Long Live London Olympics
“I haven’t contributed anything. Credit goes to my Guru,
Federation Officials and Chief Coach”. Thus spoke Super Sushil, a simple and unassuming Haryanwi hailing from
Najafgarh, Delhi upon winning a silver medal in 66 kg weight category of men’s freestyle wrestling.
He created history at 18.30 hrs (IST)
on the last day of London Olympics by winning his second successive individual
medal despite being a victim of unfortunate dehydration.
With his win, India wound up its
campaign on a highly satisfying note. Rather, it was the best ever performance
by an 81 member strong contingent. The tally of three medals (one silver &
two bronze )at Beizing was convincingly
doubled to six (two silver & four bronze ).
It was a fitting and memorable
tribute to emerging professionalism coupled with liberal and assured
expenditure on training aids by a handful of public and private outfits.
It is time to assess, look back and
introspect to move ahead with a positive bent of mind. Shall we begin with the
biggest disappointment- below par performance by a much fancied Hockey team? They lost six matches in a row without any
worthwhile resistance. The characteristic feature
of the tale of sorrow was against Belgium, when no goal could be scored by a
team whose predecessors had eight Olympic Gold in their kitty starting from 1928 and
ending with 1980 Moscow Olympics. In the process, the team had to be satisfied
with 12th position as compared to 8th rank in the last
World Cup Hockey at New Delhi in 2010.
The shooters too disappointed, in a
way, the eager, expectant and conscious spectators
at home. They didn’t fall exactly
like pack of cards in the reverse rhythm of highly rated Tennis superstars.
Many of them like Archers were right on top in some of the world events. One
silver and one bronze by Vijay Kumar and Gagan Narang , however, keeps the
hopes and expectations alive and kicking for posterity. It goes on to also
prove that the fire ignited by the gold winning superlative
performance of Abhinav Bindra in
2008 Beizing Olympics hasn’t been extinguished.
Saina Nehwal played exceedingly well
till she took part in her last bronze medal deciding match. Her Chinese
opponent simply collapsed due to acute knee pain. Thus luck favoured decisively
the little star from Hyderabad, improving her world ranking to four.
Only grit, sustained practice and
stamina are not the deciding factors. You also improve your chances sometimes
for a medal, owing to the kind of draw you face and widely believed luck
factor. Perhaps due to this extra force
, Amit Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt got rare chances to enter the repepage
round.
While the former wrestled valiantly to be
defeated despite coming back in second round and winning the last round, Dutt went on winning spree after crushing his
opponents, one after another. In the words of Michael Fereira, the former World
Billiards Champion, “Dutt having got a solid hold over his North Korean
opponent twisted him like a Sphagetti”. No wonder, on being certain about his
bronze medal, he gymnasted and somersaulted like a butterfly in true Mohammed
Ali style. This was his third Olympics. He had to show his might and
determination.
Mary Kom , five times world champion,
despite winning bronze medal in a category she resisted to be promoted, was,
however, devoid of luck, in a way. She reportedly could not give her best due
to ‘period’ factor, which might have restricted her overall strength and
confidence. Nonetheless, medal winning performance by two Indian women has not
only bolstered further the prospects of other compatriots from the fair sex but
the day is not far when they will simply outperform the men.
In retrospect, India has three more
medals as compared to Beizing but does it go on to justify for a nation having
many world champions or world level winners in several games or events at
present? Don’t we need to further improve?
A “country” called Phelps [of USA]
has won 22 medals individually so far in two Olympics as compared to same
number by a much bigger country called
India that has also the same number of medals in its bag since 1900. Will it be comparable?
The public authority needs to check
malpractices and spend more on motivation, training, tapping talents from
states like Manipur, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh etc, infrastructure within
and fine tuning spotted talents outside the country.
The number of officials may also need
drastic reduction apart from freeing sports associations from the clutches of
public servants. In the ultimate analysis, the contestants will gain supreme
confidence to face the large crowd and thereby register a medal ensuring win.
For want of such an accelerated and augmented mental make- up, Karmakar and Devendro missed bronze medals by a whisker
and Punia and Gowda figured at top, registering 7th and 8th
rank in their respective events.
There is,
therefore, a bright hope for future. There should be no reason NOT to grab it.
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