Road To Paris: Episode 5

Well, it’s been a while since the last episode of the Road to Paris series. There have been quite a few developments in the journey. Here is a look at the major ones in the past 5 months.

Quota Places

Athletics

• 20 km Walk (M) – Akashdeep Singh breaks the National record to beat the Olympics qualifying standard. He was joined by Vikash Singh & Paramjeet Bisht, making it max qualifiers in a single event for India!
• 20 km Walk (W) – Priyanka Goswami qualifies for the Olympics for the second time in a row.

In other news

Highs

• Boxing: Nitu Ghanghas, Saweety Boora, Nikhat Zareen & Lovlina Borgohain became World Champions, although the field was slightly depleted. Unfortunately, only Nikhat and Lovlina are in Olympics weight categories.
• Weightlifting: Mirabai Chanu lifts the Silver Medal in World Weightlifting Championships.
• Manika Batra’s bronze medal at the Asian TT championships after a disappointing run at the Commonwealth Games – seems to be back on track to success
• The Women’s Hockey Team won the Nations Cup and qualified for the next season of Pro Hockey League. They had finished 3rd last time in the Pro Hockey League, so should not have been sent to the qualifiers in the first place!
• The Badminton team won a Bronze medal at the Mixed Asia Teams Championships, while Treesa Jolly-Gayatri Gopichand duo proved that their last year’s run in the All England Championships was no fluke by again reaching the semi-finals this year.
• Tennis: Rohan Bopanna became the oldest man to win an ATP 1000 series event. At 43, he is still going strong but does he have a partner for the Paris Games. Meanwhile Sania Mirza has called time on her glittering career. And there is no successor for her.

Disappointments

Men’s Hockey Team finished 9th in a Home World Cup.

Controversies

The battle between the top wrestlers and the Wrestling Federation. Hopefully a rigorous probe will result in a clearing out this mess!

So as usual, with Indian sports it has been a case of some good, some bad, and some downright ugly! Hopefully we will have better tidings in the next edition.

Till Next Time!

Qualification Summary for Team India: Sports: 2, Events 5, Entries:7, Athletes: 7

Links: Road To Paris: Episode 4