India finishes at the bottom

SYDNEY, OCT. 1. The millennium's first Olympic Games which came to a spectacular end left India ruminating over the lone bronze and sharing the last position (70th) along with 10 other countries on the medal tally.

Out of the 199 participating countries, 80 made it to the medal chart, topped by the United States with 39 gold, 25 silver and 33 bronze and followed by Russia (32G, 28s, 28B) and China (28G,16s, 15B) in the second and third spots.

Even tiny countries like Italy (7th - 13G, 8s, 13B), Cuba (9th - 11G, 11s, 7B), Ethiopia (20th - 4G, 1s, 3B) and Kenya (29 th-2G, 3s, 2B) fared much better than the 70-odd strong Indian contingent which shouldered the aspirations of more than one billion people.

The sporting facilities in India leave much to be desired, but certainly the Indians did not live up to the expectations and in a number of events they could not realise even their own potential.

The Australian bureau of statistics, using a different yardstick which measured the number of medals on per capita basis, put India at the bottom pitting its lone bronze against a one billion people.

Barbados with a bronze against a population of 2.7 lakh was placed at the top.

In the hundred years of the Games from Athens to Atlanta (1896- 1996) and now Sydney, India has a measly total of 16 medals - eight gold, three silver and five bronze.

The Indians came up with a token presence in most of the events here, the only exception being weightlifter Karnam Malleswari who picked up the lone medal for the country out of the more than 900 at stake and pugilist Gurcharan Singh whose hair-raising fight in boxing went in vain by a whisker.

The main hopes for India, hockey team and tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, did not quite come close to a medal.

With a 3-1 win against Argentina in the hockey classification match, India finished seventh, barely one notch above its worst ever performance at Atlanta where it was were relegated to the eighth spot.

The Indians were most disappointing in the track and field events, considered the most glamorous at the Olympics. Only K.M. Beenamol salvaged some pride on the tracks running into the semifinals of 400 metres. She became the third Indian to reach an athletic semifinal after Shiny Wilson and P.T. Usha in 16 years. However, the Kerala woman ran much below her best to finish last in her semifinal in the company of eventual gold winner Cathy Freeman of Australia.

In athletics, 4X400M women's relay is one event in which India has reached an Olympic final in the past apart from P.T. Usha's remarkable run in 400m hurdles in Los Angeles in 1984 where she missed the bronze by the hundredth fraction of a second.

Malleswari put India on the medal map on the fourth day of 15-day competitions with a bronze in women's 69 kg class and became the first ever Indian woman to claim individual Olympic honours and only the third since Independence.

Gurcharan was unfortunate to have missed his date with a medal which would have been the first for the country from the Olympic ring. He was leading 12-11 till five seconds from the bell in the quarterfinal bout in light heavyweight class before his Ukrainian rival Fredi Fedtchouk equalled the scores. On judges backcount, the Punjab pugilist was declared loser at 42- 60.

The hockey team flattered to deceive. India played well initially and kept itself in medal contention less than two minutes from time in the last league encounter against Poland which finally spoiled the party with a late equaliser. India needed a win or at least a 2-2 draw to go to the semifinals and eventually Korea benefitted at its expense. A loss to Britain put it even out of the Champions Trophy.

It is in hockey that India is credited with an Olympic record of maximum medals from a single event - eight gold, one silver and two bronze. The last medal (gold) came 20 years back in Moscow before the Indians gradually slid to the abyss.

In many ways, it was Atlanta revisited. Four years back, tennis ace Leander Paes got the sole bronze while the hockey team finished at the bottom (eighth). This time, Malleswari ensured that the contingent returns with at least one medal to boast of. At Atlanta, India shared the last spot (71st) on the medal table with eight other countries.

The Indians had a strong medal hope in former world number one tennis pair of Paes and Bhupathi. But they faced the famed pair of Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge a bit too early and bowed out in the second round. Leander was a poor shadow of his `Atlanta' self and was swamped by Sweden's Mikael Tillstrom in the singles.

Shooter Anjali Vedpathak came up with a creditable performance becoming the first Indian to reach an Olympic shooting final when she shot her way into the grade in the 10M air rifle event. However, she finished last among the eight finalists. In the men's section, Anwar Sultan shot wide off the mark.

India had little expectations from its largest ever athletic squad at the games. But Beenamol's performance came as a consolation, especially as others failed to come anywhere near even their personal marks, much to the bewilderment of the accompanying coaches and officials.

Throwers Shakti Singh and Bahadur Singh (shot put) and Jagdish Bishnoi (javelin) were eliminated even without a whimper. Shakti, the silver medallist at the recent Asian championships at Jakarta, and Bahadur were were heaving over 20 metres in training till two days before the Games. But at the crunch time, Shakti's best throw measured a poor 18.40 metres while Bahadur was a shade better at 18.70 metres. Bishnoi, Asian champion with 79.67 metres, managed only 70.86 metres.

Quartermiler Paramjit Singh, who had broken 'Flying Sikh' Milkha Singh's record (45.60), clocked 46.64 seconds against his personal best of 45.56.

Besides Malleswari, the other lifters could not match the prowess of their competitors. In the 53 kg, Sanamacha Chanu, winner of all three gold medals in the recent Asian championship, failed to lift herself anywhere near the medal count while in the men's section, T M Muthu was listless.

Jitender Kumar was the only boxer besides Gurcharan to record a win here. Asian games gold medallist Dingko Singh was far below his best and bowed in the second round after a first round bye. S Suresh lost his very first fight.

In badmintion, National champion Pulella Gopi Chand was overwhelmed in the pre-quarterfinals by world No. 2 Hendrawan of Indonesia. On the distaff side, Aparna Popat went down fighting against kelly Morgan of Wales in her very first match. It was a repeat story in table tennis with Chetan Baboor and Raman Subramanyan who went down tamely.

The swimmers (Hakimuddin and Nisha millet) and rowers (Kasam Khan and Inderpal Singh) sank without any trace while Imtiaz Anees, a late entrant in the equestrian event, also finished at the bottom.

- UNI

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