Road To Paris : Episode 12 - Predictions Time

“There is a very tiny margin between fame and anonymity”

Nowhere is the comparison more apt than at the great Quadrennial celebrations of human endeavor – the Olympics.

It is all about the finest margins - a fraction of an inch, reaction times deferring by 1000th of seconds, a shot taken just too late or too early, weather behaving differently on that particular moment - an extra gust of wind, overhead clouds, slippery underfoot conditions, a judgment call which could have gone either way, a referee temporarily blind-sighted, a rule open to interpretation, an unfortunate injury, the luck of the draw, the coin toss etc. So many variables which could have gone the other way!

What do the athletes have to do to get the right result? Simply, it is just a matter of getting the physics right. For all who have prepared for entrance exams, this is where all the Irodov’s problems come alive in real. Except here, the athlete has to assume almost every single variable while simultaneously hoping that they have arrived at a better solution faster than their opponent(s). And do it again and again without fail!

This was just a bit of preamble before entering the predictions mode. After all foreseeing sporting outcomes is not the easiest of asks, which is what makes it fun!

So here goes a sport-by-sport rundown of what to expect from the Indian contingent.

1. Archery: Events 5, Entries 9

A discipline in which India have been perennial underachievers. This time we have a full representation. Can they get medals? Definitely! Will they? that is another question. After all they have beaten South Korea recently. So on the day, all 5 categories can give medals. But, we have a long history of not even coming close to winning!

2. Athletics: Events 17, Entries 22

Neeraj Chopra has dominated his field like no Indian athlete ever. He goes in as the reigning Olympic, World and Asian Champion. Since Tokyo, he has mostly come first and at others second. Anything less than a Gold would be disappointing given his track record.

Avinash Sable broke the Kenyan hegemony in the 3000m Steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games. Expect a National Record and a Finals place at the least.

At Tokyo, the Men's 4*400 m relay team broke the Asian Record and yet could not qualify for the Finals. And at the last World Championships gave a mighty scare to USA and Jamaica. A finals place should be expected.

Expecting a National Record performance from Jyothi Yarraji (100m Hurdles) and Parul Chaudhary (steeplechase) as well.

The Men's racewalkers are a group which have made significant progress over the years with 7 breaching the Qualification mark. Just need that one big performance on the global stage to push the discipline into the limelight.

For the rest of the squad, some National Records and Finals appearances are par for the course.

3. Badminton: Events 4, Entries 5

Satwik-Chirag can win a medal. But men's doubles has some crazy competition within the Top 10 currently. Lakshya and Prannoy are unfortunately drawn against each other after they cross their qualifying groups! 

Can Sindhu do a 3-peat? Recent form and injuries say No, but in the past decade there has been no other player who just keeps pulling off the medals at the biggest stage so consistently. Ashwini-Tanisha while not the favorites should win a game in the group stage

4. Boxing: Events 6, Entries 6

2 time defending World Champion Nikhat Zareen is a medal favourite, while Tokyo medalist Lovlina Borgohain landed up with a tough draw. On the men's side, Nishant Dev winning a medal will not be a surprise.

Special mention - Jasmine Lamboriya who went into the final qualification as a reserve. Then with a previous Quota winner getting suspended resulted in India surrendering the Quota. Jasmine drops down a weight category and earned back the place!

5. Hockey: Event 1, Entry 1

Since the Tokyo bronze, things haven't gone great for the Indian team. An early exit in the Home World Cup was followed by middling performances in the Hockey World League. While they remain sentimental favourites, recent performances don’t really give the confidence. They should cross the group stage, after which it becomes a bit of a lottery.

6. Shooting: Events 15, Entries 27

After 2 consecutive blanks at the Rio & Tokyo, the expectations from the Shooting squad are a bit tempered down. On the other hand, this is India's biggest ever Shooting contingent and the first time that India will have representation in all 15 disciplines. The squad has been revamped and quite a few Quota winners missed out in the Final Qualification series. Will this do the trick and end the medal drought?

Medal Favorites - Sift Kaur Samra (50m Rifle 3 Positions), Manu Bhaker, and the mixed teams.

Fun fact - There is sitting Bihar MLA in the squad - Shreyasi Singh.

7. Weightlifting: Event 1, Entry 1

Mirabai Chanu's silver at Tokyo had a sense of inevitability about it. However, injuries have made a repeat medal a tad more difficult. A fully fit Mirabai should get another medal.

8. Wrestling: Events 6, Entries 6

Both the Tokyo medalists failed to qualify. Between the Games the wrestlers had to spend more time battling their own federation than on the mat. And the results have showed. Just a single male wrestler in the fray. On the other hand, 5 female wrestlers have qualified! Antim and Aman are serious medal contenders. 

Special mention - Vinesh, who was at the forefront of the agitation, saw Antim earn a Quota in her weight category, then opted for a lower weight category and qualified in that!

9. Table Tennis: Events 4, Entries 6

Recent results have been impressive with multiple victories over the top ranked Chinese players. But a medal still seems distant. The team is getting closer though.

10. Tennis: Events 2, Entries 2

At 44, Rohan Bopanna is the oldest Indian athlete at the Games, also a recent Grand Slam champion and World No. 1 but his partnership with Sriram Balaji in Men's Doubles is largely untested. On the other hand, Sumit Nagal is fast rising up the ranks but still far away from the top echelons of Men's singles. Neither expected to make much inroads in the draw though.

11. Golf: Events 2, Entries 4

At Tokyo, Aditi Ashok was within a shot of a medal. This is another extremely difficult to predict sport. 

Special mention  - Diksha Dagar, one of the rare sportspersons who appear in both the Deaflympics as well as the Olympics.

12. Rowing: Event 1, Entry 1

Anything above a semifinals finish would be a good result for Balraj Panwar, India's sole Rowing entry

13. Swimming: Events 2, Entries 2

No medal hopes, but could be a good exposure to 14-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu - the youngest Indian sportsperson at the Games.

14. Equestrian: Event 1, Entry 1 - Anush Agarwalla & Sir Camillo have qualified for Individual Dressage – another difficult to judge sport.

15. Judo: Event 1, Entry 1 - Tulika Maan will be sole Indian judoka

16. Sailing: Events 2, Entries 2 - Nethra Kumanan and Vishnu Sarvanan are both in their 2nd Olympics.

So, as always, Team India might go on to have their best medal tally ever or they might end up having no medals at all. The favorites maybe knocked out early and a medal may come from somewhere unexpected.

Let the Games Begin! Citius Altius Fortius

Links:

• Complete list – Wikipedia
• Road To Paris Episode 11
• Predictions for Tokyo: Link

Road To Paris – Episode 11

The Games are nearing and the Qualifications are nearing to a close. We are almost there with just the final few quotas remaining to be awarded and some team announcements to be done. Here is a brief recap of the goings on since Episode 10. A lot has happened since then!

Qualifiers

Archery: Bhajan Kaur added an Individual Quota, which ensured India’s participation in the Mixed event given Dhiraj Bommadevara had secured a Quota in the Men’s side earlier. This was followed by both the Men’s & Women’s Teams getting a place via Rankings. Thus, ensuring that India is fully represented in all 5 Archery disciplines. Tarundeep Rai & Pravin Jadhav join Dhiraj, while Dipika Kumari and Ankita Bhakat join Bhajan to complete the Indian line-up.

Athletics: India Men & Women 4x400m relay teams have qualified for the Games. India has also earned a quota place in the Mixed Marathon Racewalking event. Unfortunately Murali Sreeshankar’s injury means he will not be able to participate despite having breached the Long Jump qualification mark.

Boxing: Amit Panghal (Flyweight) & Nishant Dev (Light Welterweight) qualified in the Final qualification tournament. Meanwhile, Praveen Hooda’s quota place (Featherweight) was returned due to her ban. Instead, Jasmine Lamboriya stepped in as a reserve after cutting down her weight category and regained the Quota place! So 6 Indians will now be in fray at Paris.

Golf: India will have 4 representatives - Gaganjeet Bhullar and Shubhankar Sharma in Men and Aditi Ashok and Diksha Dagar in Women.

Judo: Tulika Maan (78 KG Women’s) will be the sole Indian judoka

Rowing: Balraj Panwar (Men’s singles sculls) qualified for the Paris Games.

Sailing: Nethra Kumanan (Women’s ILCA 7) earned the 2nd Sailing quota place for India.

Tennis: Rohan Bopanna & Sriram Balaji will represent in Doubles while Sumit Nagal will take part in Singles.

Wrestling: A bit of letdown for India with Aman Sehrawat (57 KG freestyle) as the sole male qualifier. However, India now has its largest women’s wrestling contingent with Vinesh Phogat (50 KG), Anshu Malik (57 KG), Nisha Dahiya (68 KG) and Reetika Hooda (76 KG) securing quota places and joining Antim Panghal.

Squad Announcements

Shooting: Post the qualification trials, quite a few Quota place earners lost out and were replaced. The squad is as follows

Men: Sandeep Singh, Arjun Babuta (10 m air rifle); Sarabjot Singh, Arjun Singh Cheema (10 m air pistol); Swapnil Kusale, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (50 m rifle 3 positions); Anish Bhanwala, Vijayveer Sidhu (25 m rapid fire pistol); Prithviraj Todainman (Trap); Anantjeet Singh Naruka (Skeet)

Women: Elavenil Valarivan, Ramita Jindal (10 m air rifle); Rhythm Sangwan, Manu Bhaker (10 m air pistol); Manu Bhaker, Esha Singh (25 m pistol); Sift Kaur Samra, Anjum Moudgil (50 m rifle 3 positions); Rajeshwari Kumari, Shreyasi Singh (Trap); Maheshwari Chauhan, Raiza Dhillon (Skeet)

Mixed Teams:

• 10 m air pistol: Sarabjot Singh & Manu Bhaker, Arjun Singh Cheema & Rhythm Sangwan
• 10 m air rifle: Sandeep Singh & Elavenil Valarivan, Arjun Babuta & Ramita Jindal
• Skeet: Anantjeet Singh Naruka & Maheshwari Chauhan

Hockey: The following 16 players will aim to defend/improve their bronze medal from Tokyo.

PR Sreejesh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Harmanpreet Singh, Sumit, Sanjay, Rajkumar Pal, Shamsher Singh, Manpreet Singh , Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Abhishek, Sukhjeet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh

Qualification Summary for Team India: Sports: 15, Events 59, Entries:83. Athletes: 100

Links: Episode 10  

Coming Up Next: A final round-up of the qualifiers followed by the predictions!

Road To Paris – Episode 10

We are getting closer and closer to the D-Day and more and more qualifying spots are getting sealed up. Here is a quick summary of the updates since Episode 9

Qualifiers

Table Tennis: Men’s & Women’s Teams have qualified via rankings for the first time ever. This also means that there will be 2 Indian players in both Singles events as well.

Weightlifting: Defending Silver medalist Mirabai Chanu qualifies for the 49 KG event as the sole Indian weightlifter at the Games.

Badminton: India will have representation in 4 events through Rankings missing out in Mixed Doubles. Men’s Singles - HS Prannoy & Lakshya Sen, Women’s Singles -PV Sindhu; Men’s Doubles – Satwik Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty duo; Women’s Doubles – Ashwini Ponappa-Tanisha Crasto duo.

Updates

Sharath Kamal will be the flagbearer at the Games.

Athletics: Now 7 Men have breached the Qualification mark in the Men’s 20km Walk. Only 3 can qualify!

Boxing: None of the Indians could earn a Quota place during the 1st Qualifying event and now have to wait for the next set of qualifiers.

Qualification Summary for Team India

Sports: 11, Events 39, Entries:55. Athletes: 66 

Links: Episode 9 

Road To Paris – Episode 9

We have entered the Olympics Year, and the race for the remaining qualifying spots in heating up. For the Indian contingent, the elations and heartbreaks continue, on the field (and the shenanigans off it).

Here is a quick summary of the updates since Episode 8

Qualifiers

Shooting: After the 2024 Asian Shooting Championships, India now has a qualifier in every single category for the first time ever. 

Men’s: Varun Tomar (10m Air Pistol), Vijayveer Sidhu (25m Pistol), Anantjeet Naruka (Skeet).
Women’s: Esha Singh (10m Air Pistol), Rhythm Sangwan (25m Pistol), Raiza Dhillon (Skeet)

Equestrian: India have a Quota Place in Individual Dressage through Anush Agarwalla – first ever appearance in this particular event.

Sailing: Vishnu Sarvanan earned a Quota Place in Men’s ILCA category

In other news

Badminton: Indian Women won their first ever Badminton Asia Championships. This was also their first ever medal at the event.

Tennis: Rohan Bopanna, at 43 years young, won his first Men’s Doubles Grand Slam title at the Australian Open finally reached No. 1 ranking.

Athletics: 6 Men have now breached the Qualification mark in the Men’s 20km Walk. Only 3 can qualify!

Hockey: Women’s Team fails to reach the Games after finishing 4th in the Qualifiers. A real heartbreak for the team which came so close to a medal at Tokyo.

Wrestling: The mess continues - Elections held, New body elected and then suspended by Govt. An ad hoc committee in place and two separate Nationals held.

Qualification Summary for Team India: Sports: 6, Events 22, Entries:29, Athletes: 44.

Till next time!

Links: Episode 8 

Road To Paris: Episode 8

Its been a while since the last post in this series. In the interim, there has been major progress as well as quite few heartbreaks in the Indian sporting arena, particularly in terms of qualifying for Paris 2024. Here is a quick summary:

Qualifiers

• Wrestling: Antim Panghal qualifies in 53 KG Women’s category after winning a Bronze medal at the World Championships. This was an event where the Indian contingent played under the World Wrestling flag as the Wresting Federation is currently suspended due to still ongoing shenanigans.
• Boxing: Nikhat Zareen (50 KG), Preeti Pawar (54 KG), Parveen Hooda (57 KG) & Lovlina Borgohain (75 KG) have earned Quotas at the Asian Games.
• Hockey: Men’s Team qualifies for the Olympics by winning the Asian Games Gold medal
• Athletics: Kishore Jena joins Neeraj Chopra in Men’s Javelin Throw
• Shooting: Quite a few Quota places earned at the Asian Shooting Championships - Arjun Babuta (10 m Air Rifle), Sarabjot Singh (10m Air Pistol), Anish Bhanwala (25m Rapid Fire Pistol) in the Men’s section and Tilottama Sen (10m Air Rifle), Manu Bhaker (25m Pistol), Shriyanka Sadangi (50m Rifle 3 Positions) in the Women’s section
• Archery: Dhiraj Bommadevara earned a Individual Quota at the Asian Championships

Now for the Heartbreaks

It has been the end of the qualifying journey for Football, Rugby, Handball India’s Men’s Football Team have failed to qualify after being knocked out in the 1st round of Asian Cup U-23 Qualifiers

Asian Games Perspective

India had their best ever Asian Games performance in terms of the medals, hitting a century. The Indian contingent actually lived up to the Broadcaster's hype of Abki Baar Sau Paar! Overall, a good feel-good factor. However, for a perspective, here is the Indian medals Tally for the Olympics events only.

Discipline	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Archery	0	1	1
Athletics	6	14	9
Badminton	1	0	1
Boxing	0	1	4
Equestrian	1	0	1
Hockey	1	0	1
Golf	0	1	0
Rowing	0	2	3
Sailing	0	0	1
Shooting	2	5	4
Tennis	1	1	0
Wrestling	0	1	5
Total	12	26	30

Qualification Summary for Team India: Sports: 6, Events 22, Entries:29, Athletes: 44

Till next time!

Links: Episode 7

 

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 

Road To Paris – Episode 6

Since Episode 5, there has been some activity but no major progress on the qualifiers front. Here is a brief recap of the past two months.

Football: In the Round 1 of Women’s Asian Qualifiers – India beat Kyrgyzstan 4-nil & 5-nil to qualify for the 2nd Round, whose matches will be held in Oct-Nov ’23. 

Boxing: At the Men’s World Championships: India won 3 Bronze medals, their best-ever performance via Deepak Bhoria (Flyweight), Mohammad Hussamuddin (Featherweight) and Nishant Dev (Light Middlewight). The first two are also in Olympics weight category

Weightlifting: At the Asian Championships, Bindyarani Devi got a Silver medal in the 55 kg category, while Jeremy got a Snatch silver in the 67 kg.

Athletics: There has been a flurry of activity on the track and field with quite a few athletes making an appearance across the globe. Neeraj Chopra (is it a surprise) started his season with a World Lead throw winning the Diamond League opener and became the first ever India athlete to top the IAAF rankings!

And off the track

The Wrestlers vs Wrestling Federation saga continued and got murkier. The agitation continues with neither the wrestlers nor the Brij Bhushan Singh backing off. Careless and casual comments from those in charge are also not helping. This really needs an early resolution.

Meanwhile the qualification race is heating up. Till next time!

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

Links: Episode 5 

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 

Road To Paris: Episode 4

Our first Qualifiers are here for Paris, with 3 Quota places earned in Shooting. There has been a slight lull in the overall action post the Commonwealth Games completion and the Asian Games sized hole in the sporting calendar. Here is a summary of the major events in the past couple of months

Quota Places Won

• 
  Shooting: Men’s Trap – Bhowneesh Mendiratta claimed the first Quota place for India at the World Shotgun championships. Good to see a comeback in Trap shooting for India.
• Shooting: Men’s 10m Air Rifle – Rudrankksh Patil secured a Quota Place by winning the Gold medal at World Rifle/Pistol Championships.
• Shooting: Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions – Swapnil Kusale secured a Quote place by finishing 4th at the World Rifle/Pistol Championships

There were a couple of near misses as well in the women’s section. But still a long way to go in the Qualifiers.

In other action

• Neeraj Chopra becomes the first Indian to win the Diamond League Champions Trophy – the man continues to be trailblazer!
• Wrestling: At the World Championships, India returned with 2 Bronze medals – Vinesh Phogat becoming the first female multiple medalist from India while Bajrang Punia claimed his 4th World Championships medal. Overall, the campaign was mixed, with some youngsters showing promise, while some favored ones getting knocked out early. Also a few of Commonwealth medalists were missing from the lineup. Begs the question – are we prioritizing an event like Commonwealth Games (with a better probability of medal) over World Championships (which are far more prestigious)
• Table Tennis: World Team Championships. Sharath Kamal was missing. Indian men upset the 2nd seeded Germans in the group stage but couldn’t make much headway in the knock-outs. Same was the story for the women’s team also.
• National Games have been held after a gap of 7 years!

Doping Menace: Two Tokyo Olympians have been given bans for doping - Shivpal Singh (Men’s Javelin Throw) suspended for 4 years and Kamalpreet Kaur (Women’s Discus Throw), banned for 3 years.

Qualification Summary: Sports: 1, Events 3, Entries:3, Athletes: 3

That’s it for this episode. The qualification action will be picking up in the coming weeks

Till next time!

Links: Road To Paris – Episode 3

Road To Paris: Episode 3

Time for the belated third episode in the Road To Paris series.

Since the last Episode, we have seen quite a bit of activity in the Indian Olympics Sports front with the action not limited just to the field of play.

Starting with the on-field action

We had the Commonwealth Games, where India learnt about a new sport – Lawn Bowls. Unfortunately, its not part of the Olympics roster yet! Here is a short sport-by-sport review of Indian performances in the Olympics disciplines.

1. Athletics: 8 medals, a significant increase from 3 in 2018. Avinash Sable’s steeplechase run was the highlight as he broke open the Kenyan dominance with a stunning 2nd place finish, denying Kenya a clean sweep of the event for the first time in decades! The racewalkers after a decade of promise have now started delivering the medals as well. There was an India 1-2 in Triple Jump, as well as medals in Long Jump, High Jump and women’s Javelin. Things are looking up especially in the field events. Although there are doping cases also coming up. Thankfully all caught before they could make the tournament!
2. Badminton: The Thomas Cup success was carried forward with Golds for Sindhu, Lakshya, Satwik-Chirag, and Bronze medals for Srikkanth and Terasa-Gayatri. Losing the Team Gold to Malaysia would have hurt a bit though.
3. Boxing: Amit Panghal is back after the disappointment at Tokyo. Nikhat Zareen continues to carry the flag for women’s Boxing and there was an impressive start for Nitu Ghanghas. While not the toughest of fields, overall, it was a decent show by the Indian boxers.
4. Cycling: David Beckham and Ronaldo being in the squad created quite a flutter. However, the performances on track did not live up to the names
5. Gymnastics: there was nothing to write home about. The brief spotlight from Dipa Karmakar’s Rio performance has now dimmed.
6. Hockey: Silver for men & Bronze for women – both teams back amongst medals. However, the manner of loss in the Men’s Final to Australia would have certainly hurt. And when will our teams get rid of this habit of conceding last minute goals. Lot of unnecessary heartache for the fans!
7. Judo: 2 silvers & a bronze on Judo’s return to the Commonwealth fold with Sushila Devi replicating her 2014 silver medal.
8. Swimming: Once again no medals, but there was an increase in the number of finals appearances by the Indian swimmers with Srihari Nataraj making two finals.
9. Table Tennis: Achanta Sharath Kamal at the age of 40, just confirmed his status as the greatest Indian TT player. Playing multiple matches daily, he ended the tournament with 3 Golds & a Silver. While the men’s side had great returns, there was disappointment in the women’s side especially for Manika Batra who had been the breakout star of the 2018 edition. Sreeja Akula finished a creditable 4th in Singles and helped Sharath Kamal to his first-ever Mixed Doubles Gold.
10. Triathalon: We are not in the picture yet.
11. Weightlifting: India continued their dominant show at the event 3 Golds, 2 Silvers & 4 Bronze Medals. As expected, Mirabai Chanu dominated her category, while the likes of Jeremy & Achinta Sheuli got their first international success.
12. Wrestling: 12 entries, 12 medals (like 2018) including 6 Golds – another dominant show by India. Not much to be read in the performances, but 2 players – Vinesh Phogat and Sakhsee Malik made quite a comeback to the national ranks.

Outside the Commonwealth Games also there was a lot of action

1. Neeraj Chopra recovered from injury to win his first ever Diamond League event and qualify for the Diamond League Finals.
2. At the Badminton World Championships, the Satwik-Chirag duo became the first Indian pair to win a Men’s doubles medal and continue the trend of a medal for India at every major event (World Championships/Olympics) since 2011. The others could not reach the medal rounds though.
3. Linthoi Chanmabham became the first Indian judoka to win a World Championships gold (senior or junior) at the Cadets Championships.

And now for some off-the-field action (or rather mess)

1. The Anti-Doping Law has been passed by the Indian parliament. There have been too many doping cases, especially in Athletics & Weightlifting with some leading names also involved. To be honest, the number of doping cases involving Indians is a national embarrassment. This is certainly a step towards cleaning up their act.
2. Meanwhile the All India Football Federation got suspended by FIFA. Although the suspension was lifted, it doesn’t show our federations in good light. And there are administrative troubles in various other associations as well. Wonder how these will be cleaned up given the number of political figures involved in all these sports.
3. And its not good to see Courts getting involved in matters of team selections – Tejaswin Shankar and members of TT teams were involved in multiple court battles to ensure their participation at the Commonwealth Games! As it is our Courts have a huge case backlog, no point in adding to them!

That’s it for this episode. More qualifying action is set to commence in the coming weeks.

Till next time!

Links:

• Road To Paris – Episode 2 
• India at Commonwealth Games 2022 
• NADA Bill - Firstpost 

Road To Paris: Episode 2

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics have been declared wide open. The events calendar is also out now. The qualifying processes have also commenced with the first qualifiers also identified in a couple of sports.

It has been almost a year since the Tokyo Games were held. The Indian contingent while still in celebratory mood from their best Games ever is also slowly getting back to action after the euphoria of the Games. A combination of felicitation ceremonies and the pandemic ensured that most top athletes were out of action for quite a while. Sometimes, looking at all the felicitators, one wonders what success India could have got if there was similar support during the preparations!

Meanwhile here is a selection of some key Indian performances with an eye on Paris.

• Badminton: The biggest success in the past year with the men’s team clinching the Thomas Cup for the first time ever showcasing the tremendous depth of the side. And prior to that Lakshya Sen & Kidambi Srikkanth had both won a medal at the World Championships. Add to this a resurgent HS Prannoy and the doubles pair of Satwik-Chirag, and a still impressive PV Sindhu Indian Badminton is in safe hands.
• Athletics: Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic Champion, continues to break new ground becoming the first Indian to win a silver at the World Championships and also improving his own National record multiple time. The past few months have also seen quite a few long-standing national records being broken (multiple times) with Avinash Sable adding the 5,000m record to his record-breaking streak in the steeplechase. Hopefully it’s the dawn of a something good for Indian athletics. On the flip side, there have been high profile doping cases including members of last year’s Olympics contingent. The doping menace needs to be seriously nipped in the bud.
• Hockey: Both men’s & women’ teams finished 3rd in the Pro League campaign, proving that performances at Tokyo were not just a flash in the pan. However, the women’s team did not have a good World Cup finishing 9th and unfortunately, they are not part of the next Pro league cycle.
• Boxing: Nikhat Zareen is now a world champion but has to follow up the success of the legendary Mary Kom. So not much pressure there!
• Shooting: After the disappointment at Tokyo, the Indian team is back to winning medals at the World Cup stages. Given the uncertainties in this sport, can’t really say what will happen in Paris. But another performance in lines with Rio & Tokyo will certainly lower the sport’s reputation for the Indian fans. Similar to the state of Indian Archery.

That was a short summary of the goings on at Indian Olympics sports.

The Asian Games which would have served as some of the Qualifiers has now been pushed back by a year due to Covid. So next stop for some of the contingent will be the Birmingham Commonwealth Games starting 28th July, 2022. While not exactly the most competitive of events, performances here will an inkling of the things to come over the course of the next two years!

A review of the CWG performances will be part of next Episode!

Wishing the best for the Indian contingent at Birmingham.

Links:

• Road To Paris: Episode 1 
• Games Wide Open - IOC 
• Paris 2024 Schedule 

Road To Paris: Episode 1

It has been a while since the conclusion of the Tokyo 2020 Games. The best day to start my “Road To Paris” journey was the day after the Closing Ceremony. However, as usual, there was some dilly-dallying. So chose the second best day to start off this journey. Today!

It will be a shorter journey this time (hopefully). Fingers crossed that the covid disruptions are minimal. Although this year’s Asian Games, which would have also served as first qualifiers for a few events has already been postponed.

The events list has been officially released. This episode focusses on the changes made to the events roster in comparison to Tokyo.

There will be a total of 329 events across 32 sports down from 339 events in 33 sports at Tokyo. Following are the changes:

Sports Dropped: Baseball & Softball and Karate

Sports Added: Breaking (also known as Break Dancing)

Changes in existing sports

• Athletics: Men’s 50 km race walk has been dropped and replaced by Race Walk Mixed Team event.
• Boxing: Men’s events have been reduced from 8 to 7, while there has been an increase in the women’s side from 5 to 6. Consequently there has also been a re-jigging of the weight categories on both sides to accommodate the changes.
• Canoeing: For both men & women, the Extreme Canoe Slalom event has been added. And one individual sprint race has been dropped for both.
• Sailing: One Men’s Dinghy event has been dropped and replaced by a Mixed Dinghy event
• Shooting: Mixed Trap has been replaced by Mixed Skeet.
• Weightlifting: Number of events has been reduced to 10 from 14 with 2 events dropped in both men & women’s sections. The weight categories have also been rejigged consequently.

There have also been tweaks in the qualification processes in some sports, while others have had changes in the number of participants. Overall, continuing the move towards improving the gender parity.

Will start focusing on Team India’s qualification journey from the next episode (hopefully soon). 

Links: Paris 2024 Events Programme