 India disappointed yet again at the Olympics. The contingent from the world's second most populous nation returned home with a solitary silver medal and was shamed by two doping expulsions.
But amidst the gloom there were a few bright spots. The performances of the shooters -- Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Abhinav Bindra and Suma Shirur -- showed that they have the ability to match the best in the world.
In track and field, Anju Bobby George, K M Binu, J J
Shobha, Soma Biswas and the 4x400 women's relay squad gave heartening performances
that far outdid expectations.
In archery, the men's and women's teams showed that
with a little exposure they could be world beaters.
Then, no one can forget Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi's
heroic effort of reaching the semi-finals in the men's tennis doubles. They still
possess the magic, but will they be around come 2008 Beijing?
The Indian authorities should now have a fair and
clear idea about the events that can actually yield a medal at the next Games and
elevate India to the league Thailand, South Korea, Japan and China are in.
Time we realise that the Olympics are not just about
competing, but winning as well.
India sent a 75-member team to the Games. A summary
of each athlete's performance:
Wrestling
World number four Sushil Kumar lost
to Cuba's Pan-American champion Yandro Miguel Quintana 0-3 and was eliminated from
the medal hunt in the first round.
Sujit Mann, ranked eighth in the
world, lost both his bouts and bowed out of the competition. The 25-year-old lost
to Japan's Kuhiniko Obata 0-8 in his first bout before going down against Cuba's
Ivan Fundora 0-6.
Other freestyle wrestlers, Yoheshwar Dutt
(55kg), Ramesh Kumar (66kg), Anuj Kumar (84kg)
and Palwinder Singh Cheema (120kg) bowed out of the competition
without making an impression, while Greco-Roman wrestler Mukesh Khatri (55kg)
also did not go beyond the first round.
Tennis doubles
 Leander
Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi finished fourth in the men's
doubles tournament, losing a marathon bronze medal match to Croatia's Mario Ancic
and Ivan Ljubicic 6-7, 6-4, 14-16.
First round: beat Andy Roddick and
Mardy Fish 7-6 (7-5), 6-3
Second round: beat Roger Federer
and Yves Allegro 6-2, 7-6 (9-7)
Quarter-finals: Wayne Black and
Kevin Ullyet 6-4, 6-4 in the quarter-finals.
Semi-finals: beaten by Germany's
unseeded pair of Nicolas Kiefer and Rainer Schuettler 3-6, 3-6.
Sailing
Malav Shroff and Sumeet Patel finished
last in a field of 19 in the 49er Double-handed Dinghy Open Olympic Regatta.
Shooting
Manavjit Singh and Mansher Singh
ended in 19th and 21st place respectively in the men's trap event.
Suma Shirur
finished eighth among eight competitors in the final of the women's 10 metre Air
Rifle at the Markopoulo Olympic Shooting Centre with a total of 497.2.
Ace shooter Anjali Bhagwat did not
even qualify for the final, scoring a poor 393 out of a possible 400.
 Abhinav
Bindra disappointed in the final of the 10m Air Rifle to finish in seventh
place. Bindra, who raised hopes by qualifying for the final in third place with
a score of 597, could not handle the pressure and shot poorly in the final.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore provided
the silver lining to India's dismal showing at the Olympics when he finished second
in the final of the men's double-trap.
Anjali, who finished a poor 20th
in her pet event – the 10m Air Rifle -- after being touted as a bright medal hope,
put up another below par performance to finish joint 13th with a tally of 575 points
in a field of 32 in the women's 50 metre rifle three-positions target.
The second Indian in the fray, Deepali Deshpande,
was 19th with 572 points.
Judo
Akram Shah lost tamely, in only
44 seconds, to Khashbaatar Tsagaanbaatar of Mongolia in the second round of the
60 kg Group B category after getting a bye in the first.
Rowing
Pandari Kummel Paulose finished
last in the third heat of the men's Single Sculls event.
Table Tennis
Commonwealth champion Achanta Sharath Kamal
lost in the second round of the men's singles to 25th-ranked Lai Chak
Ko of Hong Kong.
In the first round he beat Boudjadja Mohamed 11-4,
12-10, 11-6, 11- 13, 11-7.
The 51st-ranked Mouma Das lost in
the first round of the women's singles to No. 43 Nanthana Komwong of Thailand 6-11,
7-11, 3-11, 10-12.
Weightlifting
N Kunjarani finished fourth in the
48kg class in the women's competition.
Sanamacha Chanu could lift of only
190 kg in the 53 kg women's competition.
Karnam Malleswari failed to complete
a single lift.
Pratima Kumari was controversially
taken off the starting list. It was later learnt that she had tested positive for
testosterone and her team mate Chanu's sample showed traces of
a diuretic, which can be used to mask the use of other banned substances.
Boxing
Jitender Kumar suffered a deep gash
above his left eye, which forced the referee to stop his 81 kg first round bout
against Ukraine's Andriy Fedchuck.
Akhil Kumar lost to Jerome Thomas
in the first round in the flyweight category.
Diwakar Prasad was outpointed by
Nestor Bolum in the second round (last 16) in the bantamweight category. In the
first round (round of 32) he beat Morocco's Hamid Ait Bighrade.
Archery
The women's team (Dola Banerjee, Reena Kumari,
Sumangala Sharma) lost to France in the quarter-finals.
Reena Kumari lost in the pre-quarters in the
individual competition while Sumangala Sharma lost in the second round.
The men's team (Majhi Sawaiyan, Satyadev
Prasad and Tarundeep Rai) lost to Australia in the pre-quarter-finals.
Satyadev Prasad's performance was
truly outstanding. He stretched the current world record, Im dong Hyun, to the limit
before losing by one point in the pre-quarters.
Swimming
Shikha Tandon finished sixth in
the 50 metre freestyle heat, with a time of 28.31 seconds, 1.81 seconds slower than
her personal best of 26.5 seconds that had secured her the Athens berth.
She placed seventh in her 100m freestyle heat, clocking
59.70 seconds.
Badminton
Aparna Popat was beaten in the round
of 16 in the women's singles by Mia Audina, who had won the silver medal at the
Atlanta Games while representing Indonesia. Popat lost 9-11, 11-1, 11-3.
In the first round Popat beat Michelle Edwards of
South Africa 11-6, 11-3.
Nikhil Kanetkar lost 10-15, 6-15
to Peter Gade Christiansen in the second round. In the first round he beat Sergio
Llopis 15-7, 13-15, 15-13.
Abhinn Shyam Gupta lost to Park
Tae Sang 12-15, 0-15 in the first round.
Track and Field
 Anju
Bobby George finished a creditable sixth in the women's long jump. She
cleared 6.83 metres -- a personal best -- and set a new national record in the process.
The quartet of K M Beenamol, Manjeet Kaur,
Rajwinder Kaur and Chitra K Soman clocked 3 minutes 26.89 seconds to qualify
to the final of the 4 x 400m relay. India's time, however, was the slowest of all
the qualifiers. They finished seventh in the final.
National record holder Bobby Aloysius
crashed out in the preliminary round of the women's high jump, failing to go over
1.89 metres.
Sprinter Saraswati Saha bowed out
of the women's 200 metres after a below-par performance. The 25-year-old Kolkata-based
athlete finished a poor fifth in a sub-par time of 23.43 seconds in the first round
heat.
K M Binu got off to a bad start
and finished a distant seventh in his men's 400 metres semi-finals. He had set a
national record of 45.48 seconds in the first round while making it to the semi-finals.
The previous national mark stood in the name of Paramjit Singh since 2000.
Women discus throwers Harwant Kaur and Seema
Antil narrowly missed qualifying for the final. Twenty-year-old promising
thrower Antil finished a rung lower than Harwant Kaur, hurling the discus to a distance
of 60.64 metres in her second attempt after managing 59.93m in her opening effort.
Harwant achieved a distance of 60.82 metres. Harwant finished 13th, Seema
14th and Neelam 18th.
Veteran Neelam J Singh had a best
throw of 60.26m in her maiden attempt to obtain the ninth place in her heat and
18th in the overall rankings.
In men's discuss, Vikas Gowda finished
15th while Anil Kumar fouled in all his three attempts.
Bahadur Singh fouled in all his
attempts in the men's shot put.
J J Shobha displayed admirable grit
as she battled a ligament injury to finish the gruelling women's heptathlon in 11th
place. She carried on despite pain in her left knee to aggregate 6172 points. Compatriot
Soma Biswas logged 5965 points and finished 24th.
Hockey
Infighting, lack of strategy and failure to come
to terms with the demands of modern hockey marred India's campaign. New coach Gerard
Rach promised to turn things around after India finished seventh among 12 nations.
The team notched only two victories in the men's
tournament. They lost to Holland 1-3, beat South Africa 4-2, lost to Australia 3-4,
lost to New Zealand 1-2, drew with Argentina 2-2, lost to Pakistan 0-3, beat South
Korea 5-2. |
