Marching through “The Great Wall “ India finally, seems to have found the route to Olympic glory. Certainly, it’s a pretty long march, an agonising wait for years that rattled the nerves of even a saintly man. Finally, it needed a `Gold Finger’ from a monk-like Abhniav Bhindra to trigger an epoch-making event in the annals of the Indian sports.
A haul of three medals - one gold (Abhinav Bindra) and two bronze medals (Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh) - surpassed India’s previous best of two medals, a gold and bronze, achieved at the Helsinki Games, in 1952.
Besides, Abhinav Bhindra, who won the prized yellow metal in the 10m Air Rifle event while two Haryana lads Sushil Kumar and Vijender put up gritty show to come out with flying colours by winning a medal each in wrestling and boxing. There were a few others, who despite failing to win a medal put up a gusty show, rising the prospects of a better future. Well, is that the signal of India’s arrival as a future sports power on the international stage.
Kudos to Bindra men for the way they kept the spirit going till the moment arrived at Beijing. Despite facing humiliation from all the fronts, Indian sportsman stood bravely until the day arrived in Beijing.
For that matter, even a few hours before that spectacle opening ceremony that lit up the evening skies in Beijing, no one gave India a slender of a chance of winning an individual gold medal on the world stage.
But, now many experts say, it’s awakening of India as a sports power. They compare the event to the Chinese ‘epoch-making’ event that led to Dragon Nation emerge as a formidable sports power on the world stage.
A leading Chinese expert ‘called it a “`historic breakthrough” comparing it to that of Chinese sharpshooter Xu Haifeng, who won the first gold for the Communist giant in 1984.
“The first individual gold for India in the history of Olympics is a historic breakthrough and augurs well for the country’s future,” former Chinese Ambassador to India, Cheng Ruisheng said.
“I consider Bindra’s gold medal as important as that of Xu,” Cheng, who is now a visiting professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies at the Sichuan University, said.
Xu, a 50-metre pistol shooter had won the first gold medal for China in the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Enthused by Xu’s historic performance, China has made impressive strides at the Olympics, topping the medals chart at the 2008 edition in Beijing.
“I am sure other Indian athletes will get inspired by Bindra’s success in Beijing and will try to emulate him,” Cheng, who was the Chinese Ambassador to India from 1991 to 1994, said.
The view of the former Chinese ambassador to India was also echoed by another leading South Asian scholar, Professor Ma Jiali, who described Bindra’s success in Beijing as “a key breakthrough for the world’s second most populous nation”.
“It is a historic achievement for India and it would contribute to the growth of India’s comprehensive national strength,” said Ma, who works with the China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), a major Chinese think-tank. Ma said Chinese people were happy to share the glory achieved by India at the Beijing Olympics.
Qin Gang, spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and several other Chinese diplomats warmly applauded India’s best-ever performance at the Olympics.
But the picture back home. There is a lot criticism over the way Indian sports is being run. India’s latest sports icon Abhinav Bindra himself said this quite bluntly “India has no sporting ethos worth the name and that politicians, ministers, bureaucrats and others of the ilk should not be controlling the sports bodies.”
These words, coming from a champion himself, may sound punchy at the moment. But similar sound bites have sparked animated debates every time our athletes failed at an international arenas like the Olympic Games or Asian Games from several years.
The agony of the Indian national game hockey, is hard to describe in words as for the first time it failed to make it to the Olympics. India, an eight-time gold medalist in the event, failed to achieve the qualifying mark by failing miserably at the Santiago.
The hockey administration faced severe criticism when India failed to win a medal in the 2006 Doha Asian Games and again after the failure in the Santiago qualifier as well. There was even a protest march on the streets of the capital by former greats of the game after the Doha disaster. Finally, there seems to be some change in the administrative set up of the Indian hockey with sports ministry stumping out top cop KPS Gill, making him responsible for India’s recent failures in the game at the international stage.
It’s not just hockey. Change should be made in every sports body. Three medals, no doubt are ‘plenty’ in these times of drought. It should hardly be satisfying for a nation with over a billion people to choose its athletes from.
Bindra thinks India has the talent to raise itself to a more respectable position in the Olympic medal standings. The shooter has the firm belief that India is capable of winning 30-40 medals if proper changes are made in the administrative set up of the sports bodies like bringing in professionalism. In other words, sports administration should be made thoroughly professional or CEOs like, as they are called these days, should be appointed to look after the affairs of the sports administration. For these men will be more accountable, Bindra argues with conviction. He may well be right.
At Beijing, we had a handful of quarter-finalists who did credit to themselves and their country even if they did not exactly come back with medals dangling on their chests.
One can’t help but agree with the champion air rifle shooter in scholarly-looking glasses finally deciding to open his mouth. He reminded his fellow countrymen that Olympic sports come low down in the country’s list of priorities. It’s a fact that every one should accept.
The young man from Chandigarh has a mind of his own. For the number of medals to get into double digits there has to be a consistent and widespread commitment to Olympic disciplines.
It’s a fact, Olympic medals don’t come cheap. The raising of a single Olympic gold medalist would work out into tens of millions of rupees a year by conservative estimates, not forgetting decades of sweat and toil.
Ask the Chinese. Ask Bindra himself. He cries for infrastructure and massive investments, for coaches with the right kind of knowledge. His own sport of shooting lacks modern ranges, the one at Tughlaqabad in New Delhi being in a poor state of repair.
It’s not just shooting, except cricket, all the other games lack proper infrastructure. Where are the facilities like boxing rings, wrestling mats, all-weather swimming pools and gymnasiums, athletic tracks and cycling velodromes, for youths to train and compete. Where are the facilities for thousands of young men like Bindras, Vijenders, Sushil Kumars to practice their favourite sport. Are there sufficient number of playing grounds in our country for our children to play? Those who have the talent find affording the equipment beyond their slender means.
Anyway, our politician administrators, who muscle their way into positions of authority in sports federations, hardly has the time and energy to develop the infrastructure of the sports they are looking after. Because, the very reason behind these politicians entering the sports arena is not to develop the sport for them its just another sphere to spread their influence, perhaps to attract the young generation as well.
It’a fact, not every champion performer is qualified to lead a sports body, though Abhinav Bindra himself may be a suitable candidate to be the helm of the shooting body many years from now when he retires from competitive shooting. He may even deserve some higher international role in the future, just as you have world renowned athletes like Seb Coe, the distinguished former British athlete who is heading the 2012 London Olympic Games Organising Committee.
There are many others like the football greats Pele, Platini, Franz Beckenbauer all who were made part of the organising of the prestigious World Cup Championships by their country’s administrators. Certainly, there is a lesson to be learnt from these sportsmen. Indian sports will be better, if it is handled by the likes of Bindras. Certainly, India can hope a better future if sports administration is made professional.
TCG gives a list of ‘true winners’ and a few other sportspersons, who put up a fantastic show despite failing to win a medal at the Beijing Games.
India’s best at Beijing:
ARCHERY:
Thee trio of L Bombayla Devi, Dola Banerjee and Pranitha Vardhineni did enough to ensure a sixth place finish in the ranking rounds, after getting a bye in the first round. However, they lost 211-206 to China in the quarter-finals.
Pranitha Vardhineni (Andhra Pradesh): Her campaign in the individual event ended when she went down 99-106 to Kwon Un Sil of Korea in a pre-quarter-final match.
Mangal Singh Champia (Andhra Pradesh): Sizzled in the ranking round, finishing second overall, but failed to replicate his form in pre-quarter-finals of the men’s individual section. Lost narrowly to Russia’s Bair Badenov 109-108.
ATHLETICS:
Anju Bobby George: The former World Championships bronze medalist failed to qualify for the final of the women’s long jump after three consecutive foul jumps. What was even more disappointing is the fact that she failed to register even a single clean jump, stepping over the board in all three chances.
JJ Shobha (Andhra Pradesh): Placed 29th in the heptathlon, scoring 5749 points.
Relay team: The women’s 4 x 400 metres relay team, comprising Satti Geetha (Andhra Pradesh), Manjeet Kaur, Chitra Soman and Mandeep Kaur failed to qualify for the final after finishing a disappointing seventh in the heats. The quartet clocked 3:28.83 seconds in the eight-team Heat 1, bringing the curtain down on India’s overall campaign at the Games.
BADMINTON:
Saina Nehwal (Andhra Pradesh): The big hope of the Indian badminton, Saina created history by becoming the first Indian to enter the badminton quarter-finals at the Olympics. She beat Russia’s Ella Karachkova 21-9, 21-8 in the first round, Ukraine’s Larysa Gryga 21-8, 21-10 in the second and stunned fourth seed Chen Wang of Hong Kong 21-19, 11-21, 21-11 in a hard-fought pre-quarter-finals. However, she failed to put up the same show as she lost to Indonesia’s Maria Kristin Yulianti 28-26, 14-21, 15-21 in the quarterfinals.
Anup Sridhar: Sridhar, who trains along with Saina at the Gopi Chand’s Badminton Academy in Hyderabad, took just about half an hour to beat Marco Vasconcelos of Portugal 21-16, 21-14 in the opening round, but lost 21-13, 21-17 to Shoji Sato of Japan in the next.
BOXING:
Vijender Kumar: The Bhiwani boxer fell one step short of making it to the final but won a billion hearts as he assured a bronze— a record third medal for India— by entering the semifinals. He breezed into the second round of the 75kg category with a dominating performance against Gambia’s Jack Badou, winning 13-2. Was then too good for Chomphuphuang Angkhan of Thailand in the next round, winning 13-3, and avenging his defeat in the President’s Cup in Chinese Taipei in April. He beat Carlos Gongora of Ecuador in the quarter-finals, getting a 9-4 verdict, to assure India an unprecedented third medal. Vijender finally had to settle for a bronze after being out-punched by Pan-American champion Emilio Correa Bayeaux of Cuba 8-5 in the semi-finals.
Akhil Kumar: The ‘Big Heart of the Indian Boxing’ was the real inspiration behind Vijender’s medal winning show as he created a major surprise by outwitting world champion in the prequarterfinals before going down fighting in the quarterfinals. Akhil made a good start by beating Ali Hallab of France 12-5 to enter the round of 16 in the bantamweight (54kg) category.
In the pre-quarters, Akhil shocked World champion Sergey Vodopoyanov on points to score the biggest upset of the competition. But his hopes of an Olympic medal lay shattered as he was out-pointed by unheralded Veaceslav Gojan of Moldova 3-10 in the quarter-finals.
Jitender Kumar: The Asian Championship bronze medallist pummeled his Turkish opponent Ulas Furkan Memis for a 12-3 verdict in less than three rounds to storm into the flyweight (51 kg) pre-quarter-finals, where he defeated Uzbek rival Tulashboy Doniyorov 13-6. However, Jitender lost 11-15 to Russian pugilist Georgy Balakshin in the last eight.
Boxing:
Abhinav Bindra: The 25-year-old won India’s first ever individual Olympics gold medal with a thrilling come-from-behind victory in the men’s 10 metres air rifle event.
Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore: The Athens Games silver medalist failed to make it to the final of the double trap shooting event, finishing 12th among 19 shooters in qualification.
Gagan Narang (Andhra Pradesh): Failed to make the final cut in the 10 metres air rifle event, finishing ninth with a score of 595/600. His nightmarish campaign ended with another failure as he failed to qualify for the final of the 50m Rifle 3 Position event. Despite getting a personal best score of 1168, the Hyderabad-based shooter finished 13th in a field of 49 shooters.
TABLE TENNIS:
Achantha Sharath Kamal (AP man but settled in Chennai): The Melbourne Commonwealth Games’ gold medallist beat his club partner Alfredo Carneros of Spain 4-2 in the first round. However, his challenge ended in the second after he surrendered 1-4 to Austria’s Chen Weixing. The Chennai paddler struggled to find his rhythm and was outplayed 5-11, 12-14, 2-11, 11-8, 10-12 by his Austrian opponent.
TENNIS:
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi: The seventh seeded pair beat the French duo of Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon 6-3, 6-3 in the opening round and played compact tennis to defeat Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa of Brazil 6-4, 6-2 in the second. Lost to Swiss pair of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 2-6, 4-6 in the quarter-finals. The Swiss pair went on to win the gold.
Sania Mirza (Andhra Pradesh): Retired with a wrist injury against Czech Iveta Benesova in the first round, after trailing 6-2, 2-1.
WRESTLING:
Sushil Kumar: Made history, becoming only the second Indian wrestler after Khashaba Dadasaheb Jadhav who won a bronze in the 1952 Helsinki Games, to win an Olympic medal.
Sushil’s bronze medal in the men’s 66kg freestyle was India’s second of the competition.
His campaign seemed over when he lost 1-8 in the first round to eventual silver medallist Andriy Stadnik of Ukraine. But the repechage provided him a ray of hope, and the Indian survived the onslaught of three grapplers on the trot to win the bronze.
Sushil beat Doug Schwab (3-1) of the United States, Albert Batyrov (3-1) of Belarus and, finally, the losing semi-finalist, Leonid Spiridonov of Kazakhstan in the repechage rounds to earn his slice of history.