Rathore’s medal isn’t the only silver lining

Outside of India’s Major Rathore induced high, it’s been the high on dope Indian women weightlifters who have made the biggest hea...

Outside of India’s Major Rathore induced high, it’s been the high on dope Indian women weightlifters who have made the biggest headlines over the past few days. But then, how many of us really expected our contingent to do more? Was Rathore part of our wavelength? Lee-Hesh and Anju (Bobby George) are all we knew and cared about.

In their shadow, quite quietly, a few other athletes have made Athens 2004 a rather remarkable Olympics for India:

Archers almost there

• Satyadev Prasad, in the men’s individual event, got past the first couple of rounds with commendable comfort — beating higher seeded opponents — before losing a 165-167 thriller to world number one Im Dong Hyun of South Korea. The top seed needed his very last arrow to win the quarter-final. A win and Satyadev would have been in the medal range.

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Reena Kumari, who came a cropper against higher ranked Chi Shu Yuan of Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals, also impressed. Reena also took the lead in the women’s team event, taking Dola Banerjee and Sumangala Sharma to the quarter-finals after upsetting Great Britain, where they lost 227-228 to France.

• JJ Shobha finished 11th in the women’s heptathlon event; far, far higher than anyone ever expected of an Indian heptathlete. Soma Biswas also did well for a while, winning her 800m, but it was Shobha who did us proud. One true blue trier, she did her best, even finishing third in her 800m with a heavily-bandaged knee.

• While younger colleagues Akhil Kumar, Vijender Singh and Diwakar Prasad didn’t impress, 28-year-old Jitender Kumar fought the match of his life against world number five Andriy Fedchuk of Ukraine; led 12-11; got a minor cut on his left eyebrow and an inexperienced referee to deal with; and was RSCed. His is probably India’s only serious case against the officiating.

• For reasons best known to them, the Indian officialdom had left out 38-year-old Kunjarani Devi from previous Olympics. Despite her being the best lifter in the country for many years. Kunja finished fourth in the women’s 48-kg category.

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• Abhinav Bindra almost beat Rathore to the bulls-eye. The day before Rathore’s shootout, Bindra qualified for the 10m air rifle event final in third spot. A cinch for a medal, Bindra lost to himself more than his opponents, cracking under pressure to return a series of poor scores to eventually finish seventh. If the future’s what we are discussing here, bet on him to make a mark in Beijing.

(Shamya Dasgupta)

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