Exit before opening

Chief coach Pullela Gopichand attributed the men8217;s loss to lack of fitness and power. Incidentally, Nikhil Kanetkar cut his right index finger during a freak accident but, luckily for India, will play the singles event.

And though yesterday, in men8217;s hockey, India managed a good win over Japan in a warm-up effort, the soccer team had failed to hold on to the lead versus Hong Kong.

One silver lining today was India8217;s beating of a weak Yemen 3-0 in table tennis. Said Achanta Sarath Kamal after the win: It was an easier team. They fought well, but we were good.8221; Later, though, the women were washed away 0-3 by Korea, with only Poulami Ghatak able to take a game away from Ah Kim Kyung.

As the opening ceremony looms, there aren8217;t too many smiles to go around.

In the first badminton match of the men8217;s team league event at Aspire Hall 3, Anup Sridhar lost 0-2 to Lin 8216;Super8217; Dan who is the Madrid World Championship title winner as also All-England. The doubles pair of Thomas Sanave and Rupesh Kumar lost 0-2 to Yun Cai and Fu Haifeng; ditto for Parupalli Kashyap against Jin Chen, for J Bagaban and V Diju versus Guo Zhedong and Xie Zongbo, as also for Nikhil Kanetkar versus Bao Chunlai.

Bagaban conceded after the match that 8220;they played better and were quicker around the court8221;.

In the evening match Indonesian star Taufik Hidayat beat Anup Sridhar 23-21, 21-16, before the Indian doubles pair of Sanave and Rupesh lost to Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan 21-19, 18-21, 13-21. Then Kashyap gave Santoro a real fright before going down 21-15, 13-21, 17-21, leading for most part of the third set. In the second doubles Bagaban and Diju lost to Luluk Hadiyanto 21-19, 19-21, 21-15.

In the third singles, India8217;s star player Nikhil Kanetkar never really found his rhythm going as he lost to Chunlai Bao 14-21, 12-21 to complete a miserable day for the Indians on the badminton courts.

In the midst, yesterday, the Athletics Federation of India released the final squad, and one is a trifle surprised with the larger than life relay emphasis. That one relay team isn8217;t going to reach here was expectd.

At their training spot in Muscat with own coaches and possibly the 8216;better food8217; there will spur them on. The squad reaches Doha a day after the opening ceremony and events are from December 7. Anju Bobby George, reaches the day after and the distance people even after that.

The IOA probably wants to find security in numbers.