Rio de Janeiro: India's largest ever contingent for the Olympic Games here has faced a tough task to better six-medal haul, which the country bagged at the 2012 London Games.Though wrestler Narsingh Yadav escaped, but two other athletes Inderjit Singh and Dharmbeer Singh have stayed back home as they failed to clear the dope test.
In London, India had sent 83 sports persons to take part in 13 disciplines while this time, the number has gone up to 118 for 15 disciplines.This time the number got bloated due to the inclusion of Women’s hockey team (16) which has qualified after 36 years and astonishing number of athletes 36,(19 men and 17 women) making the cut.
Last time only 14 (8 men and 6 women) had qualified for the track and field event.
Golf is making the debut while a women gymnast has also qualified.India will take part in Athletics, Archery, Badminton, Boxing ,Golf, Gymnastics, Hockey (men and Women), Judo ,Rowing Shooting, Swimming Table Tennis, Tennis, Weightlifting and Wrestling.
This time three London Games medal winners Vijay Kumar, Sushil and Mary Kom failed to make the cut.India had finished 55th in the medal standing at the 2012 Olympics Games.
The country was placed 50th on the leader board in the Beijing Games medal tally with one gold and two bronze, could have made the top-40 nations had it managed one yellow metal in London.
In all the Olympic sports based International competitions like Asian Games, Commonwealth Games or World Cup, Hockey attracts most attention of the Indians and this time is no exception.
India is in tough pool “B” along with Germany, Holland, Argentina,Ireland and Canada.
While Pool A comprises of Australia,Belgium,Britain,Spain, New Zealand and Brazil.
Though the pools will be played on round robin league basis and the first four teams in each group will qualify for the quarter finals, which will be played on knock out basis.“We are hopeful that our team will make it to the knock out round and after that i can be any body’s chance,” said an hockey expert adding that his assessment is based on the assumption that India will at least finish fourth beating Ireland and Canada even if it loses to three other teams.
However, others have a different take on this.
They feel that to underestimate Ireland, against whom India has to play its first match, will be fatal.“Ireland has the best goal keeper in the World.They have made it to the Olympics after 100 years and they are not going to give up easily.If we are eyeing fourth place in our group they must also be thinking on those line,” he said.The Women’s hockey team which is talking part in the Olympics after a gap of 36 years is in a very tough group B along with Australia, Argentina, Britain ,USA and Japan.
The group A comprises China,Germany,Holland,New Zealand,South Korea and Spain.
Though this time record eight wrestlers have qualified, in London, the number was five while the qualifying of the large number of athletes, especially at the fag end of the deadline has raised eyebrows.
As many as 13 athletes booked their berth in the men's and women's 4x400m relay, men's triple jump, men's 200m and men's 800m in just two days ( July 10 and 11) at the Sree Kanteerava stadium in Bengaluru.
The track and field contingent will be under the radar on and off the field at Rio and they have to be very careful. All eyes will be on the 12 member shooting squad and once again focus will be on Beijing Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra. Other medal hopeful are Gagan Narang and Jitu Raj.
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Other lesser focused sports – Gymnastic has a new heroine in Dipa Karmarkar.She has the distinction of being the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the Olympics” She was also the first Indian female gymnast to win a medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and a bronze at the Asian Championships in Hiroshima.
She also reached the final round of the 2015 World Championships and finished fifth.
In the Olympic qualifier, Dipa's first vault, the extremely difficult Produnova — a double frontal vault — gave her 15.066 points, the highest among 14 competitors.
"I learnt the double vault for three months before the 2014 Commonwealth Games, others do it for years before even trying it out in competition,” she said.
In tennis, the medal hopes are from mixed doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Boppana.
While in men’s doubles, Paes will create a record for himself by playing in his record 7th successive Olympics.
Indian table tennis has never managed to attain the maximum singles quota limit of four players – two men and two women – in the event for the Olympics before. Head coach Bhawani Mukherji claims getting full quota this time was no accident, but in fact, are credited to the relatively new ‘Indianised style.
“This new style is good,” he says, In Badminton, country’s main hopes are Saina Nehwal and P V Sindhu as their performance this season has been tentative and the defeats they suffered at the hands of the Chinese in the Uber cup must have further impacted their confidence."Our projection of India getting in double digit medal tally this time is based on the assessment of the athletes who have qualified for the Games,” said SAI Director General Injiti Srinivas.
However, he hastened to add, “ What happens on that particular day is something none of us can predict, but we should achieve this target." "Because our performance is not predominant in measurable events such as athletics, it is difficult to predict the number of medals we will win.
But, going by form, we are expecting a double digit figure performance.Anything below that will be disappointing,” he concluded. (UNI)
