After finishing on top of the podium thrice in four months in the second half of the year and winning the gold medal in Dubai, Dola has emerged as a serious contender for an Olympic medal. In Dubai, Dola surprised Olympic champion Choi Eun Young of Korea in a cliff-hanger to win the title.

Motor sport

India coming in the Formula One radar -- within the next three years -- may seem like the best that has happened to motor sport in the country, but soon after the sport’s commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone confirmed that, Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandhok blazed the track to clinch fine victories. Chandhok scored the biggest victory of his career by winning the sprint race at Spa in September, while Karthikeyan created history by winning the A1 GP race at Zhuhai (China) early this month.

Badminton

Anup Sridhar making the quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships in Kuala Lumpur surely should rank as the moment in the sport in 2007. His prized scalps during that stunning run included Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia) and Hafiz Hashim (Malaysia). He lost to eventual champion Lin Dan (China). Other notable performance came from Arvind Bhat. Making a comeback from injury, Bhat clinched the New Caledonia Open, Czech Open, Syrian International and the Jordan International.