India's Medals at London Olympics 2012

Update : India has ended the London Olympics 2012 with 2 SILVER and 4 BRONZE - one Silver and Bronze coming in last 2 days. While Sushil Kumar won the Silver in Wrestling on last day, Yogeshwar Dutt won the Bronze on the penultimate day.

So, India has doubled its medal count from Beijing Olympics 2008. However, no Gold came India's way.
As mentioned earlier (below), I will carry out Analysis of India's performance in the coming weeks - let your thoughts flow in and add them as comments please.


Earlier
India's overall haul on the third-last day of the London Olympics 2012 is :

• 1 SILVER - won by Vijay Kumar in shooting
• 3 BRONZE - won by Gagan Narang in shooting, Saina Nehwal in badminton and MC Mary Kom in boxing.

With this, India is at 50th place in the Medals tally.

India's flag-bearer Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt are the only 2 athletes left in the fray. They will be competing in wrestling on 11th, 12th Aug (the games finish on 12th Aug). Lets see if the elusive GOLD can be won by them.

Overall, this is a below-par performance by India given the fact that there were many Athletes who really seemed promising but could not deliver - notably among those were Deepika Kumari, Ronjan Sodhi - both World No. 1s, Abhinav Bindra and the boxers. Most forgivable was India's campaign in Hockey where they have finished 12th and last - their worst performance in Olympics ever !!

Will carry out some analysis posts over the next few weeks and would urge you to think and also contribute your views on India's showing at the London Olympics 2012.

India's London Olympics 2012 Journey so far...

While we play predictor here, let us catch up on the Indian contingents journey so far in the London Olympics.

There were many hopes building up for a great Indian showing shouldering on Saina Nehwal, Deepika Kumari, Ronjan Sodhi, Abhinav Bindra, MC Mary Kom, Vijender Singh, Sushil Kumar and a few other wrestlers and Boxers.

However, so far (upto 3rd Aug), it has not been a great story with the some of these names failing to live upto the hopes.

Medals so far
India has 1 SILVER and 1 BRONZE so far and is at 32nd position in medals tally.

A surprise SILVER came India's way when Vijay Kumar won in shooting on 3rd Aug. Congrats Vijay !!

The BRONZE was won by Gagan Narang in Shooting as well. Well done Gagan !!

Losing Proposition
Meanwhile, some of the sure-shot winners fell by the wayside and caused a lot of heart-burn for the sports enthusiasts of the country.

World No. 1 Deepika Kumari lost in the first round itself and could not come to terms with the fast changing wind direction of the Lords - mecca of Cricket. In her own words - "before I could understand , it was all over." Oh ..we do not expect that from a World No.1. The changing wind at Lords is a well-known phenomenon and should have been factored in by her coaches. Maybe the pressure of the BIG stage caught her. 

Another World No.1 in Shooting Ronjan Sodhi failed to even qualify for the finals. It was expected that he will surely return a medal-winner.  Did the BIG stage got to him as well...

Drawing from these two experiences, maybe the mental toughness is a very big factor as is the skill. When these athletes go out for a World meet or so, there is no sendoff and the hype is missing completely, while, there is a grand sendoff for the Olympics and the hype is tremendous.

Maybe mental toughness is one key area to work upon so that our World No.1's do not fall like nine pins in the early stages . Its fine if they reach the finals and lose. Atleast, they will prove their rankings and will not be seen as a fluke. Olympics is one big event and it cannot be treated like any other tournament. It needs special preparations and hope we learn our lessons and continue to send formidable contingents to the Olympics.

Meanwhile, Saina Nehwal ran into the Chinese wall and could not penetrate it as yet. She lost to World No 1 in the semis and will fight for the bronze with yet another chinese - the World No.2. Keeping my fingers crossed.. All the best Saina!!

The hockey team continues to dissapoint and lost all the 3 matches so far - to Netherlands, New Zealand and Germany and out of reckoning for semis even if they win rest of the matches.

In Athletics, While Krishna Poonia qualified for the finals of Discus throw, others like Myookha Johny, Seema Antil, On Prakash all lost and could not qualify for the finals.

In Tennis, the much chaos around partners did no favour and all men's doubles teams lost and are out - I thought Leander and Vishnu played better and their last game was a treat to watch. Leander and Sania are still alive in the mixed doubles.

What Next ?

On a brighter note, we still have Vijender Singh, MC Mary Kom and Sushil Kumar to look upto for medals.

Let's see how many medals do we win eventually.
What do you think?

India's Medal Chances at London Olympics 2012

With the 2012 London Olympics starting on July 27th, its time to play the Analyst role and predict the medals India is going to win this summer.

The qualifications gave us a glimpse of the form of the Athletes and thereafter the tournaments/meets in which they participated also shows their current levels.

Out of all the disciplines, I feel the following Athletes stand a chance to win the following medals:

• Saina Nehwal (badminton) - Silver
•  Deepika Kumari (archery) - Silver
• Vijendra Singh (boxing) - Silver
• Ronjan Sodhi (shooting) - Bronze
• Sushil Kumar (wrestling) - Silver
• Leander Paes and Sania Mirza (tennis) - Gold
• MC Mary Kom (boxing) - Gold
• Abhinav Bindra (shooting)- Silver

Hey readers, do share your views on what you think will be the medals haul this time.

Will bring in updates as the Games go by.

London Olympics : Boxing - Key Indian Boxers

Boxing is yet another discipline where India has shown great strides in the last few years. Vijender Singh won the Bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and created history - the first Indian boxer to get an Olympic medal.

This time around, the London bound boxing contingent - 8 boxers in all - seems promising and will look to build up on Vijender Singh's exploits in the last edition.

The following are the boxers who have qualified and will be on the plane to London:

Men's light flyweight(49kg): Devendro Singh
Men's bantamweight (56kg): Shiva Thapa
Men's lightweight (60kg): Jai Bhagwan
Men's light welterweight (64kg): Manoj Kumar
Men's welterweight (69kg): Vikas Krishan Yadav
Men's middleweight (75kg): Vijender Singh
Men's light heavyweight (81kg): Sumit Sangwan
Women's flyweight (51kg): Mary Kom

Medal Prospects


M C Mary Kom is being seen as a medal prospect based on her record in the last few years. Mary Kom, a mother of two, is a five time successive World Boxing champion, a biennial amateur boxing competition organised by the International Boxing Association (AIBA). (This is the first time in Olympics history that the women's event is being held.)

MC Mary Kom

(This video comes from YouTube)

In the men's section, Vijender Singh will lead the charge and will hope to improve his showing this time. A good showing is expected from Devendro and Jai Bhagwan too.

Meanwhile, Shiva Thapa is the youngest Indian boxer to have qualified. In 2012 Asian Olympic Qualifiers held in Astana, Kazakhstan, Shiva defeated Syria's Wessam Salamana 18-11 to clinch the gold medal and qualified for 2012 London Olympics in 56 kgs category.

All-in-all, I believe the medal hopefuls are:

MC Mary Kom
Vijendra Singh

Let's see what is the final medals-tally for Boxing at the London Olympics.

We are waiting to be surprised !!

London Olympics : Athletics - Key Indian Athletes

Athletics

Athletics is one glamorus part of the Olympics and gets lot of attention and focus from everyone.

India also has some distinct memories associated with these events - the legendary Milkha Singh  and PT Usha are the names that come to mind.

The Past

The Flying Sikh Milkha Singh and PT Usha provided hopes to millions of Indians and nearly got the medals that have alluded us for a long time.

Milkha Singh

Milkha Singh came a close 4th in the 400 metres at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He finished second in all of his 400m races prior to the final,improving his time on each occasion. In the final he finished in fourth place- it required a photo-finish to determine the result. His time was 45.6 seconds and his finishing position was not bettered by an Indian track athlete until the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

PT Usha, known as the "Payyoli Express", was the athlete who reached the heights set by Milkha Singh.  In 1984 LA Olympics, Usha was sure to win an Olympic Medal. However, she lost out in the final and much like Milkha Singh, finished 4th - missing out on the 400 m hurdles bronze by 1/100th of a second. It was a case again of so-near-yet-so-far for India.

PT Usha

[Trivia: Purely from a statistics perspective, India has 2 silvers in 1900 Paris Olympics , won by Norman Pritchard. . IOC regards these medals as credited to India; however, International committees credit these medals to Great Britain.]

Present

Some Indian Athletes to watch out for at London Olympics 2012...

Krishna Poonia

Krishna Poonia (Women's Discus Throw): Poonia threw the discus to a distance of 64.76m to qualify for the London Olympics. She holds the National record. She is expecting to throw over 65m at Olympics and win a medal.

Seema Antil (Women's Discus Throw): Seema achieved the "A" qualififcation mark by a throw of 62.2 metres at an Athletic meet in the US earlier in the year.

Vikas Gowda (Men's discus Throw) : Gowda threw the discuss 64.05 met res and achieved the olympic qualification mark of B standard which was 63 metres.

Tintu Luka (Women's 800m): Luka qualified for the Olympics in the 800 metres at the World championships in Korea last year by making a season best of 2:00.95, and passed through the Olympic qualification standard of 2:01.30. Notably, she is a protege of PT Usha.

Myookha Johny (Women's triple Jump):  Mayookha qualified for 2012 Olympics in triple jump, going past the London Games ‘B’ qualifying standard of 14.10m. She jumped 14.10 metres and grabbed the bronze medal at Asian Athletics Championships last year. She became the first Indian women triple jumper to cross 14m mark.

Gurmeet Singh (Men's 20 Km Walk): National champion Gurmeet Singh clocked 1:22:05, finishing 9th in the 20km event held at Phoenix Park, Dublin Sunday. Gurmeet bettered the ‘A’ standard of Olympic qualification 1:22:30.

Hope some of them reach the podium and do the country proud.