Swifter,higher,stronger?

Then the minute began to slow down. Gradually,and downhill.

Actually it was the Indian spectators’ vision that was playing cruel tricks,as Tintu — whose diaphanous face and overwrought eyes tend to exaggerate every ounce of effort the race takes out of her in Act 2 of the 800 — started to slow down. At the 600m mark,they looked desperately for a hidden lead-weight strapped to Tintu’s feet,which in their slow-wheel motion by now had dropped a gear or more.

Then they clucked their tongues in frustration as a Kenyan overtook their Indian girl with brazen ease. And finally helpless at the sight of the labouring Tintu Luka falling back in her strides in the last 200m and coming in sixth,the Nehru Stadium exhaled disappointment,even as a knotted load sunk slowly deep down in their guts.

For a barely two-minute show,the 800 could pack in plenty of drama for sure.

But for a country that must have only fading memories,if at all,of a similar disappointment in athletics from a quarter century ago when Tintu’s coach PT Usha missed her own gutsy glory at the Olympics — albeit narrowly— Nehru Stadium was rediscovering a sentimental chord with a sport that last evoked such emotions in the country only during the 1982 Asiad and four years later when Usha returned with 4 gold medals.

Of course,the heart that was hurting could also hop with pride when more than a dozen other Indians stood on the podium,as the hosts picked seven bronze,three silver and two gold — a majestic haul at an iconic venue,which could boast of a full-house similar to what India’s new gladiatorial-ringsides of boxing and wrestling were witnessing.

Only,this was 40,000 people,and the discipline not quite carrying the star-studded halo of an Olympic medal,brought home by a Sushil Kumar or a Vijender. Usain Bolt was famously absent too,but the Nehru Stadium brimmed each evening for athletics action,as one Indian after another put their hand up to stake claims to rare medals at the Commonwealth level.

Discus thrower Krishna Poonia one day,jumper Prajusha Malliakkal the next,and finally a quartet of 4X400m runners who heaved hopes with every baton exchange,and never stopped impressing till the gold was won.

All in a month
A month on,the high-floating aerostat is wrapped up some place,and the athletics contingent travels north-east to Guangzhou for the Asian Games to attempt an encore in front of an audience which will be anything but partial in their favour,if not completely indifferent to their efforts.

The Chinese city is busy working up a frenzy for their heroic champion hurdler Liu Xiang currently,and it will be left to the Indians’ own self-motivation to send back tidings of triumph from China,and not let the new wave of popularity for athletics die out and return to oblivion.

The continental Games couldn’t have come sooner for 21-year-old Tintu,who as Asia’s fastest double-lapper this season — and the only one to go sub-2 (1:59.17) at a meet in Split,Croatia — will look to announce her international arrival,though she has Kazakhstan’s Margarita Matsko,a top-six finisher in the World Indoors,snapping at her heels.

“I think everyone’s forgotten Tintu after she didn’t win at Delhi. But watch out for how she fights back and grabs a medal at the Asian Games,” says athletics coach Jose Matthew,adding that the Asiad is perfectly timed for the youngster from Kerala’s Irrity village to wrest that medal.

There’s been suggestions aplenty over how Tintu ought to pace her 600m smartly,so she doesn’t run out of steam,with a 58-59 seconds sufficing for the opening lap. But you only have to rewind to August when she clocked 2:00.79,with a similar plunge in timing on the home straight at a Diamond Meet in Brussels,and came back strongly the next week at Split to promptly go under 2-minutes for her personal best. “Her target for this year was going sub-2 and win gold the Asian Games. She’s determined to do both at Guangzhou,” PT Usha says,adding,“She’s learning from every competition,and the more she competes the better she’ll get tactically and in facing the crowd.”

Tintu was clocking 2:58 around the time Doha Asian Games were in progress,but has sheared precious seconds since,and would want to set the record straight at Guangzhou where last year at the Asian Championship she found herself at that uncomfortable 6th position behind a pair of Chinese,and the persistent Kazakh.

Still,Tintu’s CWG watch-stopper was her third best time of the season,and the 2:01.25s easily beats Chinese Zhou Haiyan’s winning time of 2:04.89 at the Guangzhou meet from a year ago. A favourite on paper when going into the race,Tintu would need to be wary of Bahrain’s accomplished 1500m World Champion Maryam Jamal,who can easily turn it on in the 800m — a crown the Ethiopian-born would want to defend from Doha for her adopted country.

The unassuming,hard-working Tintu might thus be plotting her own redemption by working on speeding up on the last decisive 200m stretch with India determined to hold on to its reputation as a proud nation of mid-and-long distance runners,at least at the Asian level.

But for 400m specialist Mandeep Kaur,a household name after CWG,the Asiad is where athletics can take forward the interest generated from the Delhi Games. “When I returned home to my Sidhwan Khurd village,so many girls walked up to me at functions to tell me they wanted to take up athletics,while I was there for three days. CWG showed we were not completely out of the race. At Guangzhou,we need to win again so that this craze generated by 12 medals doesn’t die out,” says the 400 flat and 4X400 relay runner,who is keen for an Asian Games gold with her team after watching India pick its only gold at Doha four years ago,as the fifth reserve runner. “We have the confidence and the timing,” Mandeep says,after India made it to the Top15 of the season with their seamless baton-exchange in 3:27.77 at Delhi last month.

Chinese challenge
The Indians had settled for a silver behind China — who predictably kept away from international meets thereafter — the last time they went to the Guangzhou meet,but Mandeep is confident the quartet has only gotten better with every outing thereafter.

Not quite enigmas for the Indians on the other hand are discus thrower Krishna Poonia’s challengers — a clutch of Chinese who have amongst themselves hurled the spinning disc a dozen times beyond 60 metres this season.

The unstoppable Yanfeng Li has thrice crossed the 65-mark during her six hurls that bests Poonia’s season’s best even as India swept the CWG podium,while a second Chinese Aimin Song has twice recorded 63. With another CWG medallist Harwant Kaur on an even keel with the third home challenger Jian Tan,the discus — which stayed in the news beyond the Games owing to World champion Dani Samuels’ call for a bounty-battle with Poonia — will have another Sino-Indian rivalry on the boil.

“It depends on that day and Krishna’s up against very strong contenders and in foreign conditions. But India will surely win a medal. The colour remains to be seen,” says the athlete’s husband and coach Vijendar Poonia.

A CWG bronze could well be upgraded to an Asiad gold with triple jumper Renjith Maheswary’s season show-stopper of 17.07 at the Games,making him peerless in Asia as a 17-plus jumper — Kazakh Roman Valiyev’s 16.93 still more than a grazing-away from the mark. A pair from Qatar and Kuwait could pull a few surprise leaps out of the bag though,as the Indian with a blow-hot-blow-cold record hits the runway,minus the Nehru Stadium’s noisy support.

More and merrier
“What’s different now is that India’s performance is spread across track and the throws,with even the possibility of steeplechase adding to the medals here. In mid-long distance,Indians have been traditionally good since the time of PT Usha,Shiny Wilson and then Beenamol. But now Prajusha and Mayookha — should they get their season’s best — can aim for the bronze in long jump,while 5000 and 10,000 runner Kavita Raut,despite the presence of the Japanese,will go into the Asian Games with confidence after becoming the first to pick an individual track medal (bronze) for India at CWG in 50 years. And don’t forget the Indian 4X100m men’s team,” coach Matthew says.

The athletes meantime,have headed straight to camps after brief recovery periods,as they stretch speed-work — last phase of training — beyond the Delhi Games and attempt to peak twice in as many months of competition. “We want to take the momentum ahead,and now it’s only about polishing what we did ahead of the Games. We want to maintain that level,and we’ve stuck to speed workouts,” says jumper Prajusha. No one will know the significance of that last burst of speed better than Tintu Luka,who needs the reserve fuel in her tank to ignite the last 200 metres.

It might have been the longest build-up to her season finale-the Asian Games — but her eight-year-old resolve on the athletics field burning,with memories still vivid of that last faltering stretch which moved the Nehru Stadium to sighs of despondency and coach Usha to tears,there’s some serious unfinished business to settle — even before she sets sights on 2012. Headed to Guangzhou — the CWG dozen medals still fresh in minds — Tintu Luka will at least know that her two minute-fame will be talked about for a few years more as athletics in India is back in vogue.

Disciplines that weren’t part of CWG but are medal prospects at Guangzhou
Cue Sports

Knockout format adds that edge to the contest even as World champions Pankaj Advani and Geet Sethi and others seek to swell India’s medal kitty with a clutch of medals from the baize and tables. Two specialist foreign coaches for snooker and pool were roped in as India attempts to do better than their two bronze and a silver and gold from this 17-member contingent squad: Men: Billiards singles: Pankaj Advani,Geet Sethi; Snooker singles: P Advani,Aditya Mehta; Snooker team: A Mehta,Brijesh Damani,Yasin Merchant; 8-ball pool singles: Sumit Talwar,Alok Kumar; 9-ball pool singles: A Kumar,Manan Chandra; Carom 3-cushion singles: Dharminder Lilly,Vijay Goel. Women: 6-reds snooker singles: Vidya Pillai,Chitra Magimairaj; 6-red snooker team: Vidya P,Chitra M,Anuja Chandra; 8-ball pool singles: Indira Gowda,Neeta Sanghvi; 9-ball pool singles: Meenal Thakur,Neena Praveen.

Golf
A gold and silver from the last two editions means India’s top amateur golfer Rashid Khan has a huge responsibility on his teen shoulders as Asia’s highest ranked amateur player. Rahul Bajaj,Abhinav Lohan,Abhijeet Chaddha and Ashbeer Saini (reserve) form the men’s squad,which will gun for the team title India seeks to corner after 28 years (the last individual gold came from Shiv Kapur in 2002),while Vani Kapoor leads the charge for women alongside Gurbani Singh,Shreya Ghei and Shradhanjali Singh as the Indians face the challenge of the Thais,Japanese and Koreans at the picturesque five-star Dragon Lake located 40 kilometers northeast of downtown Guangzhou. Opponents asides,the course prides itself on offering its competitors a wicked 16th hole — a skill-test with a shot dropping 20 meters from the tee ground to the island green surrounded by water on three sides.

Sailing
Medalling in the water-discipline since 1978,India will again look up to 50-year-old Farokh Tarapore— a four-time medal-winner and a veteran of the 1982 Asia— and his Match Racing team of Atool Sinha,Shekhar Yadav,Trunal Helegaonkar and Balraj Singh to bring in the medals at the Shanwei Water Sports Center in Honghai Bay,the venue of the regatta off the Guangdong coast. Busan had yielded a silver and two bronze,while Doha brought in two bronze,with Rajesh Choudhary,a back-to-back bronze medallist in Open Laser Radial returning to claim a third at Guangzhou. The Optimists will have a pair of 15-year-old sailors — KC Ganapathy and Zephra Currimbhoy — heading for their biggest international competition.

Chess
With Viswanathan Anand opting out,and Koneru Humpy denied entry after missing out on a national camp,India will field its Olympiad squad at Guangzhou in the team events for men and women,besides the two individual rapid events minus the assurance of what would have been sure-shot gold medals. However,K Sasikiran who led India to a team gold playing on the first board should make India formidable contenders for the gold.

Squad: Men: K Sasikiran,P Hari Krishna,Surya

Shekhar Ganguly,GN Gopal and B Adhiban; Women: D Harika,Tania Sachdev,Eesha Karavade,S Meenakshi and Nisha Mohota.