Gurcharan, tennis duo stay alive

Paes and Bhupathi, French and Wimbledon doubles champions last year before their acrimonious break-up, lined themselves up for an engrossing second-round clash with title-favourites Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde of Australia by scoring a fluent 6-3, 6-4 victory over Rumanians Andrei Pavel and Gabriel Trifu.

These two victories for India, coming a day after weightlifter Karnam Malleswari had become the toast of the Nation by opening India’s account here with a bronze-winning show in the 69 kg class, were like oasis in a desert of non-achievements.

Atlanta Games singles bronze winner Paes, in fact, had to put behind him the disappointment of losing in straight sets (2-6, 4-6) to hard-hitting Swede Mikael Tillstrom in the first round and rise to the occasion with Bhupathi to brush aside the Romanian duo of Pavel and Trifu in 69 minutes.

Elsewhere, India’s tag of also-rans continued with their woman rifle shooter Anjali Vedpathak, who had an impressive outing in the air rifle event in which she became the first Indian to make the final, and rider Imtiaz Anees turning in listless displays. India’s last shooting medal hope Anjali finished a distant 33rd among 42 competitors in the women’s small-bore rifle 3-position event by tallying 566 out of a possible 600 points.

The 30-year-old Anjali, entered in the event to give her more international exposure, scored 196 out of 200 in prone position and 185 out of 200 both in standing and kneeling positions. Her exit brought down the curtains on India’s unsucessful campaign at the shooting range.

Teenaged rifle shooter Abhinav Bindra had finished an impressive joint eleventh in the men’s air rifle event after failing to make the cut for the final by just one point while trap shooter Anwar Sultan secured a lowly joint 26th position in the men’s 75-bird event.

Rider Anees was way behind in 32nd position in a field of 35 after the first day of the three-day equestrian individual event and will have to improve drastically in the last two days to entertain hopes of a medal.

Gurcharan’s show was, thus, easily the most heart-warming for the Indian camp. The 23-year-old from Punjab overcame the Korean’s skills at gamesmanship to emerge a clear-cut winner in his bout against Choi.

After making his customary slow start, the Indian boxer, stepped up the tempo of his aggression to take a handy 9-5 lead midway through his bout against Choi who even resorted at times to falling on the canvas in order to recover poise and breath in the aftermath of the Indian’s ferocious left-right onslaught. Gurcharan, who had stopped the same rival at the Olympic qualifying tournament in the Korean’s backyard at Seoul on way to winning the gold, then held off Choi’s late fightback to emerge winner on points.

At the end of the fifth day the Indian interest has dwindled down drastically and their competitors are now in the fray in only five out of the 12 disciplines entered in at the beginning of the Games.Indians have made their exit from badminton, table tennis, shooting, weightlifting, rowing, judo and swimming.

For the moment their main hopes rest with their hockey team which has started its campaign to win a medal at the Olympics for the first time in 20 years on a very encouraging note with a fluent 3-0 win over Argentina and a rousing 2-2 draw with favourites Australia.

The Indians take on South Korea tomorrow in their third Group B’ encounter and a win in that tie will enhance their semi-final hopes.In tennis, if the Indian duo of Paes and Bhupathi score over the Woodies’ in their next clash their path later seems a smooth one up to the medal round.

An Indian wrestler, Gurbinder Singh (63 kg Greco-Roman style), and their large (29-member) athletics squad are yet to be seen in action at these Millennium Games.