Surviving the test of London Olympic

It’s been the most successful two months for India in Olympic sports. The unprecedented success at the Commonwealth Games has been followed by a strong show at the Asian Games (64 medals, including 14 gold).

It has given rise to higher expectations and the Indians will be hoping for a better show from their contingent at the 2012 Olympics — sports minister MS Gill has already declared so.

However, the real picture is not that rosy. Of the 14 gold medal winners here, few have Olympic level credentials. India has won only one gold medal in Olympic history.

As to how vast the difference in standard is: China lead the medals table here with 199 gold, at the Olympics they would do well to win 60.

In Guangzhou, India’s gold medals came in — tennis (two), boxing (two), athletics (five), rowing (one), billards (one), shooting (one), kabaddi (two). Billiards and kabaddi are non-Olympic sports so they are straight away ruled out.

In athletics, all our gold winners are nowhere close to the timings at the world level. From the performance here, India’s best hopes are in women’s long distance running where Preeja Sreedharan and Kavita Raut took one gold, two silvers and one bronze medal from the 10,000m and 5,000m races. Their coach Nikolai
Snesarev admitted if his athletes have to do well at London, they don’t have a day to waste. “From where they are now, they can’t finish among the first 15-16 in Olympics,” said Nikolai.

“Olympics are less than two years from now. We are already late in our preparation. To have any chance, we have to start preparing from tomorrow. In the 5,000m, Preeja and Kavita need to run one minute faster than here (15:15:89) to compete with the best. In 10,000m, they need to run two minutes faster. They ran here in 31: 50; it should be around 29:50. If the preparation goes to plan, we may have a chance to be in the first six at London,” he added.

India’s first ever gold winner in rowing (single skulls), Bajrang Lal Takhar, was candid enough to admit he did not stand a chance in the Olympics. “We are too far behind the best in terms of training facilities. We don’t have a single artificial course, China has around twelve. We still train in dirty waters. The argometric machine on which we train is very old, we don’t have a modern gymnasium,” said Bajrang.

In tennis, in men’s singles, the Asians are no where in the running. Our only hope is the men’s doubles event, but Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi have failed in 2000, 2004 and 2008. They are not getting any younger.  

Boxing and shooting are the only two events where India has a realistic chance. It’s no surprise that India’s only Olympic gold has been in shooting. Quite a few of our top guns have tasted success at the World Championships. Ronjan Sodhi, India’s one gold medal winner in shooting (double trap) at Guangzhou, is a solid bet. So are Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra.

“The World Championship event is much tougher as there are almost triple the number of entries compared to Olympics. And our shooters have been doing well at the World Championships,” coach Sunny Thomas said.

The toast of India’s contingent at the Asian Games was the boxing team which reached the finals of five weight categories, an unprecedented feat. Chief coach GS Sandhu said his boxers have it in them to make a mark at the Olympics too.

“Our boxers have beaten Olympic medallists and world champions, so there is no difference in standard. Suranjoy Singh had defeated the Olympic silver medallist recently and here Vijender beat the world champion in his title bout. They have proved here that the ability is there, now it is up to the preparation and facilities. If we can carry out the training programme well, our boxers can shine at the Olympics,” Sandhu said.

The veteran NIS coach said in terms of physical ability, the Indian boxers were as good as the best. “No country has the edge over other boxers, only who is better trained will win. Even the Cubans don’t have any natural edge. There is no such thing as someone is winning because of natural body physique, whatever is required we have it,” said Sandhu, who hailed India’s performance here as one of the best ever. “We can go higher, but a lot of work has to be done.”