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A galaxy of stars– some proven world beaters, some shy first-timers– represented India as part of its largest-ever contingent at these Olympic Games, with 117 athletes being allowed to ultimately compete.(Read: Narsingh Yadav debacle)
And while the medals’ account was expected to open on the opening day itself, with former world number 1 and world cup gold medallist Jitu Rai in action, the Indian fan learned a hard lesson in patience as the days panned on with no medal in sight.
With the closing ceremony on the horizon though, the young women of the contingent led the way, stepping up and earning unforeseen accolades. Defying all odds and showing killer instincts, PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik became the unlikely heroines for India and saved the country’s pride from returning empty-handed for the first time since Barcelona 1992.
The duo notched a few firsts for India; Sindhu, at 21, became the youngest to win an Olympic medal, a silver which was never achieved in badminton; and Sakshi’s bronze was also a first for women’s wrestling.
India’s first female gymnast Dipa went on to miss a bronze by 0.15 points but her clean finish in the high-risk Produnova vault won the hearts of a nation. Lalita Babar became the second Indian woman to qualify for the final of a track vent at the Olympics in 32 years (PT Usha being the previous one in Los Angeles 1984) and finished 10th in the 3000m steeplechase.
An 18-year-old golfer Aditi Ashok slipped away from being in top-10 at the end of second round to finish 41st with an overall score of seven-over 291.
But there were some ugly moments as well, when wrestler Narsingh Yadav was slapped with a four-year ban by the Court of Arbitration of Sports which overturned the clean chit given by the National Anti-Doping Agency.
The dope shame had returned to haunt India again, even as Narsingh claimed innocence. The grappler cried conspiracy but was evicted from the Games Village.
In more off-field controversy sports minister Vijay Goel’s entourage was called ‘rude’ by the Organising Committee, which threatened to cancel his accreditation for trying to bring non-accredited people at the accredited areas of venues.
Indian athletics contingent’s middle and long distance coach Nikolai Snesarev was “detained” at a local police station for half a day and later released by the police after a lady doctor at the Games Village made a complaint of misbehaviour.
Largest-Ever Contingent, Just 2 Medals
On field-show too was hardly inspiring. Competing in 15 disciplines with their biggest-ever contingent numbering 118, India hoped to go past their best ever tally of six medals in London 2012. But the country stumbled on a tricky road in Rio when shooters fired a blank for the first time since Athens 2004, and boxers lacked punch, also a first in eight years.
A winner of eight gold medals, the Indian men’s hockey team qualified for the quarterfinals for the first time in 36 years but could not progress further as it once again squandered a lead to go down 1-3 to Belgium.
For a discipline that only had three participants with a non-existent federation, the boxers showed promise and Vikas Krishan provided a ray of hope before getting outclassed in a tough quarterfinal match-up against Bektemir Melikuziev. Among the other two, Shiva Thapa found himself in the tough half of the draw when he was pitted against Cuban defending champion Robeisy Ramirez who won by an unanimous decision in the first round of the 56kg bantamweight. Manoj Kumar won his first round but lost to Uzbek’s F Gaibnazarov in 64kg lightwelter in pre-quarters.
Tennis continued to have its share of controversies when Leander Paes, an 18-time Grand Slam doubles winner making a record seventh appearance, turned up late for the men’s doubles campaign with Rohan Bopanna. The duo’s lack of practice was evident when they made a first-round exit, and the women’s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Prarthana Thombare also followed suit. Later, it was the mixed doubles pair of Sania and Bopanna who lifted India’s medal hopes before losing to the Czech duo of Radek Stepanek and Lucie Hradecka in the bronze play-off.
It was a flop show in archery as Deepika Kumari once again failed to live up to the hype and made some costly blunders as the much-fancied women’s team made a quarterfinal exit losing to Russia in a shoot-off.
While Aditi impressed in women’s golf, in the men’s section SSP Chawrasia endured a horrendous final round of seven-over 78 to drop 28 places to finish tied 50th, while compatriot Anirban Lahiri closed with a 72 to be 57th in the sport that returned after 112 years.
In athletics, 27-year-old Lalita Babar of Maharashtra showed the way when she bettered her national record with a time of 9:19.76 to be ranked seventh in the women’s 3000m steeplechase and make the final. Lalita could not better her show in the final as she clocked 9:22.74 for a top-10 finish.
In the contingent’s last on-field action, men marathoners T Gopi and Kheta Ram clocked personal best times of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 25 seconds and 2:15:26 to end up 25th and 26th respectively. India also had participation in swimming, judo, rowing, table tennis and weightlifting where their performance was buried by the top competition.
The biggest disappointment though came from the shooting contingent.
After bagging two medals in London 2012 and Bindra’s legendary gold in Beijing 2008, India’s world-beating shooters drew a blank in Brazil.
World No.3 Jitu Rai provided the biggest hope to open India’s medal tally in the 10m air pistol on the second day. He started off under pressure in the 10m air pistol event and qualified for the final at sixth only to be the first to be eliminated, with an eighth position. Next came his pet event of 50m pistol, an event in which he had won the World Cup gold in Bangkok this year, but Jitu’s hopes were blown away by the wind.
Amid the gloom, Bindra, in his fifth and final Olympics, came closest to a medal but finished fourth after being edged out by 0.5 points in the shoot-off against eventual silver-medallist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine.
There was disappointment from another senior pro Gagan Narang, who competed in three events of 50m rifle 3P, 50m rifle prone and 10m air rifle. But the London Olympics bronze medallist failed to make an impression in any of them.
The likes of Heena Sidhu, Ayonika Paul, and Apurvi Chandela also failed to live up to the hype losing in the elimination stage. National Rifle Association of India president Raninder Singh admitted in making a ‘tactical blunder’ by allowing personal coaches for the athletes.
Sensational Sakshi’s Surge
Just when the wait for a medal was becoming an intense pain and shame with four days left for the Olympics, a 23-year-old little-known wrestler from Rohtak fought like a tigress, even as others, including Yogeshwar Dutt, disappointed.
On a day her more accomplished teammate Vinesh Phogat was reduced to tears following a ligament injury to her right knee that forced her to forfeit the quarterfinal bout to Sun Yanan of China in the 48kg freestyle, Sakshi fought back from 0-5 down to beat Aisuluu Tynybekova of Kyrgyzstan 8-5 in the 58kg category bronze medal match in repechage.
With the clock ticking away, a sensational Sakshi came from behind with a three-point move to clinch the bout as her opponent challenged for a review and heartbeats started pounding. The decision went in India’s favour and it was an overflow of joy and emotions as Sakshi was lifted by her coach Kuldeep Malik and the duo took a victory lap.
Sindhu-stan Proud!
The next day, PV Sindhu, continuing her giant-slaying run, breezed past world No.6 Nozomi Okuhara to assure India the first silver in badminton in the Olympics.
Having come into the tournament as world number 10, the 13th seed was a transformed player as she defeated three players ranked higher than her.
Sindhu first eliminated world number 8 Tzu Ying Tai in the pre-quarters, then the world number two Wang Yihan in the last eight but only to be halted by world number one Carolina Marina in a nailbiting women’s final that lasted an hour and 24 minutes.
Her first olympic Games and a Silver to show for it.
In the words of the 21-year-old herself, ‘Just my first Games, many more to go’
Tokyo 2020, here we come!
(With inputs from PTI)
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