India @ London Olympics 2012

Finally London Olympics 2012 came to an end. Actually it came to an end on 13 Aug 2012. I am writing it today partly because of my mood and partly that I did-not have time. This Olympics has been a joy to some and a disappointment to some. The overall achievement by India as a country has been encouraging one. From the last tally of 3 medals (1 Gold, 2 Bronze), this time round we won 6 medals (2 Silver, 4 Bronze). Most were new winners barring Sushil Kumar who won Silver after bronze in 2008 Olympics and created history by becoming the first consecutive Olympics medal winner in an individual event.

 

The government at centre and at respective states has been showering praise and cash on them.

The Disappointment and the glory:

There were disappointments too in these games, namely boxing. I for one believed that Indian Boxing Team was capable of winning 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 3 Bronze. The bouts however were controversial and so were the points giving system. The worst came when Vikas Krishan’s winning was reversed. It seemed there was something fishy there. The heart break was left for Vijender Singh’ quarter final match. He was one win away from securing a consecutive Olympic medal, a feat completed by Sushil Kumar then in wrestling.

MC Mary Kom, however saved the day for Indian Boxing by winning 1 Bronze (many including herself were hoping for a Gold, but it is a medal none the less no matter which ever color). She is truly a fighter and one hopes she fights in 2014 Olympics too. There she might get the chance of changes the color into Gold.

The role model in the making:

Winning of Bronze medal by Saina Nehwal was just not her win but a win for her father, her coach and more importantly a win for the girl child of Haryana. She has all the qualities and temperament of becoming the role model of girls of Haryana. One doubts that there would be many villages or cities in Haryana, who would NOT have celebrated her feat. She is most likely to become a catalyst for acceptance of girl child as the harbor and manifestor of glory. One is sure that in coming years with more of her success stories, Fathers from the state of Haryana (which gets bad press for gender issues and girl child issues) would want to raise their daughters to be like Saina Nehwal. Much like saina’s own father used to call her Steffi affectionately, hoping that the daughter will live the glory of legendary Steffi Graf. Given her age and her achievements, one only believes that there is going to be long glorious days ahead.

The Underdog of Shooting:

The underdog tag without doubt goes to Vijay Kumar, who no one expected to win as all the expectations in shooting were with the likes of Ranjan Sodhi, Abhinav Bindra and Manvinder Singh Sandhu.  His win was without fuss, I watched the final shooting competition which won him silver. He was very calm even after winning it. Though later many said that it was not right for him to ask for promotion, but I ask why NOT ? Wasn’t Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore promoted too ? Then what seems to be the harm here ? The guy is asking what is rightfully his.   It is good to see that sports minister Ajay Maken supporting him here. Being a JCO, if he desires to be a commisioned officer in Army after Honouring India at an International event. One believes it will only be fitting to do so and will show case the value Indian Army gives to its soldiers and their efforts. He should be given Captain’s Title in Indian Army (even though it might upset some men in Indian Army who have achived no such feat).

Vijay Kumar has been giving consistent performance in terms of shooting and earning accolades. He has been winning Gold medals in all the commonwealth games since 2006. He won silver in shooting event in 2009 and 2011. It would be nice to see those people who came from villages in India to be honoured and facilitated in both monetary and honorary terms.

Gagan Narang did not disappoint and won a medal for India, though many were hoping that he might win Gold. He again is in contention in getting gold in 2014 Olympics to be held in rio de janeiro.

The Encore:

Sushil Kumar did which many were expecting Vijender Singh to also do, though Vijender should not lose heart as he did reach quarterfinals and that itself is a huge achievement. Additionally age is in his side, so in next Olympics I for one STRONGLY believe that he will win GOLD. We should remember that it took Md Ali just 1 Gold to get recognized rest was his style and attitude (a positive one) which brought him so much acclaim. (Not that Vijender Singh needs recognition in India, but many including me have a desire that he wins Gold in Olympics.

Sushil Kumar on the other hand was likely to win gold given his recent performance but in final his health and fatigue gave away. The feat has been a welcome one. One hopes he is able to fulfill his dreams in future. It may be so that he might go for 2014 Olympics. It was a good win for Yogeshwar Dutt to who won his first Bronze medal. His hardwork finally paid off.

The Awards:

It has been raining awards for the winners of Olympic medals and those who participated. Yogeshwar Dutt and Vijay Kumar have been awarded Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for 2012. Last year it was Gagan Narang. Haryana Govt has awarded its players 1.5 Crores for silver and 1 Crore for Bronze. Now one has got news that  Olympic medalists wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt, badminton star Saina Nehwal and shooter Gagan Narang will get audi Q5s for bringing laurels to the country from DLF Limited.

That apart, the company will also hand over Special Editions of Maruti Suzuki – Way of Life‘s mid-sized Suzuki SX4 cars to 15 sportspersons from Haryana who took part in the London 2012 Olympics, but could not win any medal.

This a welcome move from DLF who have been past associated with cricket namely DLF IPL. SAHARA announces medals of pure gold of 5 kg, 3kg and 2kg to every Indian winning gold, silver and bronze medal respectively in the London Olympics 2012. Sahara has been supporting Indian sportsmen for longtime and it is no different here.

All these awards from the corporate sector is a welcome move. One hopes that many other companies would come forward; such awards will encourage youngsters to fight and win more medals for India in future Olympics.

 

Indian boxing: The Asian games 2010

The power pack performance of Indian boxers at Asian games was better than any of their prior efforts. Indian boxers clinched two gold, three silver and two bronze medals at the Asiad.

This was also the first time that Indian boxers were able to win greater than a single gold medal in Asian games. This is the best ever performance by Indians beating earlier in 1984 Asian Games held in Seoul when they collected four silver and five bronze medals.

The coach Sandhu’s statement that asiad will be tough did make some people believe that boxers might not be able to re-live the glory of commonwealth games but that was not to be. It seems it was more like getting things started with low expectations. He later did point out that the boxers needed more rest and considering the commonwealth and Asian games were near each other, fitness would have become an issue. Luckily things went according to the plan and India gave its best performance in boxing till date in terms of medals.

The gold medals by Vijender and Vikas were first after dinko singh’s victory in 1998. Though it will be more special for Vikas all of 18 years old winning a gold at international level. Vijender for one can say farewell to the bronze medal jinx and now focus on gold for Olympics.  His win was truly remarkable since it came with a broken thumb and final scorecard read 7-0 ,showing the character of the boxer.

This time round there were 5 Indian boxers in final and everyone was wondering if all five could win. Though the expectations were bit exaggerated but it was bound to be citing the phenomenal rise of Indian boxing. Dinesh Kumar, Santosh Kumar and Manpreet Singh were also expected to win gold but their bouts went one sided and they all lost, though their loss none the less helped India get 3 silver medals and in no way undermined their achievements and efforts. The other boxers who won bronze were Suranjoy Singh, Paramjeet Samota, Mary Kom and Kavita Goyat.

Mary Kom was expected to win gold as she has been world boxing champion for more than 5 years but she had tough luck this asiad games, Hopefully she will turn the tables around in Olympics where woman boxing is featuring for the 1^st time and get India gold.

Though the thing which was bothering is condition in which our stars still live. I read the article in Hindustan Times giving a view of the conditions in which the boxers have to train. The pics were of bhiwani boxing academy which has produced 4 Asian medal winners of 2010.

The pics did really showed the pathetic condition of training with broken coolers and no A/C facilities, dimly lit room and the worst one was the sanitation pic. I doubt this would be the treatment meted out our cricketers. The corporate world needs come up and help them since one doubts government might put an effort. If the government does help then it would be better as it is their job to make sure those who win medals for the country need to be given proper respect and good training facilities.

Haryana government has been making an effort in improving the lives of sportspersons and paying them handsomely, now it needs to look into the infrastructural short comings which is causing problem to the budding boxers.

Results

Gold

1. Vijender Singh              (75 kg Category)
2. Vikas Krishan                (60 kg Category)

Silver

1. Dinesh Kumar                (81 kg Category)
2. Manpreet Singh            (91 Kg Category)
3. Santosh Kumar             (64 Kg Category)

Bronze

1. MC Mary Kom            ( Woman 51 kg Category)
2. Kavita Goyat                (Woman 75 kg Category)
3. Suranjoy Singh            (52 kg Category)
4. Paramjeet Samota      (+91 kg Category super heavy weight)

Haryana : The gold generator

India would be certainly proud of its achievement this time in commonwealth games, beating England and Canada in games is no small feat and coming 2^nd certainly isn’t either. The remarkable performance of getting 101 medals was showcased by one state in particular which has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Though their effort in showcasing India’s strength has certainly lead some people to appreciate them.

Leading this pack of gold was a state known only for honour killings or female foeticide, Haryana (there is even a movie coming on the events named Akrosh).Fittingly so when discus thrower Krishna Punia won the gold she said that all the winners were Jats that is Harwant Kaur who won silver and Seema Antil who won bronze.(may be it was an inner desire to tell media that they were painting the whole community with same color) Keeping that aside Haryana as a state truly out performed many of the countries participating in the commonwealth games and with its tally alone and number of golds it stands 5^th.

“Social scientists will point to a co-relation between community, environment and sporting success. The Masai tribesmen put Kenya on the world map with their natural aptitude as steeplechaser and middle distance runners. The Ethiopian tribes became renowned marathon runners. Runners of West African descent — whether from Jamaica or the United States — are born to run fast. Perhaps, we now need to consider that the muscular Jats are built to wrestle or throw the discus (not to forget cricket , Hockey and Shooting too). ” quotes Rajdeep Sardesai.

Haryana has certainly made its mark in this commonwealth games with a startling performance from the state. The most medals for it was won in wrestling with the likes of Phogat sisters leading the charge and sonepat for one has become a district of gold creators.

Not far behind are the boxers of bhiwani which got 2 gold and 3 bronze. Vijender Singh’s controversial bout will always remain part of the commonwealth history but so will Manoj Kumar’s and Paramjeet Samota’s gold in final. Last time it was only Akhil kumar who won the boxing gold but this time Haryana got two and India three.

This success has been also attributed to Hooda governments’ efforts to support sportspersons, though on occasion he is seeing quoting “I am sportsman.” His stint as two time chief Minister was taking a beating after the negative publicity his state was taking but certainly he could take a breather with commonwealth success story before media gets going with the usual stuff.

Haryana in past lacked tremendously in context of the infrastructure of sports but that was over come by the sheer zeal to perform by its athletes. The Hooda government now should focus on creating high class stadiums so that ground level support is encouraged, though he might say that he has got stadiums built but there numbers then is few.

The sports which have been dominating and getting it medals namely Boxing and Wrestling need to be supported more. The prize money offered in sporting events also need to increase. Haryana government should also not hide behind the recent success and help create other sports to rise too. The events such as athletics and swimming needs to be supported as these are the events which would be giving us more medals.

The success could also be used in eliminating social evils of female –infanticide as the girls who have won could become the role models of young girls and parents can be encouraged to support their girls. Saina Nehwal success story could be repeated again where a father goes out of his way to make his daughter a world champion and same goes for Krishna Poonia who also hails from Haryana though is married in Rajasthan. Her story is where the brothers and father supported and then her husband who helped get her to this level. Husbands can also take some heed where they can become facilitators in the success of their wives and will also be given due credit and their egos will also be not hurt in the process.

There is a way out for Haryana with the current success stories where they can revive their lost image and get rid of the chauvinistic tag associated with the men of Haryana , now whether they do this is certainly upon them since the rest of the India will be watching.

Those who made Haryana proud:

Gold :

Ravinder Singh : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 60 kg

Anil Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 96 kg

Sanjay Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 74 kg

Rajender Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 55 kg

Geeta Singh Phogat : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 55 kg

Anita Tomar :Wrestling Women’s freestyle 67 kg

Yogeshwar Dutt: Wrestling Men’s freestyle 60 kg

Krishna Poonia :Athletics Women’s Discus Throw

Annu Raj Singh :Shooting Women’s 10m Air Pistol (Pairs)

Manoj Kumar : Boxing Men’s Light Welterweight 64 Kg

Paramjeet Samota : Boxing Men’s Super heavyweight +91 Kg

Saina Nehwal : Badminton Women’s Singles

Silver :

Manoj Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 84 kg

Nirmala Devi : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 48 kg

Babita Kumari : Wrestling Women’s freestyle 51 kg

Anuj Kumar :Wrestling Men’s freestyle 84 kg

Joginder Kumar :Wrestling Men’s freestyle 120 kg

Saina Nehwal : Team event Badminton

Bronze :

Sunil Kumar : Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 66 kg

Dharmender Dalal :Wrestling Men’s Greco-Roman 120 kg

Prasanta Karmakar: Swimming Men’s 50 m freestyle Para

Suman Kundu :Wrestling Women’s freestyle 63kg

Seema Antil :Athletics Women’s Discus Throw

Jai Bhagwan: Boxing Men’s Lightweight 60 kg

Dilbagh Singh :Boxing Men’s Welterweight 69 Kg

Vijender Singh: Boxing Men’s Welterweight 75 Kg

Coming of age of Indian boxing

“

Established in February 1949, the Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) has been instrumental in uplifting the standard of boxing in India and in encouraging the young sporting enthusiasts to take up the game as their profession. Affiliated to Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA), the world governing body for the sport, IABF has put forth strenuous efforts in bringing the boxing talents of India to the limelight. Championships at the national level have  been conducted by the Federation, to make the sports enthusiasts in India recognize the professional boxers of the country. “

This what reads on the website on Indian boxing federation, but many know that for 4 decades Indian boxing was in a sorry state , very few know about the names such as Hawa Singh (who dominated domestic boxing circuits) and Mohd Ali Qamar ( creating history by winning gold in Manchester commonwealth games) . It was first time that any boxer had done so and then Dinko Singh’s Asian gold.

Though in this decade it seems, Indian boxing are creating history and many would say rewriting it and in this crusades they are led by none other than the charming Vijender Singh who won bronze in Beijing Olympics.

This time when commonwealth boxing was occurring in Delhi’s Talkatora stadium many expected a good performance from Indian boxers but what they saw was remarkable performance. The hosts had picked a 10-member team for the competition and won 6 gold medals most by any country and declared Team winners too.

Performances like these could do wonder for the sport such as boxing which is picking up among masses and will certainly bring corporate sponsorship too , Sahara Parivar has already announced that they would be official partners of Boxing now apart from being officials partners of Indian cricket team and Indian Hockey.

Before the Tournament began Vijender Singh was saying “I want to convert the color of my medal to gold from bronze “, he was finally able to fulfill his wishes and of those associated with him .Jai dedicated his triumph to good friend and his room-partner Vijender for supporting him in his hour of crisis.

“Vijender supported me through an injury crisis in 2008 and motivated me to continue. So, this win is for him,” Jai said.

“I tried to settle down in the first round and though I was trailing, I was confident of coming back and the massive crowd support also helped me. He began to look tired after the second round and that’s when I attacked him the most,” said Samota, for whom it was a career-best performance in Super Heavy weight category.

While India clinched the team title, defending champion England finished runners-up. India had previously won the team title in 2005 with four gold and three silver medals in Glasgow. In 2007, Indians had fetched a gold, two silver and three bronze medals to finish runners-up in Liverpool.

Though those who missed out this time were Akhil Kumar (56kg), Balwinder Beniwal (Vijender Singh’s cousin,64kg), Dilbagh Singh (69kg) and Manpreet Singh (91kg) who crashed out by the quarter-final stages but their efforts need not be less recognized especially someone like Akhil Kumar who has been unlucky on several occasions.

Commonwealth Games are round the corner and with this power pack performance by Indian boxers in Commonwealth Boxing the expectations of Indian crowd are bound to be high and we will have pack houses for the showdown. Finally Indians can cheerfully say that they are good at sports other than just cricket.

Following are the results of the commonwealth boxing results. :

GOLD MEDAL WINNERS

Super heavyweight (91+ kg): Parmjeet Samota (India)
Light flyweight (49 kg): Amandeep Singh (India)
Flyweight (52 kg): Suranjoy Singh (India)
Lightweight (60 kg): Jai Bhagwan (India)
Middleweight (75 kg): Vijender Singh (India)
Light heavyweight (81 kg): Dinesh Kumar (India)
Bantamweight (56 kg): Ian Weaver (England)
Light welterweight (64 kg): Scott Cardle (England)
Welterweight (69 kg): Fred Evans (Wales)
Heavyweight (91 kg): Simon Vallily (England).

Indian Boxing

The boxing as sport in India has gained prominence in recent times, it is due to the rise of some prominent boxers with the likes of Vijender Singh and Akhil Kumar

Before the rise of these stars there were Dingko Singh, Hawa Singh , Mohd Ali Qamar and V. Devarajan among some outstanding boxers India ever produced. Hawa Singh dominated the national championships, by winning title for eleven years on a row, from 1961-1972.

Dingko Singh shot into fame at a very early age, when he won the sub-junior national boxing title in 1989, when he was eleven years old. He made the country proud by winning a gold medal at the Bangkok Asian Games in 1998.

Qamar created history in Indian boxing, by becoming the first Indian boxer to win a Commonwealth gold medal at the Manchester Games. While Dingko Singh‘s Asian Games gold medal reminded one of the heroics of the legendary Indian boxer Hawa Singh, Ali Qamar‘s triumph has inspired the youngsters to don the boxing gloves for the country.   V. Devarajan created history in his own right as he became the first Indian to win a World Cup medal on foreign soil in 1994,

Though it was Vijender Singh’s Bronze in Beijing 2008 Olympics that has brought boxing in the prominent light, where as earlier it use to live in the shadows of of cricket and other sports , since there was no glamor associated in the sport and corporate world used to shy away from investing in the game as they feared no good returns from their investments.

It seems as though Vijender Singh`s rise and growing demand from all across the country for an alternate sport to cricket has caught even corporate India’s eyes, Vijender got a deal worth 5 crore per annum which is though nothing compared to Sachin Tendulker`s 100 crore deal but with time hopefully he can match him in earning. Those who went along with him and did well in Olympics also have a chance to make fortune out of it which include the likes of Akhil Kumar and A L Lakra.

It seems that onus of making boxing a household name lies in the hands on handsome 23 years Vijender Singh who has just recently become the world no .1 , one should not forget MC Mary-Kom who has been women’s world champion in boxing for last 4 consecutive years and this time that women boxing is also being included in Olympics sport so it is likely that she will bring home the first Olympic gold. It is just that these boxer apart from encouragement would also require the service of corporate world which could be a vital force in achieving the targets in making a power in boxing arena and then we Indians no longer need to boast just about being good only at cricket and young children could identify these boxers as their role models as they do with the crickets.