Pondering over....

This time I caught the Olympic fever....dats watching more n more events being telecasted on D.D.Sports....
I thought watching the games this time and cheering for India would result in smthing good...and it did....Abhinav Bindra won a Gold for the country....
The Indian Contingent comprised of
Archery: Dola Banerjee, Pranitha Vardhineni, L Bombayala Devi, Mangal Singh Champia.
Athletics: Anju Bobby George (Long Jump), Krishna Poonia (Discus), Harwant Kaur (Discus), Preeja Sreedharan (10,000m), Manjit Kaur (400m), Chitra Soman (4×400m relay), Sini Jose (4×400m relay),MR Poovamma (4×400m relay), Mandeep Kaur (4×400m relay), S Geeta (4×400m relay), K Mridula (4×400m relay), J J Shobha (Heptathlon), Sushmita Singh Roy (Heptathlon), G G Pramila (Heptathlon),Vikas Gowda (Discus), Renjith Maheswary (Triple Jump), Surender Singh (10000m).
Badminton: Anup Sridhar, Saina Nehwal
Boxing: Jitender (51kg), Akhil Kumar (54kg), A L Lakhra (57kg), Vijender(75kg) and Dinesh Kumar (81kg)
Judo: Khumujam Tombi Devi, Divya.
Rowing: Bajrang Lal Takhar (Single M1X), Devnder Khandwal and Manjeet Singh (Light Weight Double Scull).
Shooting: Manavjit Singh Sandhu (Clay Pigeon Trap), Mansher Singh (Clay Pigeon Trap), Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore (Clay Pigeon Double Trap), Gagan Narang (10m Air Rifle), Abhinav Bindra (10m AirRifle), Samresh Jung (10m Air Pistol), Sanjeev Rajput (50m Rifle 3 Position), Anjali Bhagwat (50m Rifle 3 Position), Avneet Kaur Sidhu (10m Air Rifle).
Swimming(first timers): Virdawal Khade (50m, 100m, 200m Freestyle), Ankur Poseria (100m Butterfly), Sandeep Sejwal (100m, 200m Breaststrokes), Rehan Poncha (200m butterfly).
Table Tennis: Achanta Sharath Kamal, Neha Aggarwal.
Tennis: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi (doubles), Sania Mirza (singles and doubles), Sunitha Rao (doubles).
Weightlifting: L Monika Devi (69kg)
Wrestling: Sushil Kumar (66 kg Freestyle), Yogeshwar Dutt (60 kg Freestyle), Rajiv Tomar (120 kg Freestyle).
Sailing: Major NS Johal (Heavyweight Dinghy).

......but its been very disappointing to see our "Stars" failing....

Archery:
Women's team lost to China in quarters by 206-211
L Bombayala Devi lost 101-103 to Poland in round of 32
Dola Banerjee lost to Canada in round of 32 in shoot off(8-10) after score went 109-109
Pranitha won round of 32 106-100 against Australia...but went on to lose against North Korea 99-106 in round of 16
Mangal Singh, in round of 32, against Iran won 112-98 and lost to Russia 108-109 in rnd of 16

Athletics:
Anju’s long jump qualifiers---19/08
Harwant = 56.42(61.72) and Krishna=58.23(61.29) --->failed to qualify
Preeja = 25th position
Mandeep = didn’t clear heats---6
4x400m realy team on scheduled on 22/08
Shobha(5749), Sushmita(5705), Pramila(5771) --- way behind the winners...
Vikas = 60.69(62.48) ---> failed to qualify
Ranjith = 15.77(17.12) ---> failed to qualify
Surrender came 26th out of 39

Badminton:
Sania's journey---->won round of 64 against Russia 21-9,21-8
won round of 32 against Ukraine 21-18,21-10
won round of 16 against Hongkong 21-19,11-21,21-11
went down to Indonesia 28-26,14-21,15-21 in round of 8
but overall a satisfying performance.......no complaints.....
Sridhar's journey--->won round of 64 against Portugal 21-16,21-14
lost to Japan in round of 32 13-21,17-21

Boxing:
Middle wt(75) -- round of 32 Vijender won against Gambia
Light heavy(81) -- rnd of 32 Dinesh lost to Algeria
Feather(57) -- rnd of 32 Lakra lost to Uzbekistan
Fly(51) -- rnd of 32 Jitender won against Turkey
Bantam(54) -- rnd of 32 Akhil won against France
In round of 16, Jitender against Uzbekistan = WON
Vijender against Thailand = WON
Akhil against Russia(World Champion) = WON
all 3 in quarters……Akhil fights on 18/08…Vijender and Jitender on 20/08

AWESOME PERFORMANCE....................................


Judo:
Khumujam Tombi Devi lost to Portuagal in 48kg .
Diviya to Cuba in 78kgs prelims and in repechage against Kazakhstan

Rowing:
Men's Light Weight Double Sculls team went into repechage and then into semifinal qualification which got them to finals for C type(for 13th to 18th position)…came 18th….
Single Scull heat participant Balvinder qualified for semifinal qualification in which he came fourth...made to finals of D types for 19-24...stood 21st

Shooting:
Mansher and Manavjit didnt qualify for final rnd by 2(117) and 3(116) points
Olympic winner Rathore even failed to qualify for final rnd by 5 points(131)
Hero of the Day, Abhinav Bindra(700.5) wins individual gold while team mate Gagan Narang(9th position-595) failed to qualify for final rnd
Samaresh did not qualify to final rnd by 11pts(570). Also, in 50 m air pistol by 19 pts(540)
Anjali Bhagwat & Avneet Kaur in 10 m air rifle....failed to qualify for final rnd by 3(393) and 7(389) points resp.
Anjali Bhagwat & Avneet Kaur in 50 m rifle 3 position...go done by 14(571) and 35(552) pts resp.
Narang & Sanjeev Rajput in 50 m rifle prone position didn’t qualify by 5(589) and 3(591) resp. And in 50 m 3 position, didn’t qualify by 3(1167) and 8(1162) pts resp.

Swimming:
Sandeep = breaststroke 100m - did not qualify..way behind
Virdhawal(16 yr old) = 200m freestyle - not qualified
Rehan Poncha = 200m butterfly - not qualified
Virdhawal = 100m freestyle - not qualified
Sandeep = breaststroke 200m - not qualified
Virdhawal = 50m freestyle - not qualified
Ankur = 100m butterfly - not qualified
Since first timers...so no qualms.....

Table Tennis:
Neha against Australia in prelims ---> crashes out by 1-4
Abt Achanta Sharath Kamal, no news/record....

Tennis:
Sania retired hurt(injury??? Shit player she is) in second set against Czech with 1-6,1-2
Sania/Sunitha match against France --> get walkover(very lucky)
Paes/Bhupathi against France ---> win by 6-3,6-3
Sania/Sunita against Russia in 2nd rnd ---> went down 4-6,4-6
Paes/Bhupathi against Brazil in 2nd rnd ---> won 6-4,6-2...
go in quarters against Roger federer…lost by 2-6,4-6

Weightlifting:
No news of Monika Devi...

Wrestling:
Qualifications---
Yogeshwar(60-freestyle) on 19/08
Sushil(66-freestyle) on 20/08
Rajiv(120-freestyle) on 21/08

Sailing:
Major Johal rankings in 8 out of 10 races in Finn type (last 2 cancelled)....
4, 24, 23, 24, 11, 24, 19, 24
…so not qualified for final race


after this I still have hope hopes to see another Gold...this time from Boxing/Wrestling.....
and definitely more in next games...London 2012

but the question remains....why does this happen.....whereas athletes from other countries like Michael Phelps or Kenenisa Bekele or Usain Bolt....how come they are improviing year by year,game by game????
After all,they are humans too.........

Another thing......its very obvious for our State & Central Governments to confer huge prize money and awards on the Athletes bringing glory to India(read Abhinav Bindra)...but in this case conferring so much prize money on an athlete who is already very fortunate to come from a rich family(having his private practice range,with state-of-the-art rifles and ammunition) is not justified....
Since India has started giving good performances/shows in the Games...the money conferred upon Bindra could be used to bring up facilities for development of other sports which require attention....
Also, Abhinav Bindra, being the owner of a new Rs.200-crore resort given to him by his father, should have been thoughtfull and instead of building a resort, could have asked to build a modern sports academy of the same amount which would help in producing more people like him and other Olympic "Stars" who have done us proud in the past......