Road To Paris - Episode 7

As we celebrate the National Sports Day, the story of Indian sport continues in an all-too-familiar fashion. Every cloud will have a silver lining and every silver lining will have a cloud! On one hand we have our first-ever Athletics World Championships Winner in Neeraj Chopra (the man continues his trail-blazing journey) and on the other the Wrestling Federation is suspended putting on hold many Olympic dreams!

Since the last episode, there have been a substantial increase in the number of Quotas earned by Indian sportspersons.

Qualifiers:

Athletics

• Murali Sreeshankar in Men’s Long Jump crossed the Olympic qualification mark on way to winning a silver at the Asian Athletics Championships
• Avinash Sable in Men’s 3000m Steeplechase crossed the Olympics qualification mark in the Swedish Diamond League event.
• Neeraj Chopra in Men’s Javelin Throw crossed the mark with his first throw in the World Athletics Championships Qualifying. And later on went on to be crowned India’s first ever World Champion in Track & Field.
• Parul Chaudhary reached the World Championships Final in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase, created a new National Record and booked an Olympics berth for herself while finishing a creditable 11th.

Shooting: 4 Quota places earned at the World Shooting Championships

• Mehuli Ghosh finishes 3rd in the 10m Air Rifle.
• Akhil Sheoran finished 3rd in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions joining Swapnil Kusale at the event.
• Sift Kaur Samra earned a Quota Place in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions.
• Rajeshwari Kumari earned a Quota in Women’s Trap Shooting

India currently has Quota places in both Men’s & Women’s 10m Air Rifle, thus likely to get a Mixed Team Berth also. Special mention for Tilottamma Sen who finished 4th in 10 m Air Rifle but could not get a Quota due to new ISSF rules giving only one place per country at one event!

In Other News

• The Indian men’s 4x400m relay was a pleasant shock in the World Championships finishing 2nd in the Semis and 5th in the Finals, creating a new Asian Record and giving a mighty scare to many of the favorites. Although it is disappointing to see the Indian women’s relay team no longer the force they were.
• Neeraj Chopra is a true pioneer. Evidence is compatriots Kishore Jena and DP Manu finishing 5th & 6th respectively in the World Championships Final. What a sight it was to have 3 Indians competing in a single event till the very last stage!
• Hockey – Indian Men’s team comfortably won the Asian Champions Trophy, a good precursor for the upcoming Asian Games which also serves as the Olympic Qualifying event.
• Badminton - HS Prannoy continued the Indian medal winning streak going on since 2011 at the Badminton World Championships with a Bronze.
• Archery – No luck for India’s recurve archers at the Olympics qualifiers, but more chances are coming up.
• Basketball – Men’s pre Olympics Qualifiers – India finished 3rd and missed out on qualifying for the Olympics qualifiers.
• Handball – The Women’s team finished 5th in the Asian Qualification tournament and are out of the running.

Now for the Clouds

• Doping menace continues with Dutee Chand suspended for 4 years for doping violations & Bhwana Jat for 2 years for missing tests.
• Wrestling - The saga keeps getting murkier. Now other wrestlers have jumped into action claiming bias in direct selection of the likes of Bajrang Punia & Vinesh Phogat. Courts getting involved in the selection matters does augur well for anyone. Meanwhile the Wrestling Federation of India got suspended thus jeopardizing the Quota places at the World Championships.

Meanwhile the qualification race is heating up. Till next time. Next post will be after the Asian Games.

Qualification Summary for Team India

Sports: 2, Events 12, Entries:15, Athletes: 15 

Links: Episode 6 

India @ 76

A couple of days back an SMS arrived.

“Har Ghar Tiranga is back. 13-15 Aug bring home & fly Tiranga with pride! Upload selfies on harghartiranga.com”

Yes, its that time of the year, when amongst other things this blog gets a post on all things India. (Here is the 2022 edition) 

Interestingly, I am also halfway through the book, “Freedom at Midnight”. 76 years have gone by, but many of those issues remain continue and can be traced back to those fateful last days of the British Raj. Bipartisan politics, communal violence, hope and worries for the coming days, history finds new own ways to repeat itself!

[An aside - Wouldn't it be the mother of all ironies, if Scotland is separated from the United Kingdom under the watch of  Rishi Sunak and Humza Yusuf?]

Returning to the present.

India has overtaken China as the most populous country in the world. Or maybe not. After all, the Census exercise has not been done since 2011, another collateral victim of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The effects of Climate Change are becoming more and more visible. On one hand, the monsoons are creating havoc on the urban infrastructure, while other parts of the country are reeling in drought. The seasons are becoming increasingly erratic. The hilly regions are even more at risk, as highlighted by the "sinking" of the town of Joshimath. Given the vast population, and its ever-growing energy requirements, drastic action is required on the climate front. While the government has stated ambitions of Net Zero by 2070, it might be a case of too little too late! Tthe discovery of lithium prospects in Jammu could become play an important role in this climate battle.

India has the G20 presidency. That means almost every city has got some G20 event happening across the year. Which also means there are weird (yet also cute looking) G20 banners and posters on every road and street!

The General elections are coming. That unfortunately implies more political mudslinging, further rejigging of alliances, lots of Aya Rams & Gaya Rams and more hatemongering. The race to the bottom in the political discourse will be heightened (or lowered). The political game of thrones will be on full swing till mid next year, till we finally get a government in place!

In the interim, the actual governance may go for a toss, with everyone looking to extract their pound of flesh from every event. Just look at the online battleground that the Manipur issues have become, while actual on-ground issues continue to be unresolved. Similar is the case of the Wrestling saga. In a country, where sporting heroes are still in short supply, seeing the visuals of some of the most decorated sportspersons sitting on dharna and being dragged around by the authorities was disturbing. And for the public opinion, whose side you stand on is defined by your political inclination. Just continuing the trend of everything being politicized and sharply polarized.

Lets hope the individual common sense stays in the heavily politically charged coming months!

There is a big Men’s ODI World Cup coming up and somehow BCCI has bungled up the event scheduling and ticketing. What a fall from the days of Dalmia & Bindra. Although, they also deserve plaudits for starting (finally) the WPL and providing pay parity for international games. Amidst all the chaos, they still are the best-run sporting organization in the country. Speaks more of the incompetence of the other sports bodies, which for some reason or the other keep getting themselves banned by the global federations.

Meanwhile, despite the Hindenburg report, the stock markets continue their bull runs, reaching new highs, and providing a pretty good silver lining amongst the political & environmental crowds. Although it all could be just a bubble waiting to be burst.

Overall, not a rosy picture but to end on a good note. “Naatu Naatu” won an Oscar providing the first truly Indian Oscar winners (earlier ones were all for external projects). It was a pleasant surprise to see this foot-tapping chart-topping song reach such popularity!

On that musical note. Happy Birthday India! Jai Hind!