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Journalism of Courage
sydney, september 19: Overwhelmed by the superior courtcraft by the World No 2 Hendrawan of Indonesia, National champion Pullela Gopi Chand went down 9-15, 4-15 to be eliminated in the pre-quarterfinals of the Olympic badminton competition here on Tuesday.
With the elimination of Gopi Chand, India’s challange in badminton came to an end. The Indian, who is enjoying his best-ever ranking on the International Badminton Federation (IBF) list, lost in just 35 minutes as the Indonesian wielded his racquet like a magic wand.
He was scoring points at will against Gopi Chand, who crumbled without showing his consistency. Hernawan with his quality racquet play dominated the game and packed up the first game in 16 minutes. Gopi could not match the accuracy of his opponent.
The Indonesian was aggressive and quick. His vast repertoire of strokes caught the eyes of all those present at the Homebush Bay facility.In the second game, Gopi’s form did not improve unlike on Monday yesterday where he recovered well after a slump.
The Indian champion was candid enough to admit later that Hernawan was a much better player. “I just could not get going today. Hernawan played well.”
Coach SM Arif was of the view that Gopi could not raise his game to the earlier level. “But this can happen to anybody. Every player goes through a bad patch and I think it was Gopi’s turn.”
ROWERS TOO BOW OUT: In rowing the Indian challenge sunk without a trace with the elimination of their men’s Coxless pair of Kasam Khan and Inder Pal Singh.
The rowers performed abysmally by coming in sixth and last in repechage 1 held for non-qualifiers in the heats held earlier. They were also off the timing clocked in the heats by more than six seconds and finished their campaign on a miserable note despite having had the experience of training for four months in New Jersey under American coach Ted Bonanno.
Neither the presence of Bonanno here, nor those of three other Indian coaches and a manager, could inspire the rowers to higher levels.
