India’s campaign starts with high hopes

India are once again looking up to the hockey team to provide the country with another Olympic medal, hopefully even a gold, while the crack men’s doubles combine of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are unfortunate to have drawn the redoubtable `Woodies’, the Australian top seeds, as their likely second-round opponents in tennis.

Iron women Sanamacha Chanu (53 kg class) and former world champion Karnam Malleswari (69 kg) are two other competitors who seem to have the potential to rise to the medals podium.

In other disciplines, especially in badminton where National champion Pullela Gopichand and Aparna Popat are in the fray, the luck of the draw seems to have deserted the Indians.

Coming back to hockey, which remains India’s major medal hope, it is good to see the team members sporting a relaxed look here unlike in the past when they caved in under the pressure of huge expectations.

India face very tough opponents in Argentina, who beat them 1-0 at Atlanta in their lung-opener and sent them tumbling down to their worst ever finish (8th), this time too in their Group B campaign opener on Sunday and then follow it up with clashes against the strongly fancied Australia, 1996 runners-up Spain and Asian champions South Korea.

Chief coach Vasudevan Baskaran has told his players to take the field with a positive frame of mind and that the `rest would follow,’ for the Bangkok Asian Games champions.

Tennis heroes Paes, India’s flag-bearer at the Opening Ceremony, and his partner Mahesh, who reached here on Friday along with their coach Ramesh Krishnan, clearly have their task cut out if they aim to clutch a medal in men’s doubles.

They will be up against Aussie aces Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge, who have drawn a first-round bye, if they get past their opening round rivals– the unfancied Romanian pair of Andrei Pavel and Gabiel Trifu.

However, the rest of the way to the medal round for the Indians, who had won two Grand Slam titles last year and reached every Grand Slam final before their well-known split-up, seems to be an easy one once they get past the legendary `Woodies’.

In singles, 1996 bronze medallist Paes faces Swede Mikael Tillstrom in the opening round.

In the women’s doubles, India’s wild card entrants Nirupama Vaidyanathan and Manisha Malhotra, who are expected here on Friday, will also find the going tough after being pitted against sixth-seeds Jelena Dokic and Rennae Stubbs of Australia in the opening round.

Fortune seems not to have favoured two other Indian medal hopes– shuttlers Gopichand and Aparna.

Tenth-ranked, Hyderabad-based Gopi, who has secured a bye in the first round, meets Vladislav Druzchenko of Ukraine, who is known to be a tough customer, in his opening encounter.

If he gets past the Ukrainian rival, whom he has never met previously in a match, Gopi will be up against second-seeded Hendrawan of Indonesia in the third round.

The new millennium has been a rough one for Aparna too who had to serve a three-month International Badminton Federation (IBF)-imposed ban for taking a medicine for cold earlier this year.

The former world junior runner-up and 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games silver medallist is drawn to meet her conqueror on two occasions in the Malaysian capital, Britain’s Kelly Morgan, in her first encounter here.

In boxing, light-flyweight Soubam Suresh Singh will be the first Indian to enter the ring against Korean Kim Ki-Suk in the 48 kg class on Sunday.

On the next day it will be the turn of middleweight Jitender Kumar, the second boxer in the four-man squad and silver medallist at the 1998 Kulal Lumpur Commonwealth Games, to take on Donald Grant Orr of Canada.

This year’s Arjuna awardee Gurcharan Singh, 1997 Asian championship and 1998 Asian Games bronze medal winner, will face against another Korean Choi Ki-Soo in the light heavyweight (81 kg) category on September 20.

Boxing hero of the Bangkok Asian Games, bantamweight Ngangom Dingko Singh, will be the last to enter the ring and is drawn to meet Ukraine’s Sergiy Danylchenko in the first round.

In table tennis, all three members of the squad here—India number one and Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Chetan Baboor, National champion S Raman and women’s National champion Poulomi Ghatak– have to get through their preliminaries.

Baboor, India’s lone entrant in men’s singles, is placed in Group C with Petr Korbel of the Czech Republic, whom he meets on September 17, and New Zealand’s Peter Jackson (whom he plays on the next day).

Baboor and Raman are in Group B in the men’s doubles along with the combines of Danny Heinster-Trinko Keen of the Netherlands and Mosiru Kazeem-Segun Toriola of Nigeria. The Indians are scheduled to play both their group ties on Saturday.

Poulomi will fight it out with Veronika Pavlovich of Bulgaria on September 17 and French woman Anne Boileau the following day for the right to figure in the main draw.

In women’s weightlifting former world champion Malleswari’s credentials are impressive. But she would be competing in the higher weight category of 69 kg– rather than her pet 63 kg– for the first time in her career. She will need to draw from all her vast experience to make a fight of it.

Twenty-two-year old Chanu may be not as well known as her senior teammate, but two experts have predicted here in newspapers and journals that she can end up with a silver or a bronze medal as she is rated the number two in the world currently in the 53 kg class.

But she has to fight her way in a field which has atleast three others who have produced better results than the little Indian ironwoman.

T Muthu, the lone entrant in men’s weightlifting, is not dreaming of a medal, but has said he would strive to improve upon his personal best of 252 kg (112 in snatch and 140 in clean and jerk) in the 56 kg category.

At the shooting range Abhinav Bindra, in men’s 10m Airrifle preliminaries, and Anjali Vedpathak, in women’s 10m Air rifle preliminaries, will be India’s competitors.

The fortunes of the rowers, participating in the Olympics for the first time, will be clearer after the draw is made later on Friday.