29th August - National Sports Day. So perfect time to post a new episode of the Road to Los Angeles!
Since the last episode a few weeks back, we have had the Commonwealth Games, the Badminton World Championships and the Men's & Women's Hockey World Cups.
At the Commonwealth Games, there is nothing much to be read from the performances. In nearly all events, it is not more than a competitive warm-up. Very few events at these Games would be called truly world class. Men's Javelin was certainly one of them though with Neeraj Chopra on a comeback trail winning a Silver in a field packed with Olympic & World medalists. More heartening was Yashvir Singh getting the Bronze in the same event.
Gulveer Singh's twin medals in the long races (10,000m & 5,000m) and Tejaswin Shankar winning a medal in Decathlon were certainly highlights for the campaign.
The Boxing contingent delivered lots of medals, but the performance of the weightlifters was not the best. Judo delivered its first Gold medals, but there was also a doping scandal! The doping menace has no end.
At the BWF Championships, India continued the 15-year streak of at least one medal per edition with Treesa Jolly & Gayatri Gopichand winning the Doubles Bronze. Ayush Shetty knocked out the World No. 1 in the 1st round, Sindhu showed that there is still some fight left, but overall the campaign in home conditions could have been better.
At the Hockey World Cups, initially the focus seemed more on the uproar over the changed kit colour than the preparation! The Women's team delivered a good show finishing 5th (best finish in over half a century!). Good to see the upswing after missing out the qualifications at Paris. The Men's team meanwhile disappointed finishing 8th.
So that was it for this edition. Coming up next - the Asian Games, with a few Quota places for grabs across sports
No comments:
Post a Comment