The Hindu : Sport : Winning, the most important thing: Sunil Dutt

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Friday, Jul 16, 2004

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Winning, the most important thing: Sunil Dutt

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JULY 15. "Winning is the most important thing,'' said the Union Sports Minister, Sunil Dutt, on Thursday as he wished a small group of athletes success at the Athens Olympic Games.

Mr. Dutt's line on "winning'', though not really the original Vince Lombardi quote ("winning is not everything, it is the only thing'',), was a pleasant change from the clichéd advice that the politicians come up with so often.

Yet, when it came to mention of medals, the most precious commodity that the country looks forward to every four years, Mr. Dutt made several references to "gold medals'' in his short address to the gathered athletes, though he would not comment on the numbers later.

A nine-member athletics team, including three officials, is leaving for Kiev (Ukraine) in the early hours of Friday to join four other athletes there — shot putter Bahadur Singh and woman discus throwers, Neelam J. Singh, Seema Antil and Harwant Kaur. The athletes are scheduled to travel to Athens, via Vienna, at the end of their second training mission in Ukraine.

From among the others, long jumper Anju George, now in Europe, is expected to move into Athens on August 1, nearly three weeks before the start of the athletics events, while the rest including Shakti Singh and Bobby Aloysius are expected to aim for the qualifying marks at the inter-State meet in Chennai beginning on July 18.

Mr. Dutt told the athletes that the whole country would be behind them as they prepare in Ukraine and then compete in Athens. "We will be praying for you.''

The minister said that he had agreed to hike the daily allowance of the sportspersons at the Olympics from $35 a day to $50.

The Director-General of the Sports Authority of India (SAI), J. P. Singh, answering questions about India's chances, said that the country had medal chances in shooting, archery, boxing, weightlifting, hockey, tennis and athletics. In athletics, he referred to Anju George as well as the women's 4x400m relay team as medal contenders.

There is no hundred per cent guarantee at the moment about the women's relay team's qualification to the Games, though ranked 13th currently (July 10 classification) with just six days to go for the cut-off date, the team looks poised to make it. The top 16 teams in each of the relays will get entry into the Olympics.

The men's 4x400m team is, however, not on firm ground. Perched precariously at the 15th slot, just above Sri Lanka, the team is anxiously waiting for the competitions in the African championships at Brazzaville (Congo) to end on July 18.

Will the men make it?

The Indian men's team has an average time of 3:03.72 for its place in the ranking list. At least two teams in Africa — Botswana and South Africa — apart from the traditionally strong Nigerian team, look to be in with a chance to challenge the positions of India and Sri Lanka during the ongoing African championships. Botswana has a previous qualifying best of 3:02.24 (Africa Games in Abuja last October) while South Africa has a 3:03.05 (World championships in Paris last August).

The members of the Indian team, anxiously waiting here to know their fate, are: P. Ramachandran, K.J. Manojlal, Satbir Singh and Bhupinder Singh.

The fifth member of the team, K. M. Binu, is scheduled to leave for Kiev along with K. M. Beenamol, Manjit Kaur, Rajwinder Kaur, Chitra K. Soman and J. J. Shobha. Binu has an individual qualifying norm in the 400 metres. He was initially thinking of his pet event, the 800m, for the Olympics, but now, with time running out, there looks no chance to go for the qualifying mark in that event.

Beenamol is expected to aim for the `A' qualification mark of 51.50s in the 400m in Kiev. She is already within the `B' norm of 52.30s, with a season best of 51.59s, and is the most likely candidate to run an individual event from among the Indian women at Athens. It is doubtful whether she would be able to come close to the 800m mark of 2:01.30 within the time available. The individual qualification deadline is August 9.

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