference in Edinburgh.
As per the amendment, the size of the zone inside which half the ball needs to hit any part of the stumps for a not out decision.  Currently, half of the ball would need to be hitting a zone between the centre of leg and off stumps.
•    The Umpire Decision Review System is a technology-based system used in the sport of cricket. It was introduced in an attempt to eliminate incorrect umpiring decisions.
•    The system was first tested in an India v Sri Lanka match in 2008 and was officially launched by the ICC on 24 November 2009 during the first Test match between New Zealand and Pakistan at the University Oval in Dunedin.
•    It was first used in One Day Internationals in January 2011, during England's tour of Australia.
•    ICC agreed to support the inclusion of a women’s cricket event in the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Durban, South Africa. For this purpose, it has decided to work closely with the Commonwealth Games Federation in order to ensure cricket’s inclusion on the program and to determine the specific tournament structure and qualification process that will be applied.
•    It decided to arrange a trial to better understand whether the third umpire could use instant replays to call No balls more accurately. Under this, the third umpire will judge No balls being delivered and communicate this to the on-field umpire.
•    The ICC reiterated its position that the wearing of helmets in international cricket should not be mandatory, but that if a player decides to wear a batting helmet, then it must comply with the new British Standard (BS) - BS7928:2013.

Indian footballer Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in the first week of July 2016 became the first Indian to play in Europa League.
•    Sandhu was named in Norwegian club Stabaek FC's squad for their Europa League qualifying match against Welsh Premier League side Connah's Quay Nomads FC.
•    Gurpreet Singh Sandhu plays as a goalkeeper for Norwegian Tippeligaen club Stabæk and the India national team.
•    He is the first ever Indian to play a competitive match for the first team of a top-division European club.
•    He is the fifth Indian to play professionally in Europe after Mohammed Salim, Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri and Subrata Pal.
•    He made his debut for the India U19s against the Iraq U19s in the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship qualification on 5 November 2009.
•    He was then called up to the senior Indian team squad of 23 for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. He made his debut against Turkmenistan in a 1–1 draw.

India will be hosting the world’s first Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) ‘Super Fight League’ from August 26 to October 1. 

•    The franchise-based league will feature eight teams – Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Haryana, Bangalore, Punjab, Pune and Goa. 
•    The league will be a platform for Indian MMA players like Anup Kumar, CJ Singh, Amit Roy, Dhruv Chaudhary to showcase their skills. 
•    Each team will constitute nine Indian fighters and three international ones.
•    The championship will have an equal stage for women as a total of 96 fighters will be involved in both men and women combined. 
•    Renowned British boxer Amir Khan, who is the chairman of the league, said he wished to bring the ‘spice’ of MMA to India. 
•    A total of 72 bouts will be played in the league stage which will be followed by two semi-finals, third place and the final bout.

Lewis Hamilton on 3 July 2016 won the 2016 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.

•    Hamilton started the race from pole and went on to win the race after colliding with Nico Rosberg on the final lap. 
•    As a result, Rosberg finished fourth behind Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer’s Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
•    The Austrian Grand Prix is a Formula One motor race.
•    It has been held at two different locations in the Zeltweg area located in Spielberg in southeastern Austria.
•    It was first held at an airfield there for two years. Then, a permanent race track called the Österreichring was built in 1969 and Formula One first raced there in 1970.
•    Each subsequent race has been held there in three distinct periods as the circuit has been redeveloped and sold.
•    Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was the winner of the 2015 Austrian Grand Prix.

India’s largest food products marketing organization Amul recently became official sponsor of Indian contingent to the 2016 Rio Olympics. 
•    Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which sells its product under the brand Amul has inked an agreement with Indian Olympic Association (IOA). 
•    By sponsoring Indian contingent, Amul seeks to engage with youth and leverage the connection between the energy of milk and sports. 
•    In this regard, GCMMF will launch a series of advertising campaigns for milk and various dairy products to promote this association. 
•    Amul will use its famous tagline, Amul Doodh Pita hai India to cheer the Indian contingent. 
•    It also has embarked upon an “Eat Milk with Every Meal” campaign to highlight the importance of milk and dairy products like cheese, yogurt, butter, ghee, paneer, etc. 
•    Earlier, Amul also had sponsored the Indian contingent in the last edition of 2012 London Olympics games. 
•    2016 Rio Olympics will play host to the largest Indian contingent ever in which more than 100 sports persons are taking part in different sporting events.

The Argentina women’s team on 27 June 2016 won the 2016 Champions Trophy Hockey title. 
•    To win the title, Argentina defeated the reigning World and Olympic champions the Netherlands 2-1.
•    The final match was held at the Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre in London, the UK.
•    For Argentina, it was the 3rd consecutive title and the 7th title overall.
•    In the championship, while the Argentina captain Carla Rebecchi stood as the top scorer with 7 goals, Netherlands’ shot—stopper Joyce Sombroek was named as best goalkeeper.
•    In the bronze medal game, the USA defeated Australia. 
•    For them, it was the first Champions Trophy medal since wining bronze at the 1995 event in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
•    The Hockey Champions Trophy is an international field hockey tournament held by the International Hockey Federation. 
•    Founded in 1978 by Pakistan's Air Marshal Nur Khan and the Pakistan Hockey Federation, it features the world's top-ranked field hockey teams competing in a round robin format. 
•    A biennial women's tournament was added in 1987. 
•    The Champions Trophy was changed from an annual to a biennial event from 2014 onwards, due to the introduction of the Hockey World League. 
•    The 2018 edition will be the last edition of champions trophy.

Indian quarter-miler Nirmala Sheoran made the cut for next month's Rio Olympics after clocking 51.48 secs in 400m at the National Inter-State Senior Athletics championships on Friday.

•    Nirmala had revealed her Rio ambitions when she improved her previous best by a huge margin clocking 52.35 secs during Friday's 400m heats at GMC Balayogi Stadium.
•    The Haryana quarter-miler today ran the race of her life as she led right from start to finish and recorded a personal best of 51.48 secs, a time that put her on the Rio bus and erased the previous meet mark of 51.73 secs held by M R Poovamma since 2014.
•    Nirmala became the 24th track and field athlete from India to qualify for the Rio Olympics after she surpassed the Olympic qualification mark of 52.20 secs.
•    Saturday's time put Nirmala fourth in the Indian all-time rankings behind Manjeet Kaur (51.04s, 2004), K M Beenamol (51.21s, 2000) and Chitra K Soman (51.30s, 2004).
•    P T Usha's trainee Jisna Mathew (53.14 secs) and Tamil Nadu's P N Souwndharya (53.85s) took the other medals of the day.
•    Chandigarh boy Pankaj Malik romped home in the men's 400m gold in 47.40 secs.

Baku (Azerbaijan), June 28 (IANS) Rio-bound shooter Sanjeev Rajput settled for the silver medal in men’s 50-metre rifle 3 position event of the ISSF World Cup on 28th June 2016.

•    The two-time Olympian shot 456.9 to take the silver in the last World Cup before the Rio Games, which start on August 5.
•    Croatia’s Petar Gorsa clinched the gold medal with 457.5, while Hyeonjun Kim of Korea bagged the bronze after shooting 445.5.
•    The 35-year-old Indian finished seventh in the qualification with a score of 1167 in kneeling, prone and standing positions.
•    London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang was 23rd with 1161 while Chain Singh found himself on a disappointing 32nd with a total of 1159.
•    Earlier, Jitu Rai bagged the silver in 10m Air Pistol event as India summed up its campaign at the World Cup with two silvers.

Chile on 26 June 2016 won the Copa America football tournament. In the final clash played at MetLife Stadium, Chile defeated Argentina 4-2 through penalties shootout.
•    This was second America title for Chile, it won the first title in 2015 after defeating Argentina 4-1 in a penalty shootout following a 0-0 scoreless draw at the end of regulation.
•    With this, Chile also became the first team to win the Copa America in back to back years since Argentina in 1946 and 1947.
•    Being deadlocked 0-0 after 90 minutes and another half an hour extra time in the match, the two teams were supposed to opt for penalty shootout.
•    Besides the Copa trophy, there were other awards to recognise both individuals and teams, and the winners in different categories are
•    Golden Ball: Alexis Sanchez (Chile)
•    Golden Boot: Eduardo Vargas (Chile)
•    Golden Glove award: Claudio Bravo (Chile)
•    Fair Play Award: Argentina
•    Goalkeeper: Claudio Bravo (Chile)
•    Defenders: Mauricio Isla (Chile), Nicolas Otamendi (Argentina), Gary Medel (Chile), Jean Beausejour (Chile)
•    Midfielders: Javier Mascherano (Argentina), Arturo Vidal (Chile), Charles Aranguiz (Chile)
•    Forwards: Lionel Messi (Argentina), Eduardo Vargas (Chile), Alexis Sanchez (Chile)
•    Copa America, formerly known as the South American Football Championship is an international men's football tournament contested between national teams from CONMEBOL and CONCACAF. It is the oldest international continental football competition.
•    The competition determines the continental champion of South America. Since the 1990s, teams from North America and Asia have also participated.