About India, Medals, Asian Games and What’s next

Oct 07, 2014 Tushita Sports 0

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Some sort of nostalgia seems to pervade the Indian air after the Asian Games have concluded. The present generation might not be aware of those days when a good game by the Indian hockey team used to be enough for forgetting everything else. Winning a gold medal against good old foes in hockey has made the entire nation leap back into the memories of those olden days. Even the present generation is getting the sense of the same nostalgia.

But the 2014 Incheon Asian Games will mostly be recalled for the Indian pugilist Sarita Devi’s meltdown after she lost to Korean opponent, Park Jina. For the record, she is not to blame for the theatrics that followed. If as many as five National Olympic Committees have complained about the refereeing, there has to be something drastically wrong with the management.

Unfortunately, India did miss out on some sure medals in cue sports and chess, which were dropped from the Incheon Games.However, let’s take a broader look at the Asian Games that, thanks to social media, became the most popular ones in the history of Asian Games.

India’s overall performance:

At the 2014 Incheon Asian Games India bagged 11 gold, 10 silver and 36 bronze medals for an overall tally of 57 medals. Thirty-two years back, India with 57 medals from 18 different sports at the Delhi Asian Games finished fifth in the medals tally.

In 2014, though India got the same number of medals from 14 sports disciplines, it finished eighth. This shows that the level of competition has increased drastically in the Asian Games.

Archery improved with the team gold to make it four as against three last time. Wrestling, too, showed some improvement getting a gold after three decades, courtesy Yogeshwar Dutt, and logging in a silver and two bronze as compared three bronze four years ago.

In athletics, India now faces a much tougher challenge than it did some two decades ago. It is not just the presence of the Central Asian Republics like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstanwhich makes the difference but also the new trend of poaching athletes from African nations.

Countries like Bahrain, Qatar and UAE are using their oil induced wealth to get athletes of African origin to represent their adopted countries – something that is best described as ‘importing of athletes’ from other nations.

It was satisfying that India retained their domination of women’s 4×400 metres women’s relay. Also 12 years after Neelam Jaswant Singh’s gold medal in the women’s discus throw in the 2002 Busan Asian Games; Seema Punia won a gold medal in the same event.

Seema’s consistency and grit is laudable. She missed the last two Asian Games and this was her last chance for a medal. On a wet and slippery surface she got her gold with a heave of 61.03 metres.

Assessing various medals:

India managed to grab medals in 13 of the 26 sports that it participated in at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. Some of the teams did not win medals but performed well. The men’s volleyball squad which came fifth, the basketball team, some gymnasts and the equestrian squad all performed better than expectations.

M.C. Mary Kom’s win is still being celebrated all across the nation, especially in Imphal.

Since Asia maintains world class standards in weightlifting and table tennis, no medals were being expected but some of our lifters performed below par.

The men’s and women’s football team also got knocked down in the first round and displayed mediocre performance. Also, for the first time in the history of the Asian games India failed to score a goal in the men’s football competition losing 0-5 to UAE and 0-2 to Jordan.

India did not reach the projected range (by Sports Authority of India) of 70-75 medals but their tally of 57 medals is the second highest ever. The maximum haul of medals by India in an Asian Games is 65 in Guangzhou 2010.

The proud Olympic entry:

In 2014 Asian Games Hockey Competition, the game was played in a new format. It was played in four quarters of 15 minutes each instead of the regular two halves. This format will presented each team, the opportunity to regroup themselves with new strategy.

It would be better if Hockey India and the government of India left it to experts to decide the roadmap for training and competition at least for a three-year period, the least a coach should get to prove his mettle.

The present coach, envisages to pool some 30 players to get the team competitive for Rio and he knows how difficult it is for the team to play three back-to-back international tournaments.

There’s a difference of strategy and that of approach between Indian sportsmen, trainers and government; and the rest of the world. While the Indians are mostly training at home, the European teams keep playing their neighbours, over weekends to stay highly competitive.

As for the future:

Sports are all about making bold decisions and standing up to them. Saina Mirza who changed her mind to play at Incheon skipping a WTA tour event, impressively won the mixed doubles gold with Saketh Myneni.

Sarita Devi has already gone on record that she is now focussing on The 2014 World Amateur Women’s World Championship, which will be held in Korea in November.

The Men’s World Championship Trophy in December is another platform that India should now focus on. Of course, the 2016 Rio Olympics is my main target and most players and team are working hard towards making it there.

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• Asian Games, India, India-Asian Games

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