Eleven gold, nine silver and 37 bronze.
When the dust settles on the 17th Asian Games, India will look at these medals and wonder if the achievements of the contingent were on par with expectations?
One thing we should keep in mind when that happens is at the start of the Asian Games, China mentioned it is looking at the event as part of the preparations for the 2016 Olympics. If China is the example India wants to follow, then we should also evaluate these Games as part of India's road to Rio.
This is not to say that all those who have won are not worthy. Of course, they are - but with the Olympic dream in mind, some medals obtain more significance than others.
Jitu Rai is a definite medal hope for India at the 2016 Olympics. AFP
So nestled with the ranks of our medalists at the Asian Games are precious gleanings that the administrators must pay heed to and they must figure out a schedule for those athletes that have a shot at winning medals two years from now.
At Incheon, India won gold in Kabaddi (2), Tennis (Mixed doubles), Compound Team Archery, Squash, the women’s 4x400m relay, women’s boxing 48-51 kg, Men’s freestyle 65 kg wrestling, Women’s discus throw, Men’s hockey and Men's 50 metre pistol shooting.
Of these events, kabaddi, squash and compound archery will not be part of the 2016 Olympics.
Priyanka Panwar, Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur, M. Poovamma (Women's 4X400m relay athletics) have shown themselves to be Asia’s best but come the world stage – they are still far behind the USA, Russia, Jamaica and the European countries. Can we have them train in the US under a world-renowned coach to see if these girls can raise their performance in time for the Olympics?
Then we come to Jitu Rai. His gold came against some of the top shooters in the world and it establishes him as a good medal chance in Rio. India would do well to manage his schedule so he can peak at Rio.
Yogeshwar Dutt, who won gold in the Men's freestyle 65 kg wrestling, will be 33 by the time Rio comes around will be up against wrestlers from Russia, America and Eastern Europe. He will need to use all his experience to overcome them. Of late, Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar have both said that their main focus is winning at the Olympics, so they seem to be headed in the right direction.
Seema Punia, who won the women's discus throw, has started making the finals of major competitions but at the moment, she is making up the numbers and not competing for the medals. So once again, the need to give her the best coaching becomes paramount. In the 2012 Olympics, Seema threw a distance of 61.99 and did not qualify for the final. Here, she won gold with 61.03. So there is definitely a need to see whether there is something that can push her towards 65m and make her a genuine medal chance.
Mary Kom’s gold showed that she is starting to come to terms with the women's 48-51 kg category. She was quick, sharp and outboxed most of her opponents. She already has a medal from the 2012 London Games so she knows what it takes but her she will be 33 in 2016 and her fitness can’t be anything less than 100 percent if she is to defeat younger, and possibly hungrier, opponents.
That India’s men’s hockey team won gold is a Godsend because it means automatic qualification for Rio. That means the team they can get down to preparations right away. It means that Terry Walsh can break their playing style down and built it back up. It means that they can work on improving their fitness levels so it is on par with Australia’s. The highest ranked Asian team in the world is South Korea and they are ranked eighth. India is ninth. Australia, Netherlands and Germany play the game at a different level and India has to match them if they want an Olympic medal.
Sania Mirza and another doubles specialist will ensure that India are competitive in the mixed doubles. But the Olympics is one place where we see even the top singles players play in the doubles competition. We will always have a chance – but will it be a good chance?
Among those who won silver at the Asian Games – India should look at Khushbir Kaur (Women's 20 km race walk). She is just 21 and has the talent to get better. But she cannot and should not be held back in India. Send her out, let her compete with the best and redefine her boundaries. She has set the national record four times in the last three years and her focus should be directed towards matching the best times in the world.
There are no team events in shooting at the Olympics. So all those medals go straight out of the reckoning. It is at an individual level that India will need to succeed. India’s shooters have shown over the past decade that they have what it takes to be competitive. But the show at the Asian Games shows that winning often also depends a lot of preparation – something that India don’t do so well.
Bajrang Kumar (wrestling) and Vikas Gowda (discus) are once again in the mix and the wrestler has age on his side. He lost out on close decisions and as Yogeshwar keeps telling him – he cannot take it easy. Gowda’s best in competition seems to be stuck around 65m – he did throw a personal best of 66.90 (also India’s national record) but at the world championships and Olympcs, it is the throws of around 68m that medal.
India’s bronze medal times in the rowing events were way off the world level. The women’s badminton teams will have a chance – as we can never count Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu out.
As things stand, India’s medal opportunities will once again be few but we must identify them early and give them all the backing they need. It is the least that India can as a nation.
India's Asian Games medallists
Gold:
Jitu Rai: Men's 50 metre pistol shooting
Sandeep Kumar, Rajat Chauhan, Abhishek Verma: Men's compound team archery
Saurav Ghosal, Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu, Mahesh Mangaonkar, Kumar Kush: Men's team squash
Yogeshwar Dutt: Men's freestyle 65 kg wrestling
Seema Punia: Women's discus throw athletics
Sania Mirza, Saketh Myneni: Mixed doubles tennis
M.C. Mary Kom: Women's 48-51 kg boxing
Indian team: Men's hockey
Priyanka Panwar, Tintu Luka, Mandeep Kaur, M. Poovamma: Women's 4X400m relay athletics
Women’s Kabaddi team
Men’s Kabaddi team
Silver:
Saurav Ghosal: Men's singles squash
Pemba Tamang, Gurpreet Singh, Vijay Kumar: Men's 25m centre fire pistol team shooting
Dipika Pallikal, Joshna Chinappa, Anaka Alankamony: Women's team squash
Abhishek Verma: Men's individual compound archery
Khushbir Kaur: Women's 20 km race walk athletics
Saketh Myneni, Sanam Singh: Men's doubles tennis
Bajrang Kumar: Men's freestyle 61 kg wrestling
Vikas Gowda: Men's discus throw athletics
Tintu Luka: Women's 800m athletics
Bronze:
Shweta Chaudhary: Women's 10 metre pistol shooting
Jitu Rai, Samaresh Jung, Prakash Nanjappa: Men's 10 metre air pistol team shooting
Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu, P.C. Thulasi, Pradnya Gadre, N. Siki Reddy, Ashwini Ponnappa, Tanvi Lad: Women's team badminton
Rahi Sarnobat, Anisa Sayyed, Heena Sidhu: Women's 25 metre pistol team shooting
Dipika Pallikal: Women's singles squash
Abhinav Bindra, Ravi Kumar, Sanjeev Rajput: Men's 10 metre air rifle team shooting
Abhinav Bindra: Men's 10 metre air rifle shooting
Yumnam Sanathoi Devi: Women's sanda -52 kg wushu
Narendra Grewal: Men's sanda -60 kg wushu
Dushyant Chauhan: Men's lightweight single sculls rowing
Sawarn Singh: Men's single sculls rowing
Kapil Sharma, Ranjit Singh, Bajrang Lal Thakhar, Robin Ulahannan, Sawan Kumar Kalkal, Mohammad Azad, Maninder Singh, Davinder Singh, Mohammed Ahmed: men's eight rowing
Shagun Chowdhary, Shreyasi Singh, Varsha Varman: Women's double trap team shooting
Sandeep Sejwal: Men's 50m breaststroke swimming
Purvasha Sudhir, Surekha Vennam, Trisha Deb: Women's compound team archery
Chain Singh: Men's 50m rifle 3 positions shooting
Trisha Deb: Women's individual compound archery
Vinesh Phogat: Women's freestyle 48 kg wrestling
Geetika Jakhar: Women's freestyle 63 kg wrestling
Lalita Babar: Women's 3,000m steeplechase athletics
Yuki Bhambri: Men's singles tennis
Yuki Bhambri, Divij Sharan: Men's doubles tennis
Sania Mirza, Prarthana Thombare: Women's double tennis
M. Poovamma: Women's 400m athletics
Arokia Rajiv: Men's 400m athletics
Manju Bala: Women's hammer throw athletics
O.P. Jaisha: Women's 1,500m athletics
Narsingh Pancham Yadav: Men's freestyle 74 kg wrestling
Naveen Kumar: Men's 3,000m steeplechase athletics
L. Sarita Devi: Women's 57-60 kg boxing
Pooja Rani: 75 kg boxing
Varsha Gautam, Aishwarya Nedunchezhiyan: Women's 29er two person dinghy sailing
India: Women's hockey
Annu Rani: Women's javelin throw athletics
Satish Kumar: Men's +91 kg boxing
Vikas Krishan: Men's 75 kg boxing
Inderjeet Singh: Men's shot put athletics
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
from Top Stories - Google News http://ift.tt/ZA3I85
via IFTTT
0 comments:
Post a Comment