Asian Games shooting champion Ronjan Sodhi crashed out of the men’s double trap event after he failed to make the finals while pistol shooter Vijay Kumar kept the country’s medal hopes alive in the 25m competition in the Olympic Games today.
Sodhi,a medal favourite prior to the Games along with Beijing Olympics hero Abhinav Bindra and Gagan Narang,put up a miserable display in the second and third rounds after starting promisingly with a score of 48 out of 50 in the opening round that put paid to his hopes.
The 32-year-old Firozepur-born marksman,who was the lone gold medal winner for the country in the Guangzhou Asiad two years ago,finished a lowly 11th from 24 contestants with a tally of 134 out of 150 and made his exit.
Pistol shooter Vijay Kumar,on the other hand,stayed in the medal hunt in the 25m rapid fire pistol event by standing fifth with 293 points in the first stage for an average score of 9.767. The second stage will take place tomorrow.
Indian medal hopes receded further in tennis when Leander Paes and his unheralded partner Vishnu Vardhan fought valiantly before bowing out of the men’s doubles late last night.
A day after the more fancied pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna crashed out in the second round,Leander and Vishnu gave a better account of themselves before the strong duo of Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Michael Llodra,the wild card recipients from France,pulled off a gruelling 7-6 3,4-6,6-4 victory in a match which lasted two hours and seven minutes.
With just one bronze medal in their kitty,grabbed by Narang in the men’s 10m Air Rifle,India are now looking forward to an unlikely medal surge from its athletic contingent when the track and field events commence tomorrow.
History is against them as India are yet to win a single track and field medal in the Olympics and only five Milkha Singh,S Sriram,Gurbachan Singh Randhawa,P T Usha and Anju Bobby George — have made it to the final round. Indian track and field athletes are seeking to redeem their reputation,which lay in tatters due to the doping scandal that marred their splendid show in the Guangzhou Asian Games.
Indian athletics was hit by the steroid doping scandal that involved six top quartermilers,including Guangzhou double gold-medallist Ashwini Akkunji and her three 4x400m relay quartet members,which won gold in the 2010 Commonwealth
and Asian Games.
They were banned for one year by NADA but,on appeal by the IAAF,their sanction was extended to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sports in Switzerland,ruling them out of the Olympics.
A strong performance in the Olympics can redeem the reputation of the sport embroiled in doping for the past one and a half year sullying the image of athletics after India achieved unprecedented success in the Commonwealth and Asian Games.
All the 14 Indians in the fray,the second-highest ever number after 24 took part in the 2000 Sydney Olympics,will start as rank outsiders in the British capital.
Shot putter Om Prakash Singh Karhana would kick off India’s campaign tomorrow at the showpiece Olympic Stadium and the youngster has been in high spirits after having trained at Szombathely in Hungary for two years.
He is among those Indians who broke the national record in the build-up to the Games,with an effort of 20.69m in May. He is aiming to at least qualify for the final round in his debut Olympics.
There will also be qualification rounds tomorrow in women’s triple jump and women’s discus throw in which Mayookha Johny and Krishna Poonia will compete respectively.
Discus throwers Vikas Gowda and Krishna Poonia are the best bets for a podium finish.
Four walkers have qualified for the Games Gurmeet Singh,Baljinder Singh and Irfan in 20km walk and Bahadur Rana in 50km walk — but none appear to be in with a medal chance.
The others who would be seen in action are: Ram Singh Yadav men’s marathon,Tintu Luka women’s 800m,Seema Antil women’s discus throw,Renjith Maheshwary men’s triple jump,Mayookha Johny women’s triple jump,Sudha Singh women’s 3000m steeplechase and Sahana Kumari women’s high jump.
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