Admittedly there is a lot of gloom and doom about the Indian contingent’s performance at the 31st Summer Olympic Games, currently being played at Brazil’s Rio de Janerio, given that they have not yet made it to the medals tally after a week of competition. However, there are still all of 10 competition days left and realistically speaking, there is no reason why India cannot match or even bypass their all-time best haul of six medals achieved in London four years ago. Here is why.
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To begin with, the performance of the Men’s hockey team has been nothing short of outstanding and a refreshing revelation. Not because they are sitting pretty with two wins and one loss out of three and with a strong chance to make it through to the knockout quarter-final stage. It is the kind of hockey the Indian team has played which has raised hopes of an Olympic medal after a long time.
To begin with, skills are still intact and they have been dominating play on the field. Even against powerhouse Germany, a match which they lost, eventually, not once did they look overawed and created many more chances in open play than the Germans. There has been no one single star as players have been exchanging positions and roles with ease - a reflection of great absorption of modern training methods.
An example is the penalty corner goal by Chinglensana against Argentina. It was a variation used by them for the first time in the tournament. Chinglensana was brought in just for that purpose and replaced right after he scored the goal. The Argentines were probably focussing on Raghunath and Rupinder Pal and it clearly caught them off-guard when the push was sent beyond them and wide to Chinglensana who trapped and scored himself.
Secondly, out of the six goals that India have scored so far, five have been penalty corner conversions. They are converting almost 50% of penalty corners and every time Raghunath and Rupinder Pal Singh cue up, there is an air of certainty about them converting. And, as referred earlier, they have lethal backup options as well. How many times in the years gone by have India been done in, not on the field of play, but by penalty corner legends like Floris Jan Bovelander, Sohail Abbas to name a few?
The only blip has been the closing minutes of a match, where India has been needlessly trying to defend and conceding penalty corners and goals which they are otherwise not, through the first three-quarters of a match. Dutch coach Roelant Oltmans, you can be sure, is working overtime to make that right.
Indian fans should also be looking at the Mixed Doubles Tennis competition at Rio, with a lot of expectations. World number one women’s doubles player Sania Mirza and 15th ranked Men’s doubles player Rohan Bopanna have been ranked fourth as a pair in the tournament.
The good thing is that they like playing with each other, have a good understanding between themselves as well as complement each other. In short, they are one of the strongest teams in the tournament as their ranking suggests and have a favourable draw as well. With only 16 teams drawn for Mixed Doubles Tennis at Rio, there is no reason why Sania and Rohan cannot land a medal.
The Olympic Badminton competition gets underway on August 11 and India’s strongest hopes will lie with Saina Nehwal, a London 2012 Bronze medallist, to go even better at Rio than London. Her compatriot P.V.Sindhu has also proved that she can deliver at the world stage, so a medal in Women’s singles Badminton is not too far-fetched an ask. The Men’s singles and Men’s and Women’s doubles on current form, may not be as strong a contender for a medal as the women in singles are.
The way the trio of Indian archers – Deepika Kumari and Bombayla Devi in the Women’s individual Recurve, and Atanu Das in the Men’s individual event – have been shooting to ease into the round of 16, surely raises hopes of a first ever Olympic medal in Archery for India.
Deepika Kumari, in particular, unleashed a flurry of 10s in the pouring rain, to reveal a woman athlete totally ‘in the zone’. Bombayla also, in fact, beat a World Championship Silver medallist with comparative ease and without even batting an eyelid. These are good signs.
The biggest disappointment for India has come from the shooting ranges at Rio, where in spite of making two finals, Indian shooters have failed to win a medal till now. However, there are still three events left, where Indians, if luck turns their way for a change, can win medals of any colour.
Mairaj Ahmed Khan in the Men’s skeet is ranked 10th in the world and shot a Silver at the same range about three months back. Gagan Narang in the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone event is ranked 13th in the world and being an Olympic medallist, can turn in a medal winning performance any day. Gurpreet Singh in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event is ranked 19th in the world and can come up with a surprise on his day.
We also have three men boxers, two of whom, Vikas Krishan and Manoj Kumar, have cruised through their initial bouts. Then in the wrestling competition, which is yet to begin, we will be led by medal hopes Yogeshwar Dutt, Narsingh Yadav and the Phogat sisters and, not to forget, Dipa Karmakar, in the vault final in artistic Gymnastics where the whole country will be praying that she lands the ‘Produnova’ perfectly to assure herself of a medal and a place in the history of Indian Olympics sports forever.
Outside chances of a medal also lie in Golf, where Anirban Lahiri is a world class player and can finish in medal contention given a highly depleted field. In track and field events, the walkers and Vikas Gowda have also been touted as outside chances for a medal.
So clearly, all is not lost and if events unfold according to the Indian script in the last 10 days of competitions at Rio, India still have an even chance to better or at least match their performance of the previous Games in London. Indian fans will have to keep believing and remember that this is the Olympics and not cricket - here athletes from 205 countries from across the world vie for the coveted Olympic medal and no quarters are asked for or given.
They will have to keep the faith in their Athletes for the entire duration of the Games. Gloom and doom and criticism can come later.
